wine for it; this must be the third time he’d come to check on the order. “It arrived safely three days ago from our wholesaler, and it can be transported to your new villa whenever you like. Just say the word.”
“Wine? Ah, yes, of course. As soon as possible, then, please. Arrange it with my major-domo, if you would.” He paused. “That was why I came, I suppose. But now…there’s something else.”
He relapsed into silence, and I waited. I had learned to let Silvanius tell things in his own pompous way, so I just gazed at the pond, trying to spot the frogs among the water plants.
Eventually it was Felix who set the ball rolling. “It’s these horrid murders, my dear,” he said, reaching for another pastry. “It’s too awful, isn’t it? Three corpses! All stone dead!”
“As corpses tend to be,” I couldn’t help saying, and he laughed. “Except that our victim isn’t a corpse. He was alive when we found him, and still is, although he’s unconscious most of the time. When he is awake, he seems to have lost his memory.”
“How very intriguing! So you don’t know who he is?”
“Not yet, but we’re working on it.”
“You were the person who found the man, I’m told,” Silvanius said. “It must have been an unpleasant shock for you.”
I shrugged. “I was just relieved he wasn’t dead.”
“The whole situation is extremely disturbing,” he continued, absently twisting his wine-beaker between his hands. “So I wanted to make sure you are coping with everything, and not feeling too alarmed. We Romans,” he declaimed, “must stand together at a time of crisis.”
Here we go, I thought. I’ve heard his “Romans standing together” speech so often I could recite it for him.
Felix, thank the gods, had heard it before, too, and decided to divert the flow. “Absolutely,” he cut in. “And while we’re standing together, we must put our heads together, if that isn’t physically impossible. We’ve got to decide what to do. ”
“Exactly,” Silvanius said.
I thought so! Silvanius wanted my advice, but didn’t want the world to know he’d asked me for it. Well, it wasn’t the first time, and discretion is part of an innkeeper’s stock-in-trade. I waited with what I hoped was the right air of attentive anticipation.
“Three murders,” Silvanius said. “Correction, three attacks. You’ve heard about all of them, presumably?”
“We get news pretty quickly here. I’ve heard of one headless body found on the Eburacum road, and another one in the forum outside Balbus’ shop.”
“Balbus must be mortified,” Felix murmured. “So bad for business, something like that! Has he offered to sell you an urn for the man’s ashes?”
“Now do be serious, Felix,” Silvanius said. “This really isn’t a joking matter. We’ve had two brutal murders committed in our town, and another attack which might easily have resulted in a murder. Most distressing.”
I told him how I’d found our unconscious guest, and described how the dog had led me to his horse. I didn’t mention Hawk.
“May I see the, ah, threatening message?”
I showed him the disc. He looked even graver as he read it, then passed it to Felix, who examined it intently.
Silvanius said, “I feared as much. The man in the forum had one exactly like this, pinned to the front of his tunic.” He drew a disc from his belt-pouch and held it out to me. Sure enough, the discs were twins.
I asked, but knowing the answer already, “What about the third man, on the road to Eburacum?”
“Yes, he had a similar one. I haven’t got it with me. I left it with Vedius Severus.”
Vedius was the aedile in charge of the town watch, which in plain Latin meant the two men and a mule-cart that made up the Oak Bridges fire brigade. He was an old soldier, seventy-five if he was a day, and he could just about handle being fire chief—there are very few fires in our district. But I reckoned that faced with a series of
“Wine? Ah, yes, of course. As soon as possible, then, please. Arrange it with my major-domo, if you would.” He paused. “That was why I came, I suppose. But now…there’s something else.”
He relapsed into silence, and I waited. I had learned to let Silvanius tell things in his own pompous way, so I just gazed at the pond, trying to spot the frogs among the water plants.
Eventually it was Felix who set the ball rolling. “It’s these horrid murders, my dear,” he said, reaching for another pastry. “It’s too awful, isn’t it? Three corpses! All stone dead!”
“As corpses tend to be,” I couldn’t help saying, and he laughed. “Except that our victim isn’t a corpse. He was alive when we found him, and still is, although he’s unconscious most of the time. When he is awake, he seems to have lost his memory.”
“How very intriguing! So you don’t know who he is?”
“Not yet, but we’re working on it.”
“You were the person who found the man, I’m told,” Silvanius said. “It must have been an unpleasant shock for you.”
I shrugged. “I was just relieved he wasn’t dead.”
“The whole situation is extremely disturbing,” he continued, absently twisting his wine-beaker between his hands. “So I wanted to make sure you are coping with everything, and not feeling too alarmed. We Romans,” he declaimed, “must stand together at a time of crisis.”
Here we go, I thought. I’ve heard his “Romans standing together” speech so often I could recite it for him.
Felix, thank the gods, had heard it before, too, and decided to divert the flow. “Absolutely,” he cut in. “And while we’re standing together, we must put our heads together, if that isn’t physically impossible. We’ve got to decide what to do. ”
“Exactly,” Silvanius said.
I thought so! Silvanius wanted my advice, but didn’t want the world to know he’d asked me for it. Well, it wasn’t the first time, and discretion is part of an innkeeper’s stock-in-trade. I waited with what I hoped was the right air of attentive anticipation.
“Three murders,” Silvanius said. “Correction, three attacks. You’ve heard about all of them, presumably?”
“We get news pretty quickly here. I’ve heard of one headless body found on the Eburacum road, and another one in the forum outside Balbus’ shop.”
“Balbus must be mortified,” Felix murmured. “So bad for business, something like that! Has he offered to sell you an urn for the man’s ashes?”
“Now do be serious, Felix,” Silvanius said. “This really isn’t a joking matter. We’ve had two brutal murders committed in our town, and another attack which might easily have resulted in a murder. Most distressing.”
I told him how I’d found our unconscious guest, and described how the dog had led me to his horse. I didn’t mention Hawk.
“May I see the, ah, threatening message?”
I showed him the disc. He looked even graver as he read it, then passed it to Felix, who examined it intently.
Silvanius said, “I feared as much. The man in the forum had one exactly like this, pinned to the front of his tunic.” He drew a disc from his belt-pouch and held it out to me. Sure enough, the discs were twins.
I asked, but knowing the answer already, “What about the third man, on the road to Eburacum?”
“Yes, he had a similar one. I haven’t got it with me. I left it with Vedius Severus.”
Vedius was the aedile in charge of the town watch, which in plain Latin meant the two men and a mule-cart that made up the Oak Bridges fire brigade. He was an old soldier, seventy-five if he was a day, and he could just about handle being fire chief—there are very few fires in our district. But I reckoned that faced with a series of
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