The Roman Mysteries Complete Collection

by Lawrence, Caroline

  ‘Oh! It’s so frustrating!’ she muttered. ‘At this very moment ships are setting sail for home. If only we were on board one of them!’

  ‘I’m afraid you won’t be able to go home for a very long time,’ said a familiar voice from the doorway.

  They all turned to see a handsome young Greek with curly hair the colour of bronze. It was their tutor Aristo, whom they had not seen in half a year.

  ‘Aristo!’ cried Flavia. She jumped off the dining couch and ran to hug him. ‘Oh, praise Juno! It’s so good to see you!’

  Aristo laughed as Lupus and Jonathan rushed to greet him, too.

  ‘What about you, Nubia?’ said Aristo, as Jonathan stepped back. ‘Don’t I get a hug from you, too?’

  Flavia and her friends turned to Nubia, just in time to see her fall back onto the cushioned divan in a swoon.

  Nubia opened her eyes and gazed up into Aristo’s wonderful face. His arms were around her and there was a look of tender concern in his long-lashed brown eyes. She reached up and touched his cheek, velvety with three day’s growth of beard. She could smell the delicious scent of his body oil – a musky lavender – and she almost swooned again.

  ‘Aristo?’ she whispered. ‘Is it really you?’

  ‘Who else?’ He showed perfect white teeth in a smile so beautiful it felt like a knife twisting in her heart. His smile faded and he looked at her with concern. ‘Are you all right? Has someone hurt you?’

  ‘No one has hurt me,’ said Nubia, trying to sit up. The grey cat jumped down from the couch and stalked out of the room.

  ‘Here, Nubia,’ said Flavia. ‘Rest on these cushions.’

  Aristo helped her to lean back on a silk-covered bolster. ‘Praise Apollo, I’ve found you,’ he said, and looked around at the others. ‘Praise Apollo!’

  Nubia felt the knife twist in her heart again. Aristo was as glad to see the others as he was to see her. He had only taken her in his arms because she had fainted like a foolish girl. His right hand had been holding her left elbow, now it moved away. Despite the heat of the day, her skin felt cold without his touch.

  ‘How did you find us?’ Flavia asked Aristo.

  ‘I found him.’ A young man came into the dining room with a tray of sweating copper beakers. He wore a white conical hat and a tunic which left both shoulders and part of his right breast uncovered. Nathan was the Jewish boatman and smuggler who had helped them in their quest up the Nile. ‘Here, Nubia.’ He extended the tray. ‘Have some chilled posca. It’s hot as Vulcan’s furnace today. No wonder you fainted.’

  ‘Thank you,’ said Nubia. She handed a beaker to Aristo, then took another one for herself.

  ‘I thought you were attending the Sabbath service,’ said Jonathan to Nathan, as he took a cup of posca. ‘At the synagogue. Remember? You promised your mother you were going to be an observant Jew?’

  ‘I know. I did. I was.’ Nathan placed the tray on a low table. ‘But after the service ended I went down to the harbour to put the finishing touches to my plan. Old habits die hard,’ he said, with a wink at Jonathan. ‘Anyway, it’s good I did. One of my friends told me about a young Greek fresh off the boat from Ostia. I’d told them to keep their ears open for anyone asking about you,’ he explained. ‘So I got to Aristo here as soon as I could, but I’m afraid he’d already spoken to some officials. And that means they’ll be looking even harder for you.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Aristo. ‘I didn’t know you were wanted here, too.’

  ‘What do you mean: “wanted here, too”?’ Flavia frowned at him.

  ‘The four of you are wanted in Italia.’

  ‘We are wanted in Italia?’ said Nubia, her eyes never leaving Aristo’s face.

  He nodded. ‘There are notices up in Ostia’s forum, the marketplace and even above the fountain on Green Fountain Street. They’re offering a thousand sesterces each for information leading to your capture. I don’t know what you’ve done, but you can’t go back there.’

  The four friends stared at him. So did Nathan.

  ‘I thought if I could just smuggle them out of Alexandria,’ he said to Aristo, ‘they’d be safe. I didn’t realise they were wanted elsewhere.’

  ‘I’m afraid so,’ said Aristo. ‘I suspect by now there are notices up all over the Empire.’

  ‘Are you saying we can’t go back to Italia?’ said Flavia. ‘We can’t go home?’

  ‘Not as long as Titus is emperor,’ said Aristo grimly. ‘And maybe never.’

