Danger in the Wind (6 page)

I was about to mock her ignorance of one of the best-known parts of history, but remembered in time that she’d been born a slave and hadn’t had much education.

“That’s right. Hector was a Trojan prince, and Achilles picked a fight with him because Hector had killed his friend.”

She said slowly, “This may be sheer coincidence, but I somehow don’t think it is…”

“What?”

“Terentius’ boy, the one who’s run off. When he was eating his supper in the kitchen last night he mentioned Achilles and Hector, and even Isurium. I was busy with the meals for the guests, and it didn’t make sense to me, so I didn’t think anything of it at the time. But now…”

“Can you remember exactly what he said?” Lucius asked.

“I think I got the gist of it. He was boasting that he’d soon be rich enough to buy his freedom, because he and his master were on an important mission with a message for someone, and they’d earn a great deal of money. The other servants asked him what the message was, and at first he wouldn’t tell, but they teased him and eventually he did. He said pretty well what’s in that note: there’s to be a performance of the Fall of Troy at midsummer at Isurium, and a Greek Achilles will kill an enemy called Hector.”

“I wonder,” I mused, “whether Terentius trusted the boy with the message in case something happened to him, or whether the boy sneaked a look inside the box one day?”

“And
I
wonder,” Lucius added, “whether the lad has killed his master and run off to deliver the message himself, so he can collect the whole reward instead of only getting a small part of it?”

“And that would explain the state of the bedroom. Before he left he searched and searched for the box because he wanted the identification token as well,” I suggested.

“So in plain Latin,” Margarita said, “somebody Greek will kill Eurytus at Isurium at midsummer.”

Lucius looked thoughtful. “As we were saying earlier, there aren’t many Greeks in the army, especially here in Britannia.”

“It could be an army doctor,” Margarita suggested. “Most of them are Greeks. Most of the doctors in the whole Empire, come to that. Like my Timaeus.”

It was so obvious, I knew she had to be right. “A medical officer? Of course! Well done, Margarita. Does Timaeus have any friends or contacts among army medics? He might be able to give us some names.”

“He’s never worked for the army, so I doubt it, but I’ll ask him, certainly.”

Lucius stood up. “Whoever the Greek is, this box means trouble, there’s no doubt of it. And it means I’ve no choice but to go to Eburacum to report it. So much for my holiday plans!”

“You’ll leave Vitellia behind?”

“I’ll have to. I can’t take her with me, and she’ll be fine here, won’t she? I’m sure you can take good care of her. With a bit of luck I’ll only be gone a couple of days, though I suppose they may want me to go on up to Isurium to check on the situation there.” He sighed. “Anyway, I must go and that’s that. If our guesses are right, and there’s to be some kind of incident at midsummer, there isn’t much time.” He added a few choice comments about Terentius and young Venutius. “But there’s enough time for me to have today here, at least. After all, Hawk will need today to check around in the woods, won’t he?”

“Of course he will.”

“Then I’ll leave at first light tomorrow. And now I’m going to make the most of what little time I have left with Vitellia.”

“I’ll go and tell her you’re ready,” Margarita said, and left us.

Lucius looked at me. “You realise what this means?”

“It means we could end up working together at Isurium after all.” I felt a sudden surge of happiness. “You never know, I may be able to pick up something useful, through Jovina and Marcus and some of the others there. They’d confide in a civilian woman more than an investigator like you. But I couldn’t be ready to leave tomorrow. I’ll follow on as soon as I can.”

He shook his head. “No chance. I’m sorry, but Terentius’ message changes everything. You must refuse Jovina’s invitation. If there is some sort of conspiracy going on at Isurium, a plan to assassinate Eurytus or even to attack the fort, it could be far too dangerous for you to be anywhere near.”

“Now wait, you’re not leaving me out of things just like that! If there
is
danger in the wind, as Jovina said in her note, she needs me all the more.”

“And
I
need to be able to do my job up there without constantly looking over my shoulder to make sure you’re all right. I know you’re not bad at investigating…”

“Thanks, brother!”

