Marilyn Todd - Sour Grapes

Why Lars married Eunice…

'You… administer them yourself?'

'It's no great science,' he laughed. 'You pulverise herbs, turnips, lettuce and broccoli until you're left with the juice. Oh, don't twist your face, woman. With a pinch of mustard, it's practically palatable.'

'That's what they say about hemlock.' She smiled back, and by coincidence the poison was exactly the same consistency and colour. No doubt as Eunice sipped, she'd thank her husband for making her feel soothed and relaxed — until the point where she tried to move and found every muscle in her body was paralysed… 'I'm guessing it wasn't your love potion that fired Cupid's arrow?'

'A legionary would blush at the names Eunice calls me when I make her swallow the vile brew, but strange how I'm instantly forgiven when she looks in the mirror and sees clear skin shining back or bends down to adjust her sandal strap and realizes there's no stiffness in any of her joints. As for Cupid…' He broke off to pull the cart over and allow a wagon to pass. 'I'd give her regular massages at the springs… Look, will you stop spraining your face like you're a prude. We're Etruscans, girl. We're free spirits.'

'Who evidently don't believe in single-sex bath houses.'

'Men have bigger hands, stronger muscles. Oh, you can visit your fancy bath house in Rome and it'll smell grand, sure, and you'll enjoy your rub down well enough, but once a man's worked on those tension knots of yours, woman, you'll not know you're born.'

Eunice might be in danger in the longer term, she reflected, but she was surely in heaven while she was waiting.

'My lady lived in Rome in those days,' Lars said, 'so we'd not see each other that often. Then she rented a house here for the whole of the summer, invited me over to dinner and the friendship grew. To be honest, neither of us gave it a second thought until I went to kiss her goodnight on the cheek and caught her on the lips by mistake.'

'And that's it?'

'Aye.' He jiggled the reins and, when that didn't work, gave the mule a quick flick on the rump with the switch. 'I stayed the night and in the morning I realized that one man is no man, for one is no number. Never went home.'

Cue harps and rose petals… But did Darius put Lars up to it, or vice versa? And where the devil did Candace fit in?

'Thanks for the lift. Can I offer you wine and possibly a more substantial breakfast?'

'You're forgetting I spent two decades in that bloody spa,' he laughed, patting his stomach. 'Luckily for me, the head cook still has fond memories of my time there, for I swear it's the only place in the Empire where servant eats better than master.'

It probably was, but what kind of business would Lars have in Mercurium that was so urgent that it took him away from the hot springs almost before he'd arrived?

Inside her villa, slaves were industriously taking heather brooms to the floors, feather dusters to the ceilings and leather cloths to the marble. In the flurry of water being fetched from the well, oil lamps topped up, cushions plumped, furniture waxed, geese plucked, rugs beaten and vegetables peeled, no one noticed the mistress slip inside Master Darius's room.

Compared to the big house in Rome, the villa was cramped. Of course, to the average citizen it was a palace, and quite frankly the entire apartment in the slums where Claudia grew up could have fitted inside the atrium and have room to spare. But the point was, space was at a premium in Gaius's villa. There were far fewer guest bedrooms for one thing, and by the time things like couches, tables, chairs and clothes chests had been added, there was very little floor space to spare. All the more surprising, then, that Darius's room made the average Spartan appear profligate.

It wasn't unusual among the very rich, Claudia reflected, and actually it was one of the first things she'd noticed. In the same way that Orbilio, whose lineage traced back to Apollo himself, wore his clothes in the manner of a man born to affluence but without any need to advertise the fact, Darius also draped himself in expensive linens with the same casual neglect and kept jewellery down to the essential seal ring. Quality and minimalism often went hand in hand with breeding. But to have no personal possessions at all beyond the essentials…?

'Have you lost something?' an irritatingly familiar little voice piped up as it clambered on to the bed. 'Indigo thinks Darius must have stolen something from you and that's why you're poking around in his chest. Is it?'

Claudia was desperately trying to think of a better explanation for being up to her elbows in an honoured guest's underwear when Amanda saved her the bother.

'Indigo says she hopes it's a ring or a necklace or maybe a gold brooch set with amethysts and rubies and pearls. Something really expensive that means soldiers will have to come and arrest him.'

'Indigo would like that, would she?'

'Very much.' Amanda yanked back the coverlet and embarked upon a forensic search of her own. 'I overheard Darius telling Mummy that Indigo was bad for me and Mummy should stop moving round and that would get rid of her, but I told Indigo not to worry, no one's going to get rid of her, because why should Mummy listen to what Darius tells her? She'll be moving on soon, we always do, but this time it won't matter, because Indigo and me are running away after the Animals Holiday to go live with my father in Rome, only you promise not to tell Mummy, won't you?'

'Cross my heart.'

Comb, razor, scissors, but not so much as a painted cameo to remind Darius of his late wife. In fact, no personal mementoes full stop.

'He hasn't stashed his loot in the bed,' Amanda said miserably, and Claudia thought whirlwinds couldn't have made a worse job of that coverlet. 'But Indigo says Darius is clever.'

'Indigo's right.'

'She says he hides things.' Little hands stuffed themselves between the mattress and the bed frame and began prodding. 'Ooh, is this your brooch?'

Claudia took the box from her, lifted the lid and sniffed the unmistakeable balm of Gilead.

'Lemme see, lemme see.' Amanda scrabbled across the bed on her knees, craning her head for a better look. 'Ooh, yummy, are they sweeties?'

'No, they're buds.' Dried buds to be precise. The most expensive dried buds in the world.

'Bo-r-ing.'Amanda slid off the bed and picked up Darius's razor. 'Why does Darius shave his head?' she asked, peering closely.

Claudia snatched it away and placed it out of her reach. 'He shaves his face, not his head.'

'He does so, too, and he rubs ointment from that jar on his chest.'

'That's oil of frankincense for his cough,' Claudia explained, replacing the box of buds in exactly the same place that Amanda had found it and straightening the coverlet. When she looked up, Amanda was happily gouging a lump out of the table with Darius's scissors.

'Can I sleep in your bed tonight?' she asked, as the scissors were whisked out of her hand.

'No.'

'I could play with your cat.'

'We're still finding body parts from the last person who tried.'

Amanda giggled. 'If I can't find my father in Rome, I'll come and live with you. You're funny, and you won't make me move on all the time.'

Claudia made a mental note to have a word with Mummy and find out what the hell Mummy was playing at, condemning her six-year-old daughter to constant upheaval when the only thing children need at that age is stability. Didn't the woman realize that, in creating an imaginary friend, Amanda wasn't just lonely, she was deeply unhappy? For heaven's sake, what kind of mother can't see that her daughter's invisible friend is nothing more than an embodiment of the girl's confidence? That the minute Amanda becomes absorbed and able to state her own mind, Indigo vanishes? Unfortunately, Mummy would have to wait, and as much as Claudia would have liked to poke around Candace's quarters, she'd need to hold off until inquisitive little eyes and loquacious little tongues weren't around to betray her. Plus the Hebrew twins mightn't mix, but news of the mistress snooping around in the slave quarters would certainly make it to their well-attuned ears.