`Oh Juno!' drawled my sister loudly. `Well, that's Mother in trouble! I must tell her at once – she'll be devastated!'
`Just advise her quietly,' I warned. `The bank is perfectly solvent as far as I know. Anacrites was talking to me about removing his own cash in view of these problems – but that's privileged information. I presume if he withdraws his own funds, he will do the same for Ma.'
It rankled that my mother had turned to Anacrites for investment advice. It rankled even more that he had known her financial position when I, her only son, did not.
Junia had sat down and was now posing, chin on one hand, looking thoughtful. `Of course, maybe it would be better not to say anything to Mother after all.'
`Why ever not?' Helena's voice was sharp. She hated people acting irresponsibly. `Somebody ought to warn Junilla Tacita. She can make up her own mind what she does about the situation – or better still, she can ask Marcus for advice.'
`No, I don't think so,' Junia decided.
`Don't be coy, Junia,' I said lazily. I hardly paid her any attention; I was intending to warn Ma about the bank myself. `What's on your mind then?'
Being Junia, she could not bear to keep a nasty premise to herself `If Ma was to lose money because of Anacrites, it might put a stop to something worse.'
`Worse than Ma losing her savings?' I was coughing over a radish – not only because it was hot.
`Don't pretend you don't know,' sneered my sister. `Everybody on the Aventine is speculating why Anacrites is living at our mother's house. Once their curiosity is aroused, people will find answers for themselves, you know.'
`What answers? And what's the damned question, anyway?'
The slow heat of indignation had already started burning before Junia told me what she believed the scandal-mongers thought: `Oh Marcus! The gossips around every fountain are saying that Anacrites is our mother's fancy man.'
I had eaten enough of their brown-edged greenery and swallowed enough of Junia's irresponsible bile. I stood up. Without even looking at me, Helena was already collecting Julia.
As a gesture of farewell, the only one I could bear to distribute, I nodded to Apollonius for old times' sake. I set down the reckoning and left him a large tip. It would be some time before I allowed myself to visit Flora's after this.
'I am impressed by your nose for gossip, Junia. You have given me a lot to think about – and it's a long time since I heard anything so utterly ridiculous.'
`Well, let's face it, Marcus,' replied my sister callously, `you may call yourself an informer. But when it comes to collecting information, you are absolutely useless!'
`I don't collect irresponsible chit-chat!' I retaliated, and we left.
XL
WE HAD walked nearly all the way home before I stopped dead
in the street and exploded. Helena waited patiently until I stopped ranting.
`I don't believe it!'
`Well, why are you making so much fuss, Marcus?'
`I won't have my mother insulted.'
We were outside the poulterer's in Fountain Court by now. Nobody paid any attention. They were used to me. Anyway, it was midday in August. Those who could had fled to the country. Those who could not were lying prone, wishing they could go too.
Perspiration poured off me. My tunic was sticking to my back.
Helena said slowly, `You don't know whether it is true or not. But you ought to allow the possibility that a woman of your mother's age – any age may enjoy masculine company. With so many children, she cannot ever have had a cold disposition. She has lived without your father for a long time now, Marcus. She might, she just might actually want someone in her bed.'
`You're as disgusting as Junia.' ‘if it was a man with a young girl, you would be thrilling with envy,' snapped Helena. She took our daughter and set off for our apartment, leaving me to do as I pleased.
I had to follow; I was raging with more furious questions. `What do you know about all this? Is it true? What has Ma said to you? Have the pair of you been giggling over this sweet romance?'
`We have not. Look – there may be nothing in it.'
`Ma has said nothing?'
`She wouldn't.'
`Women always talk to each other.'
`About the men in their lives? Wrong on two counts, Marcus – the ones who chatter are probably discussing men they would like as lovers but can't get, or else men that they have lost. And some never say anything. Maia, for instance. Or me,' said Helena.
She turned back to me from our staircase.
`You never talked to other women about me?' I managed to calm down enough to find a feeble grin. `I wasn't worth it, eh?'
Helena also relaxed. `Too important,' she said. In case the flattery went to my head, she added, `Who would have believed it, anyway?'
`Anyone who ever saw us together, my love.'
Then Helena suddenly tweaked my nose. `Well,.don't worry. If you run off and leave me the way your father left your mother, I shall probably replace you – but like your mother, I shall probably wait twenty years and be utterly discreet.'
It was no consolation. I could imagine Helena Justina doing just that.
I could have rushed straight off to see Ma there and then, and it would have probably been disastrous. Luckily, we were hailed cheerily from a balcony above us on the other side of the alley; to ensure our attention, Petronius Longus chucked down an old boot he kept upstairs for that purpose. Helena went indoors, while I waited. Being Petro, once he could see that I had stopped, he took his time.
`Playing the tribune still, Petronius? Come along! I don't have all day.'
'Whatever's the matter with you, Falco?'
`I'm bloody annoyed with my sister.'
`Oh, not Maia and Anacrites again?' he returned dourly. I felt so frustrated I literally tore my hair. Junia!' I yelled. `Oh.' He lost interest.
Assured that he would share my indignation, I had to tell him: `Never mind Maia; this is a thousand times more horrible – according to Junia, Anacrites is having an affair with Ma.'
Petronius started laughing. I felt better for a moment. Then he stopped laughing sooner than he should have done. He whistled quietly. `The rotten dog!'
`Come off it. It can't be true, Petro.'
`Oh – right!'
`I mean that.'
`Of course.'
He stared at me. I glared at him. Then he frowned. `You don't suppose he would go so far as to dally with both your mother and your sister at the same time?'
`You're not listening to me! He has nothing to do with my mother -'
`No. You are right,' said Petronius crisply. `I know he tried to kill you once – but not even Anacrites would want to do that to you.'
`Well, thanks, friend!'
`Not even to gain the upper hand again…'
