Successio

by Alison Morton

  I shrugged, took a swallow from my water bottle, and stood up, my eyes ranging over the far mountains and forest and the green fields and city below.

  ‘I love this country. My ancestors struggled for it. I’m not going to let some throwback poison it. End of.’

  *

  Sertorius was at his most pompous at Conrad’s hearing as he delivered an eloquent pleading on his behalf, but the accusatrix’s representative hardly bleated. The magistrate declared that in light of Conrad’s previous service to the state, the character witnesses’ testimonies and the malign influence he’d been subject to, his punishment would be light. But the judgement stood; he would never be able to hold any public office again. He swallowed hard as he heard these harsh words, but he said later he didn’t expect anything else. A lousy end to a great career, I thought.

  He was placed under probation for three years, a novel idea for Romans, but better than rotting in the pen. He’d wear a midnight to six curfew tag for the first six months and report to the custodes every month as well as undergo supervised counselling. Juno, it was humiliating, but the judge said as a member of the Twelve Families he should have behaved better.

  I felt a hot, red wave rise in me at this public humiliation of a man who had given so much and done one stupid thing, but Helena pulled me back down to my seat. The magistrate fixed me with her fierce eyes for several seconds. I had to give way and she went back to her condemnation. If Conrad incurred anything more than a parking offence, the conditional release would be revoked and he’d be in the central military jail for the rest of the period.

  ‘At least I can get out of the house now, thank Mars,’ he said. ‘And thank you, love, for not rejecting me, for helping me fight my way back.’ He took my hand kissed the back, kissed my cheek and my forehead. He was well again, back with us in the family and free. I had to be content.

  *

  Conrad went to visit Stella that same afternoon. Nothing was said at supper, but he hardly spoke a word. After the children and Helena had gone, we sat together on a couch in the atrium, his arm along the back and his other hand cradling mine.

  ‘She didn’t rush into my arms or sit beside me, but she didn’t pull her hand away when I took it. I apologised for letting her down, but she started mumbling one back to me. I’ve never felt so awkward with her. I thought that was it and we’d sit the rest of the visit out in guilty silence. But when I asked her about her work at the centre, it was as if a cold corpse had sprung into life.’ He pressed my hand. ‘You know something? I think we’re all a bit irrelevant to her now. She is so centred on her work. Anything or anybody outside it doesn’t count.’

  XXXI

  The festival of Floralia hit us in May and now her exams were over, I let Allegra out to go to the less wild parties her school friends were putting on over the next three days. She was fifteen. She wouldn’t want to hang around a crowd of boring adults. I drew the line at being out after midnight, though; it got rowdy after that in the public squares. After the circus, open air theatres, processions and dancing, the all-night street parties meant drunk crowds and less inhibitions.

  On the last night of the festival, around twenty-five of us were at home, sprawled around on couches and easy chairs in the atrium, a full dinner and several bottles of Brancadorum champagne inside us. Helena had brought her latest squeeze. We were in full flight solving the world’s problems and dissecting the characters of our favourite pointless celebrities. Conrad smiled lazily at me, his fingers playing with my hair. I smiled back, the most relaxed with him I had been since the trials. He still had black moments that made me anxious. When my sympathy was thrown back in my face, I’d become annoyed and shout at him, then feel so guilty. He always apologised abjectly which I found embarrassing for him. But these incidents were becoming rarer, thank Juno.

  I was speculating on what might happen later on tonight then there was a loud thump, followed by boots clattering on the marble floor of the vestibule hallway. The noise grew louder and two blue-uniformed figures marched across the atrium, one holding the waist of a slighter one between them.

  Conrad jumped up and stared at the two custodes.

  ‘What in Hades is this?’

  It was Allegra, weeping and with a bandage across a bloodied nose.

  Conrad pulled the distraught child into his arms, stroking her head as he half-carried her to a couch. I signed the release and we all listened while the custodes Senior Justiciar recited the details.

  Allegra had been found in a street off the Cardo Max, lying in a heap on the ground between two dumpsters. They thought she was just another teenage drunk until they saw the blood on her face and the bruising on her arms. A paramedic had checked her out and said she could go home if there was a responsible adult there. If not, she would be hospitalised. Allegra was awake enough to insist on being taken home.