  ‘We can’t go home to Ostia!’ cried Flavia. ‘This is terrible.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Aristo grimly. ‘What in Hades did you do to incur the emperor’s wrath?’

  ‘Nothing!’

  ‘Just stole an emerald from the governor of Mauretania,’ said Jonathan, moodily sipping his posca.

  ‘What?’

  Flavia glared at Jonathan. ‘It wasn’t like that,’ she said. ‘Titus asked us to recover—’

  ‘Emperor Titus?’ said Aristo. ‘The emperor himself asked you to do something?’

  ‘Yes. He asked us to recover a gem which had originally belonged to him, an emerald called “Nero’s Eye”. So we did.’

  ‘We didn’t recover it,’ said Jonathan. ‘We stole it.’

  ‘But it originally belonged to him,’ said Flavia.

  Aristo frowned. ‘But why would the emperor send children on such an important and dangerous mission? Especially when he has his choice of agents and spies?’

  Jonathan answered. ‘He said children can go places where adults can’t, and that we’d proved ourselves to him before.’

  Lupus held up his wax tablet: SAID HE COULD TRUST US

  ‘And you succeeded in the mission?’ said Aristo.

  ‘Yes,’ said Flavia. ‘We stole the emerald and we gave it to one of Titus’s agents, a man named Taurus from Sabratha.’

  ‘We think that was our mistake,’ sighed Jonathan. ‘We should have personally handed the gem to Titus. He obviously never got it and he probably thinks we kept it for ourselves.’

  Flavia nodded. ‘We think Taurus kept the gem for himself and put the blame on us. Anyway, we were on our way back to Italia when our ship was blown off course and ran aground. Lupus and Jonathan and I washed up together but we couldn’t find Nubia. Then we discovered she was going up the Nile. We were following her when we discovered that some Egyptian officials were after us. They had a warrant for our arrest. It had come via Sabratha, where Titus’s agent Taurus lived. Later we saw Taurus’s slave with the officials.’

  ‘That’s how we know he betrayed us,’ said Jonathan.

  ‘Yes,’ said Flavia. ‘Nathan helped us trick the Egyptians into thinking we were dead, but when we got back here to Alexandria we found there were new notices up for our arrest.’

  Jonathan added: ‘We think they must have intercepted two letters we sent home, to tell you we were safe.’

  ‘By all the gods,’ muttered Aristo. ‘And now there are notices up in Rome and Ostia, too.’

  ‘Are they like this one?’ Flavia handed Aristo the piece of papyrus.

  He took it and nodded. ‘Yes. Except the ones in Ostia are written in Latin and dated a week before the Kalends of August,’ he said. ‘Oh, and they have a small addition: they say you’re wanted for treason against the Emperor.’

  ‘Treason!’ breathed Flavia. ‘That means they can execute us if they find us.’

  She stared at her friends in dismay.

  Aristo shook his head. ‘I’m afraid I’m the bearer of even more bad news.’

  ‘More bad news?’ cried Flavia. ‘What could be worse than a charge of treason?’

  Aristo put his beaker down on the table. ‘Suppressio,’ he said. ‘The kidnapping of freeborn children.’

  ‘We’re accused of kidnapping?’

  ‘No. There have been some more kidnappings. In Ostia.’

  ‘Slave-dealers?’ asked Flavia.

  ‘Pirates?’ whispered Nubia.

  ‘Who?’ asked Jonathan. �
�Who was kidnapped?’

  ‘Half a dozen freeborn children,’ said Aristo, ‘including Popo.’

  ‘Alas!’ cried Nubia.

  Jonathan rested his head in his hands.

  ‘Who’s Popo?’ asked Nathan, looking from one to the other.

  Flavia explained: ‘Last year,’ she said, ‘Jonathan’s sister had twin boys, Philadelphus and Soter. Everybody calls them Popo and Soso.’

  ‘How did it happen?’ asked Jonathan, without raising his head from his hands.

  ‘Popo was with one of his wet-nurses in the fish-market,’ said Aristo, ‘and they were both seized.’

  ‘Why take Popo?’ asked Jonathan. ‘He’s just a baby.’

  ‘Six other freeborn children were taken the day before,’ said Aristo. ‘The kidnappers must have done one last sweep. Your baby nephew was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They took the girl, too.’

  ‘Alas!’ cried Nubia again, and Lupus growled.

  ‘Who did it?’ asked Flavia. ‘Do they know?’

