`You could well be right,' Helena said. `The wife upset her husband, which could mean that he found out one day; the son was disinherited; people blackmailed the family. They call the son Birdy -'
`He's a cuckoo,' snorted Ma. `A rich little cuckoo in the fancy nest.'
Helena fetched Ma her house slippers. I made her a warm drink. Then we continued on our way to visit the Metelli. Perhaps we were about to learn their family secret. Perhaps we already knew it.
On the other hand, nothing was simple in connection with this family. Helena agreed that it was quite likely the children of Calpurnia Cara still harboured some surprises.
LVI
We were escorted into the white salon. Fine oils burned in the gilded lamps, gleaming on the nifty bronze Aphrodite in her matt plastered niche. The two sisters, Rubiria Juliana and Rubiria Carina, were displaying handsome jewellery as they sat in genteel postures on the best-positioned ornate couch. Their husbands spread themselves on other plush upholstery, one on each side of the women. Negrinus sat gloomily one along from Verginius Laco, feet planted in front of him and elbows on his knees; beyond Negrinus was a tanned, thickset man we had never seen before. Helena and I took places near the scowling Canidianus Rufus, forming a half-circle. We ended up opposite the stranger. He stared at us curiously, and we returned the compliment.
The Camillus brothers arrived last, though fortunately not too late. They redeemed themselves by their smartness. Each wore well-buffed leather boots, tight belts, and identical white tunics; I detected their mother's hand in their overall neat turnout. Neither had his usual hair parting and I reckoned the noble Julia Justa had tackled them both with her fine bone comb before letting them loose.
Justinus immediately nodded a greeting to the thickset man. That confirmed he was Julius Alexander, the freedman and land agent from Lanuvium. Despite their tussle over Perseus, when the lads stationed themselves on the remaining seat Justinus sat adjacent to the freedman. Both then leaned over the curled arms of their couches and muttered in an undertone about the vigiles' fatal handling of the door porter.
Silent slaves handed trays of savoury fancies, which we mostly left untouched in case they crumbled disastrously in our fingers; others brought delicate silver thimbles of rather sweet white wine. Not a lot was said. Everyone was waiting for the attendants to withdraw. Carina gave the signal early, and they vanished. People tried surreptitiously to find somewhere to discard their little wine tots. I bent forward and placed Helena's and mine on the floor beneath our couch, giving myself heartburn. Out of sight behind my back, Helena massaged my ribs. She always knew when I was in danger of emitting an unseemly belch.
Since nobody else seemed keen to break the silence, I began. `This meeting follows the death of your mother, presumably? Has that freed you to be more open?'
Verginius Laco, thin, austere and understated, now seemed to be the family leader. `There has been a long disagreement about making public a certain situation.'
`Calpurnia wanted to keep the secret?' I smiled politely. `If it helps, Falco and Associates already assume that all your problems centre on the parentage of Birdy.'
Carina jumped. `Please don't call him that!' I had tried it out deliberately. None of my party was surprised when his sister said unhappily, `That was his wife's name for him. None of us ever use it.'
`We understand.' Helena was sympathetic. She dropped in the answer almost as if it hardly counted: `Saffia employed an unkind nickname to remind everyone of what she knew: that Negrinus was not really his father's son.'
`Took you long enough to guess!' Canidianus Rufus seemed to be here on sufferance. Always edgy, his unhappiness was worse tonight. Whatever was about to be exposed, he hated it. His wife, Juliana, stared down at her lap.
`Once you know,' I agreed, `it explains a great deal.' Rufus humphed.
More relaxed than his brother-in-law, Laco leaned sideways on a couch arm, hands linked, surveying me. He had made a habit of holding back, waiting for me to reveal what I knew before he spoke up. Expecting candour, I suddenly had a feeling that he was still testing me, still ready to disguise the facts. I became more careful.
`So, Falco -' He was pretending to be friendly. `You understand us now?'
I paused, then went with the theory that Negrinus was illegitimate. `Around two years ago, Rubirius Metellus – who thought himself the father of a happy family, with a son moving up through the Senate – was shocked to discover that that son was not his own. I suppose this information had long been known to the wet-nurse who cared for Negrinus as a baby – Euboule. She somehow discovered his parentage from Calpurnia Cara. Over the years, she heavily blackmailed Calpurnia with the threat of telling her husband, causing Calpurnia enormous grief – not to mention the sale of her jewellery.'
As I unravelled the story, Laco and the others listened quietly. Negrinus had his chin up slightly, but he was taking it well – so far.
At my side, Helena moved slightly. `In time,' she began conversationally, as if talking this through quietly at home with me, `Euboule was not alone in blackmailing the family. It is obvious that she told her daughter Zeuko, who told the porter, Perseus. His demands must have seemed the final indignity. But long before then, enormous damage had been done by someone else – Saffia Donata.'
This time at the mention of her name, everyone tensed. I carried on the story. `Rubirius Metellus was given the bad news when Saffia Donata began to squeeze. Saffia had found out during her first marriage to Licinius Lutea. She had placed their son Lucius for nursing with Zeuko. For Saffia, picking up an indiscreet remark from a wetnurse must have been a godsend. She and Lutea had money troubles. The Metelli were very wealthy. Saffia formed an audacious plan to divorce and remarry herself to Negrinus. Getting right in among the family must have helped her apply pressure – and it will have disguised from other people what she was up to.'
`It is shocking,' said Helena. `We have rarely heard of such determined abuse. But once she had produced a child to tie her to the Metelli, Saffia began a vicious programme of extortion. Not just occasional payments; she wanted everything.'
Carina broke in: `I want to make it plain, there was never any sordid relationship between my father and Saffia.'
`No,' Helena agreed gently.
Carina, once said to have been estranged from her family, seemed most keen to defend Metellus. `My father was a man who stood up for himself. Some people found him aggressive – but he was just as strong in his loyalty to Negrinus. When he found out the truth, Father refused to reject him, you know.'
`We can see that,' I reassured her. `And Saffia relied on it. Without your father's feeling for Negrinus, Saffia's plan would have collapsed. She needed the family desperate to cover up the secret. So Negrinus and his father were in shock together. Money flowed out of the coffers until Saffia's demands drove them to corruption.'
`We were desperate!' Negrinus himself spoke up. This was the first time we had heard him acknowledge what happened during his term of public office. `Saffia had drained our coffers. As an aedile, you have to keep up your style in society -'
`You don't have to plunder the state!' I commented.
`There was nothing else we could do. Saffia was insatiable. Father even sold the land that had formed her dowry – he said it served her right.'
`Why on earth did you stay married to her?' I scoffed.
`One of her conditions for keeping quiet. Part of her cunning. She was always with us, making sure she kept up the pressure.'
`Besides, she pretended she was fond of you?'
Negrinus flushed and fell silent. I had only met her once, but she was memorably pretty. That explained the second child he and Saffia produced together. Whether it was his son or not, he must have reason to suppose it might be. At least the newborn stood more chance with him than with Lutea.
`And the will?' I asked. `Furious and heartbroken when the truth came out, Metellus changed his will, disinheriting both you and your mother who had betrayed him?'
`Saffia made him do that,' Negrinus insisted, writhing with unhappiness.
`And that was when your father called in Paccius Africanus to advise on how she could receive a huge legacy?
