A Coin for the Ferryman

by Rosemary Rowe

  He was offering a graceful end to this affair. I took his cue before his patience frayed. ‘If she will drop the charges she made against my slave, I will not insist on her arrest.’ I could see her looking hopeful, and I said hastily, ‘Provided that I can take the tunic with me now, that is. It may help us trace the girl. Her father is anxious and – as I think you know, Commander – my patron has an interest in the case.’

  The stall-woman had looked as if she might resist my request, but the mention of my patron was enough to change her mind. She licked her lower lip. ‘You’ll pay the promised price?’

  ‘I think that might be an infringement of the law, until we ascertain that it was not stolen from the girl. Otherwise it is not yours to sell.’

  I looked at the commander of the garrison with surprise. I had not expected him to take a moral stand over a second-hand tunic with a tear in it, however unusual it might prove to be, but his next words made it clear that he was seeking to find a compromise that would cost me nothing. ‘I think I will confiscate it temporarily, and have it sent to show His Excellence – you may not realise, woman, that he called here himself today? Concerning a body which was discovered near his house and a young woman who has disappeared.’

  The woman let out a fearful shriek at this. ‘A body! So that trader did kill and rob her. I was afraid of that. But I didn’t know it, citizens, I swear by all the gods. I thought she’d gone to Londinium with the other acts.’

  The commander was sharpening his pen again by now. He dipped it in the ink. ‘What other acts are these?’

  ‘He’s got a cart of reptiles with him – or did when he left here. And some sort of comic actor – that’s what the rumours say. They weren’t even local. His master must have seen them somewhere else and chosen them – they only came here to catch up with him. Some of the better acts round here were furious when they knew – but no doubt the chosen ones had offered bigger bribes.’

  He made a note of this. ‘So if we want to find this fellow it should not be difficult . . . “accompanied by a cartload of snakes” . . .’ He sounded sceptical. ‘You haven’t any other information about him, I suppose?’

  I frowned. ‘I think his name is Hirsius,’ I said. ‘I’ve heard of him before. A servant of that cousin of Marcus’s who is visiting. And it is true about the entertainment acts. Apparently the Emperor rewards variety and Lucius has been seeking out a few to take back with him to Rome. I believe they may already have reached Londinium – according to a message my patron got today.’ I frowned. ‘Though they have must have made good progress – with the baggage cart as well.’

  ‘Baggage?’

  ‘There was a wagonload of luggage too, I understand, some of it belonging to His Excellence himself. He’s hoping to catch up with it before he sails, I think – most likely at the house of the commander of the fleet, where my patron and his wife expect to stay a day or two.’

  The garrison commander put down his pen and sprinkled ash on to the document to dry the ink. He smiled. ‘Of course. I have just forwarded a letter to that very house. Well, that explains it. I could send a message there to see if the girl is with the carts, but otherwise there seems little I can do, unless her father wants to bring some kind of charge?’

  I thought about the coins. ‘I doubt that very much.’

  He pushed away the memo that he’d been scribbling. ‘In that case, citizen, I will restore to you your slave – and you, woman, can go back to your stall. It’s almost closing time. And you will return that belt that you were given as surety. I’ll keep the tunic here until I see His Excellence. Guard!’ The fat soldier put his head round the door. ‘Show this woman and this citizen downstairs, and you can release that servant boy as well. There will be no charges.’

  It was a dismissal. The woman puffed off down the stairs to close her stall up for the night, but I stood, considering. I would scarcely have time to reach the funeral guild now, and certainly I could not visit the dancing girls as well.

  I turned to the commander. ‘I had another slave – I think I mentioned it? – the one who stopped the horse. He was delivering some letters to you when all this began. Do I understand that he is in the gatehouse too?’

  The officer picked up an official scroll and opened it. ‘He did give me the letters, certainly, and the instructions as to where to send them to. They are already on their way. But I think he said he had another errand to perform. Something about the slaves’ guild and a funeral? He said that he would come back here when he’d accomplished it.’

