by Ruth Downie
"It's easy enough to buy a cheap girl, isn't it?" Ruso continued. "I've done it myself. But I didn't force mine to work in a place like this. Whereas your people were stupid enough to do that even after Saufeia had told them she was a citizen and asked for help."
There was only a slight pause before Priscus clasped his hands in apparent dismay. "Are you telling me," he said, "that that poor Saufeia girl was a Roman citizen?"
Bassus snorted. "Don't pretend you didn't know." He turned to Ruso. "He knew all right."
"Don't be ridiculous!"
"I was there when Merula told him," Bassus continued, ignoring the interruption. "He said we'd got to shut the girl up."
"What did he mean by that?"
"How should I know? I did what I always do when they act up. I explained a few things to her for her own good. In a way that would help her remember. Only instead of being sensible she went and wrote a letter asking for help and tried to send it to the legate. What was I supposed to do then?"
"I don't know," said Ruso. "What did you do?"
"I went to the management," said Bassus. "I told them we ought to be careful. With her being a citizen."
Unlike the unfortunate Daphne, thought Ruso, whose talkativeness had been cured with a sharp knife.
"I'm only the head doorman," continued Bassus, nodding toward his employer. "I gave the letter to him. Then it all happened like I told you."
"He's lying," insisted Priscus. "I never saw any letter. I had nothing to do with what happened to that girl. I told you, I leave all that to the manager."
"But Merula couldn't deal with this, could she?" said Ruso. "The girl wanted protection from a legionary officer."
"I don't know what she wanted!" snapped Priscus.
"And when an officer wrote back to her, offering to help, she didn't have the sense to realize it was a trap." Ruso turned to Bassus. "Did she really give you the slip, or were you told to let her out?"
"What do you think?" growled Bassus. "You think I can't do my job? 'Course we were told."
"Not by me!" insisted Priscus.
"No," agreed Bassus. "But I don't reckon Merula dreamed it up by herself. I reckon she thought you were letting the girl go."
"Letting her go?" demanded Priscus. "Merula would know better than that! The girl would have gone back to her family, raised a complaint, created a scandal-you would all have been in serious trouble!"
"So would you," pointed out Bassus. "You bought her."
"Nonsense!" retorted Priscus. He turned to Ruso. "You see the difficulty I'm in, Ruso? My staff made a terrible mistake and tried to cover it up. I only found out when it was over. It was too late to save that poor girl, and now they're trying to save themselves by blaming it on me."
"It weren't me what killed her," insisted Bassus. "And it weren't Stich either." He glowered at Priscus. "We just got orders to go and clean up your mess. Again."
The hand that rose to smooth Priscus's hair was shaking. "I am not responsible for any of this," he insisted. He turned to Bassus. "If you try to claim I was involved, I will tell the whole story and you will be tried and executed. And as for you, Ruso-you've been trying to undermine me ever since you came here. If you attempt to pass this slander on to anyone else, I will sue."
"Fine," said Ruso. "And I'll produce the evidence of the letter, and we'll let the governor decide."
"There was no letter!"
Ruso shook his head. "The trouble with terrorizing your staff, Priscus, is that they're too scared to bend the rules. I don't know what you said to the clerks, but one of them was so thorough he made sure your reply to Saufeia was entered in the official record."
"You're joking!" exclaimed Bassus. "He used the official post?"
"Shut up!" Priscus scowled at Ruso. "You're lying."
"You said she wasn't going to bother us again!" shouted Bassus. "You said you'd dealt with her and nobody would know!"
Priscus leaped to his feet. "Keep your mouth shut, you fool! He's lying!"
They were both looking at Ruso now. He paused, savoring his sud- den feeling of power and wishing he had the money to back it up. "You know what I'm like with administration, Priscus," he said. "Not my strong point, is it? Do you really think I would have dreamed up a tale about post logs? And before you start to think about strangling me in a back alley…" he glanced at Bassus, "or performing tongue surgery, or arranging any accidents, you should know that I've followed your example and made a file copy of all this." He made his way toward the kitchen door. "It's to be opened later this evening if I don't return. So," he added, "I'll be leaving with Tilla as soon as she's finished."