  Aristo nodded. ‘A youth came to the house a few hours after their abduction and told us he recognised the men who took them. His description fit with sightings of the kidnappers we had the day before. A mother of one of the other kidnapped children thinks they were from Rhodes.’

  ‘But it can’t be!’ cried Flavia. ‘We broke the slave-trade in Rhodes last year.’

  ‘Your father thought that, too,’ said Aristo to Flavia, ‘But now he suspects that some of the Rhodians moved over to the mainland and have been operating from a base there.’

  Flavia nodded. ‘Gaius Valerius Flaccus went to Halicarnassus last year to try to find the leader of the kidnapping ring. We called him Biggest Buyer.’

  ‘That’s right. And now your father has gone there, too, in search of Popo and his wet-nurse. That’s why he doesn’t know you’re alive.’

  ‘Pater doesn’t know we’re alive?’ said Flavia.

  ‘No,’ said Aristo. ‘Your father thinks you’re dead.’

  Jonathan rested his head in his hands again. He felt sick. He knew this was all his fault.

  He heard Flavia’s voice saying, ‘Pater thinks we’re dead?’

  ‘We all thought you were dead,’ said Aristo. ‘Your father returned from his voyage on the Kalends of June. He was nearly out of his mind when he discovered that the four of you had left Ostia back in March and were still missing three months later.’

  ‘Oh, poor pater!’ whispered Flavia. ‘We were supposed to be back before him.’

  ‘After several days of frantic investigation,’ said Aristo, ‘he realised you had gone to Sabratha. He was about to set sail to look for you when word reached us that the four of you were dead.’

  ‘The shipwreck,’ muttered Jonathan.

  ‘Yes,’ said Aristo. ‘Ostia’s harbourmaster received a report that the merchant ship Tyche had sunk. One of its crewmembers, a Phoenician, was picked up by a big grain ship on its way to Italia. He was floating on a piece of wreckage, and unconscious. When he recovered, he said there had been four Roman children aboard his ship, travelling with their uncle. The Phoenician believed he was the only survivor.’

  ‘Uncle Gaius hasn’t come home, has he?’ asked Flavia.

  ‘I’m afraid not.’

  ‘Alas!’ whispered Nubia. ‘Marcus Flavius Geminus has lost his brother and now he thinks he has also lost his daughter.’

  ‘Poor pater!’ said Flavia. ‘He must have been devastated.’

  ‘He was,’ said Aristo. ‘He let his hair and beard grow, and we were afraid he was going to resort to unmixed wine or poppy tears, like—’

  Jonathan looked up sharply.

  Aristo avoided his gaze and looked at Flavia. ‘When Popo and the others were kidnapped your father became obsessed with rescuing them. He went to his patron for help, and summoned his own clients. He called in every favour due to him, and recruited some powerful allies. Now he’s obsessed with finding Popo.’

  ‘Poor pater,’ repeated Flavia. ‘He’s doing it because he thinks I’m dead.’

  ‘I believe so,’ said Aristo. ‘Popo and Soso are now his closest living relatives.’

  ‘And my parents think I’m dead,’ murmured Jonathan. ‘After everything that’s happened . . .’

  ‘No,’ said Aristo. ‘Your parents know you’re alive.’

  ‘They do?’

  Lupus grunted and opened his hands as if to say, How?

  ‘Yes,’ said Flavia, turning to Aristo. ‘How do they know we’re alive? And how did you know we were alive?’

  Suddenly Lupus snapped his fingers, reached over and picked up the papyrus notice from beside Flavia. He waved it at Aristo.

  ‘Exactly,’ said their tutor grimly. ‘The notices say that you were last seen in Upper Egypt. That’s how we knew you must have survived the shipwreck.’

  ‘But pater doesn’t know?’ said Flavia.

  ‘No. He went in search of Popo before the notices went up.’

  ‘Great Juno’s beard,’ muttered Jonathan. ‘What a mess.’

  ‘What about the other baby?’ asked Nubia. ‘What about Soso?’

  ‘He’s still living at Jonathan’s house; the women guard him like she-tigers.’

  ‘But the youngest wet-nurse was kidnapped with Popo?’ asked Flavia.

  ‘Yes,’ said Aristo. ‘I suppose they needed her to feed the baby. She’s hardly more than a child herself.’

  ‘Lydia,’ said Nubia softly. ‘Her name is Lydia.’

