Read Online Jail Bait by Marilyn Todd - Free Book Online Page A

adapted to Roman attire, and equally strange that Lavinia didn’t object. If only to spare her servant from Mosul’s cold and contemptuous stare.
    Observing the nimbleness of Lalo’s olive-picking fingers and the raw, damaged knuckles, Claudia decided that it wouldn’t hurt to enquire how long he’d been in the old woman’s employ, either. What exactly was his role within her smallholding? For a field hand, he was exceptionally familiar with his mistress, even to sleeping in her bed. Did he bully her? That seemed unlikely, but why should he be here today? Had Lavinia sent him to watch and report back? Or was he paying his own last respects?
    As Pylades wound up his oration, the pre-paid sobbing took over and branches of cypress were solemnly laid over Cal’s body, covering for ever that mop of corn-coloured hair. With a lump in her throat, Claudia inched through the crowd. Lecher or not, the Greek ought to know his efforts in ensuring Cal didn’t journey alone on this tragic morning were appreciated. When she saw him turn to Kamar and mutter, ‘I can’t take much more of this,’ under his breath, Claudia froze.
    ‘Be patient,’ the physician replied. ‘It’ll be over soon enough.’
    Pylades snorted. ‘That’s fine for you to say,’ he flashed back, ‘you’re a doctor, but me! I have a business to run!’
    The hiss of the flames sweeping over the pyre drowned the rest of the interchange, but in any case Claudia could stomach no more. Sickened by the callousness, she reeled away from the congregation, to be swallowed up amongst the basketweavers and the moneychangers, the fishmongers and the wheelwrights.
    Did no one care? A boy dies, and nobody here gives a damn?
    Forget Kamar. He’d pronounced death by falling and nothing would sway him from that conclusion, and in any case who’s to call him a liar? The evidence was literally going up in smoke, and as to a few bloodstains on the rock, why, you’re overwrought, my dear, those could be anything—fishguts, a cracked shin, in fact are you sure that it’s blood? It looks very like paint, you know… Turtleface’s stock would probably soar as a result of the calm and professional way he dealt with another neurotic attention seeker!
    By the basilica, she pulled close to the wall to let past a bloodied carcass of beef. Bluebottles swarmed over the meat and a mongrel trotted behind, pausing to lick the odd drip of blood.
    If the priest with the shiny black eyes won’t let even his own acolyte near the spring, he’d not wish to become embroiled in a scandal which might cast a cloud over his nymph.
    Leon was too clumsy, too obsessed with galloping hormones to care, which only left Pylades—and far from being the high-minded deliverer of Lake Plasimene, bringer of trade and prosperity and cures for the sick, Pylades turned out to be just another shallow, self-seeking money-grubber, concerned more with his daily schedule than the boy who had died!
    When it came to matters of conscience, it was clearly a case of the bland leading the bland.
    ‘You wish to steal my boat again, yes?’
    The voice in her ear made her jump, causing Claudia to stub her toe on the kerbstone. What else could account for the colour flooding her face? ‘Ah.’ The grey rowboat. ‘Um—’
    He was leaning against the side of a barber’s shop, the sole of one foot flat against the stonework as he carved a small piece of wood with a knife. Today his long hair was tied back at the nape, though there was no change in the depth of the accent. ‘Is “ah-um” Latin for yes or for no?’ the Spaniard enquired and despite his dark, dark eyes being hidden in the shadows, Claudia knew they were laughing.
    ‘I assumed the boat was the property of Atlantis,’ she said stiffly. Dammit, he had no right to creep up on her like that! ‘However, I wish to thank you for saving my life yesterday.’
    ‘No need,’ he replied, flashing a sharp glance. ‘The bear, also, was