“…but in a situation like this, you’d be more of a hindrance than a help.”

“Nonsense, you know Marcus and Jovina will take care of me, as if I couldn’t take care of myself. And if there’s an advantage in secrecy, it’ll be far easier for me to work undercover than you.”

“Argue away as much as you like. I can’t allow you to go up there now. It’s too dangerous.”

I sensed his growing excitement as he thought about the assignment. Sensed it, and shared it, and very much wanted to be part of the investigation. How could I persuade him that, far from being a hindrance, I could be an asset?

“Look, suppose you make sure Eurytus’ visit to the fort goes off safely? He’ll go away, you’ll go away, but the hostility that’s at the bottom of all this will still be festering underground, waiting to emerge again like a fungus lurking under a tree root. If you want to stop it for good, you’ve got to catch the leaders, not just chase them into hiding. You’ve got to work undercover. And I, a civilian woman going to a party there, will have a cover that nobody will suspect.”

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Yes, you’re right, I shall need to be undercover, at least at first. But that makes me more determined than ever not to let you put yourself in danger by going there. I’d be worrying about you all the time.”

“I don’t see why.”

“And I’d be worrying about Vitellia, left all alone here, if we were both away. Much better for you to stay together, safe and sound and keeping each other company.”

“WHAT?”

“It’s an ideal solution. A good chance for you to get to know one another properly.”

Suddenly I saw where he was driving, and it made me very angry. He wasn’t really worried about my being in danger at all. He was expecting me to refuse help to my cousin, not to mention the chance of a holiday, in order to stay at home and act as nursemaid to a silly little girl. Well, I wasn’t having that. I wanted to explode, to shout at him and tell him what a selfish pig he was. But I knew I must keep calm, outwardly at least. If I let my anger show it would only make matters worse.

“I’ve got to go, Lucius. Jovina needs me, and it looks now as if the danger she’s in is a good deal more serious than I thought. You’ll either have to find someone else to take care of Vitellia, or give her a strong escort and send her home on her own. And it’ll give her a taste of what her life will be like married to you, left by herself half the time while you go off on assignments.”

“Look, Aurelia, you must see…”

“I see that Vitellia may be a child you can order about, but I’m not. I’m not abandoning Jovina, and you can’t force me to.”

Oh, me and my big mouth! Now I’d made him angry too.

He spoke softly, with the dangerous calm of someone keeping tight hold of his temper. “Indeed I can force you, if you persist in being so stupid. I’m the head of the family.”

“But you’re not all-powerful. I’m a free citizen, and legally you can’t stop me travelling anywhere in the Empire if I choose to.” I wasn’t at all sure about this in fact, but from Lucius’ answer, neither was he.

“I might not be able to physically prevent your travelling,” he said slowly, “but I have power over this mansio and everything in it. I’m the legal owner, and all I have to do is order the staff not to help you, or let you take any of my property away from the Oak Tree. You can’t remove even one horse or saddle, one slave, without my leave, let alone the proper escort you’d need for a journey north.”

I stared at him in horror. Much as I hated to admit it, I realised he was right. In law, he is the owner of the Oak Tree, because of course as an official mansio, it can’t be owned by a woman. We called ourselves joint proprietors, but the legal fact was that he owned it, while I ran it. This arrangement suited us both, and had never caused us a cross word. Until now.

But I couldn’t bring myself to acknowledge that the law was on his side, so I said nothing.

“I hate this,” he said, in a more normal voice. “I don’t want to quarrel with you, Aurelia. I want to keep you safe. Is that so unreasonable?”

I was too annoyed to make peace. “It’s completely unreasonable. If I have to stay here with Vitellia, I’ll…well I
won’t
stay here, and that’s all there is to it.”

“Enough!” he snapped, and I heard in his gruff tone an echo of our father’s voice, when he’d made an unpopular decision and expected the family to obey him.

My mind was racing as I tried to think of a way out of this impasse. There must be something I could do, if I could only find it. There
must
be.

He said, “I shall talk to the senior staff, Margarita and Secundus.”

“To tell them I’ll be a prisoner in my own mansio?”