  ‘Why doesn’t someone do something about these kidnappers?’ Flavia rose to her feet and twisted her hands together. ‘This suppressio is so wrong. It has to stop!’

  ‘Someone is doing something. Your father. He put me in charge of the household, and he took Caudex with him to Halicarnassus.’

  Nubia frowned. ‘I forget where is Halicarnassus.’

  ‘In Asia,’ said Aristo and Nathan together.

  ‘I forget what is Asia, too.’

  ‘Remember the island of Rhodes?’ said Flavia. ‘Where we went last year? The mainland near Rhodes is the province of Asia.’

  ‘Is Rhodes nearby or far?’ asked Nubia.

  ‘Not far,’ said Nathan. ‘It’s about four hundred miles north of Alexandria. Three days sailing if the winds are favourable.’

  Aristo looked at Flavia. ‘Your father and Caudex set sail for Halicarnassus two weeks ago. The notices went up two days later, and I set sail for Alexandria the next morning.’

  ‘What about my parents?’ asked Jonathan suddenly. ‘Haven’t they done anything to try to find Popo? Or me?’ he added.

  ‘No.’ Aristo did not meet his gaze. ‘Your father isn’t well. Your mother has her hands full looking after him. She’s been a tower of strength but . . .’ Aristo trailed off.

  Jonathan stared at the tile floor. ‘Is my father still drinking poppy tears?’ he asked.

  ‘I’m afraid so. He hardly practices medicine these days. Most of his patients go to other doctors now. If it weren’t for Hephzibah’s riches, I don’t know how your parents would survive. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you.’

  ‘Poor doctor Mordecai,’ said Flavia. ‘And poor pater.’

  ‘And poor baby Popo,’ added Nubia. ‘He lost father and mother, and now has been taken from his twin brother.’

  Once again, Jonathan rested his head in his hands and tried to ignore the voice in his head, the voice telling him that this was all his fault.

  ‘If we can’t go home, then we have to go to Halicarnassus!’ said Flavia suddenly. ‘I’ve got to find pater and tell him I’m alive.’

  ‘We can help him find Popo,’ said Nubia.

  ‘And the other kidnapped children,’ said Flavia.

  ‘And Lydia the wet-nurse,’ said Nubia.

  Lupus grunted his agreement.

  ‘Halicarnassus,’ said Nathan thoughtfully, ‘That’s not a bad idea. Aristo’s arrival means the officials are on the alert for you again. But they probably expect you to try to get back to
Italia, so it might be easier to smuggle the four of you out on a ship headed for Asia. He turned to Aristo. ‘And if you decide to go with them, then I might be able to put my plan into effect immediately.’

  ‘Of course I’ll go with them,’ said Aristo. ‘I’m their tutor. It’s my job to protect them, although I haven’t had much of a chance to do that over the past few months.’ He sighed. ‘Also, now that Flavia knows her father is in Halicarnassus, I suspect she’ll go with or without me.’ He looked at Flavia. ‘Am I right?’

  ‘Absolutely,’ said Flavia. ‘And the sooner we go, the better.’

  Early the following morning – on the Nones of August – a young Greek on his way home to Asia waited with half a dozen wheeled wooden boxes near the customs’ desk at Cibotus, Alexandria’s western harbour. He was in the queue to board the merchant ship Ourania, bound for Rhodes, Halicarnassus and Ephesus. The young man paid the export tax without question and produced a licence for his small collection of animals: a young lion, an elderly zebra, a sad-looking ostrich and two baboons.

  ‘I’m running for office next year,’ explained the youth. ‘I plan to put on a small beast-fight when I return to Halicarnassus. Got this lot cheap in Naucratis.’

  At his table, a sad-eyed official in a red and yellow tunic scanned a long sheet of papyrus. ‘I don’t have any record of you entering the city.’ The official looked up at the youth.

  The young Greek gave him a flashing smile. ‘That’s because my bride and I came through Arabia, and then up by river.’ He put his arm around the veiled girl next to him and gave her shoulder a squeeze. Sad Eyes glanced briefly at the Greek’s young wife. Above her veil, he could see dark hair and pale eyes. She looked to be barely more than a child, but she was heavily pregnant. Seven, perhaps eight months.

  ‘What’s wrong with this lion?’ asked one of the guards, a tall Alexandrian with big, muscular thighs. He was standing on tiptoe in order to peer through the high rectangular window of the wooden cage. ‘Creature’s half buried in the straw,’ he added. ‘Only its head poking out.’