Rosemary Rowe - The vestal vanishes

For the first time I saw a flash of anger in her eyes. ‘Indeed I signed a contract. It is not a pleasant story. Sit down, citizen, and I will explain. We have no wine to offer, as we said before, but I think there is some apple-beer somewhere that Muta made last year from fermented windfalls. We had some yesterday when we got to the house.’

‘I will go and fetch it,’ Paulinus volunteered. ‘This story is better coming from my wife. I blurt things out too much — look at the trouble I’ve already caused!’ He got to his feet and went out in the direction of the ante-room.

But it was not his blurtings which detained me now. ‘Muta made the apple-beer?’ I said. ‘But I understood you only bought her yesterday?’

She came across and stood very close to me. ‘I thought better of your powers of deduction, citizen. Does Muta look like a brand-new servant in this house?’

Of course she didn’t, now I came to think of it. For one thing she had clearly won Paulina’s confidence, and learned to communicate in some way with the girl. I shook my head.

Secunda reached up to the shelf and fetched down three drinking bowls. ‘Besides,’ she went on, ‘who do you suppose accompanied Paulinus to the lodging-house before we others got there?’

‘That was Muta? But she doesn’t speak! And she walks so badly!’

‘That was an advantage, citizen. Paulinus had bought her a stola and a russet travelling-cloak, and of course she travelled in a hood and veil — as any matron with old-fashioned sensibilities might do. Anyone who saw her would remember just the cloak — it was an unusually fine colour dye of course — and the fact that the wearer was walking with a limp.’

‘But Trullius and Priscilla must have seen her face,’ I protested, and broke off. ‘But of course, I remember. She retired to rest and did not come again until you had arrived. To greet you with affection, as I understand.’

‘With affection,’ she allowed, ‘but not with words, at all. Paulinus did the talking, and Lavinia later on. No one expects a woman who is frail and tired to say very much.’ She picked up the water-pitcher as she spoke.

‘And then when you were dining she went back upstairs?’

She was pouring water into the little bowls and swilling them around to clean the dust from them. ‘Of course the poor thing could not eat with us. She would not have known the proper rituals. So Paulinus took her to the room, and later on she managed to share something with the nurse when they sent up a plate of bread and meat.’ She set the drinking-vessels upside down to dry. ‘And then next day she came to see me off, and that is when it happened.’

I remembered that Priscilla had remarked that Secunda had seemed to move more easily in the morning after she had slept and that up to then she had hardly said a word. ‘But how did you effect the substitution then? There were a lot of people in the court. You must have been observed.’

She shook her head. ‘I got into the raeda as myself, of course, and Paulinus and the nurse came crowding round as well. Muta was in her travelling cape again, but this time she did not have the stola underneath. I was wearing that under my mantle, tucked up in my belt. I got into the seat in front of everyone, ostensibly settling while they brought down the box. I made quite a fuss — sending for extra cushions for my back, and ordering the maidservant to sit up at the front and while everyone was occupied I put the shutters up. Of course the box was already largely shielding me from sight. Muta leaned right in the other side, as if to give me an embrace, and while Paulinus crowded round the back, slipped her cloak and veil off and handed them to me.’

‘Together with her wig?’ I said. ‘Priscilla said she had one.’

She nodded. ‘It assisted the disguise. And it was necessary for me afterwards, of course. My Vestal hairdo might have drawn remark, even underneath a cloak and veil. That left Muta in her tunic, looking like a slave, and that was the most dangerous moment of the whole affair. She does not move quickly and there were people in the court though she tried to choose a moment when they were occupied. The nursemaid tried to draw attention away from her as well, by waving at the window of Lavinia’s room — and it worked to an extent. The inn-slaves and the driver all looked up that way, but in fact Muta did not manage to get out unobserved. Priscilla glimpsed her from another room upstairs. Fortunately she took her for a goggling bystander.’

I nodded. ‘She even told me so. Shouted at her to go away and get outside the gate. That was fortunate!’

That earned a little smile. ‘Muta went, as fast as her poor legs would carry her, hurried into the forum and waited there for us. Meanwhile I slipped her cloak and veil on over mine and — now pretending that there was still someone in the coach — stepped out backwards and loudly said goodbye.’

‘Taking your jewel-case with you?’ I enquired.

‘I had already packed it in a leather bag which Muta gave me as I got into the coach. I stuffed the wig in too, and simply brought it out. It looked like an exchange of gifts if anyone observed. Then I joined Paulinus — remembering to limp — and together with the nurse we waved the raeda off. I’ve never been more thankful to see anything depart. We hurried to an alleyway where I put on the wig and buried my own white cloak inside Paulinus’s sack, then on to the slave-market where we arranged to hire the boy and met up with Muta. That was still a risk, since she had been spotted earlier, but we bought her a new tunic from the old-clothes stall and Priscilla never really looked at her again.’

‘And then Paulinus went and fetched the cart?’ I said.

She nodded. ‘He drove it to the lodging-house and paid the bill, then I waited in the cart with Muta while he went back upstairs for the famous travelling box. The nursemaid had packed it and he carried it downstairs. He did it on his own — it was heavy but he didn’t want the servants looking in, though I’d bought a rug to loosely cover up the child. I think you know the rest… But here he is! And not alone, I see.’

Paulinus indeed was entering the room, carrying a huge pail of something in both hands, while Modesta followed him uncertainly. Her thin face brightened at the sight of me.

‘Citizen, the shadow is long past the paving stone. Fiscus sent to ask if you were coming soon. We are already waiting, but we can’t get past the dog.’

We three citizens exchanged a glance at this, and I said quickly, ‘I will not be long. Paulinus has a message that he hopes to send, expressing his condolences to the Glevum house. When it is written I will join you in the barn.’

‘I’ll tell him, citizen.’ She bobbed her little curtsy and disappeared again.

Paulinus put down his heavy pail and stared at me. ‘You really do not mean to tell Lavinius all this?’

‘I will delay as long as possible,’ I said, ‘to give you a chance to get away to Gaul. But I really think that’s all that I can do for you. After all, Audelia is legally at fault. She broke a contractual vow. That is a serious criminal offence for anyone at all. For a Vestal Virgin, it’s unforgivable.’

Audelia herself was scooping apple-beer into the bowls. She set one in front of me, another one she gave to Paulinus, while the third one she took over to the shrine, and made a small oblation there with practised ease. If I had not known she was a Vestal up to then, that single skilful action would have alerted me.

She turned and signalled me to drink. ‘I broke no vow. Or not deliberately. In fact I kept the only one I made. I promised Paulinus months and months ago, when he and Paulina came to see me at the shrine, that when I retired I would marry him and provide my dowry to help him with the child. Of course I had known the family for many years — I remember him from when I was a child myself, and he and his wife made many sacrifices with me after that, asking for Vesta’s blessing on the home.’