  ‘We think somebody tried to rob her but beat her up when they found she didn’t have anything on her.’ The SJ looked at me, her eyes neutral but mouth straight. She didn’t quite sneer. ‘Such a young girl shouldn’t be out by herself on the last night of Floralia.’

  ‘She was driven to her friend’s house earlier this evening and was due to be collected at midnight. She shouldn’t have been anywhere near the street,’ I said, stung by her tone. I called the chauffeur. He was still parked outside the friend’s house, waiting to bring Allegra back.

  ‘Very well, Countess,’ she said and looked at her el-pad, ‘but this is the second time she’s been found inappropriately on the street.’

  ‘Now wait a damned minute—’

  ‘Leave it, Carina.’ Conrad stepped in front of me, centimetres away from the SJ. ‘Your business here is finished. Our thanks for bringing our daughter back, but I suggest you take yourself off and find some genuine law-breakers. There’s enough of a choice out there tonight.’

  He was as biting as if admonishing some recruit who’d fouled-up on the simplest task a ten year-old could have done. The Senior Justiciar’s cheeks turned a dull red. She took a step back.

  ‘We’ll be copying our report to juvenile services.’

  ‘You’d be better occupied in finding out who did this to Countess Allegra, than writing specious reports,’ Helena piped up and came to stand by me and stare at the cop.

  *

  ‘Specious? Why do you teachers have to use weird words?’ But I smiled at Helena. If her gaze had been any hotter and crosser, the SJ would have been a pile of ash. She’d followed the two custodes to the door, not quite stepping on their heels and stood, arms crossed, while the porter sealed the pad activating the electronic bolt behind them.

  We put Allegra to bed; the doctor was on his way but it looked like bruising only. Allegra’s poor face, now cleaned, would ache in the morning. Our guests slid out tactfully to their beds.

  ‘Before you ask,’ Helena said, ‘it was Maia Quirinia’s party—’

  I groaned. Not again.

  ‘—and Countess Octavia assured me she and her husband were going to be there the whole time, but in the back. They wouldn’t let them outside tonight, they said, even for half an hour. They were going to watch the street show from the house balcony.’

  My cell phone rang, interrupting us. Helena’s eyebrow went up in question. I shook my head.

  ‘Yes, yes, she’s fine, Octavia, apart from the black eye, the swollen nose and bruises all over her arms. Do you have any idea how she got outside?’

  I looked at Conrad’s face as I listened. His frown deepened when he realised who I was talking to.

  ‘Okay. I’ll be over first thing. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell Maia I’m coming. I want to get her impression fresh. And I’ll need a list of who was invited.’

  ‘Well?’ Conrad asked.

  ‘It was Octavia who alerted the custodes. Her husband and two of the male staff went outside to look when Maia said she couldn’t find Allegra. Maia thought Allegra was playing some hiding game, but realised after a while she’d disa
ppeared. There were around fifty kids there in the house.’

  *

  Helena’s hand on my arm woke me next morning around seven. I glanced over from my pull-out bed at Allegra; her eyes were still closed. The doctor had given her a sedative once he was satisfied nothing was broken or torn. There was no sign of sexual attack, thank Diana. As I sat up, Helena tilted her head, signalling me to retreat with her into Allegra’s sitting room.

  ‘How is she?’ she asked.

  ‘Woke once in the night and I gave her some more panalgesic.’

  ‘Poor chick, she’s had a shitty year, what with that Nicola business, Aurelia dying, her father and you. She’s been so worried about you, Carina.’

  I looked at Helena and found I had nothing to say. I would have torn my heart out for Allegra not to have worried about me. Conrad came and sat with Allegra while I went to Domus Quiriniarum. He said I’d do better on my own with Maia.

  *

  Octavia Quirinia jumped up from her easy chair in the far corner of the atrium. She swallowed as I approached her. Her brown eyes, full of worry, searched my face. I bent to give her a formal kiss.

  ‘Don’t worry, Octavia, I’m not going to eat you. I’m thankful for your intervention in calling the custodes.’

