Second Act

by Marilyn Todd

‘What do I do all day?’ Skyles boomed, and dammit he even sounded like Augustus. ‘Livia, darling, haven’t you seen the giraffes I’ve brought back from the African plains? The black bulls from Spain? The lions from the Syrian desert?’

  ‘Exactly. All you do is play zoo—’

  That was it. Chip-chip-chip at the political scene. Nothing too contentious, just a gentle poking of fun at the expansion of the Empire, and fingers crossed Livia won’t take offence or we’ll all be facing lions from the Syrian desert. Seated on the floor with her back to the pillar, Flavia applauded Skyles’s every word and movement, funny or otherwise.

  ‘You men are all the same,’ Doris-as-Livia said. ‘I suppose you think it’s easy, being a woman, while you’re out potting Germans and Gauls all day long?’

  Beside her, Orbilio stared at his thumbnail. ‘I apologize for the subterfuge, but I felt it was necessary, because of the Halcyon Rapist.’

  ‘I do have a bodyguard,’ she reminded him sweetly. ‘Or is one Security Policeman better than six lowly slaves?’

  ‘…Livia, darling, last year I built eight-two temples. All you did was weave me this shirt…’

  Claudia clapped, not so much because it was a funny line (indeed the humour came not from the script but in the fact that the scene was set inside a humble thatched cottage, another dig at the Emperor’s asceticism), but because she didn’t want Caspar to think his satire was so poor that it made her attention drift. Beside her, Orbilio understood and said nothing until Jemima, Hermione and Adah came on to perform the first of three song-and-dance routines. Since they weren’t acting, the girls weren’t obliged to wear veils for this part and, versatility being the name of the game, they played their own percussion instruments. Hermione’s lisp was unnoticeable when she sang.

  Orbilio leaned sideways in his seat. ‘It occurs to me that the rapist might be an actor,’ he said.

  Claudia swallowed. ‘Because of the mask?’

  ‘Not entirely.’ He gave a broad beam of encouragement to the girls, but the smile didn’t extend to his eyes. ‘The rapist only strikes during the winter solstice, which just happens to be when most strolling players are in Rome. He’s also a man with a pathological hatred of women, who has the ability to stalk his victims without arousing suspicion.’

  ‘He could be any one of several entertainers, not just actors,’ she said. ‘An itinerant musician, an acrobat, a juggler, a rope walker.’

  ‘I’m sure he is.’ He turned round to face her. ‘I’m just not prepared to take any chances.’

  ‘Well, he’s not one of the Spectaculars, that’s for sure.’ Jemima, Adah and Hermione left the stage, and Erinna and Fenja took their place, but Claudia barely registered the change. ‘After all, I think I’d know if I was harbouring a monster under my roof.’

  A muscle tweaked at the side of his mouth. ‘You didn’t know I was here.’

  ‘Oh, you’re like a draught. You sneak in anywhere.’

  ‘Thanks. It makes a change from being told I’m a load of hot air. But the point is, Claudia, I’m worried.’

  ‘Orbilio, I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.’

  ‘If you were able to take care of yourself,’ he countered mildly, ‘you wouldn’t be so wary of the Security Police. But shabby as it is to admit to such base needs, it’s not just you I’m thinking of.’ He drew a deep breath and held it. ‘There’s been a shift in policy at Headquarters. My boss insists it’s purely political, but whatever the reason, he’s handed the case over to Dymas.’

  ‘Then let Dymas have the headache of solving it.’

  ‘I can’t,’ Marcus rasped, and suddenly he looked ten years older. ‘Because of me, an innocent man went to the lions. I have to make that right.’

  Claudia pleated the folds of her dress. That’s the trouble when you keep saving the world, Marcus. After a while, the world comes to expect it.

  ‘Silly question,’ she said, ‘but you have spoken to last year’s victims?’

  ‘Some.’ He rose to his feet and called for an encore, but she could see his mind was elsewhere. ‘Unfortunately, so deep was the trauma that it’s virtually impossible to draw the girls out.’

  He spiked his hands through his hair. As a member of the same sex as the beast who’d perpetrated those brutalities, how could he explain how it felt when he saw the victims recoil physically—and sometimes violently—when he and Dymas had knocked on their doors?

