Lynne Banks - Tiger, Tiger

*

Aurelia’s mother and father came to visit her several days after Boots’s first appearance.

It was unusual for the Emperor and Empress to visit their daughter together. The Emperor was an intensely busy man and had all too little time for his youngest child (Aurelia had two older brothers, already away in the army). But that didn’t mean he was not devoted to her. Aurelia was the decoration on his life, his sweet reward after the essential sons, both troublesome and hard to love. He was conscious of his duty towards her now she was nearing womanhood, but left the details to his wife.

Except that now he had sent his child a daring and extraordinary present, which his wife fiercely opposed.

‘Are you mad, Septimus?’ she had railed. ‘A wild animal! Supposing it hurts her!’

‘I have given orders. It won’t hurt her.’

‘But why? Why take the slightest risk?’

She’d stood before him, her fists clenched, her face pale. This youngest child was the dearest of all to her, after two sons whom she had never been allowed to be close to. The Emperor drew her down beside him and unlocked her fingers.

‘Our daughter is as much the child of Caesar as her brothers. She too must be brave and proud. Would you have her play tamely with caged birds and goldfish for ever? She must show her mettle. She’ll teach the tiger to be gentle, and he will teach her to be strong.’

She stared at him. She knew what was in his mind. He was already imagining Aurelia going about the city in her carriage with a tiger at her side, her hand on its head, the people gazing at her in awe. ‘See! Caesar’s daughter rides with a tiger and is not afraid!’

For several days Caesar had let his thoughts stray to Aurelia more than usual. How had she received his gift? It was even possible that she might reject it. She had a will of her own. Besides, many young girls would be afraid of having a wild beast for a pet. He needed to know that his daughter had responded to the challenge as he wished her to.

When he heard that she had objected to the drawing of the animal’s claws, he tasted uncertainty, even alarm. But the animal-keeper had the solution. Leather pouches that would enclose the cub’s feet and keep his child safe. Better! Much better. He sent a purse of coins to the slave as a reward for his initiative.

Now he stayed away from the Senate for an hour to accompany his wife on her regular morning visit to their daughter and her new companion. They were accompanied by a middle-aged woman who had been Aurelia’s nurse when she was younger, and who now lived in retirement in the palace and assumed privileges that no one had given her. She was entirely on the Empress’s side.

‘It’s not right, Your Honour, not right at all! How can it be right to give a young girl a wild beast as a pet? The gods made wild animals to be rugs and wall hangings , not playmates!’

Caesar didn’t bother answering her. The woman had been a palace fixture since she’d been engaged as a wet nurse when Aurelia was born, and she had been interfering and even criticising ever since. He hardly heard her prattle any more. He was looking eagerly ahead of him as they entered the courtyard.

There they were, already frolicking together. The cub in his leather protectors was crouched in the sunlight, his striped fur glowing boldly, his head on his stretched-out front paws, his hindquarters raised and shifting to and fro, watching intently while the girl drew a string with a tuft of cloth on its end across the floor. His haunches quivered twice – then he pounced. She jerked the lure away just in time. The cub crouched, quivered, pounced again, and this time he got his muffled front paws on the thing and a moment later, had bitten it off its string and was flinging it in the air.

A young man stood in the shadow of an overhanging roof. His eyes never left the cub.

‘Who is that boy?’ asked the nurse.

‘The keeper, of course.’

‘Did Your Honour give permission for him to be alone with my young lady?’ she asked sharply.

‘Yes, yes,’ he said irritably. ‘Why not? She must have someone with her until we are sure the creature is tame. In any case, all her servants are close at hand.’

This wasn’t entirely true. Aurelia’s personal staff – chiefly female – were in hiding. They were frightened of Boots, even if Aurelia wasn’t. In the event of a mishap they would have been quite useless. The Empress, suddenly alerted by the nurse’s questions, guessed that.

‘I want there to be guards. Not just that boy. Older men, with weapons.’

He hesitated. He was watching with satisfaction and pride the fearless way the princess was now chasing the cub, trying to wrest the toy back from him. She held it boldly in both hands, close to his mouth, and tugged it while the cub growled playfully and braced his big, covered feet.

‘Whatever you wish, my love. Give what orders you think fit. Of course we should take no chances.’

‘Of any sort,’ murmured the nurse, her eyes on the young keeper’s well-muscled torso and handsome, bronzed face.

Caesar walked out of the shadows into the sunlight. Aurelia saw him and ran to him. The moment her back was turned to the cub he began to stalk her. The young keeper instantly leapt forward to put his hand restrainingly on the cub’s neck.

‘Pata! Thank you! He is wonderful. I love him so much!’

‘And you’re not afraid of him?’

‘Not a bit!’ She turned in his arms. ‘Oh, do look at him, how sweet he is! And I’ve named him Boots. What do you think of that?’

He laughed. ‘An excellent choice,’ he said.

The nurse sniffed and folded her arms. ‘Silly name for a tiger,’ she muttered.

‘Oh, Nurse, don’t be against him! Come and stroke him!’

‘I will not. I am not foolish, whatever others may be,’ she said.

‘Caesar, may I speak?’ said the keeper, after bowing.

‘Yes, what is it?’ asked the Emperor.

‘He needs a collar.’

‘Oh yes!’ cried Aurelia. ‘A beautiful one, with jewels on it! And I need a lead for him, too!’

‘Well thought of.’ Caesar clapped his hands, and at once one of his own slaves, who always attended him, ran forward.

‘A collar for my daughter’s tiger. Bejewelled, as she said. Order it from the leather shop. A leash, too. Tooled with gold leaf.’ He hugged Aurelia tightly. He couldn’t restrain his pride in the success of his gift, at her courageous receiving of it.

The Empress watched the scene, narrow-eyed, anxious. The tiger cub already looked large and menacing in her eyes. She still thought the whole thing was folly of the worst kind. She exchanged glances of anxiety with the nurse.

But apart from engaging guards, there was nothing she could do.

‘Boots! Yes, that silly name just suits him. He’s not a tiger, not him! He’s a pussycat. Here, puss puss puss! Here, tiggy-wiggy-woggy, come and play pussy games with Relia!’

Aurelia’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

She was entertaining – most unwillingly – a ‘friend’, except that he wasn’t, he was a stupid little bore and a maddening nuisance. His name was Marcus and he was her ten-year-old cousin.

‘Don’t tease him,’ she ordered sharply, as the cub showed signs of being about to investigate Marcus’s wriggling fingers, pretending to be a large spider scuttling on the floor.

‘I will tease him, and you too,’ said Marcus. ‘What’ve you done to him? Call that a wild animal? He’s about as fierce as one of your silly birds. Tweet-tweet, Bootsie, come to Pata!’ The cub obligingly pounced on the ‘spider’ and sank his teeth into it. But carefully. He knew better by now than to bite seriously. One or two hard bites, in the early days, had resulted in sharp blows on the head and scoldings from his keeper.