Lindsey Davis - A dying light in Corduba

We were going to be pals, that was obvious. Quadratus was accustomed to being friendly with everyone, apparently. Or maybe his father had warned him I was dangerous and should be disarmed if possible.

The night air was cool and perfect, barely touched by the scent of the torches which flickered on the terraces below. Occasional shrieks reached us from crude horseplay among the adolescents. We sat on the marble balustrade, leaning against pillars, and drank Baetican white and the fresh air in equal measure.

'So, Falco – Baetica must be a change from Rome?'

'I wish I had more time to enjoy it.' There is nothing like a fake polite chat to bring on my apoplectic tic. 'My wife's expecting. I promised to take her home for the birth.'

'Your wife? She's the sister of Camillus Aelianus, isn't she? I didn't know you were actually married.'

'There's a theory that marriage consists of the decision by two people to live as man and wife.'

'Oh, is there?' His reaction was innocent. As I expected, he had been educated by the best tutors – and he knew nothing. He'd be a magistrate one day, laying down laws he had never heard of to people whose lives in the real world he would never understand. That's Rome. City of glorious tradition – including the one that if the landed elite can bugger up the little man, they will.

'Ask any barrister.' I could be pleasant too. I grinned at him. 'Helena and I are conducting an experiment to see how long it takes the rest of Rome to admit the fine theory holds good.'

'You're very courageous! So will your child be illegitimate?' He wasn't carping, just curious.

'I had assumed so – until it struck me that if we regard ourselves as married, how can it be? I'm a free citizen and I'll register it proudly.'

Quinctius Quadratus whistled quietly. After a while he said, 'Aelianus was a good lad. One of our set. The best.' 'Bit of a lively character?'

Quadratus chuckled. 'He lost his rag over you!'

'I know.'

'He'll be all right when he finds his feet.'

'Good to hear.' Young men with weak spots are always keen to assess others. The quaestor's patronising tone almost made me defend Aelianus. Lad about town?' I suggested, hoping for dirt.

'Not as much as he liked to think.'

'A bit immature?'

'Cock shy.'

'That won't last!'

We poured more wine.

'The trouble with Aelianus,' the quaestor confided dismissively, 'is he can't judge his length. The family's poor as Hades. He's aiming for the Senate with absolutely no collateral. He needs to make a rich alliance. We tried to set him up with Claudia Rufina!

'No good?' I prompted neutrally.

'He wanted more. His idea was Aelia Annaea. I ask you!' 'Too old for him, presumably?'

'Too old, too sharp, too aware of what she's got.' 'And what's that?'

'A quarter of her papa's estate when he passes on – plus the whole of her husband's property.'

'I knew she was widowed.'

'Better than that. She had the good taste to be widowed by a man with no close family. There were no children and no co-heirs. He left her everything.'

'Wonderful! How much was "everything"?'

'A whopping tract of land – and a small gold mine at Hispalis.'

'She seems a nice girl!' I commented, and we laughed.

'The Annaeus lads look like a boisterous bunch.'

'Just the job,' cackled Quadratus. He libelled his friends without a second thought: 'Thick as curd cheese, aud just as rich!'

That seemed to sum up Spunky, Dotty and Ferret well enough for my purposes.

'What's your reaction to young Rufius?' I asked, hoping that his prot at least would attract some approval. 'Oh, Jupiter, what a waste!'

'How's that?'

'Haven't you noticed? All that energy being squandered on making him something, but he's just not up to it. There's some decent cash in the family, but Constans is never going to use it properly.' He defined everything in monetary terms. It grew wearisome for a man like me, with virtually nothing in the bank.

'You don't think he will be the success his grandfather wants? Won't he make it to Rome?'

'Oh, he can be bumped into the posts, of course. Licinius Rufius can afford to get him whatever he wants. But Constans will never enjoy it. He doesn't command much attention here, and the sharks in Rome will swallow him. He can't take Grandpa along to give him authority.'

'He's young. He could grow into it.'

'He's just a raw Spanish ham that's not been smoked enough. I try,' Quadratus declared. 'I show him a thing or two when I can.'

'I expect he looks up to you.'

A sudden grin split the handsome face. I had disturbed the smooth, bland, utterly plausible exterior and the result was a shock. 'Now you're pissing yourself laughing at me!' He said it without malice. His candour in discussing his friends had had a tone I didn't care for, but he knew how and when to turn the conversation. He seemed modest now. People were right to compliment his charm.

'Someone told me, Quadratus, you were about to exchange contracts with the Rufius girl yourself?'

He gave me a level stare. 'I couldn't comment. My father will make any marriage announcement in due course.' 'Not ready yet?'

'You have to get it right.'

'Oh yes; it's an important decision for anyone.'

'There are personal issues – and I must think of my career.'

I had guessed correctly. He would never be paired off in Baetica.

'Tell me about yourself, Falco.'

'Oh, I'm nobody.'

'Bull's testicles!' he said crudely. 'That's not what I heard.'

'Why, what have you heard?'

'You're a political drain-cleaner. You do missions for the Emperor. There's some rumour about you sorting a problem in the British silver mines.' I said nothing. My work in Britain was known only to a very close circle. It was highly sensitive. Records of the mission had been burned, and however important the quaestor's father thought himself in Rome, Attractus ought not to have known about it. If he really did, that would alarm the Emperor.

My experience in the mines at Vebiodunum, disguised as a slave, was one I never talked about. Dirt, vermin, beatings, starvation, exhaustion, the filthy overseer whose kindest punishment was to strangle the culprit while his only notion of reward was an hour of enforced buggery… My face must have changed. Quadratus was unobservant, however.

My silence did not make him stop to think. It merely offered another opportunity to show off what somebody had told him. 'Don't you specialise in mineral rights, Falco? I thought you looked keen when I mentioned Aelia Annaea's legacy. You're in the right province. There's iron, silver, copper and gold in huge quantities. A lot of it's at Corduba – I have to know all this stuff for my work,' he explained.

'The an Marianum,' I answered steadily. 'That's the famous copper mine at Corduba that produces the fine ore for all Roman bronze coins. Tiberius wanted to bring it under state control. He had the millionaire who owned it, Sextus Marius, thrown off the Tarpeian Rock on the Capitol.'

'How come?'

'Accused of incest.'

'That's disgusting.'

'It was a trumped-up charge.' I smiled. I nearly added that nothing changes – but the dumb optimist in me hoped that with Vespasian's arrival it might have done.

'You amaze me, knowing all that, Falco!'

'I collect information.'

'For professional reasons?'

'I'm an informer. Stories are the material of my trade.'

'I'll have to be careful, then,' Quadratus grinned. 'My father's on the Senate committee that runs the mint mines.'

That gave me an unpleasant feeling: Quinctius Attractus trying to dabble one more sticky finger in Baetica. Fortunately there was an imperial procurator actually in charge of the aes Marianum mine. He would be an equestrian, a career official whose only concern would be doing the job right for his own sake. The other side of government: and not even the Quinctii could interfere with that.