Rosemary Rowe: The Fateful Day

I thought of sharing it with Gwellia, my wife, but she had learned from the slaves that I had earned a lucrative contract for a pavement at the baths, and I decided that it was a shame to spoil her joy by dwelling on the threat and the rudeness of the carriage passenger. I simply mentioned that I’d seen a visitor, apparently hoping to find Marcus in.

She looked up from kneading flour into a dough. ‘I wonder who that was.’

I shook my head. ‘I’ve no idea,’ I said. ‘Nobody that I have ever seen before. Somebody wealthy by the look of him. Great big carriage blocking up the road — a proper carpentum , with four horses pulling it. Shutters and oil lamps and leather springs, besides. Could have come a long way with a vehicle like that.’

She punched the bread-dough with an expert fist. ‘Well, wherever it came from, it won’t go far tonight. I suppose they were hoping to stop at Marcus’s. I wonder where they’ll find accommodation now?’ She stretched the dough, then punched it down again and set it by the fire to rise a bit before she sealed the pot with clay and placed it in the embers to bake overnight. ‘If they were known to your patron — and as wealthy as you say — I’m a bit surprised the servants didn’t let them in. I know that there are hardly any slaves left in the house, but they could have offered a traveller some sort of hospitality, I’m sure.’

‘I think I prevented him from asking at the gate,’ I said, wondering why I hadn’t thought of that myself. I suppose the sudden fright had addled my poor brain. ‘He was sitting in the carriage when I came along the lane, and so was his driver — and they didn’t seem to know that Marcus wasn’t there. When I told them so, he got quite cross and drove away at once.’

‘So he hadn’t sent his slave in to enquire?’ Gwellia had started on the morning’s oatcakes now.

‘If he’d sent in an attendant, he’d have waited for him to come back to the carriage, wouldn’t he?’ I said. ‘I didn’t see a servant, come to think of it — apart from the driver, and that hardly counts. Though I suppose there must have been one.’

‘In the coach, perhaps? It’s an odd place to seat a mere attendant, but men like that don’t drive around the roads without an escort as a rule.’

‘Mmm!’ was all I murmured in reply. Trust Gwellia to see the obvious.

I watched her for a little, going about her evening tasks. She was a pretty woman, even now, although her hair was grey. And sharp-witted too. It was not the first time that she’d thought of things I should have seen myself. ‘Perhaps I should tell Marcus about that visitor,’ I said at last. ‘Especially if no one in the house had seen him come. It does seem an odd encounter. I wonder who he was.’

‘That’s what I said half an hour ago.’ She grinned across at me. ‘But you didn’t ask him and now we’ll never know. I don’t suppose it matters, anyway. Whoever it was has come and gone and there’s an end of it.’ She had set the cakes and bread to cook by now, so I raked the ashes over them and lit a slow taper in a jar to keep a flame alight.

‘I’m sure you’re right, as usual,’ I told her tenderly, as I blew the candle out and pulled her down beside me on the bed of reeds.

We could not guess how wrong she’d prove to be.

I awoke even earlier than I’d intended to, though feeling less than rested after a night of troubled dreams in which I was being pursued by speeding chariots. Gwellia was still sleeping, though I could hear Kurso (our little kitchen slave) rattling the water-bucket as he came back from the spring. I shook myself awake and went out to speak to him.

He looked up from pouring water into the shallow irrigation channel that ran round my kitchen crops.’ ‘You’re up early, master.’ He stared at me, obviously surprised to find me standing there wearing just the tunic that I’d been sleeping in — though I had managed to strap my ancient sandals on my feet. Then he recalled himself. ‘Do you want a drink?’ He gestured to the little ewer beside him on the wall. ‘Filling the jug up was the next job on my list. I can do it now and get some more water later for the plants and animals.’

I shook my head and picked the ewer up. ‘I’ll go and get some from the spring myself, and breakfast on a little of Gwellia’s new bread,’ I said, causing him to look even more startled than before. ‘You make sure Arlina has been fed and watered while I’ve gone — I want to set off early to look in at my patron’s fields and perhaps call in at the villa afterwards if there is time enough. I saw a strange carriage outside there yesterday, and I’m curious to find out who the caller was and whether he managed to make contact with the household there.’ I smiled at Kurso’s earnest little face. ‘Tell the others that I’ll be coming back, ready to go back into town as usual — my errand shouldn’t take me very long.’

In fact, I was able to tell them for myself. By the time that I got back from the spring, the whole of my little household was awake and the slaves were clustering round to help me have my meal and pull my working tunic over what I wore. ‘And put a cloak on, husband, for Minerva’s sake!’ Gwellia said crossly, handing me the warmest one I had. ‘It will be a wonder if you haven’t caught a cold, walking round at dawn without one at this time of year! It’s a chilly morning.’

It was crisp, certainly — and I was grateful for the cloak. The ride out to the fields was quite a bracing one. But not a very useful one, it seemed.

‘Far too chilly to be planting vines,’ the chief land-slave told me, hastening over to meet me at the wall when he saw me arriving on my mule. ‘Too early in the season for this corner of the world. And I’d tell the master just the same if he was here. Them plants are tender. He’ll lose the lot of them, if you ask me.’

‘He told me he’d looked into it, and other people had achieved success with them,’ I said, by way of offering a half-rebuke.

The overseer laughed. ‘Looked into it? He’s bought an amanuensis-slave at great expense and had him in the villa scribbling away for half a moon, copying out some borrowed treatise on how to care for vines — and now of course, he thinks he knows exactly what to do. Never mind that the author is talking about areas around Rome! It’s nonsense trying to apply it here — although of course I’ll have to do as I’m told.’

‘And I would like to watch you for a bit.’

‘I’m sure you would, citizen. But-’ he gestured to the land-slaves in the field beyond, who, having selected shovels, rakes and hoes, were mostly leaning on their implements and watching us while they awaited their instructions for the day ‘-we won’t be starting yet! Not until the day’s warmed up as much as possible. It will be an hour or more before the sun is high enough — and I’m leaving the seedlings in the warmest barn till then. No point asking for disaster, is there, citizen? In the meantime we’ll just go on breaking up the soil. You want to wait and supervise till we start to plant?’ He beamed at me, the picture of innocence and helpfulness.

Of course the enquiry was barbed, but he had made his point. I am not a wealthy landowner like his owner is. I am a working man and have my own affairs to see to in the town. He knew quite well that his polite suggestion was impossible, and he no doubt resented being answerable to somebody like me.

I shook my head. ‘I’m sure that won’t be necessary,’ I replied, as though I had considered his proposal and rejected it. ‘I’ll look in tonight and see how you are getting on.’ And, without so much as getting off my mule, I turned around and trotted off the way that I had come. But he was not deceived. I’m almost sure I heard derisive laughter behind me as I went.