Rosemary Rowe - The vestal vanishes

I nodded. ‘So your raedarius was to bring the bride back here? Or rather to Glevum to meet up with Publius?’

She nodded. ‘That was the disadvantage of the scheme. Being a hired raeda, and not the Vestal coach, it could not enter the town in daylight hours. But Audelia consented very willingly — this was all arranged before she left the shrine — and she arranged to meet Publius at the games. My husband thought it would create a pretty little spectacle to crown the day. She would make a public entrance there — they always have a symbolic seat for Vestals anyway — and Publius would announce the nuptials to the crowd. Then the raeda could bring them both back here to solemnize the wedding before our banquet guests, and we would pay the raedarius his dues.’

‘A handsome fee?’ I queried. I was a little doubtful of this raedarius.

Cyra clearly shared my thoughts. ‘We would have paid him well. It was not a very complicated task we asked of him, but he seems to have failed to look after my niece or her possessions either. Worse that that. My chief slave believes the fellow had been plotting for this all along — hoping to receive a portion of the ransom, he suggests. I’m bound to say he’s half-persuaded me. Who else would know the value of his passenger? This can’t be an accident. The deepest dungeon in the jail is too good for men like that. I don’t know why Publius did not send for the town-guard and have the fellow arrested and locked up in the town.’

‘I gather this happened at the public gate, where there would be dozens of people looking on. Possibly Publius hoped to be discreet.’ I wondered suddenly whose suggestion that had been.

‘Discreet! It could hardly have been less discreet, from what I hear of it. The raedarius was bellowing to everyone around, swearing by all the gods that he was innocent, and didn’t know that she was missing till he was at Glevum gates.’

I bit the grape I’d selected. It was particularly sour and I began to wish I had a little wine to gulp. ‘So how did the raedarius get here from the town? I presume he did not drive?’ I managed to say through teeth that had been set on edge.

She shook her head. ‘He came here in our gig. It was waiting at the gates to bring Lavinius home — he is too old to walk from Glevum now — and apparently Publius saw it and recognized the slave-boy who was driving it. He had already travelled in the gig the other evening when he came here to dine, and of course the gig-slave knew Publius by sight. So, when the patrician told him to tie the raedarius up and bring him here, the boy obeyed at once.’

‘Tie him up? With what?’

‘With his own tunic-belt, I understand. He had to gag the captive and bind his feet, he said, otherwise the fellow would have jumped out of the gig. But talk to the raedarius yourself. Modesta will take you when you have finished those.’ She gestured to the grapes.

I needed no encouragement to desist from eating more. I put down the remainder of the bunch and got quickly to my feet. ‘Madam, I will go to him at once, and not detain you further. You have been most helpful. Thank you for your patience — if you still intend to have a banquet here tonight you must have much to see to in the house.’

Cyra extended her ringed hand to me again. ‘Then I will leave you to your questioning, and see if there’s a message from my husband yet. I sent him a letter asking what I am to do about the preparations for the feast. I hope I get some sort of answer very soon. I’d better send the gig back to wait for him, I suppose.’ And still frowning, she stalked out of the room, with her personal attendant trailing after her. Fiscus, who was still positioned at the door, peered in to see if he was wanted now.

‘Come with me, citizen.’ Modesta beamed at me. She seemed to regard me as her personal charge. ‘I will attend you. Your servant can wait here. I’ll come back for the tray.’

I had no trouble in accepting that, and motioned to Fiscus to stay where he was, to his evident dismay. Meanwhile the slave-girl led the way across the atrium again; it was looking very handsome, now the garlands were in place and all the lamps were lit, though slaves were still burnishing the bronze statues as we passed. Watched by a dozen curious pairs of eyes, we went out to the courtyard, round the colonnaded walk and out through the back gate into the stable-yard.

When we were safely out of sight and sound of everyone, Modesta turned to me and whispered, confidentially, ‘I hope that fruit was not too horrible, I’m sure it tasted sharp, but the chief slave said the best was wanted for the feast.’

I was emboldened by the little confidence. I answered with a smile. ‘It is of no account. But there is one thing that slightly troubles me. If your master has a private gig to use, why did he hire a raeda to take his daughter yesterday? Would it not have been far safer to have used his own?’

She giggled, clapping a skinny hand across her mouth. ‘Oh, citizen, you haven’t seen the private gig. No more than an open carriage, with a single wooden seat — apart from the driver — and it has no roof. They could never have sent Lavinia all the way in that, much less expect a Vestal Virgin to ride home in it! Supposing it had rained? It would have made a public spectacle of her. In any case, there was too much luggage to get into the gig and — of course — there was Lavinia’s nursemaid travelling with her too.’

‘She did not have a manservant to guard her on her way?’

She grinned at me. ‘She will have one from tomorrow, when the pontifex arrives. As to yesterday, my master chose this carriage driver most especially, because he was particularly young and strong and could protect them if he needed to. Fierce-looking too — or so the mistress said. She didn’t like him from the start. She’s had him shut in there.’

She crossed to a long low building which was clearly the sleeping-quarters of the slaves. I half-expected her to go inside, but she passed the door and made for a smaller outbuilding nearby, with a row of stout doors along the length of it.

Outside the last door she stopped and looked at me. ‘He’s in here, citizen. I’ll undo the bolt.’

The room revealed was a sort of storage area, with not even a window-space of any kind — nothing but bare walls, rows of heaped-up bulging sacks, and a floor of trodden earth from where a youngish man was blinking up at me, clearly blinded by the sudden light. He was lying rather awkwardly on his left-hand side, on a narrow strip of floor between the nearest piles of sacks. His hands were tied behind him and his feet were fettered to a stout iron loop that was set into the wall.

I took a step towards him and he tried to lift his head, but fell back with a groan. I saw that the rope which bound his arms was also tethered to the ankle-chain, so that he could not move or ease a single limb without experiencing agony. The shoulders of his tunic were stained with stripes of blood. Someone had whipped him savagely, by the look of it.

‘What do you want? And what are you doing here? You’re not Lavinius.’ His voice was weak with pain, but he was sullen too. ‘Have you come to torment me a bit more?’

I was aware of Modesta, behind me, craning to look in. I gestured her to stand a little further off and moved to squat down on a lumpy sack where he could see my face. Inside, the room was dank and smelt strongly of something old and vegetal: overripe turnips or damp nuts, perhaps.

‘I’ve come to ask about your missing passenger. She was a Vestal Virgin, as of course you know, and a most important person. Far more important than either you or me — you cannot expect her relatives to simply let it pass.’