  ‘All we’re doing is forcing the victims to relive the agony,’ he said thickly. ‘They don’t deserve that.’

  One had trembled and started to whimper. Another curled herself into a ball and howled like a wolf. One screamed her lungs out. One clawed at her own flesh, drawing blood. Worst of all, one, like the Damascan girl Deva, had even tried to commit suicide. Only that poor bitch had more success.

  ‘What makes you so certain you didn’t put the culprit on trial last time?’

  ‘That’s the trouble. I was sure.’

  He waited until the intermission between the second and final routine before outlining the evidence that had nailed the man he and Dymas believed to be the Halcyon Rapist. Information through street contacts that led them to a suspect. The mask beneath the suspect’s bed, which tallied with the description the victims had given. The strong smell of aniseed on his clothes.

  ‘Crucially, of course, the suspect signed a confession.’

  ‘Wouldn’t you, under torture?’ Claudia countered.

  ‘He was a citizen,’ Orbilio replied with the ghost of a grin. ‘Not Captain Moschus. He was never put to the torture. And anyway, it was immaterial. Three of the victims identified him.’

  As Fenja and Erinna wound up their routine, Claudia digested the information. Well, if those were the facts, those were the facts. Unless…

  Unless—

  She thought of the mask and the creeping around, the rapist’s ability to merge with his surroundings, the mentality of the man who committed such visceral crimes. Secrets, secrets, so many secrets.

  Then, suddenly, as though a lamp had been lit, everything fell into place.

  *

  ‘Master Orbilio?’ The messenger nodded apologetically to Claudia. ‘Sorry, sir, but the steward says you’re to come home as a matter of urgency.’

  Jupiter, Juno and Mars, should she tell him now, Claudia wondered. Or think it through first? Later, she decided. She’d tell him about her suspicions later, because Mr Upright-Conscientious-and-Thorough had made what he believed was one terrible mistake on this case. He’d need to be one hundred and ten per cent convinced next time round.

  The arrival of the messenger provided the very breathing space that she needed. Yes, of course, she thought she was right. But far preferable to jumping to conclusions and forcing the pieces of the puzzle to fit, wasn’t it better to lay the evidence out in her own mind first? Check any cracks in her theory?

  Claudia watched Marcus go. And prayed to Jupiter that her hunch was wrong.

  *

  ‘The lady is in your bedroom, sir,’ Orbilio’s steward announced.

  ‘Lady?’ he queried. ‘What lady?’

  But he might have known. Angelina lay sprawled across his wide double couch in a diaphanous silver gown.

  ‘I think we should paint these walls green,’ she purred, ‘and have clouds on the ceiling, so we can pretend we’re making love outdoors, under the open sky.’

  ‘Define we,’ he said, bundling up her belongings.

  ‘We could get a couple of dogs, too. They’ll be company for me while you’re out at work—’

  ‘The only thing that’s going out, Angelina, is you. Right this minute.’

  ‘—and in the evenings we can walk them in the public parks and—’

  ‘Mother of Tarquin, woman, there is no “we”, there never was, so let’s hit this thing dead here and now.’

  ‘I’ll have to give up dancing, of course—’

  ‘Did you hear one bloody word? I want you out of my house, Angelina, and o
ut of my life. Now.’

  The pixie drew a little-girl-lost circle on the coverlet with her forefinger. ‘Don’t tease me, Marcus,’ she pouted. ‘I know how much you love me, I can tell by the way you make love to me.’

  ‘I never made love to you, Angelina. You drugged me, god knows why, but—’

  ‘Don’t! Don’t say such horrible things!’ She sat up, her hands over her ears. ‘I would never do anything so mean and so horrible. I love you, just the same as you love me.’

  ‘Is it money you want?’

  ‘Look, I know you’ve been working hard lately, Marcus, but please don’t be bloody. You know the only thing I want is you. I adore you, Marcus. I’d give you the world if I could.’ She patted the couch. ‘Come to bed now. Pretty please?’

