Read Online Five for Silver: A John, the Lord Chamberlain Mystery by Mary Reed, Eric Mayer - Free Book Online Page B

business affairs. No matter the weather, he spent an hour in the garden with me every morning consulting the oracles. He often said he had never known them to be wrong. Apis here was a particular favorite. The master paid handsomely for him. Bought him as a calf and happy to do it, since Apis is an exact copy of the bull oracle of old, what with being black and marked with a white square on his forehead.”
    He paused to contemplate Apis, who was now quietly chewing at fresh hay. A massive hillock of an animal, the bull flicked its tail slowly back and forth, barely disturbing a twinkling cloud of buzzing flies.
    “Do you think oracles really can tell us the future, sir? Apis here, he hasn’t eaten hardly a thing since the master died and usually he has a hearty appetite. Very strange, as I said to Cador only this morning. Cador’s the house steward’s assistant, gone to the country with the others. I shall be joining them as soon as they send a cart back to transfer the animals out there.”
    A look of distress clouded Sylvanus’ face.
    John commiserated, observing it must be difficult for a man of the soil to find himself stranded alone in a city.
    “It’s not that, sir. It’s just that I’d much rather stay in Constantinople. Born here, so I was. I’ve worked in aristocrats’ gardens all my life and, despite my name, I’ve hardly set foot outside the city walls. It’s the thought of all that open space around me that I find disturbing. Fields and fields, with nothing beyond them but more fields, or perhaps a forest. There’s bears in forests, you know.”
    “Perhaps you could arrange to stay here as caretaker of the house while various legal affairs are settled, and meantime you could seek another master?”
    A look of gratitude spread across Sylvanus’ face as he contemplated the suggestion.
    “How does this bull indicate the future?” John asked, quickly, as much to divert the other as from a thirst for arcane knowledge.
    “Ah!” Sylvanus’ brown face furrowed into a grin. “It’s very easy. No need for purification rites or anything like that! No, a person wishing to consult Apis on a course of action merely puts the question and offers food. If Apis eats, it means a fortunate outcome to the intended enterprise.” A thoughtful look entered his eyes. “Since Apis found his appetite again just after you arrived, it may well mean you will find whatever it is you seek.”
    “I hope so. However, I would like to consult you rather than these oracles. I believe a customs official named Gregory recently visited your master?”
    “Gregory? He visited quite often on matters of business, I believe. The master showed him around the garden a few times. He did not seem very impressed.”
    The gardener appeared reluctant to say more. John assured him he had nothing to do with customs duties or taxation for that matter. “Gregory was here the day Nereus died?”
    Sylvanus looked dubious. “I truly can’t say. I rarely venture into the house when the master has visitors. I wouldn’t want to be tracking mud everywhere, for one thing. There were quite a number of people there that day, from the sound of it. A real commotion. I find it of some comfort, sir, to recall that the master did not die alone.”
    “You wouldn’t know, then, who might also have been present to witness Nereus’ will?”
    Sylvanus shook his head. “That was none of my business, sir. My business is looking after the master’s oracles.”
    “You mentioned Nereus showed them to Gregory, and to other visitors too. His lawyer, for instance?”
    “I’m afraid I don’t know who his lawyer might be. I don’t think he’s visited the garden, though, since being a lawyer he would surely have started arguing with the oracles.”
    “What about you, Sylvanus? Do you have any notion why Nereus decided to make a new will?”
    Sylvanus patted the bull’s flank and looked down into the pond, staring gloomily at the ghostly forms of the fish