  So Niveus had shown some initiative at last! I was still smiling as I went back down the stairs.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Minimus was looking chagrined as they marched him out to me – as well he might. If it were not for the connection with Marcus, I was sure, both of us would have been lucky not to spend a wretched night in jail, since I was not carrying the wherewithal to pay any kind of fine – and though my toga would have saved me from the worst, I could not have bribed the warder to take special care of us.

  ‘I am truly sorry, master,’ he ventured finally, when we were clear of the gatehouse and standing on the road. ‘You asked me to make enquiries about whether she had sold that tunic to the girl, and when I saw she actually had it on the stall, I thought that you would want it. She did agree to sell it – till I mentioned Marcus’s name, and suddenly she changed her mind and wouldn’t let it go.’

  I nodded. ‘Afraid that it would get her into trouble, I suppose, knowing that Marcus is a senior magistrate. She clearly guessed that it was stolen – she almost said as much. Do you want to go after her and pick up your belt?’ I motioned through the arch where the woman could even now be seen, waddling in dudgeon back towards her stall. ‘Before you find she’s sold it to another customer?’

  I meant it as a jest, but Minimus looked alarmed. ‘I suppose I’d better go and claim it. And the horse, as well. I don’t know what the guards have done with that. They took it from me when they arrested me. I suppose they took it to the stables at the garrison.’ He looked at me ruefully, his reddish eyebrows raised. ‘But you will need an attendant, since Niveus isn’t here.’

  I was amused at his assumption – derived from serving in patrician Roman households – that I must have a servant with me at all times. As a tradesman I have often walked these streets without a slave – while I was laying pavements, Junio was usually left behind to mind the shop for me. ‘I have a little business on my own account,’ I said. ‘I want to go and find the leader of those dancing girls – if I can discover which inn they’re staying at. You don’t know by any chance, I suppose – since Marcus sent you to engage their services?’

  He shook his head. ‘He did not send me to find them. I don’t know where they are.’ He brightened. ‘But I’m sure that one of the soldiers could tell you, citizen – the army always know all about pretty girls like that.’

  ‘Then find out, when you go and ask about the horse. Do that quickly, and I can go there now.’

  He frowned at me. ‘But do you still want to do that, citizen? I thought you knew all about Morella and tunic by this time.’

  ‘I still don’t know the most important things. Where did she get it from – since it appears she didn’t buy it from the stall – and what has happened to her since.’ I tried not to sound impatient. Junio would have worked this out at once.

  Minimus said ‘Oh!’ and closed his mouth again.

  ‘I think it’s possible she got it from the girls – perhaps without their leader’s even knowing it. Who else would have such tunics, after all? If not, I’ll try the brothel – the girls in there might know.’

  ‘Do you need me to find out where the . . .?’ Minimus began, and trailed off, scarlet. ‘I’ll go and see about the horse at once. And I’ll ask that new soldier on duty on the gate about the dancers. He’s quite a friendly chap. He was the one taking those bodies to the paupers’ pit yesterday – I’ve talked to him before.’

  ‘That
might have been a little different,’ I said. ‘You were escorting His Excellence and Lucius at the time.’ But it did not deter him, and I watched him hurry off and speak to the soldier at the gate. He must have been successful, because first a gesturing arm directed Minimus round behind the gatehouse to the stable yard, and then the guard looked up and signalled me to come forward.

  I was making my way towards him – the throng was lighter now – when a sudden thought struck me, like a hammer blow.

  If the plaid dress was at the villa, and the tunic on the stall, what was Morella wearing? A naked body was surely the most conspicuous kind. I closed my eyes. Of course. Why hadn’t the possibility occurred to me before? Two corpses found out on the Isca road, one of them a girl who had been ‘stripped and robbed’. And rebels who had only confessed to half of the crime, even under torture?

  And this guard had been involved! I wondered what he knew. I hurried over to ask him about it, but he held up his hand as I approached.

  ‘Not so fast, citizen. No need to rush like that.’ He looked at me, his tanned face wrinkled in a knowing smile. ‘I hear you want to find those dancing girls? I hope you’ve got some money, then, that’s all I can say. Cost you a fortune to have just one of them.’