He left them to argue. The last words he heard as the kitchen door swung shut were from Bassus. "The official post? Are you really that stupid?"
The kitchen was still empty. The staff seemed to have abandoned the mess and retreated to bed. There was no sign of Merula either, nor the wine she had gone to fetch. Beyond it, the corridor that led to the back of the building was in darkness. Ruso paused, waiting for his eyes to adjust, listening for any sound from Daphne or the child. There was none. Suddenly he had the odd conviction that there was someone else there with him.
He held his breath. His right hand moved slowly and silently toward his knife. From behind him came the faintest rustle of fabric. He spun around, knife pointed at where someone's throat might be. "Don't move!"
"Don't hurt me!" It was Merula's voice.
He said, "Why are you hiding?"
"I thought you might be one of the others."
Ruso lowered the knife. "How's Daphne?"
"I don't know," she said, "and I don't care." She bent down and heaved up some sort of bag. "This place is finished. I'm not staying around to take the blame for what they did to that girl."
Ruso said, "Did they kill Asellina as well?"
"That was Priscus. The gods alone know why That's what started all this. We had to find a replacement."
"So you did a deal with Innocens?"
"It wasn't me. I'd have had more sense. I worked my way up here, Ruso. Seventeen years in the trade: I know what I'm doing. Then Priscus went and bought the place and started interfering. Never paying full price for anything. I told him, if you're going to run a business like this, you have to invest. But he wouldn't listen."
Ruso slid the knife back into the sheath. "Was it you who put Saufeia to work?"
"We all make mistakes, Doctor."
"True."
"I should have left when Priscus took over."
"Yes," agreed Ruso, "I know exactly what you mean."
He was on his way to the end room when he heard the squeal of a hinge out in the yard and then the gate slam shut. Ahead of him was the angry, scratchy cry of a newborn child.
75
Tilla sat back against the wall, clutching her arm to try and ease the ache. Beside her, Daphne lay exhausted but alive on the bed that was soaked with blood and the water of the birth. Phryne was kneeling by the bed, holding a blanket around the squalling and slimy child they had laid on its mother's belly. Now that the thick cord joining mother and baby was no longer blue, the other girl tied it as Tilla instructed. They had not been able to find anything suitable in the room, so the cord was strangled with the leather thongs removed from her boots.
Tilla leaned forward and wiped her hands on the filthy bedspread. Her work was almost done. Soon the men would come back for her, and she would have to decide what to do.
So many days had passed since she had met the medicus, and yet her choice was the same as before. She was not afraid of death. The poison had failed her today on the road. Startled by her capture, she had not thought to reach for it before they tied her arms. Now, at last, she understood. The goddess had kept her in this world not to save Phryne but to welcome Daphne's child. Praying now for Daphne who had been kind to her, she closed her eyes.
She was wakened by the medicus's voice outside the door. Startled, she rubbed her eyes. She must not sleep. They knew now about
the poison that was her freedom. As soon as she dropped her guard, they would take it away from her. She had to leave for the next world tonight, or find a reason to linger in this one.
He was banging on the door now. Calling her. The girls were looking at her, and at the bar across the door, not sure what to do.
She straightened her back. "Are you alone?"
"Yes."
She nodded to the girls. "Let him in."
Once inside he stood awkwardly, eyeing the figure on the bed. "Is she-"
"She is alive."
He said, "You did well."
"I need your knife," she said.
Without question, he crouched down and slid it along the floorboards. After she had severed the cord, Phryne swaddled the child in the shawl they had found in the trunk under the window and she settled it on its mother's breast, where it finally fell silent. "Be proud of yourself," she told Daphne in their own tongue. "Be proud of your son."