  Croesus, the woman was absolutely barking! Well, no point in employing rational argument with a lunatic. Orbilio hauled her off the bed, dragged her screaming across the atrium and threw her bodily into the street, tossing her clothes and her baggage behind her and slamming the door as hard as he could.

  Cruel, humiliating, and it made him feel a right bastard, but there was no other way to get his message across.

  Stalkers not welcome.

  Twenty-Four

  In her bedroom, Claudia snuffed the flames of her oil lamps. Too bright. Far too bright. Instead, a single beeswax candle notched with the hour burned in the corner, its flame flickering in the reflection of the enamel inlays of her jewellery boxes, bringing the gold and silver engravings to life. A fawn with its mother. A trio of geese. A dog chasing its tail. Claudia sighed. Sat on the bed with her knees drawn up to her chest. Beside her, curled into a ball, her blue-eyed, cross-eyed, dark Egyptian cat slept peacefully, dreaming of crunchy voles and crispy sparrows and biding her time until the street mice felt safe enough to venture out of their holes.

  Time passed, the candle burned lower, and Claudia Seferius stared into space.

  Orbilio hadn’t returned and within a matter of hours, another girl would be pulled off the streets—

  The responsibility pressed down on Claudia’s chest like a weight, stifled the air in her lungs. If she took action herself and her hunch turned out to be wrong, the fall-out would be horrendous. To accuse an innocent man of being a rapist was tantamount to destroying him. Was she prepared to condemn someone on a mere hunch? On the basis of stringing a few ill-thought-out conclusions together? The hell she was. She would need proof. Concrete evidence. A cast-iron case to present.

  All the same, in a few hours, another innocent victim would be walking along minding her own business—

  Drusilla’s paws twitched in her sleep, dark whiskers flicked back and forth. She barely stirred when her mistress swung her legs off the bed and wrapped herself in her furs. Like snowflakes in a blizzard, the same thoughts kept going round and round in her head, getting nowhere, and out on her balcony Claudia forced the Halcyon Rapist out of her mind. There was nothing she could do until she spoke to Orbilio. What was keeping him?

  The hour was late. Approaching midnight. The shops had long since ceased trading. Artisans’ workshops had fallen silent. The scaffoldings round half-built structures were abandoned and eerie. But the bustle of day had been replaced by the bustle of night. Delivery wagons rumbled past, bringing everything from tanned calf skins to bricks into the city, and with just two days before Saturnalia, the drivers were homogenously jolly. Even their mules seemed more perky as they kicked and brayed their way down the thoroughfares. Claudia listened to the song of the street, and found herself humming another tune under her breath.

  ‘One day a stranger

  Rode into our valley,

  Ravaged with scars of hard battles long past.

  His eyes, they were weary,

  He was tired of running,

  But the law was behind him and catching up fast. ‘

  Her thoughts turned to her stepdaughter’s latest crush on unsuitable types, but if there was one thing to be salvaged out of this whole bloody mess, it was that the problem of Flavia, at least, could be solved. Live in poverty and strip for a living? Hades would take day trippers first. The scheming little minx had no intention of running off to join any circus. She was working towards getting her foster parents to buy him off, providing the loving couple with sufficient capital to set up home together, happy ever after.

  Claudia shook her head in disbelief. How badly can you misread someone, she thought. But if it had been Flavia’s intention to mention this gem of an idea to her beloved, she wouldn’t have had much opportunity. The instant the curtain went down on the dress rehearsal, the cast disappeared into a scrum, thrashing out the weaknesses in the plot, shoring up the holes, playing up the laughs and, judging by the babble coming up from below, were still hard at work on the rewrite.

  In any case, Claudia had pre-empted the situation by calling her bluff. Congratulations on your betrothal, read the note she’d left in Flavia’s room, you will make a wonderful bride. On her bed, she’d laid a wreath of greenery weaved with hellebores, the closest she could get this time of year to orange blossom. Ha. You want to run away with a penniless actor? Be my guest.

  ‘Long after the stranger

  Rode out of our village,

  I bore him the daughter that he never knew.

  I know not what befell him,

  I hope he found freedom,

  But I’ll always bear him a love that is true. ‘

  Dammit, the song wouldn’t go out of her head.

