Ruso and the Root of All Evils

wait until he is on the way to see someone else and give him something that will not kill him until he gets there.’

‘Claudia wouldn’t do that to me,’ he said.

The words hung in the heavy air of the winery.

‘She wouldn’t,’ he insisted.

The Medicus was stubborn. The old wife was an untried enemy. Trying to argue him back into his senses might well do the opposite. She said, ‘I am sorry you do not trust me.’

‘It’s not that I don’t trust you, Tilla, it’s just …’ He hesitated. ‘Look, if I tell you, you must promise not to repeat it.’

‘Yes.’

‘He was obviously confused at the end. He didn’t know what he was saying.’

‘Yes.’

‘So when he said, The bitch has poisoned me, it can’t have meant what everyone will think.’

Tilla took a long, slow breath.

He said, ‘Well, you did ask.’

‘This is the last thing he wants to say to the world, but the old wife tells you he is lying, so you are trying to find somebody else to blame.’

‘I’m trying to find out the truth.’

‘But you already know!’

When he did not reply, Tilla said, ‘Perhaps you should try and think inside your head, even if she is my old wife, should I believe everything she is saying to me?’

‘I’m the only one who can help her, Tilla.’

‘The Senator will send a man from Rome to ask questions. Then we will see whether you should help her or not.’

The Medicus got to his feet. ‘Next time,’ he said, brushing the dust off the back of his tunic, ‘I’ll lie to you. Will that make you happy?’

Next time I’ll lie to you? Tilla stared at the froth winking at the mouth of one of the great jars. All the things she wanted to say tumbled over each other in her mind and ended up in a soggy tangle that came out as ‘No.’

She wished she had not come to this place. Nothing had gone right from the moment they had arrived at the farm. Now she felt as if some sort of unsuspected hollow had opened up underneath her. As if he had been watching her all along, comparing her with the old wife and the widow next door as a man would compare horses for a race. If she pushed him too far, he would lie to her. He had just told her so.

She put the platter aside and stood up. Keeping her voice as bright as she could manage, she said, ‘I will find out from Galla which fish-seller knows about the ship.’

‘In the meantime, tell her from me to keep it quiet.’

‘Yes. Can she go back to the house now?’

‘I don’t know why she isn’t in the house,’ he said. ‘What’s this fuss about taking the girls to town?’

She explained. ‘She is here because a servant cannot do two different orders from two different people. The mother wants her to tell what she knows about the daughters, but the daughters order her to be silent. It is not her fault.’ She would have repeated, ‘It is not fair,’ but now she must remember to be careful not to annoy him.

‘I’ll straighten it out with Arria.’

There were footsteps in the yard outside. A shadow fell across the rows of jars. Tilla said, ‘You can talk to Galla. She is here.’

Galla drew back, alarmed.

Tilla beckoned her in. ‘The master is going to say you can go back to work in the house.’

‘Not yet.’ The Medicus was reaching for his stick. ‘I’ll talk to Arria.’

‘But you are head of the family!’ She stopped. Would he go back and tell the old wife about the awkward Briton who was always arguing with him? ‘They must do what you say,’ she suggested.

‘I know,’ he agreed. ‘But then she’ll be having two different orders from two different people again, won’t she? You have to do things in the right order with servants, Tilla.’

‘Yes,’ she said, hitching her tunic up over her belt. She dipped her feet in the bucket to rinse them. Then she climbed back into the treading trough and, before she could stop herself, said, ‘I can see that telling people what to do all day is very hard work.’

35

The pungent mixture of burned walnut husks and vinegar that the bath-boy was dutifully plastering across the top of Lucius’ head was unlikely to cure his bald patch, but it would not help to point that out. Instead Ruso leaned back against the side of the warm bath, let his injured foot float to the surface and observed, ‘I hear Tilla spent the day in the winery.’

‘I put them in there out of the way.’

Ruso said, ‘Someone needs to talk to Arria.’

‘I know.’

‘Do you think Cass would do it?’

‘No.’ Lucius reached for the wine flagon. He took a long draught and clapped it back on the tiles. Ruso retrieved it. He was ignoring Valens’ advice to avoid wine, and besides, if he did not intervene soon, Lucius would have consumed the whole lot by himself.

Ruso said, ‘Claudia’s hair has turned orange.’

Lucius’ eyes widened. ‘I’m surprised they let you in over there.’

‘Probus turned up just as I was leaving. As friendly as ever.’

A dark drip separated itself from Lucius’ hairline and began to slide down his temple. ‘Miserable old bugger. The last time I saw him was when he came over here to tell Cass that Justinus had drowned.’

Ruso mused, ‘I liked Justinus.’

‘It’s knocked her sideways. She only had one relative.’

In the silence that followed, Ruso could hear something dripping. He gazed across at the crack in the plaster that ran all the way down from the window, crossed a blue fish and a mermaid’s arm and was going to cause a leak in the bath one day. He wondered if Lucius too was imagining the simplicity of having only one relative.

‘She was all for having some sort of tomb put up to start with,’ said Lucius. ‘Heaven knows what it would cost, but apparently that’s what you do when you haven’t got the body. I was just coming round to it, and now she’s changed her mind. Blowed if I know what to do with her.’

At last, the bath-boy finished pottering about and went out to see to the fire.

As soon as the door closed, Ruso said, ‘His household know he was poisoned. Claudia’s father has told Fuscus that I did it.’

‘Oh, marvellous. I knew this would happen.’

‘It could be worse. They’ve sent for instructions from the Senator. We’ll have at least two or three weeks to find out what really happened before somebody from Rome gets here.’

Lucius smeared the drip of hair lotion across his cheek. ‘So it’s we now, is it?’ he said. ‘How do you suggest we go about it, exactly?’

Ruso took a swig from the flagon. ‘When I was in Britannia — ’

‘You aren’t in Britannia now. You can’t just get the Army to go round burning people’s houses down till somebody confesses.’

‘Claudia was talking about getting professional questioners in — speaking of which, is that one of your off- spring being tortured out in the garden?’

Lucius listened for a moment, then said, ‘Cass will sort it out. Who’s going to pay for the questioners?’

‘Nobody. I’ve asked her to wait.’