  ‘Gaius and the men couldn’t find her anywhere; the custodes found her four streets away.’ She turned her face away. ‘Juno knows what would have happened to her if they hadn’t.’

  ‘Presumably the doors were secured?’

  ‘Gods, yes! Only Gaius and I, the porter and the steward knew the code for the evening. You know how silly and headstrong these girls can be. I wouldn’t put it past any of them to try and sneak out for a dare on the last night of the Floralia.’

  Not in my house they wouldn’t, but I didn’t say so.

  She handed me an el-pad. ‘This is a list of those invited and the acceptances. You’ll know most of them.’

  I scanned it quickly, but mailed it over to Helena to double-check; she might recognise any names I should be worried about.

  Octavia led me upstairs to Maia’s room. It was more like a luxury apartment. A living room was complete with every kind of electronic device and screen, expensive laminated panels instead of traditional curled edged posters of rock stars and film actors, a huge pile of pastel, mostly pink, plush toys. The fine birchwood furniture was marred by coffee rings and scratches. Magazines, hair ornaments and empty glasses and even a bottle lay on the carpet. And I smelled stale smoke. Through an alcove, I spotted a workstation, a shelf of books above, paper and pens on the desk. A schoolbag leaned at perfect right angles against the desk leg. A little used and undisturbed area.

  Maia sprawled in her bed, quilt thrown back covering only her lower legs. One arm curled around her head, the other was folded against her chest, hand under her face. One leg was bent at the knee, her left buttock exposed. And she snored.

  I strode over to the window and pulled back the drapes, letting the harsh sunlight fall on to her face. Octavia handed me a glass of water.

  ‘Maia.’ I stroked her face and gently shook her shoulder. ‘Wake up.’ I shook harder and she opened her eyes, shut them and a second later opened them wide. She sucked her breath in.

  ‘Here, drink this,’ I said.

  She struggled to hold the glass, but drank the lot in urgent gulps. She held it out to her mother who re-filled it. She stared at me like a terrified rabbit.

  ‘I didn’t see anything. When I saw Allegra wasn’t there, I thought she was hiding or had gone off somewhere,’ she gabbled before I could ask anything. ‘She’s got so serious these days. She’s not much of a laugh.’ She clamped her hand over her mouth. Her eyes bulged with fright. ‘I didn’t mean—’

  ‘Relax, Maia. Tell me about the whole evening from when you greeted your first guest to when you fell into bed.’

  *

  Allegra had refused to stay in bed, Helena said, but she submitted to resting on the couch waiting for me to return. Conrad had brought her downstairs and now sat with her, the two of them reading books.

  Both faces jerked up as I entered the atrium, one frowning, the other with bruises set against an abnormally pale skin. I kissed both, sat opposite in an easy chair and sipped the coffee Junia slid on to the table for me.

  ‘Is it very sore?’

  She waved her hand, exposed the black bruising on the top of her forearm. I looked down at the table and jammed my lips together.

  ‘How was it at Quirinia’s?’ Conrad asked.

  ‘I’ll come to that later. First, I want to hear from Allegra.’

  She’d been fine for the first two hours, happy to laugh and hang with the others and watch the street show together from the balcony. As she turned to go inside, she’d caught a face in the crowd.

  ‘I looked again. It was true. I stopped hearing the others calling me in. Maia pulled my arm, but I couldn’t move. It was Nicola.’

  Conrad and I exchanged glances. He nodded at Allegra.

  ‘Nobody had believed me before, so this time I wanted to make sure before I called. I knew Aunt Octavia would have locked the doors, so I looked for a window. The only open one was one floor up, but it had a downpipe just by it.’ She gave me a little smile. ‘Just like in the movies.’

  I closed my eyes. Please, no.

  ‘It was really easy. When I got to the ground, I crept along the side of the building.’ She glanced at me then quickly away. ‘I kept in the shadows. At the corner, I stayed behind that huge column base they have at the front. And the street was so full of noise, nobody would have heard me. She was still there in a red costume and stupid head-dress. But I knew her. It’s the eyes, they’re so like Dad’s—’

  Conrad hugged her to him.

