Ruth Downie - Ruso and the Root of All Evils

‘I see,’ said the steward. He was standing with his back to the door and his arms folded. His voice was thin and sharp, the voice of a man who was used to overseeing staff and knew all the tricks they got up to.

Ruso could guess what the steward thought he saw, but any attempt to put the man straight was only going to upset the girl further. It seemed she had felt genuine affection for the charmless Severus.

‘He wasn’t wearing that when he left the house,’ observed the steward, frowning at the crisp white linen that still bore the creases of being folded away in the cupboard, and now also the marks of Ennia’s tears.

Ennia looked up, shoved her tumbled curls behind one ear and revealed a face blotched from weeping. ‘Why do you care what he is wearing?’ she demanded. ‘My brother is dead, Zosimus, look! Have you no respect?’

The steward coughed and apologized. Lucius stepped across and murmured something in the man’s ear while Ennia laid her head back down on her brother’s chest and cried, ‘Oh, Brother, what will I do here without you? Severus, don’t leave me! Please, Brother! Who will take me back to Rome now?’

Ruso cleared his throat. He felt it was up to him to say something, although there was nothing he could think of that would be helpful, and he did not want to contradict whatever Lucius had just told the steward. Finally he said, ‘If you’d like to be alone …’

‘No thank you,’ said Zosimus, answering for both of them. ‘We just want to get him home and have our own doctor take a look.’

‘Of course,’ agreed Ruso. ‘I’ll be glad to talk it over with him.’

Lucius shot him a warning look. He ignored it. Severus’ last words echoed through his thoughts: the bitch has poisoned me .

The silence was broken by a soft knock on the door. Zosimus slid aside, and Cass entered the room. Without asking, she kneeled beside the girl and put an arm around her, murmuring something and passing her a cloth to wipe her nose. For a few moments there was no sound but the trill of the cicadas and the occasional sniff from Ennia. Then Cass whispered something else. Ennia smoothed her brother’s cropped hair and got to her feet.

‘I am sorry,’ she said to Cass. ‘You must think me very weak.’

‘No,’ said Cass. ‘I think you show love and respect for your brother.’

‘I would like to take him home now.’

‘Why don’t we wait by the carriage, and the men will bring him out to us?’ suggested Cass gently.

Ruso was aware of Lucius watching his wife escort Ennia out of the room.

Zosimus immediately followed Ennia into the corridor as if he did not want to entrust her to any of Ruso’s family.

When they were gone Ruso pushed the door shut and hissed, ‘What did you say to that steward?’

‘Nothing. Only that Severus had been violently ill, and we didn’t want the family to see him in that state.’

‘Just let me do the talking, will you?’

‘You? You’ve already made them suspicious! What was that rubbish about not kissing him?’

Ruso said, ‘What was I supposed to do, watch her get poisoned too?’

Lucius clamped his hands over his balding head and leaned back against the wall. ‘As if we didn’t have enough trouble with him before.’

‘The irony is,’ said Ruso, reaching down to replace the sheet over their dead visitor, ‘we were on the verge of doing a deal to drop the court case.’

Lucius scowled. ‘Don’t try to be clever, Gaius. Nobody’s going to believe that.’

‘I know. Even though it’s true. Have we got anything that’ll do for a stretcher?’

The whole Petreius family lined up by the gates to watch the carriage pull away, with each of the children strategically placed between adults to minimize opportunities for fighting.

As the rumble of the wheels faded and Arria was saying something about upsetting Cook by cancelling tonight’s dinner, one of the nieces cried, ‘Uncle Gaius, there’s your barbarian!’

Ruso shielded his eyes and squinted at the bareheaded figure in yellow making its way along the main road. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said. ‘She’s in town with the — ’ He stopped. ‘Oh, hell. Does anybody know what time it is?’

‘I’ll go and look!’ offered one of the nephews. ‘I know how to tell the time!’

‘No, you don’t!’ retorted a niece.

‘Yes, I do!’

‘He doesn’t, Uncle Gaius. He can’t read the numbers: he just looks at the shadow and makes it up.’

‘I do not!’

‘Why don’t you both go?’ suggested Cass, grabbing a child in each hand. ‘I’ll come with you.’

As their protests faded towards the far end of the garden, the carriage bearing Severus on his last journey home turned left on to the main road and swept past the walking figure. The figure hesitated at the junction. Then it turned and began to tramp down the track towards them.

‘It is your barbarian, Uncle Gaius,’ insisted a small voice.

‘Yes,’ agreed Ruso, adjusting his grip on the stick and setting off to meet her.

‘But what’s she doing here, Gaius?’ Arria’s voice floated after him, rising in alarm as he retreated. ‘Where are my girls?’

Tilla was moving along the track with small, deliberate steps, watching her feet as if she could not trust them to obey her. As she drew closer she stumbled. He called out to her. One hand rose to flap a faint response. Cursing his lame foot, he lurched towards her in the nearest thing he could manage to a run.

‘Tilla, what’s happened?’ He offered an arm for her to lean on. ‘You look terrible.’

When she lifted her head her face was white. ‘My lord, I lost your sisters.’

It was not only the weariness in her voice that told him she was almost at the end of her strength. He could not remember the last time she had called him ‘my lord’. He said, ‘You look dreadful. Has something happened?’

‘Are your sisters here?’

‘No.’ He interrupted her cry of despair with: ‘This is my fault. We had a crisis here and I forgot to send the cart. Have you walked all the way? Where’s your hat?’

She paused before replying, as if she was assessing whether it was worth using the energy. Finally she said, ‘The hat is lost too. My head is aching. I am sorry.’

He wanted to carry her. Instead he had to ask, ‘Can you make it to the house?’

‘Yes.’

Arria was hurrying towards them, calling, ‘Where are my girls? Gaius? Make her tell us what she’s done with them!’

‘Lost,’ Tilla whispered, ‘in the shop with the jewels. I turn around, they are gone. I look for them, then I go to the gate of Augustus, but it is past the seventh hour, and nobody is there. I think they are gone without me. But now they are not here.’

‘Gaius? Gaius! What’s she saying?’

‘She needs water, quickly. She’s exhausted.’

‘But where are my girls? I should never have let them persuade me to trust her!’

‘I forgot to send the cart,’ he explained, deciding half the truth would be enough for now. ‘Tilla’s walked all the way home in this heat to fetch it. She needs plenty of water to drink, and tell Cook I want a jug of vinegar and a mixing bowl.’

Arria bent to peer up into Tilla’s white face. ‘Oh dear. This one’s not going to die as well, is she?’

‘Of course not,’ Ruso assured her, stifling a momentary panic at the memory of being unable to help Severus. ‘I know what I’m treating this time.’

Tilla was propped up on his pillows, wearing nothing but a cool sheet to preserve her dignity and a cold compress on her forehead. ‘Drink some more,’ he ordered, putting the cup in her hand and turning back to carry on pounding unguent of roses into a measure of vinegar.