came into focus. Not mother’s but a man’s face. The governor’s face! “It’s all right, boy, it’s all right.” Pliny and another man helped to sit up. He knew that face too—the physician. They put a woolen robe around his shoulders, held a cup of water to his lips. He swung his eyes around. A ring of Roman marines stared back. His mother sat on the ground nearby, a rope around her wrists. At the edge of the islet a navy cutter rocked at anchor.
***
Silvanus was sunk in a pleasantly drunken doze when the soldiers burst through his door and laid hands on him. The next hours were very unpleasant. They bound him with chains and dragged him to the palace dungeon, where the governor stalked up and down the cell, firing questions at him, while a brute of a jailer heated pincers over a flame.
“The procurator caught you stealing, didn’t he? What did he do to you?”
“Beat me up. Not for the first time, he loved to hit. Threatened to sack me.”
“So you killed him.”
“I didn’t!”
“But you hated him.”
“Everyone hated him.”
“Then who killed him?”
“Fabia killed him.”
“You know this for a fact?”
“It makes sense, doesn’t it?”
“Was Balbus stealing from the treasury?”
“I’m sure he was.”
“How?”
“I don’t know how. He never included me in that.”
“You do know that I can put you to death for what you’ve done.”
“You can’t. I’m a Roman citizen. I’ll appeal to the emperor.”
“All right. I’ll send you to Rome for trial, but I promise you you’ll find a nastier death at the end of it than the one I’ll give you. Now again, how was the procurator stealing?”
“I told you I don’t know!”
And so it went until they finally left him alone.
***
Aulus lay on a soft bed, propped up on cushions as a servant fed him spoonfuls of hot broth. Pliny sat in a chair beside him and spoke in a low voice.
“I honestly don’t know what to think about your mother. If nothing else, she had guilty knowledge of Silvanus’ whereabouts. I hope it’s nothing worse than that.”
“But she wouldn’t have sent assassins to kill my father when I was with him.”
“That is an excellent point, which I take note of. Aulus, I don’t want it to be your mother, but she did run away.”
“She made me tell her everything I told you—about that Greek who came to see her. And then she began to scream and strike her breast. I didn’t know what to do…”
“Hush, be calm now. I understand. I’m sending her home under guard until I know more. But what shall I do with you? Do you want to go back with her or would you rather stay here in the palace for a time? I’ve spoken to Marinus, you know, about you assisting him. He’s willing to take you on.”
“I—I’ve never been away from her. What will happen when I…”
“Have a seizure? We’ll know what to do. I remember you told me you’re the man of the family now. In law, yes. But in fact you never will be as long as you live with her. I’ll tell you something. I lost my father early and grew up in the house of my uncle. He was a good man, a tireless civil servant, a prodigious scholar, but a man whose personality absolutely dominated the household. Nothing mattered except his needs. We all tiptoed so as not to disturb him while he was being read to by his slaves and making notes for his Natural History, which was literally all the time. Until the day he died, we were almost like prisoners there. It’s taken me longer than I like to admit to get over it. Think about it, son.”
Mi fili—my son. He had said it without thinking. He felt a sudden pang of longing for the son that he and Calpurnia would never have. Suddenly he wanted very much to be a father to this tortured boy, bring him into his household, give him a better life than he had ever known. He would speak to Calpurnia about it. But what if it caused her pain? They never spoke about their childlessness. And lately, it seemed, they never spoke at all. They had grown so far apart he felt he hardly knew her anymore.
“Sir?” Aulus was staring at him. “Is something the matter?”
“What? No, no, of course not. You rest up, we’ll talk again later.”
***
Pliny summoned his staff. He toyed with the objects on his desk while he marshaled his thoughts. “We