  ‘She was laughing and flirting with some guy in an old legionary costume, then somehow, she stopped and stared right in my direction as if she knew somebody was watching her. I pulled back, but I knew she’d seen me and knew who I was. I ran back to the drainpipe and was part-way back up it, when she pulled me off. She grabbed my arm and hit me on the nose. Then she started slapping and punching me. She said some really bad things about Dad, but she said she hated you, Mama, and would finish you off next time.’ Tears poured down Allegra’s face now.

  ‘I don’t remember much more,’ she said and sniffed. ‘I know she dragged me away from Aunt Octavia’s but I couldn’t see much. And my nose hurt. She threw me on the ground in a dark place and kicked me. Then it all went black.’

  XXXII

  I didn’t get any sympathy from Lurio about the snotty Senior Justiciar; she’d been doing her job, he said. But he promised to have her copy report to juvenile services scrapped as unnecessary.

  ‘You or your resident criminal must have pissed her off. And what in Hades was Allegra doing pulling a stunt like that? Jupiter, I hope she’s not going to turn into a gung-ho idiot like her parents.’

  I could hear the combined anxiety and irritation blasting down the line. Too bad. ‘If you’ve finished bad-mouthing my family, I’ll get on to the point of this call.’

  He listened and grumped some more. Somebody would come round and take a statement, he said, when they had a gap in their schedule. I wasn’t surprised when Pelonia knocked on the door that afternoon.

  *

  Conrad looked around, fidgeting in the unfamiliar and unappetising place. Well, he’d wanted to come. We sat in a corner booth in a shabby country inn. Yellow-orange subdued lighting from dirty ceiling fixtures attempted to bounce off unpolished brass and old dark-wood furniture. A folksy smell of beer, oak and uninspired cooking permeated the place.

  I raised my hand as a figure paused in the doorway. His eyes narrowed as he looked us both over. He went to the bar, and a minute or two later stood by our table. Still standing, he took a swallow of his beer.

  ‘For Juno’s sake, sit down, Philippus. You’re blocking my view,’ I said.

  ‘Didn’t know you were bringing the family.’

  The last tim
e he’d seen Conrad was eight years ago when he cut manacles off Conrad’s beaten and emaciated body.

  I opened my mouth to reply, but Flavius walked in. He paused for a second, nodded to Philippus and sat down on the side bench without a word. Conrad tapped on the table with the fingertips of his right hand for a few seconds, but stopped when I glanced at him. He shrugged, looked away and studied the dime-store pictures hung around the walls. Nobody said anything until the server had finished bringing the rest of us drinks.

  I outlined the attack on Allegra.

  ‘Job for the scarabs, surely?’

  ‘Have you listened to anything I’ve said, Philippus?’ I glared at him. ‘Do you have anything sensible to contribute?’

  ‘Didn’t realise we were at a fund-raiser.’ He smirked.

  ‘Don’t be an arse-ache, Phil,’ Flavius said. He must have kicked his former colleague under the table, as Philippus winced. ‘This is too serious.’ They stared each other out, steady brown eyes boring into the round, face, gleaming ones sending cynicism back.

  ‘No, I haven’t got anything.’ He shrugged. ‘Which is strange. I took on most of the Pulcheria Foundation’s informers when Justus was killed and, excusing the delicate feelings of all those present,’ he smirked again, this time at Conrad, ‘they’re bloody good.’

  ‘Comforting to know that criminals have the same problems,’ Conrad shot back.

  ‘At least we have the balls to sort our own out.’

  Conrad smashed his fist down on the table, jumped to his feet and leaned over, his face in Philippus’s.

  Flavius and I rose a second later, hands out, to stop it getting physical.

  ‘Enough!’ I said. ‘We don’t have time for playground bickering.’ I turned to Philippus. ‘You’ve obviously got a leak or someone’s taking bribes. I suggest you deal with it.’

  ‘You don’t need to tell me how to keep control in my own organisation.’

  ‘No, I don’t,’ I said. ‘So do it.’

  Flavius signalled to the barkeep who brought another round of beers while we sat in unhappy silence.