Rosemary Rowe - The vestal vanishes

Paulinus nodded. ‘She lent me money once. I had applied to Lavinius for help but had been turned away.’

Audelia sighed. ‘After that my uncle came to see me at the shrine. He was my agent, as I think you know and managed my affairs in Glevum, so I trusted him. I taxed him with his lack of charity, saying that the goddess requires us to be kind to relatives, and telling him what I proposed to do. He deceived me, citizen. He came again and brought a document, which seemed to be agreeing to the match, and persuaded me to sign. It would save me from a hundred importunate suitors, so he said, and he would undertake to fund the wedding feast himself the very day that I returned to Glevum from the shrine. I did it willingly. The trap was in the name.’

I frowned. ‘I do not follow you.’

‘I undertook to marry one P. Atronius Marinus, my widowed kinsman — you know how these things are phrased in legal documents. I believed it was a promise to marry Paulinus — but it was a trick. My uncle had arranged a deal with Publius — a handsome sum if he could secure my hand — and he had no scruples about deceiving me. A single iron-nib stroke was all that it required to change the name to P. Atronius Martinus, which is what he did.’

I gulped. ‘If that could be produced in evidence Lavinius could be arraigned in court — fined or even exiled.’ I remembered my moment of disquiet at the gate when Paulinus came over and introduced himself. I must have registered the similarity of the names — though these things are not surprising within a Roman gens. ‘Tampering with a legal document is a serious offence.’

‘And how could I prove it, citizen? I would not have known till I arrived in Glevum and met Publius at the games. Of course the written contract was signed and sealed by me, and is — by that fact — a legal document. A refusal to honour it could be challenged in the court. With my uncle’s word against me, it would be exile for me, as well as losing everything I owned. Lavinius knew he could oblige me to submit. If I had protested they’d have fed me poppy-juice or even forced me into intercourse. After that my word would be no more than any other female’s and my uncle could have forced me to wed anyone he chose. Cyra heard them plotting.’

I gulped my apple-beer. ‘So that’s how you discovered that you’d promised the wrong man? Cyra wrote and told you?’

Paulinus nodded. ‘It was her gift to us, in return for asking us to help Lavinia. Her husband, of course, had no idea she was in touch with us and he was gloating — so she told me — about his cleverness.’

Audelia sipped her drink with all the elegance with which she did everything. ‘Publius had also promised to return a proportion of my dowry if I died and that, I think, was what alarmed her most. Publius had been married several times before, in Rome, and all of his other wives had died quite young, apparently of illness, but it made her think. It certainly made up my mind for me.’ She reached out and squeezed her husband’s hand. ‘One way or another I was bound to break my word. I chose to honour the contract that I meant to make. Do you really blame me for that, citizen?’

Of course I didn’t, and I told her so. ‘In fact,’ I said, ‘I think it would be wiser to take Publius’s advice, and forget everything I’ve learned about this whole affair. As far as he’s concerned his bride-to-be is dead and decently cremated. Lavinius may try to seek the so-called murderer, but since there’s no such person, he won’t have much success. Better to report Priscilla’s view of things — that it was either sorcery or the revenge of Druids. Or both.’

Paulinus looked at me as though he dared not trust his ears. ‘You mean that, citizen?’

‘I do.’ I’d drained the drinking bowl by now and I replaced it on the board. ‘Though there are two questions which remain unanswered in my mind. What happened to the contents of Audelia’s travelling box? You cannot simply have exchanged them with your own, because you had to put Lavinia into that.’

Paulinus laughed. ‘That was very simple, citizen. We put most of it into the sack that I took to town with me. It was mostly jewels and gold in any case, of course, and later it had the Vestal cloak in it. When we picked the cart up, we put the sack on it. The lighter items of the dowry — such as lengths of silk — I rolled up in the rug and put on top of Lavinia in the box before we left.’

‘Oh, and of course I had my jewel-box with me from the coach, having loudly announced that I was giving Secunda several rings,’ his wife put in.

I nodded. Priscilla had already hinted this. ‘And when you arrived here you dyed the Vestal clothes — I presume that is what is hanging on the bushes now?’

‘Exactly, citizen.’ That was Audelia. ‘We are not so wealthy that we can afford to waste good clothing of that quality. And the other question?’

‘Was it not against your vows to tell the other lie — that you were going into the forum to buy a pair of slaves. Yet, Priscilla tells me that is what you said.’

Secunda’s lovely lips curled in a gentle smile. ‘Citizen, I took a vow that I would never lie. I did not swear that I would not choose words which might disguise the truth. We worked out very carefully what we were going to say — that we were going to the forum to collect two slaves. And that, of course, is exactly what we did.’

I put my bowl down. ‘Then I think that’s all. If you would care to write that letter.’ I fished into my belt. ‘I actually have a writing-tablet here that you can use. It’s a letter from Publius under seal promising to pay my expenses in the town.’

‘Then you must certainly keep that, citizen.’ Secunda put her own bowl on the board as well. ‘Otherwise you might find it hard to hold him to his word. We have bark-paper here, and lamp-black ink, as I think you are aware. Paulinus will write something and you can take it back — saying that he’s saddened to have heard the news and that he’s about to leave for Gaul and take Paulina to the healing shrine.’ She smiled. ‘And there’s no lie in that, either, citizen. When we heard the news about the nursemaid we were very sad indeed.’

Her husband nodded and went out towards the porch. I heard him moving in another room.

‘Lavinius will not guess that you have married Paulinus instead?’ I ventured.

‘He could hardly say so, citizen, even if he did. Especially when there is supposed to be a corpse. That would be admitting to his own perfidy. And he can scarcely follow us to Gaul. Besides, he’ll hear from the lodging-house that Paulinus had a wife before I disappeared. I think we’re safe enough.’

I fought down an unexpected wave of jealousy. ‘Then I hope you will be happy. I am glad to be of use.’

She gave me the most brilliant smile that I have ever seen. ‘And there is another thing that you can do for me. I promised the horseman that he should have a ring, in recompense for all his extra work on my behalf. If I go and get it, will you see it reaches him? I was there — you can tell him — and I heard the promise made and I wished it honoured. Will you do that for me?’

‘I would be delighted,’ I said, truthfully, and she went away to get it. That left me quite alone, and that was how Modesta found me a moment afterwards.

‘I didn’t know if I should come in the house or not. Nobody seemed to answer when I tapped the door? Are you coming, citizen? Fiscus is alarmed. He thinks that we are going to get to Glevum very late.’

I was about to answer when the householders appeared and thrust a bark-letter and a small parcel in my hands. ‘That concludes our business, I believe. The citizen is ready to accompany you now.’ Paulinus gave the smile that transformed his face. ‘I myself will come and see you past the dog.’ He led the way outside.