She was right to be concerned. If he had spoken in front of seven citizens (slaves and other non-citizens did not count, naturally) the will could be questioned and revoked. If that happened, it would go to the courts, and most of the estate was likely to end up in the imperial coffers, whoever won the case.
‘Maximilian told me so himself,’ I said. ‘His father was threatening him with it yesterday. But Sollers seemed to know too. I thought it was general knowledge in the household.’
She smiled again. ‘It was probably just a threat. My husband would have consulted me. Though he might have discussed it with Sollers. He consulted him on everything. And with reason, too. You know that Sollers saved my husband’s sight?’
‘He did?’ No wonder Quintus admired Sollers. Eye disease is a constant problem throughout the whole of Britannica, and its effects can be dreadful. When the poor go blind, there is nothing for them but begging, and even for the rich it usually means the loss of high office. It is too easy to defraud a man who cannot see. I murmured something sympathetic.
Julia was warming to her story. ‘Poor Quintus. He was terrified. It was beginning to be difficult. He could not see to read official scrolls clearly.’
I nodded. One reason, obviously, why Quintus set such a store on his secretary.
‘He tried to keep it secret at first, but in the end he consulted every oculist in Corinium. They tried everything. Charms and salves and amulets and ointments — everything from zinc and copper to frankincense, gentian and myrrh, but it did no good. And of course, very quickly the whole town knew.’
I nodded. Corinium was famous for its oculists. I had seen several of them when I came before, working from their little booths in the market place, sitting on their consulting stools behind sacking curtains, each with his little blocks of desiccated medicine, collyria, all proudly marked with his distinctive stamp, waiting to be cut up when a patient came and dissolved in water or egg white to make the appropriate salve. Some of these men were highly thought of, but even they could hardly resist boasting of their eminent customer. No wonder gossip spread.
‘And then?’
She sighed. ‘And then he met Sollers. He had been an army surgeon, of course, but he had served in the field, and could turn his hand to anything — oculist, physician, dental surgeon too. He examined Quintus, and said there was a film growing on both his eyes. He could operate, he said. It would be dangerous, but it had to be done quickly. Quintus agreed. Sollers came to the house and took the film off the next day. Tied Quintus to the chair and scraped the film off with a bronze needle, just like that. One eye with each hand.’
I swallowed. I had heard of operations like this — the patient’s hands were strapped together and his body tied to the chair while one slave held his head steady, and another stood by with oil lamps to give a good light. Good surgeons could operate with either hand to ensure the angle was correct. The thought of undergoing such an experience, with my eyes open, made my own flesh crawl.
She nodded. ‘A dreadful operation. My husband was no coward, but I heard him moaning with fright. Sollers simply bandaged one eye while he dealt with the other, and operated more quickly than it takes to tell. It was wonderful. Sollers bathed the eyes in egg albumen and bound them with wool for a day or two, but the sight was restored. Quintus invited him to join our household permanently.’
‘And he accepted?’
‘He did, although of course after that everyone wanted him. He could have commanded any sum he wished. But he chose to stay with us, to advise us on our health and to pursue his studies. He is so loyal he has even made a will, naming myself and Quintus as his legatees. Quintus gave him his own apartments, and arranged for him to have books and writing materials. He brought several medical scrolls of his own with him, and Quintus had a whole new manuscript copied out for him — a huge treatise on herbs and treatments.’
‘Who copied it?’ I asked, although I had guessed the answer.
‘Why, Mutuus, the noxal clerk. It took him ninety days.’
Behind me I heard Junio suppress a snigger. I chose my words carefully. ‘Did you know the secretary well?’
She coloured. A faint flush of pink swept up her face and suffused her cheeks, under the careful perfection of her skin. She lowered her eyes a moment, and then raised them again to meet mine, great limpid pools of brown which would have melted a stone gorgon. I have never cared for the Roman fashion of white-lead-and-lupin face powder and lamp-blacked eyes, but on Julia it looked ravishing.
‘I will be frank, pavement-maker,’ she said softly. ‘I know Mutuus perhaps a little better than I should. The truth is, citizen, I think the boy has become fond of me. I did not notice at first, only that I met him so often in the courtyard when his duties were finished, and that he always found the means to speak to me, to ask if I wished to have a letter written or a message sent. I thought him attentive, though of course, I had no need of his services. My father was far-sighted. He had me taught to read and write myself, although I was a girl.’
‘And what did your husband think?’
‘Of Mutuus? It was he who pointed out that the boy was enamoured of me. I think he was amused, as long as he perceived no threat. Quintus was savagely jealous in some ways, but he was always glad to think that other men admired me — he liked the world to envy what he had.’
That fitted, certainly, with what I had seen of the man. The pairs of slaves, the elaborate gardens, the glittering reception room — even the insistence on removing Mutuus from Lupus and installing him as a bondsman. Quintus enjoyed flaunting what was his. It might well have afforded him satisfaction to send the secretary on errands to Julia, knowing the helpless passion he was arousing.
‘And you?’ I said. ‘What did you think of this?’
The colour in her cheeks deepened. ‘At first I did not notice, as I say. And then — I suppose I was flattered. It is always flattering to enjoy a man’s attentions. And Mutuus is a good-looking boy.’
I frowned. This was not altogether what I had hoped to hear. Mutuus was a pleasant enough lad — tall, broad-shouldered, handsome in a supercilious way — but he was angular, moving with the graceless awkwardness of youth. I should have expected Julia to prefer someone more mature.
‘And later?’ I asked, more sharply than I intended.
‘I did, I suppose, begin to enjoy his attentions. I started to send him on errands, asked him to copy verses for me and read them to me while I sat in the colonnade. I gave him wax notebooks for the purpose. Quintus did not object — I did not thrust it under his attention — and Mutuus liked to do it. When Quintus had finished with him, naturally. And recently, while my husband has been ill, it has been a comfort to me.’
I’ll wager it has, I thought. Perhaps it was the mention of the wax tablets which reminded me of Rollo and the mission I was engaged upon, but suddenly I had a strong desire to terminate the conversation. But first I had to ask her the question that had disturbed me all the previous day.
‘And was it Mutuus you went to see yesterday, lady, when you went to crave an audience with your husband for Marcus and I?’
She gave a little gasp and clapped a hand to her lovely face.
I was inexorable. ‘For certainly you didn’t go to Ulpius. Maximilian was with his father at the time, and he came to us looking for you. So, unless you killed your husband, lady, you did not go to his room.’
She paled and bit her lower lip till the colour came. I wondered if she knew the effect of that action on a susceptible male. Then she smiled uncertainly.