Man Eater

He snapped his fingers to catch a slave’s attention. ‘Bring us more wine, will you, my good man? Only make sure it’s Falernian this time, I want none of that Campanian rubbish.’

‘What went wrong?’

‘The concept of young marriage is not without foundation, but as you know, what lies at the core of one’s character at fourteen remains the same at forty. Tulola, naturally, came a virgin to her wedding. Unfortunately, so did the bridegroom.’

‘Ah.’ Claudia poured the wine. ‘Your cousin began to experiment?’

‘Tarsulae was reduced to a small town by then, where gossip became a marketable commodity. It’s good stuff, this Falernian, how does it compare with your Seferius wine? What grape do you use?’

How should I know? ‘What happened when he found out?’

‘Now that, darling girl, is where it gets really interesting. Uh-oh, look who’s coming. Quick! Run!’ Faster than a jackrabbit, Pallas had grabbed the jug and was lumbering back to the house, but Claudia’s arm was caught in a vice.

‘Ah, Mistress Seferius! How enchanting you look in cinnabar.’

Macer, you slimy little salamander, how obnoxious you look in daylight.

He released her arm. ‘May I join you?’

Why don’t you crawl back under your stone and wait for the moon?

‘I am, you see, eager to hear your account of the terrible events of last night.’

Oh, Pallas. How wrong can you be.

With his handkerchief he brushed the marble before allowing his red embroidered tunic to make contact, but, alas, not before Claudia had tipped the remains of Pallas’ lunch on to the seat.

‘In case my story clashes with that of the crocodiles, Prefect?’ She tossed the plate in the shrubbery and flicked an ant from her finger. With any luck, there would be a small army of the little beggars sinking their pincers into his bottom even as she forced herself to smile at him. ‘Or out of concern for my personal safety?’

‘I fear you are making fun of me, Mistress Seferius, but murder is a serious matter.’

‘Especially when one is at the sharp end and the distinction between breathing and investigating the possibilities of an afterlife are beginning to blur.’ She leaned forward so her nose was a mere hand’s span away from his. ‘These bruises are not fake, Prefect. Last night someone tried to kill me.’

His smile was pure reptile. ‘I realize that, my dear Claudia, and one of the things I am trying to establish at the moment, apart from his identity, is a connection linking Fronto with the dead man and, ergo, with yourself.’

‘The eternal triangle, how original. We’ll see your name carved on great monuments yet.’

Actually he was more the sort who’d want a sundial for his memorial to ensure you saw his name whenever you looked.

‘Mock me all you wish, Mistress Seferius, only there is a nasty smell to this place which has less to do with the menagerie than appears on the surface.’

Do smells appear on the surface? Frankly, she was too disinterested in this little maggot to waste breath baiting him, and besides, if there was a ready answer, then he would find it as soon as he stood up. Pallas had had mullet on his plate, as well as mustard and vinegar and soft-boiled eggs.

‘So while my men delve for clues, perhaps you and I could go over a few of the facts that you have already presented to me, since there appear to be one or two anomalies in your statement.’

If you’ve only found a couple, then I’m doing better than I hoped. ‘Such as?’

‘Well, for one thing, you told me you had sent your servants on ahead by ox cart, when in fact you did nothing of the sort.’

‘Macer, you surprise me. You’re the Prefect of a legion covering a very large territory,’ which as we both know boasts a microscopic population, ‘yet you find that an anomaly?’

Puncture his pride and you prick Macer’s innermost soul. ‘I don’t’-the bluster was almost painful-‘quite follow you.’

‘Come, come. Surely you must have realized that in questioning me before fifty, sixty witnesses, I was hardly going to admit, a woman of my social standing, to travelling without servants. What would people think?’

‘You’re saying you lied to retain your self-respect?’

‘Wouldn’t you? The truth, Macer, is that I have been a widow for but a short time.’ She dabbed at the corner of her eye. ‘This opportunity to travel unencumbered, it was like a godsend. I am not’-sniff-‘the type of person who needs a retinue of slaves to flaunt her status and naturally I keep a chest of clothes at my dear husband’s farm.’

He scratched the tip of his thin nose. ‘Let’s recap, shall we?’ Damn. It didn’t work. ‘You received a note from your bailiff urging you to come to Etruria at once?’

‘Correct.’

‘You decided this was a much-needed escape from a crowd of attentive servants and, with the exception of Junius, left them in Rome?’

‘Correct.’

‘You hired a gig from the stand, taking your chances with a new and untried driver?’

‘Correct.’

‘You left the Via Flaminia at Narni in order to take a shortcut through Umbria on the abandoned road and spent the night at Tarsulae simply because that was the only town with a half-decent inn?’