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wife at home, as well, and didn’t want her finding out where he had been.’ He gave another hoot of mocking mirth. ‘And then he didn’t find it after all. It’s true. He can’t have done. He gave money to that slave. Lyra wouldn’t leave a customer with silver in his purse. If he didn’t spend it willingly, the girls would get it from his clothes while he was occupied with something else.’
    ‘But surely she can’t steal from them?’ I was startled into speech. ‘The penalties . . .’
    He swept my words aside. ‘You may come from a big city, stranger, but you’re strangely innocent. Of course she’d have your purse. It often happens. Very few complain – not when they’ve been busy with one of Lyra’s specialists. If it came to court, they’d be a laughing-stock.’
    I resisted the temptation to retort that he clearly knew all about the brothel and its ways. It was obvious that Big-ears was the self-appointed thinker of the group and saw himself as the voice of reason. I suspected that this was less the product of intelligence than the result of his being the most nervous of the three, but since he was arguing for my release I held my tongue. Neither did I voice the sudden thought which I had almost blurted out a moment earlier: why had Lyra sent Rufinus to find my slave? How had she known that I possessed one, come to that? I’d assumed the boy had been sent to warn Plautus, but it seemed that I was wrong.
    In fact, it was a mystery which I found troubling. I had parted company with Promptillius long before I spotted Plautus and went after him, so when Lyra had approached me it was in an altogether different part of town. So how had anyone identified Promptillius as mine? And what was the message that Rufinus passed on to him?
    For there had been some sort of message, I was sure of that, and probably ostensibly from me. It was the only thing I could imagine that would have persuaded the stolid Promptillius to desert his post. I said quickly, before Big-ears had time to think this through himself, ‘Well, if you gentlemen are satisfied, I should be getting back. My party will be concerned for me by now, and sending out a search, I shouldn’t be surprised.’
    Cupidus was lurching into thought. ‘So, where’s your slave gone now?’
    It was a question I had asked myself and failed to find a convincing answer for, but I said – with what I hoped was confidence – ‘Gone back to the mansio, I should think. Do you want to come there with me and see? You can check out my story with the guard.’
    I half hoped they would give up at this, and let me go, but to my surprise they all three seized on it, and a moment later we were walking, single file, in the direction of the military inn. Laxus walked behind me, uncomfortably close, and I was aware of the dagger which he still held unsheathed, but hidden now beneath his cloak, presumably in case the guard should notice it. I wondered what would happen if I denounced him to the sentry on the gate, but it was not an experiment I cared to make. Spotty-face was clearly anxious to prove himself a man, fearless and ready with a knife. I didn’t wish to provide him with the opportunity.
    As we approached, the soldier on guard duty came out to block our way. ‘Who is it, and what’s your business here?’
    Laxus urged me forward with his blade. I took a step into the ring of light which blazed from the torches hanging on the wall. The burly guard drew his sword and looked me up and down. ‘What are you doing here? And who are these?’ He examined my companions, his armour glittering in the torchlight with a hundred little reflected flames. ‘I know you three. Get off home, or I’ll report you to your fathers. I am surprised at you, old man, cavorting with these rogues. You’ve no idea the trouble they cause.’
    ‘Not cavorting,’ I said firmly. ‘I asked them the way, that’s all. And perhaps you could resolve a little disagreement we had. I say that