When she turned back she saw the medicus was resheathing his knife. "There's blood on that bandage," he said, frowning at her arm.
As she said, "Not mine," Daphne gave a soft moan. Tilla slid her hand under the blanket and felt the belly harden.
"Soon you can rest," Tilla told her, lifting the blanket up to see if the afterbirth was coming yet. "You are a strong girl. You have done well."
They were waiting in silence when they heard footsteps outside. The one with the odd hair appeared in the doorway, trembling and asking the medicus to look at a wound on his head. As usual, he was full of words. This time he was talking about working out a plan.
"We can extend the terms of the loan," he was saying as the medicus lifted one of the lamps to get a better view of the back of the head, from which a trickle of blood glittered black in the light. The wound had not stopped his talking. "You can keep the girl," he continued, "she's too much trouble." Tilla turned her head to listen. "Too much trouble" surely meant they were talking about her.
He was sounding excited now. "We can say Stichus killed Bassus in a fight over the takings-"
The medicus interrupted to say the wound needed cleaning before he could examine it, and he would have no part of killing anyone.
"No, Ruso, no. You don't understand. It was self-defense. You saw him attack me earlier."
The afterbirth was coming now. "Good girl," she urged, crouching to watch. It was important that it should be whole. Daphne should not be allowed to slip into the next world now. Not after such a struggle.
Daphne groaned.
"Good girl," Tilla repeated, wishing the men would have the sense to leave them in peace. "It is nearly done."
"It was terrible," the one with many words was insisting, as if anything could be terrible compared to what the girl on the bed had just been through. "I was frightened for my life. He grabbed me by the throat and banged my head against the counter. A stone counter, Ruso. I could have died! I still feel dizzy."
She glanced around. The medicus was scratching his ear in the way he did when he was uncertain. He said, "Are you telling me-?"
"I was all on my own with him! You deserted me, you abandoned a fellow officer… I had to wait till he went to find a drink and get a knife from the kitchen. It was terrible!"
"You stabbed Bassus with a kitchen knife? Gods in heaven, Priscus! Let me past, I'll have to-"
But the talkative one was clutching his arm, still complaining.
It was whole. She tied the towels in place, tucked Daphne into the blanket, and murmured a prayer of thanks to the goddess, with a final plea that the bleeding would stop soon. Behind her, the men were arguing in the doorway. The one called Priscus was promising the medicus that the man was quite dead and would not be telling any more tales.
An evening of blood.
She stroked Daphne's forehead and tidied a strand of hair that had fallen over her eyes. "The goddess has favored you with courage, sister. You did well. He is a fine healthy baby" It was not the time to be asking if there was a father to be told the news. Instead, she turned to the men in the doorway. "We need help."
The medicus glanced at them. "We need help," she repeated, raising her voice over that of the one with many words. "She needs to be carried to a clean bed."
She stepped aside. The medicus eyed her for a moment as if he were not used to taking orders, then told Phryne to bring the child and said stiffly, "Congratulations, Daphne," before stooping to gather her up in his arms. Tilla let the girls guide the medicus to a clean bed. The one called Priscus scurried after them, talking faster and faster.
Alone, she took a long cool drink of water from the jug. She had not eaten since breakfast. The soldiers had taken her food and eaten it while she walked behind them, tethered like a donkey, all the way back to Deva. She leaned back against the wall and slid down it until she was sitting on the floorboards with her legs stretched out in front of her. The boots were flapped open, thongless, useless for running even if she had the strength. She fingered the filthy bandage the medicus had put on her arm-how many days ago now? So much trouble, and for what? To bring her here to save one unborn child?
She felt her eyes flutter shut, and rubbed them hard. She must not sleep. Her hand moved to the twine fastened around her throat. She must decide tonight. She must ask for a sign from the goddess. She must get up and bar the door. In a moment, she would do all these things. She would just sit here for a while first, surrounded by the mess that comes with the welcoming of a new life, and recover her strength.