  *

  Across the gallery, Caspar’s eyes opened. Easing one arm from where it had become trapped under Jemima’s hip, he climbed gently over Adah and tiptoed across the thick woven rugs. There was no light in the room, but Caspar was used to feeling his way around in the dark. He discarded his nightshift and slipped into his best rose-red embroidered robe. As he belted it, he noticed that both hands were shaking, as though they had minds of their own.

  His mouth was dry, too.

  His breath shallow.

  For a second, he faltered. He didn’t have to do this. He could pull back. Stop right now— He swallowed. Wrung clammy hands together. Wished there was another way.

  But there wasn’t.

  Familiar now with which boards creaked and which didn’t, Caspar eased open the finely carved cypress-wood door and padded along the gallery on feet that were surprisingly light.

  *

  The herald in the street was calling the sixth hour when the entrance to the slaves’ quarters was unbolted. The figure was tall and bearded, with black hair that fell to his shoulders, and his handsome face was still flushed from the accolades his fellow thespians had showered upon him for his role as King of the Gods.

  From the alcove where the wood for the oven was stored, Claudia had a perfect view of the door. She did not want to believe that the Spectaculars were anything other than they appeared on the surface. But want didn’t enter into the equation. This was real life, not fairy tales. In real life, people got hurt.

  Sometimes they died.

  Secrets, secrets, so many secrets—

  Pulling his cloak high round his neck to cover the lower half of his face, Ion glanced to the left, then to the right, and then, with the agility for which actors were renowned, melted into the swarm of farmers heading for market.

  Very little time passed before Claudia heard another sound in the hallway. With the faintest of jangles, Doris snaked his way past the tables and the shelving, checking over his shoulder as he eased the door shut behind him. It could, of course, be simply an assignation. Then she recalled that look in his eyes earlier. That dangerous, feral expression.

  In the alcove, Claudia shivered.

  She attributed it to the young man with chiselled cheekbones who’d just made his exit.

  In fact, it was the draught from the front door. As another member of the cast slipped silently into the crowd.

  *

  Skyles hadn’t seen Claudia in the kitchen, but he had smelled her. That rich, Judean perf
ume was unmistakable, and he had hovered in the doorway for a minute or two, waiting for the scent to dissipate, as it surely would if she’d just been passing through. But the scent lingered, which meant she was waiting. Hidden some place, and watching.

  Skyles slipped out through the vestibule instead. Past the porter, whose sleeping mouth was still curved upwards from laughing so much during the show.

  *

  Dawn was poking a bony finger through the darkness as the Digger breakfasted on warm bread and smoked liver sausage from a street vendor. Like the rest of the cast, the Digger was on something of a high still, the dress rehearsal having sent a rush of adrenalin coursing through everyone’s veins, a combination of excitement, pride, fear of failure, supreme confidence and stage fright.

  Performing The Cuckold in ‘real’ time, as opposed to endless rehearsals, the sense of achievement had acted like a rivet, uniting every member of the team and turning them into one cohesive unit as invincible as any Roman legion.

  No one in the troupe underestimated this feat. Two months ago, they were a band of strangers brought together by circumstance and held together by chance. Some were old hands at the performing arts. Some, like the Digger, were new to the challenge, but had taken to it like widgeon to water.

  But in those two turbulent months, they had united to become Caspar’s Spectaculars in the truest sense of the word. And, just like the human tortoise made when legionaries overlapped their shields and advanced upon a besieged fortress, so the company had united, several individual pieces forming a single unified body.

  Indestructible and proud.

  But killers are like leopards, they can’t wash off their spots. Dawn might be breaking, the streets might be a crush of barrows piled high with cabbages, live fowl, flowers and carcases, but the Digger’s mind remained trapped in the rich russet shades of autumn.

  In a world where the leaves hung permanently limp in the warm, humid air and the proliferation of butterflies never moved on. The smell of moist, Frascati earth remained for ever in the Digger’s nostrils, and the rut of the stags and the yaffle of a woodpecker were a relentless echo in the Digger’s brain. As was the grunt of surprise, when spade crashed down upon skull.