Read Online A Coin for the Ferryman by Rosemary Rowe - Free Book Online
Authors: Rosemary Rowe
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Julianus will go back to Rome and tell the family what has happened here. Honoria – Marcus’s mother – will blame me, of course, because I had the servants bring the body here. I believe she blames me for every problem Marcus has – you know she has never forgiven him for marrying me at all. It won’t be the easiest of visits, anyway.’ She sighed. ‘I was hoping Marcellinus would help to win her round, but now I fear that that’s impossible.’
I was about to make some flattering remark about anyone who set eyes on her loving her instantly, but she waved the platitude impatiently aside.
‘You don’t know what Honoria Aurelia is like. She was always superstitious, and she’s getting worse, it seems, now that Marcus’s father isn’t very well. Sees everything as a deliberate sign that people are conspiring with the fates to engineer the family’s downfall all the time. According to Lucius she dismissed a slave last month – sold him for almost nothing in the marketplace – because he dropped a plate of food and did not make the proper sacrifice. Said he was deliberately defying all the gods and trying to bring ill-fortune to the house.’ She shook her head. ‘It was funny when he told us, but it isn’t funny now. Think what she will make of this – at the Lemuria, too!’
It was Stygius who shuffled forward, and muttered, with a bow, ‘Then – forgive me, lady – but does Lucius have to know? He and the master have been in court all day. The news will not have reached them . . .’
He was interrupted by a dry, patrician voice. ‘And what news, pray, is that?’
We whirled round as one. Perhaps we had been too intent upon our figs and wine. Standing in the main entrance of the atrium, accompanied by his attendant bodyguard but somehow, till this moment, unobserved, was Lucius Julianus Catilius himself.
Chapter Five
He strode across the atrium and – ignoring the rest of us as if we were not there – addressed a sketchy bow to Julia, who had risen in confusion to greet him. Junio and I had started to our feet.
‘Forgive me, lady, if I startled you.’ His cultured Latin was deliberately formal and precise. ‘Your husband will be here in just a little while. He went round with the horses – said he was going directly to the new wing of the villa to get changed – and suggested that I came in here to wait. I could not find anyone to announce that we’d arrived’ – here he allowed his eyes to dwell a fraction on the pageboy Niveus, as if to suggest that this should have been his job – ‘so I brought my bodyguard and came directly in. I hope you do not mind. I am a member of the family, after all.’ He gave her a small, condescending smile. ‘I did not expect to find anybody here.’
This was not entirely honest, I was sure. It must have taken considerable care to have entered the atrium quite so silently. I wondered how long he had been standing there, listening.
The same thought had clearly occurred to Julia. ‘Well, cousin, since you have clearly overheard us, there is no point in trying to disguise the truth from you. The fact is that there has been an unfortunate event.’ She had turned a charming crimson with embarrassment. ‘Something unpleasant has been discovered in the grounds – the worst kind of omen. My land slave was suggesting that you should be spared the worry of it, at least until we had contrived to make propitiation to the gods.’
Lucius gave a thin, tight smile. ‘I see. So Honoria Aurelia was right! She told me before I set off to visit you that she’d had a premonition that something ill-fated was likely to occur.’
Julia inclined her head. The colour had not faded from her cheeks. ‘I believe you mentioned it.’ Then – rather daringly for a married woman of her rank – she met his eyes, saying with a pretence at levity, ‘I imagine, cousin, that if one has premonitions of ill-fortune for long enough, sooner or later one will be
I was about to make some flattering remark about anyone who set eyes on her loving her instantly, but she waved the platitude impatiently aside.
‘You don’t know what Honoria Aurelia is like. She was always superstitious, and she’s getting worse, it seems, now that Marcus’s father isn’t very well. Sees everything as a deliberate sign that people are conspiring with the fates to engineer the family’s downfall all the time. According to Lucius she dismissed a slave last month – sold him for almost nothing in the marketplace – because he dropped a plate of food and did not make the proper sacrifice. Said he was deliberately defying all the gods and trying to bring ill-fortune to the house.’ She shook her head. ‘It was funny when he told us, but it isn’t funny now. Think what she will make of this – at the Lemuria, too!’
It was Stygius who shuffled forward, and muttered, with a bow, ‘Then – forgive me, lady – but does Lucius have to know? He and the master have been in court all day. The news will not have reached them . . .’
He was interrupted by a dry, patrician voice. ‘And what news, pray, is that?’
We whirled round as one. Perhaps we had been too intent upon our figs and wine. Standing in the main entrance of the atrium, accompanied by his attendant bodyguard but somehow, till this moment, unobserved, was Lucius Julianus Catilius himself.
Chapter Five
He strode across the atrium and – ignoring the rest of us as if we were not there – addressed a sketchy bow to Julia, who had risen in confusion to greet him. Junio and I had started to our feet.
‘Forgive me, lady, if I startled you.’ His cultured Latin was deliberately formal and precise. ‘Your husband will be here in just a little while. He went round with the horses – said he was going directly to the new wing of the villa to get changed – and suggested that I came in here to wait. I could not find anyone to announce that we’d arrived’ – here he allowed his eyes to dwell a fraction on the pageboy Niveus, as if to suggest that this should have been his job – ‘so I brought my bodyguard and came directly in. I hope you do not mind. I am a member of the family, after all.’ He gave her a small, condescending smile. ‘I did not expect to find anybody here.’
This was not entirely honest, I was sure. It must have taken considerable care to have entered the atrium quite so silently. I wondered how long he had been standing there, listening.
The same thought had clearly occurred to Julia. ‘Well, cousin, since you have clearly overheard us, there is no point in trying to disguise the truth from you. The fact is that there has been an unfortunate event.’ She had turned a charming crimson with embarrassment. ‘Something unpleasant has been discovered in the grounds – the worst kind of omen. My land slave was suggesting that you should be spared the worry of it, at least until we had contrived to make propitiation to the gods.’
Lucius gave a thin, tight smile. ‘I see. So Honoria Aurelia was right! She told me before I set off to visit you that she’d had a premonition that something ill-fated was likely to occur.’
Julia inclined her head. The colour had not faded from her cheeks. ‘I believe you mentioned it.’ Then – rather daringly for a married woman of her rank – she met his eyes, saying with a pretence at levity, ‘I imagine, cousin, that if one has premonitions of ill-fortune for long enough, sooner or later one will be
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