Man Eater

‘I do,’ he said graciously, although few seemed to be enjoying it as much as Tulola. Corbulo was drinking himself under the table, Timoleon was boring Sergius and Euphemia with his exploits, Alis was comparing with Pallas the virtues of braising versus a good fricassee and Taranis had grown positively maudlin. Across the room, his complexion dark against the brilliant yellow, Barea cringed under a heavy lashing from Claudia’s tongue. Under the circumstances, Marcus thought, the Lusitanian had got off rather lightly.

Orbilio smiled to himself. Rarely did he go undercover, but when he did, the art of lipreading came into its own, and he had been thoroughly entertained by her performance with Corbulo. Up to the point where the Etruscan’s hand closed over her wrist and drew her slowly towards him. Orbilio’s gut twisted. She had not resisted. The conversation became not only secret but intimate, but it was only when Claudia began tugging on Corbulo’s looped braids and whispering so earnestly, that he realized how serious a rival the trainer really was.

He refused the figs and the sorbs and the medlars, and tried to quench the burning in his heart with the sherbet.

‘What’, Tulola purred in his ear, ‘do you think of my library?’

‘I haven’t been in there.’ Yet he thought he’d searched all the rooms…

‘Which would you prefer? Philosophy? Travelogues? Eulogies?’ She waved her arm to indicate her six Negroes who, while his thoughts were turned inwards, had arranged themselves in a circle facing outwards. ‘We have them all.’

Holy Mars. ‘You don’t mean-’

Tulola rolled on to her back and let out a throaty laugh. ‘Of course, I do. Wonderful, aren’t they?’ She spun back on to her stomach and clicked her fingers. ‘I think the occasion calls for poetry, don’t you?’

Orbilio nodded dumbly. Croesus above, were there no depths Tulola could not plumb? Weren’t these men degraded enough, pulling her chariot, without being turned into a human library?

‘Can you imagine how difficult it is,’ she drawled, tracing a sinuous tongue round her lips, ‘finding handsome specimens able to recite?’

He should not have been surprised when the poetry turned out to be explicit erotica, but he was, and this time he couldn’t lay the nausea entirely at the door of his milk. Orbilio gulped at the sherbet and to hell with its potency. It was cool and refreshing, with the sweet, fizzy tang of pomegranate and in three swallows the goblet was empty. In front of the couch, the cheetah yawned.

What was he doing, for gods’ sake, playing this bloody charade? He could put paid to it this instant, by announcing Agrippa’s death. Why didn’t he?

Tulola clapped her hands again and two waiters brought in a giant phallus dripping with figs and apricots, plums and cherries, which had been preserved in honey over winter. Orbilio felt the room begin to swim.

Why had he held back? The reason lay in this very hall, a vision of loveliness in pastel blue, her curls tumbling over her faience necklace as she laughed and made jokes with young Salvian. Janus, Croesus, what did she see in the trainer?

When Tulola topped up the sherbet, Orbilio swigged the lot as he pictured lighting the lanterns in his bedroom-hundreds, no thousands of them-one at a time. The heat would be cloying and heady, bay leaves and alecost would burn in the braziers, oil of cade would be splashed over orange blossoms strewn white on the floor. Compared to Claudia’s sensuality, Tulola’s raw sex grated-the dirty verses, the fruit phallus, the demeaning spectacle of men trained like animals. Even to imagine making love to Claudia at this moment would be to defile the very act, but he couldn’t help thinking that when it was over…when it was finally over and there was no breath left in either of them and the couch was damp with sweat and the air heavy with the scent of their fusion…he knew then he would be home.

‘Master Orbilio.’

Home — and never want to leave.

‘Master Orbilio.’

A gentle tug on his tunic broke the spell, and he realized he was alone in the banqueting hall, that the fruit course was long finished.

‘Where are the others?’ His mouth was furred, he must have fallen asleep.

The young girl who was trying to attract his attention seemed confused. ‘It’s the darts match, sir.’

‘Right, I’m on my way.’

‘Oh, no, sir. I’m not here to get you, I’m to tell you to go straight to your room. Lady wants you, says that it’s urgent.’

He stumbled to his feet. They felt weighted. ‘Which lady?’ he asked, but the room was empty again and the ceiling was spinning. Bloody camel, he thought, crunching his way across the debris of snail shells and cherry stones, grape pips and lobster claws. Well, they say riding one makes a man seasick, serves you bloody well right.