The Raven's Wing

by Frances Watts

  I hesitated. Should I make a run for it? But the prospect was ridiculous. I could hardly run all the way back to Rome. I could call for help. But who would hear me other than Marcus’s own slaves and servants? Until I knew what was going on, I had no choice but to do what he said.

  He turned back to see what was keeping me and reluctantly I went after him, up the stairs, through the wide double doors, across the entrance hall and into the atrium.

  He gestured to a couch and I sat on its edge. He seemed too agitated to sit as he first turned to face me then turned away again, hand rubbing at his close-cropped hair, then at the dark stubble on his face.

  I tried again to make sense of what was happening. ‘Why have you brought me here? What do you want with me?’ I wrapped my arms around my body to ease the trembling that sprang more from fear than the cool air of early morning. ‘Please don’t hurt me,’ I begged.

  ‘Hurt you?’ Marcus looked stunned. ‘I just saved you.’

  I shook my head, sure I had misheard him. ‘I’m sorry, did you say you saved me?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘You ordered your men to creep into my bedroom before dawn, put a sack over my head and tie me up in order to save me?’ I remembered Prisca accusing him of being unhinged since the death of Aurelia. It seemed she had been right. I only wished she was here to snap him back to sense.

  ‘I didn’t tell him to use rope and a sack,’ Marcus defended himself. ‘He did that on his own initiative.’

  ‘But it was your idea to kidnap me,’ I stated.

  He inclined his head.

  ‘Why?’ I tried to make my voice sound calm rather than afraid.

  ‘Listen …’ He pulled up a stool to sit in front of me and leaned forwards, his voice urgent now. ‘Aurelia did not die because she was ill: she was poisoned. And I think you’re in danger too.’

  A chill ran through me. So my first suspicion had been right: Aurelia’s murderer was after me. The idea made me reel backwards like I had been kicked. Marcus reached for me and I clutched at his outstretched hands. ‘But who would want to kill me?’ I whispered. ‘Do you know who poisoned Aurelia?’

  Marcus’s expression was grim. ‘I believe I do.’

  ‘And you think that I’m next.’ But who hated me enough to …? ‘You!’ I felt my strength rushing back and snatched my hand from his to point at him. ‘You have brought me here to kill me.’ My voice broke as fear washed through me. I was shaking uncontrollably now.

  ‘Me?’ He laughed as if the idea was unthinkable. ‘Why would I want to kill you?’

  ‘Because you think I poisoned Aurelia.’

  ‘What? Don’t be ridiculous.’

  ‘It’s not ridiculous,’ I said. ‘In Oplontis you told your mother that I was Aurelia’s enemy.’

  ‘You heard that?’ He looked tired. ‘It was so soon after Aurelia’s funeral, I was half delirious. I spoke out of anger. And you must admit that it worked out well for you: my sister no sooner departs for the underworld than you step into her shoes.’

  ‘It was my father who arranged the marriage between me and Lucius,’ I protested.

  He regarded me levelly. ‘Was it?’ My cheeks grew hot as he continued, ‘I doubt Gaius Maximus would have come up with such an idea unaided; he seldom does. His ideas are almost always my mother’s.’ He looked contemptuous. ‘I would never let my mother — or my wife, for that matter — exert that kind of power over me.’

  ‘You would be the lord and master of the house, would you?’ I demanded.

  ‘Of course I would,’ he said, but he looked uncomfortable.

  ‘Then it’s just as well I’m not marrying you,’ I snapped.

  ‘Yes,’ he agreed, his voice hard. ‘Thank the gods for that.’

  We glared at each other then he gestured to my dress. ‘Don’t you have something else to wear? That is hardly appropriate.’

  ‘Appropriate?’ I exploded. ‘Well, I didn’t exactly have time to pack, did I?’

  Even so, I did feel something like shame now to be alone with Marcus in my wedding clothes. Standing, I fumbled at the belt around my waist, but my fingers were clumsy with embarrassment and rage. As I tugged at the knot, it seemed only to grow tighter, until finally Marcus let out a sigh of exasperation. ‘Let me.’

  ‘I can do it,’ I muttered, but let my hands drop to my side.

  Working deftly, he unravelled the knot and pulled the woollen cord free.

