at me in terror, even the babe round-eyed. I was large and hulking, and if I wanted to take all they had, including the wife and the small girl, they knew they couldn’t stop me.
I took a step toward them. The lot of them cowered back, the man trying to put himself in front of his wife and children. I quickly tucked away my knife and opened the pouch of coins I wore tied to my rope belt.
I emptied the pouch, setting the coins—about three sestertii’s worth in all—a few feet in front of the man. Without waiting for him to collect them, I turned and marched away.
I heard a soft, “Thank you,” from the woman, and then I rounded the corner and faded into the night.
When I reached the apartment, the door at the foot of the stairs was wrenched open as soon as I reached for the handle. Cassia waited for me, her eyes wide, her stolla askew. This was the first time I’d seen her anything but pristine.
“What happened?” she asked me.
I merely gave her a tired grunt and moved past her and up the stairs. I was shaking when I reached the top. Cassia slipped in behind me and shut and bolted the door as I went straight to my pallet and sat heavily upon it.
“Will you tell me before you sleep?” Cassia asked. “Please?”
As always, slumber rushed at me in response to strain, but I propped myself up and described my encounter with Avitus. Cassia listened, troubled, then gave a decided shake of her head.
“I will have to find out more about Avitus.”
I untied and dropped my belt then pulled my tunic off over my head. “I will. In the morning.”
“No, I will.” Her voice was firm. “You will either frighten him away or be arrested if you threaten him too much. I can find out without anyone noticing. I believe you should discover who purchased Floriana’s building. It is not unusual for speculators to hover about waiting for an occupant or an owner to die to snatch up a property. Perhaps someone did not want to wait—Floriana was a healthy woman from what you tell me, not a sickly crone.”
I heard the words but sleep came at me, and I ceased fighting it. I struggled with the blankets as I lay down.
“I have no more coins,” I mumbled. “Gave them to a family sleeping on the street. I know you’ll want to make a note.”
“Oh.” Her voice went soft, and then I surrendered to oblivion. The last thing I remember was the blankets being straightened around me, and Cassia’s quiet words.
“That was good of you, Leonidas.”
Cassia was cheerful the next morning while I groggily ate bread and drank watered-down wine, my head muzzy from sleep. She’d gone out to fetch water and our breakfast before I’d awakened, though I’d never heard her depart.
“If you wish to learn what goes on in Rome, go to the fountains,” she said as she finished her last bite of bread. “The women who draw water know everything about everyone in the city, from the slums to the villas. They already knew I work for you, and how you were freed, and that you now have a benefactor. The questions they asked were unnerving.”
I imagined the women’s salty language as they prodded Cassia about living with a gladiator. They likely didn’t believe her when she told them we slept in separate beds. Cassia was a comely young woman, but even if I’d wanted to use her as a courtesan, my body had decided recently that it was uninterested in activities of the bed other than sleep.
“They know Avitus,” Cassia continued. “He’s a common sight on the streets of the Subura, especially after dark. He’s not above flirting with any woman as he escorts her home, for her own safety, of course.”
I thought of the terrified young man in my grip last night and could not picture him flirtatious.
“He knew much about Floriana and things she said, or at least he claimed to,” I said. “I wondered if he worked for her as a lad.” Floriana had stocked lovers to please any taste.
“Possibly.” Cassia brushed crumbs into a cloth and folded it. “A boy growing up in a lupinarius might decide to take his vengeance on Floriana. If those in the house knew him, he’d be let in and out without a second thought.”
“But I didn’t see him the night Floriana was poisoned. I’ve never seen him there at all.