“You’re thinking ofgetting the money Gaius was cheated out of back,” shegasped.
“Exactly.” I nodded, but Iwas looking at Septimus, who, to my consternation, did not seementhused at the idea. In fact, he was looking everywhere but at me,and I had to stifle a curse, knowing that this was neither the timenor place to chastise him. “You didn’t do any more about this, didyou, Septimus?”
“No.” He sighed, stilllooking down at the table. “I haven’t.”
I was about to ask whynot, but that had no real bearing on the need of the moment, soinstead, I said simply, “Well, you need to, because I can tell youthis much. Gnaeus will never agree to be ransomed if he knows thatit means you’ll lose the villa. The onlyway I can get him on that ship is if I lie to himand only tell him the truth once we’re out to sea. And then,” Isaid this with a smile, but it was without much humor, “I’ll haveto pray to the gods he doesn’t pitch me overboard, then turn theship around and try to get the money back from those Parisiibastards.”
The entire family saw meoff two days after we had collected the money, but I only leftbecause I had been convinced that Septimus would do his utmost todetermine the extent of Lucius Aviola’s involvement with hisfather’s illicit schemes, if there was any. Of course, even if wesaw this through to completion by finding the Aviolapaterfamilias, there was noguarantee that we would be able to recoup all four hundredthousand sesterces, but if wedid not try, I knew that it would haunt every member of bothfamilies for the rest of our collective lives. I only agreed toleave because of Septimus’ solemn oath to do whatever was necessaryto get to the truth, up to and including torturing Lucius Aviola.Under any circumstances, this was a desperate thing to do, and wespent part of the night arguing about it until Septimus finallygave in, but I was not the one who convinced him. That was left toMiriam who, once again, proved she has the Pullus iron in her soulto do what she sees as necessary, and her rationale wassimple.
“What do you think Tataand Mama would do under these circumstances?” she asked herbrother. “Do you think that our mother would wring her hands and donothing when her family was under this kind of threat of losingeverything?”
To my intense relief, I could see thatSeptimus had been convinced even before she finished, which waswhen he swore on the black stone that, while he would not start outusing physical means against Aviola, he would not shrink from it ifthe need arose. This was the situation when I stood with Marcellus,Hemina, Celer, and Trio outside the villa to say goodbye. The extraday in Arelate was spent in a fruitful manner, because afterdiscussing it, we had decided some subterfuge was in order, and itwas the former Optio Marcellus who came up with the idea.
“If we use a regularwagon, and with the four of us guarding it, that’s practicallybegging for attention.”
We were in thetaverna where I had met him,discussing our plans, and the other three men were nodding inagreement.
“What did you have inmind?”
“We hire acisium,” he explained. “But one ofthe larger covered ones designed for more than two passengers. Butyou,” he pointed to me, “will be the only passenger. With thesides, the chests won’t be in sight. And we,” he indicated himselfand the others, “will be your bodyguards.”
“But nobody will believeI’m someone important enough to be guarded,” Iprotested.
“Not dressed like that,”Marcellus agreed. “So I suggest you ask Septimus for atoga and some other frippery to makeyou look like an uppity bastard.”
I opened my mouth to ask him how he wascertain that Septimus would have any of that but thought better ofit. Marcellus, and the other three men, who, to this point had beenlargely silent, were all from Arelate, and after all, I hadattracted them by using the Pullus name.
Instead, I said cautiously, “That’s a goodidea. But,” I pointed out the one possible flaw, “because of whatwe’re carrying, the horses are going to wear out a lot morequickly.”
I learned that Marcellus had thought aboutthat as well, reminding me, “You mentioned that you had some sortof orders?”
I had indeed, althoughwhen I mentioned them, it had been as a way to give this wholeendeavor a patina of legality, and while I neversaid as much, I heavily implied thiswas an official mission to retrieve a Centurion of Rome.
“Yes, I did,” I admitted,“but they’re not…exactly what you may think.”
He surprised me then by shaking his head andsaying, “It doesn’t matter. As long as you sit there like a haughtybastard with your nose in the air and wave that thing around andact as if the fate of the Empire rests on you getting whereveryou’re going, you let me and the boys handle the rest.”
I confess that I was notconvinced, but I also realized that we really had no other choice,and the idea of disguising our means of travel was a good one.Consequently, I was seated in the cisiumwearing one of Septimus’ togas, with an expensiveleather satchel in my lap that I had stuffed full of scrolls fromthe Prefect’s library, although I did pick titles that neitherGnaeus nor I had read yet when I waved goodbye and we left thevilla.
By the second day, I hadresolved to pay Marcellus a bonus, because his ploy was working toperfection. Stopping at the first Imperial relay station wascertainly nerve-wracking, but just as he predicted, my handing theattendant the tablet with Saloninus’ order as I made sure that ourfingers did not touch, while I refused to even look in hisdirection did the trick. I immediately saw that he could not readvery well, which helped, but it was how I behaved, as Marcellusadvised, like an “uppity bastard,” that did the trick. The mostdifficult part, at least the first time, was to maintain ourcollective demeanors, but once we were safely away, we laughed,long and hard. Staying at an inn proved to be
