Ruso and the Root of All Evils

The girls were sent back to their room and told that Arria expected to hear some music practice. Galla was informed that, since she could not be trusted to look after the family, she was now to consider herself a farm labourer.

When Tilla intervened to say it was not fair, Arria snapped, ‘And you can go too. Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to, young woman!’

‘Why did you never tell her that the girls ran away from you?’ asked Tilla, changing hands again on the rope.

‘Because I am more afraid of them than of her, miss.’

‘You do not have to call me miss,’ Tilla reminded her. ‘We are in the same trough.’

‘No, m … Tilla. If I had known they were taking you to town, I would have warned you.’

‘Where do they go?’

‘I told the mistress. I don’t know.’

‘But you can guess,’ said Tilla, who had spent enough time as a slave to know that servants knew far more than they dared tell.

Safe from the wrath of Arria and her daughters, Galla did not need much prompting. ‘I think they hang around the gates of the gladiators’ barracks.’

Tilla paused to scoop a drowning beetle out of the pulp. She set it on the wall of the trough, shook off the slimy grape-skins that were clinging to her fingers and said, ‘Is it something to do with a fighter called Tertius?’

‘Tertius is a very stupid boy,’ said Galla. ‘Marcia thinks he is going to marry her.’ Leaving unspoken the obvious conclusion that Marcia was not very bright either, Galla added, ‘Did she wear the green stole?’

Tilla gripped the rope again and swung round to face her. ‘How did you know?’

‘They did that to me, too. They wear something bright on top. Then when they run away they take it off. So you are looking for a girl in a green stole …’

‘… who is nowhere,’ said Tilla, realizing how they had made a fool of her. Marcia had deliberately wrapped her in that necklace like a chain. She spotted a pristine bunch of grapes, took aim and splattered it with her left foot. ‘How do you put up with this?’

‘I have never done it before.’

‘I mean the family.’

‘I pray to be able to forgive,’ said Galla unexpectedly.

‘I wouldn’t.’

‘Some days it is easier than others,’ Galla agreed, shuffling sideways. ‘And at least I am not often beaten.’

‘She hit you today.’

‘Today is a bad day. So was yesterday.’

Tilla pondered this for a moment. ‘Were you there when that man died yesterday?’

Galla trapped a stray grape between her toes and squelched it before answering, ‘I’m sorry, miss — ’

‘Tilla.’

‘I’m sorry, Tilla. The master told me not to speak of it.’

Tilla had to admire the girl’s loyalty, but it was frustrating to find Galla just as reluctant to reveal the last words as the Medicus had been.

She tried, ‘Do you know the master’s old wife?’

‘Not well.’

The slave was both loyal and tactful. It was very annoying.

‘Severus’ sister cried when she came to fetch the body,’ Galla said suddenly, as if she had finally thought of something safe to talk about. ‘I felt sorry for her.’

‘It is a terrible thing to lose a brother.’ They stopped trampling. Tilla could hear the juice trickling down into the vat. She said, ‘My brothers were killed by men from another tribe.’ Here, surrounded by high walls and sunny vineyards, gardens and olive groves, it seemed almost impossible to believe that such things could happen.

‘Mistress Cassiana’s brother is dead too. He went on a ship and drowned.’ Galla pushed back a strand of hair that was stuck to her forehead and moved to an untrodden corner of the trough.

‘I heard. I am sorry for her.’

‘When the man came with the news, he sent me to fetch her. While I was gone, little Lucius climbed up the ladder and fell off the roof and broke his arm. So it was a bad day for everyone.’ She sighed. ‘The mistress is right, she can’t trust me to look after the family.’

‘Maybe the mistress needs to learn to forgive,’ suggested Tilla.

‘It is the only way,’ Galla agreed, not sounding very hopeful.

‘It is one way,’ said Tilla. She had never forgiven the raiders from the north who had killed her family and at the moment she was not eager to forgive the Medicus’ stepmother and sisters, either. ‘Do you think Severus’ family will forgive whoever killed him?’

‘I hope so. It is the only way to stop things getting worse.’

‘But there must be justice. A man who has done wrong must be made to pay the price, or there is nothing to stop him doing it again.’ Tilla swilled the juice around with one foot, searching for strays. ‘Or her,’ she added.

‘I’m not saying his family should not have justice,’ said Galla, ‘but justice may not come in this world.’

Here was something Tilla could grasp. Her own family were waiting for her in the next world, although the shortage of druids at home meant that no one was able to explain that world to her in a way that made sense. It had already occurred to her that, if she were to die here, her spirit might not be able to find its way back to them any more than the lost spirit of Justinus could return until someone built a tomb and called him home.

‘So,’ she said, pushing further at the door Galla had begun to open, ‘who do you think should be forgiven for killing this Severus?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘I am not asking you to know. I am asking you to guess.’

Galla pursed her lips. ‘He never seemed like a nice man.’

‘Somebody must have been very angry with him. Perhaps his wife?’

‘Oh no, Claudia’s very respectable!’

Tilla changed hands on the rope and said nothing.

‘Really. That would be terrible, a woman …’

‘Terrible,’ agreed Tilla. ‘It must be somebody else.’

‘Perhaps Claudia’s father.’

‘Because he did not like his son-in-law?’ Tilla prompted.

‘Or because of the ship,’ mused Galla.

When Galla seemed disinclined to continue, she prompted, ‘The ship?’

‘The ship where Mistress Cassiana’s brother was drowned.’ Galla paused.

Tilla took a long, slow breath. Getting this story was like pulling teeth. She was about to prompt again when Galla said, ‘I heard something in the market the other day. After the mistress asked the fish-sellers if they had heard of the Pride of the South. I said nothing because it wouldn’t bring her brother back and I thought it would upset her more.’

‘Go on.’

‘They told her they didn’t know anything. But after she had gone I heard one of them tell his friend that the Pride of the South was so rotten he was surprised it had made it out of port.’

Galla stopped, and looked at her as if waiting for reassurance. It seemed this was the climax of the story. When Tilla did not reply, she said, ‘Do you think I will be in more trouble for not saying this before?’

‘I will tell the Medicus,’ Tilla said. ‘But at the moment he is busy trying to find out who killed Severus.’

‘That’s why I’m telling you!’ exclaimed Galla. ‘It was Severus who chose which ship to invest in.’

Tilla thought about that for a moment. ‘That would be a good reason for Cass to want revenge on him.’

‘Oh dear!’ Galla looked as though she was about to burst into tears. ‘No, no. I’m sorry. I’m not very good at explaining. Severus chose which ship to invest in but he had no money. That was why Justinus was on board. He was there to make sure everything was done properly, because the money all came from his master. Probus. Claudia’s father.’