  I smiled weakly. I was a little impatient of his teasing, but I dared not let him see – I did want the information, after all, and I needed his cooperation with the other matter too. Better to grin and bear it. ‘It isn’t for myself,’ I said. ‘It’s for . . .’ I was going to say ‘His Excellence’ but the soldier winked.

  ‘For a friend?’ he said. ‘Of course, it always is. Well, I’ll tell you where they’re staying, but I don’t know if they’re there. Half a mile or so along the military Aqua Sulis road you’ll find an inn. Used to be a hiring stables at one time, but now it just operates as a lodging house. Bit more extensive than a lot of them – they’ve turned the old carthouse into extra rooms. That’s where the girls are staying, I believe.’ He chuckled. ‘I wish you luck. Always supposing you can get past the dragon in charge.’

  I wished, not for the first time that day, that I was carrying a purse. A little tip would not have gone amiss. ‘Thank you, soldier. And there’s another thing . . .’ I was all at once so nervous that I had to clear my throat. ‘Those rebels that you executed a day or two ago, for robbing travellers on the Isca road . . .’

  This was a different matter. The friendliness had vanished all at once. ‘What about it?’ he said suspiciously, and then a look of recognition spread across his face. ‘Of course! I knew I’d seen that red-haired slave of yours before. He spoke to me that day. Only – he wasn’t accompanying you. What are you doing with His Excellence’s slave?’

  I nodded. ‘It’s a long story,’ I murmured. ‘But he’s now been lent to me. He told me that he’d seen you with the rebel corpses on the road. The thing is, I believe there was a girl they were accused of having killed?’

  ‘So I understand. They found her with lying with her father in a ditch – both stabbed and stripped and left there by the road. There’s been a lot of trouble in those parts in this last moon or two.’

  ‘You’re sure it was her father?’

  ‘Well – we could hardly ask! But he was too old to be her husband. Who else would it have been?’

  ‘And the rebels denied killing her?’

  ‘Well, of course they did – according to them they didn’t even know that she was there. But we had the evidence; there couldn’t be much doubt. One of the Silurians actually had the old man’s bloodstained clothes with him, bundled underneath him like a saddle on the horse. And the other had a leather pocket purse – cut off at the drawstring but still full of silver coins. Seemed the ancient was a hermit and lived more or less alone – apart from this daughter whom no one’d seen before – so no doubt the rebels reasoned that he would not be missed. But as luck would have it he had been to town that day, and there were people to say that they’d seen him with the purse and wearing the very garments which the rebels had in their possession. You didn’t have to be a rune-reader to see what had occurred. Anyway, the torturers obtained a confession in the end.’

  ‘For both the murders? Or only for the man’s?’

  He shrugged. He was becoming the impatient one now. ‘I don’t know, citizen. Does it matter? The rebels would have been executed just the same however many people they had killed and robbed!’

  ‘The girl’s fate may be of some interest to His Excellence,’ I said, choosing my explanation with some care. ‘I believe that her garments were discovered at his house. If it’s the young woman I think it is, that is. Can you describe the girl?’

  He looked at me suspiciously. ‘I don’t know, citizen,’ he said again. ‘I didn’t see the victims. I was only detailed to take the rebels under guard, and take them off for burial when they were finished with.’

  That was a blow, when I felt I’d been so close. ‘So you wouldn’t know, for instance, if she had greenish-yellow braids?’

  He shook his head. ‘Couldn’t tell you, citizen.’ He paused, and frowned. ‘Though, come to think of it, the hair was hacked off anyway – chopped off a thumb’s-width from the scalp, I heard.’ He raised his armoured shoulders in an apologetic shrug. ‘Some of these rapists have strange propensities and do that kind of thing. A sort of humiliation for the victim, I suppose. Like leaving her wearing nothing but those awful clumsy boots.’

  ‘She still had her boots on?’ This was more than I had hoped. The clouds seemed to stand still for a moment in the sky.

