been brave. You are a fit mother for my children.”
He left her bedchamber and made his way to his library. The house was quiet now, without his stepsons running about. In a way, it was sad, but in a few years’ time the villa would ring again with the laughter and shouts of children. His children. A single lamp burned upon the table as he entered his private sanctuary, shutting the door firmly behind him. Only the gravest emergency would cause anyone to disturb him once that door was closed. He had quickly trained the servants after his marriage to Antonia that this room was his sanctum sanctorum. No one came in but at his invitation.
“You did very well,” he told the two men who now stepped from the shadows within the room.
“It was easy, master,” the taller of the two answered him. “Those two nursemaids was easy pickin’s. A little drugged wine, a little fucking, a little more wine, a little more—”
“Yes, yes!” Quintus Drusus said impatiently. “The picture you paint is quite clear. Tell me of the boys. They gave you no trouble? They did not cry out? I want no witnesses coming forward later on.”
“We throttled them in their beds as they slept, master. Then we placed their bodies in the atrium pond. No one saw us, I guarantee you. It was the middle of the night, and all slept. We made that pretty tableau for everyone to find before we done the children. Quite a wicked pair, those girls looked,” the tall man continued. He sniggered lewdly.
“You promised us our freedom,” the other man said to Quintus Drusus. “When will you give us our freedom? We have done as you bid us.”
“I told you that there were two tasks you must perform for me,” Quintus Drusus answered him. “This was but the first.”
“What is the second? We want our freedom!” the tall man declared.
“You are impatient, Cato,” Quintus Drusus said, noting his look of distaste. It amused Quintus Drusus to give his slaves dignified, elegant-sounding identities. “In nine days’ time,” he continued, “my son will be formally named, and a ceremony of purification will be performed. It is a family event to be celebrated within the home. My father-in-law will come from Corinium; my cousin Gaius and his family from their nearby villa. It is my cousin and his family that I want you to study well.
“There is a Celtic festival in May. I remember it from last year. Gaius Drusus allows his slaves their freedom that night from sunset until the following dawn. I intend to pursue the same custom. On that night you will eliminate my cousin and his family. As an extra incentive, you may steal my cousin’s gold from a certain hiding place I shall reveal to you when the time comes. In the ensuing uproar it will take several days for me to discover that those two new slaves from Gaul that I recently purchased are gone. Do you understand me?” He stared coldly at the pair, wondering if there was a way he could eliminate them as well and save himself the possibility of ever being discovered. No. He would have to rely on these two. If he was any judge of men, they would flee as fast as they could back across the sea to Gaul.
“Beltane,” Cato said.
“Beltane?” Quintus Drusus looked puzzled.
“The Celtic festival you mentioned. It is celebrated the first day of May, master. There is no other spring festival of note.”
“How appropriate,” Quintus Drusus said with a brief smile. “I married my wife on the Kalends of June. Our son was born on the Kalends of March. Now on the Kalends of May I shall achieve the beginnings of my destiny. I do believe that the number one is a lucky one for me.” He looked at the two Gauls. “I will dim the lamp a moment. Go out by the garden exit, and behave yourselves. Both of you! You must have easy access to the house when my cousin and his family are here. If you have been causing difficulties, the majordomo will send you to the fields. You are of no use to me in the fields.”
In the morning, Quintus Drusus sent messengers to his father-in-law in Corinium, bidding him come, and to his cousin Gaius, inviting him and his family to the new Drusus’s name day and purification. It was not until they arrived for the celebration that Gaius Drusus Corinium and his family