Rosemary Rowe - A Coin for the Ferryman

Gwellia was looking more stricken all the time. ‘But why kill Pulchrus in the first place?’ she said helplessly. ‘Why try to take his place? It could only be to stop him doing what he was ordered to, but the message that Marcus sent to Londinium with him was delivered perfectly! Junio was telling me about it earlier.’

‘It was delivered, certainly,’ I said. ‘To the commander of the British fleet — who happens to be a relation of Lucius, in fact. We hear that Marcus is to be entertained there for a day or two, since the governor’s palace is not fit for guests. I wonder if the new governor is aware of that? And what will Marcus and Julia have to say when they discover that the arrangements for their trip are those that Lucius wanted them to make?’

‘I don’t know what His Excellence will say to that!’ I realised that the commander of the garrison had come in with Minimus, and was standing listening to all this at the door. ‘But I’m prepared to guess what he will say to you, if you dare to keep him waiting for a moment more.’

I have never moved so quickly as in getting to that feast. I travelled with the garrison commander in his gig, and — since we had blocked the farmer from passing in his cart, even after Maximus had helped him put the horse between the shafts — Junio and Gwellia followed us in that, with Niveus, while Minimus galloped on ahead to say that we were on our way. He had been sent to find me, it transpired, and from his agitated state I could imagine how irritated my host was going to be.

The new gatekeeper looked scandalised when I arrived so late. ‘They have already started, citizen — at least an hour ago. It’s a solemn memorial, as I told your slave. I’m not sure I should permit you to interrupt them now.’ He held up his torch to have a better look, and took in the presence of the military commander by my side. ‘But if it’s army business, I suppose you may go in.’

Minimus was waiting just inside the gate. ‘You’d better hurry, master,’ the redhead said as he hustled us towards the area where the feast was being held — a large space created by pushing back the screens between the triclinium and the adjacent rooms. It made a splendid banquet hall for formal feasts like this and tonight, with the funeral wreaths and flowers everywhere, it was an impressive sight.

The feast, when we entered, was clearly in full swing. The room was full of sober citizens, impressive in their togas or their syntheses . There were no women present — either they had left, or Julia was entertaining them in some other room — but the most important men in Glevum were all assembled here. Each wore a garland of dark petals and leaves round his head — a version of the dining wreath appropriate to tonight — and the tables were strewn with empty platters and hundreds of fresh flowers, which had been arranged in ribbons to decorate the board. The villa servants must have been working on the preparations for hours.

Lucius was holding forth as we came through the door — on his favourite subject of the Emperor — and the attention of the room was fixed on him. ‘He claims to have killed a thousand net-fighters in combat,’ he declaimed. ‘Ignore the traitorous rumours that he uses poison on his sword, and that some opponents are given imitation tridents which aren’t sharp enough to stab.’ He swallowed another gulp of Marcus’s wine. ‘No doubt such infamous gossip has reached you, even here?’

Marcus looked uncomfortable. It was hard to know if Lucius’s question was the result of drink, or an attempt to trap someone into indiscreet remarks for the benefit of a pair of listening ears — in which case the penalty might very well be death.

‘Caesar’s prowess in the ring is well known everywhere,’ my patron said, evading the moment skilfully. ‘I hear that he once transfixed an elephant?’ He signalled for the crater -bearer to fill the cups again, and as he looked up he saw me standing there. His face grew furious, but he raised his cup to me. ‘Libertus! So you have deigned to honour us? I was concerned lest some accident had befallen you. I could not believe that you would choose to come so late, when it is a question of honouring the dead.’

There was a deathly hush and all eyes were turned on me. I bowed my head. ‘Your pardon, Excellence. I meant no disrespect. Your orders for the provision of a carriage went astray. I have brought the commander of the garrison — he will vouch for me.’

Lucius looked scornful. ‘So not only is this man insolently late, he brings an uninvited guest with him! Such behaviour would never be tolerated in Rome.’

His intervention was quite fortunate. Marcus looked furious at this public slight, and forced a smile at me. ‘I’m sure the citizen has reason, as he says. Libertus, I think that you’ll find there is space for you somewhere on the couches in the corner of the room. There are only seven diners on the table over there. We were rather expecting your son to come as well. The servants will find some bread and meat for you — we were about to be entertained by Atalanta on the lyre, before we moved on to the sweeter course.’ He waved a hand towards the vacant places as he spoke. ‘Lucius was telling us about events in Rome.’

Once Marcus had accepted me the awkwardness passed. People were beginning to chatter among themselves again, and slaves were already appearing with a dining wreath, and a bowl of water to wash my hands and feet. The only sane thing was to take my place. But I looked at Lucius and said, in the clearest tones I possessed, ‘I would be more interested to hear him talk about what happened here.’

There was a gasp around the tables at this impertinence. ‘Libertus!’ Marcus was white with anger. ‘You forget yourself!’

‘But I remember Aulus. He was your gatekeeper. Poisoned in this very household while you were out today.’ I had fixed my eyes on Lucius and I stood my ground.

There was an awful silence. The diners held their breath. Even the crater -carrier was standing statue-still. Marcus was looking shaken.

‘Libertus,’ he said, with careful gentleness, ‘I know you are concerned. But all the wine this evening has been tasted by a slave. If the poisoner is waiting he cannot strike tonight. There is nothing in the house that I did not provide.’

‘Ask Lucius, patron. That isn’t quite the case.’

Lucius was frowning. He got slowly to his feet. ‘Cousin! I protest! This is preposterous! You know that I brought no provisions to the house — and certainly I haven’t ordered any since I have been here. You would have heard of it — the servants would have known.’

‘Just as they knew that you had been out to the gate and given fresh instructions to Pulchrus and your slave, the day that your luggage and the snake act went away? Because you must have done. Pulchrus would never have abandoned escorting the cart, and gone the steeper way to town, unless he had explicit orders to do so, and then he would have wanted to alert his master to the change of plan. And I think that is exactly what he did. I thought that you’d killed Aulus because he’d spoken to the girl, but I realise there were other reasons why he had to die. He saw you give fresh orders — he mentioned it to me. Said you were fussing around the luggage cart, changing your orders until the moment they left. You must have had a dreadful fright when you found out Aulus was a spy — and that I’d been asking questions about what he might have seen.’

I could feel the eyes of the whole room fixed on us, but Lucius managed to look simply pained. ‘Kill Aulus? This is monstrous, cousin. Have the man locked up. Something has obviously afflicted his brain. How could I kill Aulus? Especially poison him? All the provisions in the house are yours. You know I have brought nothing of that kind of my own.’