on their belts.
‘Why do you need to be armed?’ Vespasia asked suspiciously.
‘Better safe than sorry, Mother.’ Sabinus grinned. ‘Good evening, Magnus, shall we go?’
‘Evening, young sirs, we shall if you’re ready. Where are we going?’
‘To the Lady Antonia’s house on the Palatine.’
‘Ah! Well, if you must.’ Magnus looked unsure.
‘Yes, we must.’
‘Take care, dear boys, I have a feeling that you have a long night ahead of you. May the gods go with you.’ Gaius put a hand on each of their shoulders and gave them an affectionate squeeze.
‘I don’t know what you are going to be asked to do but I think that “Be careful” would be suitable advice,’ Titus said, putting an arm around his wife.
‘We shall, Father,’ Vespasian replied. ‘Mother, don’t worry, Sabinus will be fine, I’ll look after him.’
Sabinus gave his younger brother a sour look. ‘Very funny, you little shit.’
‘Sabinus!’
‘Sorry, Mother. We’ll see you in the morning. Goodbye.’
The two brothers stepped out of the door followed by Pallas and Magnus to the sound of Vespasia berating Gaius again for getting her sons involved in affairs that they, or more to the point she, didn’t understand and could not control.
Outside Magnus’ men were waiting with a couple of flaming torches. A light rain started to fall as they headed off down the hill. Their footsteps echoed around the deserted street and the torchlight reflected a deep orange off the glistening wet paving stones.
‘I’ve taken the precaution of leaving a man hidden behind us to see if we’re being followed,’ Magnus told Sabinus and Vespasian. ‘I told him to count to five hundred, then make his way down through the side alleys and meet us on the main road.’
‘Might take some time,’ Vespasian mused.
Magnus looked at him quizzically and then laughed. ‘Oh, I see. Yes, you’re right, he ain’t the brightest of the brothers but I reckon he’ll make it to five hundred in a reasonable time; had it been Sextus here I would have only told him two hundred.’ He gave his mate a playful nudge and got a good-humoured laugh in response.
They reached the main road and had to wait for only a brief time before their rearguard, a huge, bald man with a stump where his left hand had been, caught up with them.
‘No one behind us, Magnus,’ he puffed, out of breath from his quick run through the back streets.
‘Well done, Marius. How did the counting go?’
‘What?’ Marius looked puzzled. ‘It was all right.’
The rest of his brothers burst out laughing; realising that he must be the butt of some joke made behind his back, Marius grinned sheepishly, mumbled: ‘Yeah, yeah, very amusing,’ and fell in with the group as they headed off in the direction of the Palatine.
The rain was falling steadily by the time that they reached Antonia’s house. Once the new doorkeeper had admitted them Pallas gave orders for Magnus and his companions to be shown to the kitchens for some refreshment and then ushered the two brothers through to Antonia’s private room, where they had dined back in December.
Antonia was seated behind her desk and was alone. Any hopes that Vespasian had had of seeing Caenis were thwarted.
‘Sabinus, Vespasian, thank you for coming at such a late hour.’
‘Good evening, domina, how can we be of service?’ Sabinus asked.
‘Please sit down.’ She indicated the two chairs placed in front of her. Vespasian felt a slight breeze. He looked round at the window and saw that bottom left-hand corner had been broken and was now boarded up. ‘Pallas, some wine for my guests.’
Pallas bowed and left the room. Antonia studied the brothers for a moment as if assessing whether or not they had the mettle she needed. Apparently satisfied, she began to speak. ‘Last night someone broke in through that window and tried to get into my strong box. Fortunately they were disturbed, but unfortunately they managed to escape, running through one of my slaves with a sword in the process. Now, the only people officially allowed to carry swords in the city are the Urban Cohort and the Praetorian Guard; the average petty thief normally contents himself with a dagger or a cudgel. But even if it was just a well-armed petty thief how did he know where exactly to find my strong box? I can’t help suspecting it was a Praetorian, acting on Sejanus’ instructions, who’d been given the location by my daughter Livilla. She knows the layout of the house.’
Antonia paused as Pallas re-entered and poured the wine for her guests, then retired to his place by the door. ‘If the break-in was orchestrated by Sejanus it would mean that he suspects that I have documents in here that are dangerous to him, and he would be right. The two documents that I entrusted copies of to your uncle for safekeeping would make very interesting, if unpleasant, reading for Sejanus. One outlines the suspicions that Asinius and I shared with you the other night of his long-term plans to gain power and the steps that we are taking to counter it. The other details the evidence that I have so far of his role in the deaths of my son Germanicus and the Emperor’s son Drusus.’
Vespasian took a sip of his wine and wondered where he would fit into all this.
‘I needed to confirm one way or another whether Sejanus suspects me of conspiring against him, which led me to do something which was, with the benefit of hindsight, very stupid. I decided to invite Livilla here for dinner tomorrow, ostensibly to make peace with her, but in reality I wanted to see her reaction to the broken window, maybe that would have confirmed my suspicions. So this evening I sent my maid Caenis with an invitation to Livilla; neither she nor the slave that accompanied her have returned.’
Vespasian took a sharp intake of breath, causing Antonia to smile.
‘You are right to be concerned, but it is more than Caenis’ safety that should worry us, it is what she knows.’
‘What information could a slave have that can be of use to Livilla and Sejanus?’ Sabinus asked.
‘A slave she may be, but she is also very dear to me. Her mother was my slave but died when Caenis was only three. I brought Caenis up in my household; she is almost like the daughter I wished I’d had. As such I keep her in my confidence; not only is she my body-slave she is also, as Livilla knows full well, my secretary. She knows the contents of those two documents because she made the copies.’
A look of shock passed over both Vespasian and Sabinus’ faces as they realised the awful truth of the situation. Livilla, who was capable of acts of astonishing cruelty, would easily be able to torture the contents of those documents out of Caenis and pass them on to Sejanus, who would then act with ruthless efficiency to protect himself.
‘So you see, gentlemen, we haven’t any time to lose. We must rescue Caenis before she is broken.’
‘How do we know she hasn’t been already, domina?’ Vespasian asked; he felt sick at the thought of that beautiful girl going through what Eumenes or his brother had suffered.
‘Livilla is with the Emperor tonight for his farewell dinner; she will want to be present at the interrogation. The Emperor always dines late and never retires to bed until the early hours of the morning, so we have a little time.
‘Caenis is more than likely being held in a cellar at the back of the house; it can be accessed not only from the inside the house but also from the garden through a short tunnel, probably guarded by Praetorians. I have asked my grandson Gaius to guide you; he knows the house well and loathes Sejanus who he knows ordered the murder of his father. He’s also a favourite of Tiberius’, so no guard would dare execute him or his companions should you be caught, but let’s hope that it doesn’t come to that.’
Antonia stood up and moved towards the door. ‘Pallas will bring everything that you’ll need. You have to move fast, gentlemen. We have only a couple of hours before Livilla returns.’
CHAPTER XII
Antonia led Vespasian and Sabinus back to the atrium where they found Magnus and his colleagues, looking
