Marilyn Todd - Black Salamander

He stepped in front of her. ‘And Volso’s, for that matter. Uh-uh, don’t try to deny it, I saw you. The instant he began making his devotions with that little priest, you were inside his satchel like a ferret.’

Claudia pursed her lips. ‘Actually, Orbilio, if you want the truth.’ She reached for her handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes. ‘I’m scared.’ She snuffled silently into the linen. ‘I try so hard to hide it, but’-gulp-‘deep down I feel Gemma’s right and I’-sob-‘wanted to see what the astrologer had marked on his charts for our fate.’

‘Oh, sweet Janus, Claudia.’ Orbilio’s face was a picture of anguish. ‘I’m so sorry. I…had no idea.’

Good. It worked.

‘Truly,’ he said miserably. ‘I had no idea you were such a terrible actress. Ouch! ’ He rubbed at his shin. ‘What was that for?’

‘Pure pleasure,’ she purred.

His eyes were still watering as he hopped after her. ‘That’s why we’ll have such a long and happy life together.’ He grinned. ‘Whenever I’m with you, words flail me.’ There was a count of three before he said, ‘Now give me your part of the map, Claudia. And tell me who else is carrying a piece.’

A tornado began to spin inside her head. ‘Get this in your thick skull, Orbilio, I don’t have any map.’

And yet… And yet…

‘Claudia Seferius, I know you and I know when you’re lying.’

‘How?’

‘You open your mouth. Now for heaven’s sake, stop this charade,’ he hissed under his breath. ‘This isn’t a game, Claudia. The whole Empire is at stake, and people, goddammit, are dying.’ He rubbed at the figure-of-eight ring on his little finger. ‘I don’t know what line you’ve been fed, or what’s on the end of the hook you were baited with, but you have to understand what’s at stake here. There’s a plot to-’

‘Fire!’

‘-assassinate not only Augustus-’

‘Fire in the valley. Look!’

‘-but to overthrow the whole Empire and reinstate the Republic and-Janus, Croesus, what’s going on over there?’

He strode to the edge of the clearing, where the plateau fell away to reveal what, under other circumstances, would have been a magnificent panorama.

‘There. Can you see it?’ Theo’s voice was filled with excitement and he was almost jumping up and down on the spot. ‘A plume of grey smoke?’

‘Blimey, you’ve got good eyesight,’ said one of the drivers admiringly, squinting into the distance, but then others looked where Theo was pointing, to the thin spiral which was growing ever larger as they watched.

‘A village!’ Theo laughed, kicking soil over the blazing campfire. ‘By Croesus, it’s a bloody village!’

As the last day of June was marked in Rome with the Festival of the Muses (a chance for the arty-farty-glitterati to gather at the Temple of Hercules and indulge in a spot of good old-fashioned fawning), there was much to debate in the Senate.

Not least, the problem regarding the Emperor’s stepson.

Why appoint Tiberius as Regent? they argued. Why not so-and-so? Most senators had their own man they wished to propose, and most could make a case every bit as sound as the one Augustus made for Tiberius-especially since Tiberius happened to be blissfully married to a girl who, like her husband, was no blood relative of Augustus, but who was also expecting their first child. The fact that she was the late Regent’s daughter made no difference. The link to the throne simply got weaker and weaker.

However, those malcontents with ambitions of their own had reckoned without the Emperor’s wife. Even as the arguments raged inside the Senate House, Livia was quietly instigating formal divorce proceedings to sever her own son, Tiberius, from the marriage bond with his wife, while at the same time arranging a wedding between-that’s right, her own son and the late Regent’s widow, who was also heavily pregnant. And, er, who just happened to be Augustus’s daughter. With the Emperor’s stepson married to the Emperor’s daughter, any doubts about bloodlines would be wiped out the instant the marriage contract was signed. There was no time to lose.

At some stage, Livia supposed, she ought to notify Augustus. And quite possibly Tiberius, as well…

Meanwhile, as another senator rose to his feet to address the outraged assembly, a politician with buck teeth moved his chair closer to the thin man sitting beside him. The thin man smelled of liquorice.

‘You’ve seen the latest reports?’ he muttered.

‘About the uprisings on the Germanic border?’ The invalid delved into the folds of his purple-striped toga for his cache of black pastilles. ‘Seven attacks on our encampments, one full-scale assault on the garrison and an attempt to burn one of the bridges crossing the Rhine. Oh, yes.’ He popped in a pill. ‘I’ve read those dispatches so often, they’re almost committed to memory.’

A ripple of boos rang round the chamber as the speaker was shouted down. Within seconds, another took his place, punching his fist into the palm of his hand to emphasise every point and leaving the assembly to wonder whether it was the larynx, rather than the Senate, which was the noblest organ of the State.

‘There’ll be insufficient time to debate our foreign policies today,’ Squint murmured, ‘but I’m reliably assured that, come our next sitting, we are to be notified of the despatch of three of our most loyal legions from,’ he flashed a smug smile at the golden statue of winged Victory, standing by her altar in the corner, ‘safe provinces to quell the rebellion in the north.’

‘I assume that by “safe” we’re referring to-oh, well said, old man.’ He broke off to applaud the senator who’d just come to the end of a speech of which the thin man had not heard a word. They waited until the opposing speaker had a real good head of steam up.

‘Your assumptions are correct.’ Squint nodded. ‘Troops have been moved away from northern Italy, from Sequani territory and from the south and west of Gaul, although naturally Helvetia is still under full military order.’ He let out a snort of laughter. ‘No one trusts those war-mongering bastards.’

‘Can you blame them?’ The thin man sniggered back, and for the remainder of the address they lapsed into silence, amused by the irony of the situation they had created.

Further, increasingly heated, debates followed on and the atmosphere inside the chamber grew distinctly rowdier. Outside, the voices from the populace who were crowded on to the platform and steps became louder and more raucous as they, too, were swept along with the arguments, audible because the double doors remained open throughout the proceedings in order for the public to have access to what was, after all, a democracy. Once or twice a brawl broke out-nothing serious, just a bit of pushing and shoving with a spot of name-calling thrown in-and sometimes this also took place outside the chamber.

What more perfect cover for two politicians to chat, unheard, between themselves?

‘One small problem has come to light,’ the thin man murmured, reaching for another pastille. The physician was right, the liquorice did help his ulcer. Either that, or it was settling of its own accord. He glanced round the chamber, nodding curtly in recognition of his brother-in-law seated opposite on the upper row. The conspiracy had crossed the point of no return and the worry which aggravated the ulcer was no longer present. He’d gone past that stage and was reconciled now to the future. The coup would succeed, or-if it did not-he would die. And most assuredly, he had no intention of crossing the Styx even one hour early. His goal was to be part of the new triumvirate.

‘Problem?’ Squint prompted.