“Oh, don’t worry, I shan’t make it sound as if I’m having to forbid you like a naughty child, even if I am. I shall say you’re in danger if you go north, and I’ll hold them personally responsible if anything happens to you. I’ll make it clear that you are not to leave the Oak Tree unescorted till I come back, and you’re not to travel further afield than Oak Bridges.”

“And Eburacum, surely,” I protested. “I need to go there now and then for business reasons, you know that, if you’re away for any length of time.”

“All right, you can go to Eburacum if it’s really necessary, but you must take Secundus as guard. That way you won’t stay there an hour longer than you have to, because you’ll know he’ll be needed here.”

And Albia’s farm? My sister’s name flashed into my mind and I almost spoke it aloud, but I swallowed it back just in time. My sister and her family live a day’s travel to the east, and she’d help me, I knew she would. Lucius has no authority over her now that she’s married to Candidus. If he hadn’t thought of that, I wasn’t going to remind him.

For now, I’d have to let him think he’d won, and wait till he’d gone and I could get help. But he knows me, and if I gave in too easily, he’d smell a rat. “You’re being a bastard, brother,” I grumbled, “and a stupid, pompous bastard at that.”

“But I’m right, and you know it. Stop arguing, and give me your word that you’ll do as I ask in this.”

I gave him only a silence.

“I’m waiting, Aurelia.”

“You’ll have a long wait.”

He shrugged. “Very well, you won’t promise. That makes no difference. I’ll give my orders and the staff will do as I tell them. Which means you will too. You live a pretty free life here, but you must accept my judgment about what’s best. You’ll stay away from Isurium until the danger there is over. Like it or lump it.”

“I shan’t do either, brother,” I answered, but too softly for him to hear as he stalked out.

Chapter V

I daresay it will shock many people that I even considered disobeying Lucius. As head of the family he’s duty-bound to take decisions for all of us, if he thinks he’s protecting us from harm. But I was so sure I was right to go to Jovina and so angry with him for wanting to prevent me that my decision was made in a heartbeat, and once made, I never thought of changing it.

I believe the gods must have approved of my disobedience, because everything was surprisingly easy. I’ve always been a good organiser, so the practical details were straightforward enough: I just had to make sure I could get away from the Oak Tree and as far as Eburacum without assistance from anyone here. I knew how I could arrange that. Then once I was in Eburacum, Albia wouldn’t refuse her help, and I could get to Isurium.

Lucius himself made it simpler for me than I could have dared to hope. What he should have done was talk to the staff straight away, because once he ordered them not to help me travel any distance from the Oak Tree, everyone would have to obey him: the slaves without question, the free staff from duty. But he was so determined to spend the rest of the day with his beloved that he and Vitellia set off for their country drive as soon as he’d finished laying down the law to me, and I knew they wouldn’t be back till dinner time. I had all day to plan.

First I wrote to Jovina, accepting her invitation and assuring her I was looking forward to her party, without of course mentioning her request for help. I wanted it to reach Isurium as soon as possible, which meant one of our lads would have to take it as far as Eburacum, from where the army post would carry it north. But luckily a cavalry courier I recognised stopped by to change horses and have a meal on his way west, and in no time he’d agreed to add my note to the bag of official messages he was carrying, in exchange for a free skin of wine for his journey. Cheap at the price.

The second letter took longer. It was to my sister Albia, and I was asking two favours. I needed her to help me on my journey to Isurium, even perhaps lend me transport to drive there, and also to look after Vitellia at her farm while I was away. I was sure she’d agree. She knew Jovina as well as I did, and would want to help if she was in trouble. All the same she’d think my requests odd, and I didn’t want to go into the problem of Lucius’ attitude in my note, so I added a couple of sentences which would tell her there was more here than met the eye: “I know I’m asking a lot, Albia. There’s a problem with a guest from Arpinum which is making all this a bit complicated.” “Arpinum” was a kind of code word all the staff knew, going back to the old days when Albia was my housekeeper at the Oak Tree. It was a way of telling each other discreetly that we’d got trouble. She would remember.