  Immediately I felt more comfortable without the constriction but when I looked up I realised that Marcus was regarding the cord he now held in his hands with something like horror, and as the significance of what had just happened dawned on me, I almost cried out. Only my husband was allowed to undo that knot! He thrust the belt at me and I took it, retying it around my waist with an ordinary knot this time.

  ‘It wasn’t the true Hercules knot,’ I said hurriedly. ‘I tied it myself.’

  ‘Yes, of course. Claudia, you have to believe me: you are in danger — and not from me.’ There was no glint to his gaze; he was not mad, and he wasn’t playing a game. His dark eyes were steady.

  I felt the blood drain from my face and sank back onto the couch. ‘You said you know who the murderer is. Tell me.’

  ‘In all the excitement leading up to your … your wedding —’ he seemed to wince as he said it ‘— you probably didn’t notice my absence.’

  I thought of how I had waited for his return, the times I had sought his dark gaze only to find he wasn’t there. ‘I noticed,’ I said in a low voice.

  ‘I was in Bononia.’

  I stared at him in puzzlement. ‘Bononia? That’s where Lucius is from. What were you doing there?’

  ‘Trying to find my sister’s murderer. At first I thought perhaps a member of her husband’s family was behind it. You know, she inherited quite a lot from him. Perhaps, hearing about her remarriage, one of his relatives thought that if she was killed before she could remarry, the estate might revert to him.’

  ‘I wondered that too,’ I broke in. ‘But when I questioned Husn about it there didn’t seem to be any likely suspect.’

  ‘You asked Husn? Good thinking.’ He resumed his explanation. ‘So then I thought, what if the murderer came not from Aurelia’s side, but from Lucius’s? Did he have any enemies? So I went to Bononia …’ He hesitated.

  ‘Go on,’ I said.

  ‘I first made enquiries about his father; Lucius told us he was a publicanus.’ I nodded. ‘He was a publicanus, but only very briefly. He was found to be corrupt and removed from the position in disgrace.’

  ‘I see.’ Lucius had never mentioned this, but then why would he? ‘Lucius didn’t actually lie, though.’

  ‘Maybe not,’ Marcus conceded. ‘But he wasn’t straightforward either.’

  ‘Can you blame him? You can’t condemn a man on the actions of his father. Judge him on his own merits.’

  ‘Yes, yes,’ he said impatiently. ‘I’m getting to that. Something else I discovered in Bononia is that Lucius has gambling debts — large ones. That’s most likely the reason he joined the army: to get away. I called on his family while I was there, pretending to be in the city on business. You remember he went to visit them before his and Aurelia’s engagement party? Well, it turns out they’ve never heard of Aurelia; they haven’t seen Lucius in a long time and had no idea he was in Rome.’

  ‘Oh.’ My breath left me in a rush.

  ‘Also, he did not resign from the army willingly. The circumstances are a bit murky, but I think we can assume he left under a cloud.’

  It seemed to get worse and worse. ‘If he’s such a bad person, why would my brother be friends with him?’

  Marcus lifted his shoulders. ‘He fooled us all. Why not your brother too? But it’s possible that by the time he left the army Lucius and your brother were no longer friends — if they ever were. Tiberius will never be able to tell us otherwise. Anyway,’ he continued, ‘his habits were not cured when he came to Rome. He spent many
nights gambling in the taverns of the Subura, accumulating yet more debt.’

  Gambling in the taverns of the Subura. I raised my head to stare at him blankly. ‘I thought I saw him that time when I was … when you rescued me.’

  ‘You did see him. I was following him when I found you.’

  So it had been Lucius — and he hadn’t turned his head when I called, no doubt fearing discovery. He could have been the one to save me … but he’d been more interested in saving himself.

  We were straying from the point, though. ‘What does this have to do with Aurelia’s death?’ I asked. ‘Do you think someone might have poisoned her as a warning to him?’ I thought about this for a moment. ‘But wouldn’t someone who wanted the debts repaid be in favour of the marriage and the money it would bring?’

  ‘Ah,’ said Marcus, ‘but the money and property she inherited from her husband was her own. It would not be her new husband’s. So while she was rich, the marriage would not benefit Lucius as much as …’ He inclined his head towards me. ‘What if all along he had his sights set on a different prize — a higher prize … such as Gaius’s daughter by blood?’