76
Bassus was slumped over the counter, his head in a dark pool of red wine mingled with the blood that had welled through the fabric of his tunic. No breath stirred the surface of the pool. Ruso's fingers moved slowly around the warm flesh of the neck, pressing for the throb of a pulse. He shook his head. The doorman was, as Priscus had claimed, quite dead. He lifted the man's shoulders, then lowered him onto the counter again and stepped away. There appeared to be more than one wound, and all were in the back. It did not look like self-defense.
"It could have been Stichus," Priscus was saying. "It all fits, do you see? Stichus wanted to steal the earnings and-"
Ruso turned on his heel and strode out of the bar.
Tilla was asleep. Priscus, who had followed him, was now talking about having the connecting door blocked up and selling the business. "Frankly, it was always something of a disappointment. Terribly difficult to find the right staff. As you know yourself, of course.. "
Ruso knelt beside Tilla and ran a finger through the brown curls that she must have hoped would disguise her. Her eyelids flickered, then she settled back into sleep. Priscus was saying something about learning from one's mistakes and putting this unfortunate affair behind them.
Ruso stood up and stepped away. He would let her sleep a little longer. He was now so late that a few more minutes would make no difference. "Accessory to kidnap and rape of a native girl, accessory to repeated rape of a citizen of Rome, strangling that citizen, and now stabbing a veteran in the back," he said. "Plus I gather the other mess Bassus had to clear up for you was Asellina."
Priscus scowled. "I really can't be held responsible for having to put an end to that girl. I warned her more than once to pull herself together. She was quite insane."
"Really? I heard she was a cheerful and popular member of the staff."
Priscus tightened his lips. "She was warned! She was ordered to show appropriate respect!"
Ruso glanced at Priscus's hair and tried to imagine the effect it would have on a girl who was prone to giggling. "You mean she wouldn't stop laughing?"
"I told you. She was insane."
Not everyone likes a good laugh, do they, sir? Poor Decimus had been wiser than he realized. "Did you invent the story about her running off with the boyfriend?" Ruso asked. "Or was that someone else?"
"How was I supposed to know the wretched girl had an admirer? When Merula made a fuss I told her to make up some sort of reason why the girl had gone, and I gave her an example.
A better manager would have used some initiative. Instead she just repeated what I'd said."
"So when her boyfriend turned up and demanded to know where she was, Merula told him she'd run off with the mysterious sailor."
"That girl was the property of the business. My property."
"And you didn't like your property laughing at you."
Priscus glared at him for a moment, clenching and unclenching his fists as if he was making a conscious effort to rein in his temper. Finally he said, "What does it matter? What happened was a little unfortunate, but as her owner, the only loss was mine."
"This whole business has been more than a little unfortunate, Priscus."
Priscus took a deep breath and appeared to recover his composure. "It has been an extremely difficult episode," he agreed. "But I think we can both feel relieved now." The hand that smoothed his hair was hardly shaking at all now. "We just need to tidy up a little. Then we can put everything behind us and make a fresh start. I'll confirm that you were called to an emergency here so your absence won't damage your promotion prospects."
Tilla stirred and murmured something in her sleep. Ruso stared at Priscus, wondering if the man's calm attempt to reason his way out of terrible crimes was a sign of insanity. Wondering too if he had collected any more weapons on his way back through the kitchen. "You expect me to keep quiet about this?"
"Of course." Priscus's mouth twisted into his wolf smile, and for the first time Ruso felt afraid of him. "What a terrible waste it would be," continued Priscus, "to ruin both of our careers over something like this. Because no matter what price you get for the girl-and, be honest, Ruso, even if you redeem her now, you will have to sell her-it will not make up the deficit in your personal finances, will it?"
"You know nothing about my personal finances."
"Really? Were you hoping no one would find out? Of course you were. Each of your creditors finding out about the others would cause a total collapse. If my informants are correct, you might be forced to sell that rather lovely farm in Gaul, leaving your brother and his expanding family homeless and penniless."