fear. “Why do you care about the procurator? It doesn’t concern you.”
“Everything concerns me.” The voice was like silk and like steel all at once.
She leapt up, her bruised knee nearly buckling under her. He tried to hold her back but she tore away from him. She saw the chasm opening at her feet. “Filthy Greek spy! Get out!”
He stood slowly and smoothed his spotless white gown with his long-fingered hands. “As you wish. We’ll talk again.”
“We will not!” she screamed at his back. Then she fell weeping on the couch.
In an instant Ione was beside her. “I saw him leave, ’Purnia. He looked at me with a murderer’s eyes! What happened?”
“Ione, I’ve done a terrible thing. I’ve put myself in that man’s power. And Agathon, and my husband too. I want to die!”
“Darling, don’t say that.”
“I mean it. But first I will tell Gaius everything, everything, the minute he returns. I swear I will.”
Ione turned a stricken face to her. Old Baucis’ words came back to her in a rush. This could all come crashing down on your head. She sank to the floor and grasped Calpurnia’s knees, a supplicant. “Everything? And what about me? Your husband may forgive you but he won’t forgive me.”
“But I won’t—”
“He’ll get it out of you. He’ll know you couldn’t have done it alone. He’ll throw me into the street to starve, and Zosimus too, and the child. He must. Everything I did, I did for your happiness, mistress. Will you betray me too?”
***
“Mehercule, it feels good to be home again. I was never one for camping out.”
They reclined at dinner: Pliny and Calpurnia, Suetonius, Nymphidius, Marinus, and Zosimus. The meal was finished and the wives, except for Calpurnia, had been excused. Pliny would keep no secrets from her. He grimaced. “What a business this is!”
“Have you written to the emperor yet?” Suetonius asked.
“As soon as we got back. One copy to go by sea, the other overland. It could be a month before he gets either one of them, if then. Rough seas in the Aegean, an early snow in the mountain passes of Illyricum—I ’ve often thought that our empire effectively ceases to exist between October and May. I’ve written him four times since we arrived and haven’t had a reply yet. We’re on our own here, my friend, and must make the best of it.”
“And the body?” Calpurnia asked.
“Is here in the palace. An army carpenter’s knocking together a box for it and tomorrow I’m taking it to Fabia.”
“Gaius, I’m frightened for you. You must wear a cuirass under your tunic and carry a dagger.”
“’Purnia, I’ll do nothing of the sort. We can’t go around looking like we fear for our lives here. You know what will leap to people’s minds.”
Every Roman schoolboy knew. The slaughter of eighty thousand Romans, most of them hated tax farmers, together with their families in a single night in all the cities of Bithynia and Asia by order King Mithridates of Pontus. It had taken twenty years of war to avenge that atrocity. And two centuries had not dimmed the memory of it; the natives still named their children after that monster.
“And that’s why we must maintain that Balbus’ death was an accident until we get to the bottom this. So, not a word about this to the wives, my dear. I can trust you can’t I?”
“What?” She felt the blood drain from her face.
“I said, can I trust you, my dear.”
“Oh. Yes, yes, Gaius, of course you can trust me.”
He moved closer to her on the dining couch and covered her hand with his. “Quite enough gloomy talk for one night. I noticed you limping, have you hurt yourself?”
“It’s nothing. I slipped in the bath.”
He stretched and stifled a yawn. “I’ve spent three nights sleeping on the cold ground, missing you, my dear. And I see you haven’t slept well either—such dark circles under your eyes. Oh, I know I’ve neglected you. I’m truly sorry. But with all this…I will make it up to you, I promise. Gentlemen, if you’ll excuse us. We’re off to bed.” He gave her a wink.
***
Zosimus put his arm around his wife and fumbled for a kiss. She turned away.
“What’s the matter? You haven’t been yourself all evening.”
“It’s nothing.”
“Tell me.”
“Leave me alone, can’t you? Go to sleep.”
And the poor young man lay awake in the dark, wondering what he had done.