  I remembered Lucius ducking his head to conceal his smile on the night Father had announced our betrothal. I’d thought he was trying to hide his pleasure, knowing how it might offend Aurelia’s mother and siblings. But perhaps his smile had signalled a different kind of satisfaction. Father had had the idea of our marriage before I urged him on — and as Marcus had pointed out, Father’s ideas usually came from someone else. What if Lucius had already made the suggestion?

  Marcus broke the silence to ask, ‘Before he was engaged to Aurelia, did you ever have the sense that Lucius favoured you?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said hoarsely, knowing that my cheeks must be turning crimson. I’d already begun to suspect those scenes that had fed my infatuation with Lucius had sprung from my own imagination, but now a new thought occurred to me: was it possible that he had been manipulating me all along?

  ‘So you are saying that …’ I swallowed ‘… that Lucius killed Aurelia in order to marry me? That I am to marry a murderer?’ My words ended in a whisper. Then, realising what I’d just said, it sounded so absurd I began to laugh, feeling the hysteria bubble up. ‘No, it’s not possible. You’ve invented it all to frighten me off marrying Lucius. What proof do you have?’

  Marcus moved to sit beside me on the couch and grasped my shoulders. ‘Claudia, you must take this seriously.’

  As suddenly as it had risen, I felt the hysteria subside. ‘I know,’ I said in a small voice. ‘But I don’t know what to believe. Do you really think Lucius is capable of living among us and all the while plotting to kill Aurelia?’

  ‘It sounds unlikely, I know. But Aurelia was poisoned — there is no doubt of that. And three months ago Lucius was a stranger to us. How well do we know him really?’

  ‘So what will you do now? Will you tell my father your suspicions?’

  Marcus shook his head. ‘Gaius will deny it. He thinks the gods have sent Lucius to him as compensation for the loss of Tiberius. He won’t believe me unless I have solid evidence. And you’re right — I have none. The question is: do you believe me?’

  Did I? Of course not … and yet I wavered. The more I learned about Lucius, the less I knew. ‘It’s possible,’ I conceded. ‘I agree it’s worth investigating further.’

  Marcus nodded once, then stood and stretched. ‘I can’t remember when I last ate. Are you hungry?’

  ‘Yes,’ I realised.

  He called to the slave by the door, whom I recognised as the young man who had been with Timon. ‘Nikias, could you ask Eutropia to send some food out to the terrace? Thank you.’

  ‘So what will you do now?’ I asked as we made our way through the house, me trying not to flinch from the pain in my muscles after my unexpected introduction to horse-riding.

  ‘Look for proof.’

  ‘No, I mean before that. Do you mean for me to stay here? That might be a bit hard to explain before you’re ready to accuse Lucius. Has Prisca made up an excuse for my absence?’

  Marcus rubbed the back of his neck, looking pained. ‘I … ah … I haven’t thought that through yet. I only decided to send Timon and Nikias for you after I returned here from Rome last night. My mother doesn’t know you’re here.’

  ‘But she knows about Lucius?’

  ‘She knows what I have just told you. I told her some of it on the night you were engaged. If only I’d arrived sooner, we might have been able to stop it. Mother was hoping that even if the wedding went ahead she could find ways to postpone the adoption until I had more evidence. But last night I decided that to allow the wedding to proceed was too big a risk. Once you and Lucius had left your father’s house we’d have no way to protect you. And what if he decided that you had served your purpose once he was in possession of your dowry and had been made Gaius’s heir? What if you found out the truth about him and he feared exposure?’ A shudder racked his broad shoulders. ‘So I arranged for you to be brought here.’

  As he was speaking, we had stepped through a door onto a terrace. The early light was crisp and clear on the orderly lines of vines and terraces of gnarled olive trees that spread before me. In the far distance I heard a goat bleat and another answer back. It was a scene as lovely and peaceful as one of Theocritus’s idylls. Reluctantly, I dragged my thoughts back to Marcus’s admission.