  He nodded. ‘So I understand. Not that they had any value, I suppose. They wouldn’t have fitted anybody else. No point in casting lots for them, or bringing them back to the market stalls to sell.’

  ‘So what would have happened to them?’

  ‘They would just have been thrown into the public pit with her, I suppose. You could have gone and had a look, if you’d thought of it earlier, but those corpses were put in there several days ago. By now there will be others thrown in on top of them – and very likely they’ll have been covered up with soil to stop the stink. I doubt you’d get authority to dig them up again.’

  Poor Morella. By this time I was quite certain it was her. ‘Cruelly stabbed’ and left beside the road with an old man who had already been set upon and robbed so that she looked like another victim of the Silurians, then tossed into a ditch with all the paupers in the town. And rape? That was most likely guesswork – there was no way to tell unless there’d been clear violence, and he hadn’t mentioned that. Perhaps the soldiers had assumed it, because the body was naked and the head was shaved – and it was the sort of thing they might have done themselves. But I was sure that the missing hair was no sexual deviance, but a cold desire to disguise the identity of the victim. Those plaits were so distinctive, they might be recognised and, if my deductions were correct, the murderer had intended that the body by the roundhouse (if it were ever found) should be supposed to be Morella from the fragments of the cloth. So the corpse on the Isca road must not be recognised as hers.

  Of course, there may have been a sexual interlude – from what I had heard of Morella earlier, it was more than possible. Possible, even, that she’d agreed to it. The poor girl might have willingly undressed herself, in fact, and made her killer’s job a little easier.

  I turned back to the soldier. ‘You think it was a rape?’

  He gave me that knowing look again, clearly suspecting me of an unhealthy interest. ‘I remember hearing that she was badly bruised – as if she had been beaten, or savagely attacked.’

  I sighed, remembering what her mother had told me earlier. ‘That was her father, not her murderer, I think. He beat her for talking to a stranger in the town.’ Merely for talking! No wonder the poor child had tried to run away.

  The soldier was looking at me suspiciously by now. ‘And what exactly is your interest in all this? She’s not your daughter, from what you have just said. And no one has suggested that she was a slave –
no slave brands on her shoulders or head, or anything. So why are you asking these questions, citizen?’

  ‘I told you, it may be of interest to His Excellence,’ I said. ‘I will make a point of telling him how helpful you have been. And now, if you will excuse me, I think I see my slave. It seems that he has now been reunited with his horse.’

  I gestured towards the barracks as I spoke the words, and there indeed was Minimus, leading his splendid mount towards the gate. While the guard was looking at them I quickly slipped away. It is embarrassing to be in Glevum without a purse, sometimes.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Minimus was surprised to find me standing there – almost exactly where he’d seen me last.

  ‘Did you not get your directions, citizen? To find the dancing girls? The man seemed quite certain he could tell you where they were.’ He glanced towards the gatehouse where the tanned guard was glaring rather mutinously at me.

  ‘Oh, he gave me good directions,’ I replied, ‘and rather more than that.’ I outlined Morella’s story as I understood it now.

  Minimus gaped. ‘So you think that someone took her out and simply left her there? Heard about the other victim – and put her next to him?’

  ‘Or simply found him there, and made the most of it. Perhaps that’s why her murderer chose to go that way. It’s quite clever really. I understand that there have been a number of attacks on that road recently – even without the old man’s corpse, it’s likely that the Silurians would have been held to blame.’

  He nodded. ‘I can vouch for that. Marcus was talking about it in the villa, just the other day. Half a dozen rebels have been caught and brought to trial for robbing travellers.’ He gave a troubled grin. ‘He hoped the sentences he meted out would stop it happening again.’

  Instead of which, if anything, they’d made it worse, I thought. When the penalty for murder is no worse than that for theft, thieves are more likely to kill their victims – because dead men cannot talk. However, I did not say that to Minimus. Instead I gestured back into the town. ‘You will have to hurry if you want your belt tonight. I will walk the half-mile to this famous inn and see if I can find the dancing girls. If you see Niveus get him to wait for me at the arch – there’s supposed to be a councillor who is going to take us home.’