Rosemary Rowe - A Coin for the Ferryman

Junio was keen to earn another compliment. ‘And he wasn’t in the army either — that would have hardened him.’

‘Perhaps he wasn’t even of military age.’ Julia was still toying with her fig. ‘Poor lad. That would have made him, what — fourteen or so?’

‘Always supposing that he intended to join up,’ I said. ‘It isn’t compulsory to do so nowadays.’ Service in the army was no longer universal, but it was still the custom for most well-born young men to have a short spell as an officer, since that was the surest route to preference and power. Most citizens had at least one family member in the legions still, and there was no shortage of recruits among those of lower status, who were content to serve among the humble rank and file, as long as the army offered them a secure career with the prospect of citizenship at the end of it.

‘He was about that age, Father, wouldn’t you have thought?’ That was Junio again. ‘Just a little younger than I am, probably. Though without his face and features I suppose it’s hard to tell. We cannot see, for instance, if he had a beard at all.’ He stroked his own cheek, a bit self-consciously. There was the very faintest hint of down upon his upper lip. I knew that he was very proud of it.

Julia put her fig down and pushed the plate aside. ‘The thing is, Libertus, what are we to do? We’ve got the body of what looks like a well-to-do young man lying in our servants’ quarters with his face smashed in. We don’t know who he was, or who his family is — or even if he came from hereabouts. Meantime, we have a very important visitor in the house. Not only a patrician, with influence at court, but a relative of Marcus’s as well. You know that Lucius Julianus is a cousin, I presume?’

I hadn’t known, but on reflection I was not surprised. I was aware that Marcus had been born and raised in Rome and that his family was an ancient one — not only very wealthy but patrician too. Marcus joked that his mother, in particular, was inclined to look down on everyone, with the possible exception of the Emperor; his own wedding to Julia had been hurried through to prevent his parents from finding out and choosing him a bride more in keeping with what they thought suitable. Julia had been married twice before, and although she brought a handsome dowry she was from provincial stock. The alliance had met with huge disapproval from Marcus’s mamma, and there had been a flurry of reproving letters by every messenger. It occurred to me that this was a potential problem, even now, with their Roman trip in prospect. ‘On his mother’s side?’ I asked.

Julia gave me a glance that would have melted steel. ‘You understand, Libertus? Lucius Julianus will go back to Rome and tell the family what has happened here. Honoria — Marcus’s mother — will blame me, of course, because I had the servants bring the body here. I believe she blames me for every problem Marcus has — you know she has never forgiven him for marrying me at all. It won’t be the easiest of visits, anyway.’ She sighed. ‘I was hoping Marcellinus would help to win her round, but now I fear that that’s impossible.’

I was about to make some flattering remark about anyone who set eyes on her loving her instantly, but she waved the platitude impatiently aside.

‘You don’t know what Honoria Aurelia is like. She was always superstitious, and she’s getting worse, it seems, now that Marcus’s father isn’t very well. Sees everything as a deliberate sign that people are conspiring with the fates to engineer the family’s downfall all the time. According to Lucius she dismissed a slave last month — sold him for almost nothing in the marketplace — because he dropped a plate of food and did not make the proper sacrifice. Said he was deliberately defying all the gods and trying to bring ill-fortune to the house.’ She shook her head. ‘It was funny when he told us, but it isn’t funny now. Think what she will make of this — at the Lemuria, too!’

It was Stygius who shuffled forward, and muttered, with a bow, ‘Then — forgive me, lady — but does Lucius have to know? He and the master have been in court all day. The news will not have reached them. .’

He was interrupted by a dry, patrician voice. ‘And what news, pray, is that?’

We whirled round as one. Perhaps we had been too intent upon our figs and wine. Standing in the main entrance of the atrium, accompanied by his attendant bodyguard but somehow, till this moment, unobserved, was Lucius Julianus Catilius himself.

He strode across the atrium and — ignoring the rest of us as if we were not there — addressed a sketchy bow to Julia, who had risen in confusion to greet him. Junio and I had started to our feet.

‘Forgive me, lady, if I startled you.’ His cultured Latin was deliberately formal and precise. ‘Your husband will be here in just a little while. He went round with the horses — said he was going directly to the new wing of the villa to get changed — and suggested that I came in here to wait. I could not find anyone to announce that we’d arrived’ — here he allowed his eyes to dwell a fraction on the pageboy Niveus, as if to suggest that this should have been his job — ‘so I brought my bodyguard and came directly in. I hope you do not mind. I am a member of the family, after all.’ He gave her a small, condescending smile. ‘I did not expect to find anybody here.’

This was not entirely honest, I was sure. It must have taken considerable care to have entered the atrium quite so silently. I wondered how long he had been standing there, listening.

The same thought had clearly occurred to Julia. ‘Well, cousin, since you have clearly overheard us, there is no point in trying to disguise the truth from you. The fact is that there has been an unfortunate event.’ She had turned a charming crimson with embarrassment. ‘Something unpleasant has been discovered in the grounds — the worst kind of omen. My land slave was suggesting that you should be spared the worry of it, at least until we had contrived to make propitiation to the gods.’

Lucius gave a thin, tight smile. ‘I see. So Honoria Aurelia was right! She told me before I set off to visit you that she’d had a premonition that something ill-fated was likely to occur.’

Julia inclined her head. The colour had not faded from her cheeks. ‘I believe you mentioned it.’ Then — rather daringly for a married woman of her rank — she met his eyes, saying with a pretence at levity, ‘I imagine, cousin, that if one has premonitions of ill-fortune for long enough, sooner or later one will be fulfilled.’

Lucius had the grace to look discomfited at this sally. He gave a little laugh. ‘I see you have the measure of your mother-in-law, my dear. But you can rely on my help. What is the nature of this “unfortunate event”? Not a dead body, surely, at this time of year?’

It was apparently intended as a kind of mocking jest but the guess was so accurate it took us all aback. Julia said nothing. She did not need to speak. Her face had already told him the unhappy truth.

He was evidently more afraid of the Lemures than I would have guessed. He looked quite pale and shaken as he turned to Stygius. ‘This is the news that you were speaking of? The information that I didn’t have to share?’

The sudden question caught the land slave unaware. The tone had been intimidating, too — Lucius might have been talking to a dog — and Stygius was slow-thinking at the best of times. It took a little while before he faltered into speech. ‘Excellence, I meant no disrespect. The situation is an embarrassment for my master, that is all. And the mistress too, of course. We found a body dressed in peasant’s clothes, when we were clearing land. We brought it here for funeral. We don’t know who it is.’