  ‘You went to all the trouble of having me kidnapped, but you don’t have a plan for what to do next?’ Was he serious? This from someone who had been compared to a young Cicero? Not so long ago he had scorned my father for relying on his wife for advice, but it seemed to me he could have done with some of Prisca’s cool calculation. I decided not to point this out for fear of straining our new mood of cooperation.

  ‘Er …’ Was he actually blushing? It was almost amusing to see his usual confidence shaken.

  ‘So what must they be thinking back at home?’ I wondered aloud. ‘Aballa will have noticed my absence by now — or your mother, when she came to dress me in my wedding clothes.’

  ‘Perhaps they’ll presume you’ve run away,’ Marcus suggested. ‘An attack of nerves or something.’

  I considered this. ‘It does seem the most likely scenario,’ I agreed. ‘After all —’ I raised my eyebrows to emphasise the irony ‘— it’s not like anyone would have a reason to abduct me. In that case, our parents are probably questioning the slaves to see if anyone saw me leave.’

  ‘Dominus?’ We both turned at the sound of Nikias’s voice. ‘Shall I put it on the table?’ He was carrying a platter of grapes and cheese.

  I waited till he had departed then moved to lie on one of the stone couches, which had been covered with cushions. ‘No one at home knows you returned to Veii last night, do they? Could we say that you were riding over to my father’s house early this morning and you saw a pair of strangers riding away from the house? Maybe you thought it looked suspicious so you set off in pursuit and followed them out of the city along Via Flaminia.’ I plucked a grape from its stem and bit into it, relishing the burst of sweetness. ‘When they stopped along the road you saw they had a captive — and it was me! You rescued me and brought me here, as it was close, and sent Timon after the kidnappers. You can ride on ahead to Rome with the news while I follow in a litter, and you can tell everyone you intend to join Timon in the chase.’ I was feeling most insistent on the litter; I really didn’t want to make another journey on horseback.

  Marcus looked at me admiringly. ‘Is it all those books you read that have given you such a vivid imagination? It’s a good story, but what’s to stop Gaius from calling on the army to ride after the kidnappers? You’re a senator’s daughter; you can’t be kidnapped with impunity.’

  It was on the tip of my tongue to say, Why not? You did it. Instead I admitted, ‘The story won’t stand up to close scrutiny, but if you’ll only tell your mother what you did she’ll think of some way of reining in Father.’


  ‘All right, I’ll tell her,’ he said with a marked lack of enthusiasm. ‘But when you’ve returned to Rome, how will you stop the wedding from going ahead?’

  I took another grape and rolled it between my fingers. ‘I’ll pretend to be overcome by the abduction so that Father will delay the wedding, and you’ll have time to find evidence.’ I hoped this was true. For if he couldn’t find evidence to persuade Father to call off the wedding altogether, then what?

  ‘Okay. I’ll go back to Bononia to get written testimony from Lucius’s creditors and then … Claudia?’

  I had caught sight of a pair of birds hopping along the stone balustrade at the edge of the terrace. The male had a pale grey head with a black mask and wings of reddish chestnut. The female was a plain dun brown.

  ‘Look how that pathetic female is taken in by his pretty plumage,’ I said, not able to repress a trace of bitterness. ‘That could be me and Lucius.’

  Marcus turned to look. ‘No,’ he said with a trace of a smile. ‘You’re not so drab, Claudia. And I’ll tell you something about those birds: they mate for life.’ He faced me again. ‘I hope that’s not your fate — with Lucius, I mean.’

  I sighed. ‘I hope it’s not too. But it’s not up to me, is it? It’s in my father’s hands.’

  ‘Even if I can’t find evidence that he poisoned Aurelia, I’ll still be able to prove to Gaius that Lucius’s character is not what he thought. There’s no way the marriage will go ahead then. Nor the adoption.’

  Of course, that was what Marcus was concerned about, I reminded myself — the adoption.

  As if worried that the adoption might even now be going ahead, wedding or no, he stood suddenly. ‘I should leave at once,’ he said. ‘Timon will arrange for a litter to take you home when you’re ready. I’ll return to Rome as soon as I can.’

  He leaned across the table to squeeze my hand and I felt excitement flash through me like lightning. I shivered.

  Immediately he dropped my hand. ‘What is it?’

  I looked at him to see if he had felt it too, but read only concern in his eyes.

  ‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘It’s nothing.’