Rosemary Rowe - Requiem for a Slave

I was about to protest my innocence, but Scowler already had his sword-point at my throat. ‘And when exactly did this incident occur?’ He did not look at Quintus, but kept on watching me as though I might somehow be tempted to make a dash for it.

Quintus leaned back in his litter, clearly satisfied, and made a vague gesture with his seal-ring hand. ‘Oh, just a little while before the ordo vote was held. I had just heard the bugle-call to tell us to convene. This fellow approached me at the door of my own home and threatened me with violence. Pushed me against a doorpost and banged my head on it. Hyperius saw it all. And even then he followed me to the basilica, shouting that I had his slave in custody, which I certainly did not! Crowds of people were witnesses to that.’ He favoured Scowler’s colleague with a winning smile. ‘And, of course, at that time I thought he’d committed the murders at his house. I didn’t know that Virilis had confessed to them. I simply knew that this man was violent, and guilty, at the very least, of iniuria atrox against a magistrate. I was planning to drag him before the justices. I was trying to arrest him when you came along.’

I had to acknowledge his ingenuity. The way he told the story, it did sound plausible, and no one was going to take my word against that of the chief official in the town curia. I would find it difficult to prove my innocence, especially if Hyperius was prepared to testify. Moreover, given that he’d made a proper charge, I was likely to be taken into custody for this, probably by the decurion himself — in which case some unpleasant accident was almost certain to befall me before I came to trial. And Virilis was getting ever closer to Marcus all this time. I could feel the cold sweat running down my back.

But Scowler had lowered his sword-point and stepped back suddenly. ‘I think you’ve misremembered, decurion,’ he said, putting his weapon carefully in its sheath again. ‘This couldn’t have happened at the time you claim. A moment after the ordo bugle blew, I was talking to this citizen myself. He was here at the gatehouse and there are witnesses. Your apartment, as I understand, is on the further side of town. He could never have got there in the interval.’

Quintus was glowering, but still irascible. ‘Then it was earlier in the day. Hyperius would know. I was so shaken that I can’t recall.’

‘But,’ Scowler said slowly, ‘he’d just come into town. I watched him through the gate. And — before you say anything else you might regret — I happen to know there was a bulla ceremony at his home today that didn’t end till almost noon. I heard that from the high priest who conducted it. It would not be difficult to prove it, I presume.’

There was a silence. Quintus had turned pink. ‘I still say he assaulted me. It doesn’t matter when. Perhaps I got the day wrong. I want him brought to trial. . if only for appearing in the forum in improper dress. There are certainly dozens of witnesses to that.’

I saw an opportunity and seized it instantly. ‘Then, soldier, you had better take me under escort to the garrison yourself. Put me under charge. I’ll appeal to the commander. I believe I have that right, and I would like to speak to him as soon as possible. I have some information he’ll be interested to hear.’

Quintus seemed ready to leap out of the litter and lay hands on me, but the presence of Scowler and his fellow soldier prevented this, of course.

‘I’ll make you pay for this,’ he muttered, as he pulled the curtains to. ‘I’ll find a way to prove you guilty, don’t imagine otherwise. And don’t suppose you’ll ever see your little slave again — I’ll make quite sure you don’t. Slaves, pick up the litter and take me quickly home. At the double or I will have you flogged.’

The litter jolted off. Scowler stood beside me as it vanished out of sight, with stout Hyperius panting after it. ‘I’ll have to arrest you, citizen,’ he said when it had gone. ‘I could have argued otherwise, but you agreed to it.’

I nodded. ‘Don’t worry about that,’ I said. ‘You may have saved my life. If I’d been forced into that litter, I doubt I would ever have got out of it alive. And I wanted to go to the garrison anyway. I meant what I said. I must talk to the commander as soon as possible. It’s vital that I do. We’ve lost too much time already, and there are lives at stake.’

Scowler pulled out his swagger-stick and scratched his head with it. ‘What’s all this about? Did that Virilis fellow really kill those men?’

‘I’m afraid so. He thought that they were me. That’s why he put them in my workshop afterwards. He took a lot of pains to put them there, too. That poor old turnip-seller you heard me talk about just now must have been carried halfway through the town, draped across his saddle in the growing dusk, wrapped in those hangings from the curia. The gatekeeper on duty when Radixrapum disappeared told me that there was nobody in sight, except an ox-cart — and a young man carrying a roll of something on his horse! That was Virilis, of course — that tallies with something that the market-trader said. I even saw the marks of the pommels on the corpse, though at the time I didn’t realize what they were.’

Scowler took his helmet and plonked it on his head. ‘I still don’t understand. Why has that decurion got it in for you?’

I shook my head. ‘There’s no time to explain. Take me to the garrison — and, Junio, you take a carrying litter and go, as fast as possible, to Pedronius’s country house. Get the youngest, strongest bearers you can find, and never mind the cost. I’ll see that they are paid.’

My son was boggling at me. ‘But I promised not to leave you!’

‘I’ll have an armed and armoured escort,’ I reminded him. ‘Being under guard has some advantages.’

Junio nodded. ‘So when I reach the villa, what am I to do? You don’t just want me to finish off the pavement, I presume.’

I shook my head and smiled. ‘You can tell the gatekeeper that it’s what you came for, if you like. That should ensure that he will let you in. Then find the steward and ask for Minimus. I think you’ll find he’s got him locked up somewhere in the place.’

‘What makes you think so? Something Quintus said?’ Junio was still havering. ‘And isn’t he intending to go out there himself? He said he was going to.’

‘Exactly so,’ I said. ‘Which is what makes me suppose that Minimus is there. That, and thinking through what happened yesterday. Though I can’t explain it now.’

‘Just a minute, citizen!’ That was Scowler now. ‘I have a vested interest in all this — you owe me a half-denarius if you find that slave today. So answer his question. Why do you think he’s there?’

I was impatient to be taken to the garrison, but one cannot argue with a sword. ‘Well,’ I said reluctantly, ‘I was called out to the villa on a false pretence: one of the garden slaves appeared and asked for someone to come out to the site. At the time I didn’t question it — I’d seen the boy before — so I hurried over, but Pedronius wasn’t there. I thought nothing of it — it happens all the time — but, on reflection, I don’t think it was chance. Normally, Junio, you would have been with me in the workshop too. So if there was a summons to do something to the site, and I was expecting an important customer, what would anyone suppose that I would do?’

‘Send me to do it,’ Junio replied. ‘But I was buying provisions for the bulla feast that day.’

‘Which Quintus — who would not dream of buying things himself — had not allowed for in his plans.’

‘That would have left you with Minimus all the same.’ Scowler observed, earning his name again.