Me too. That’s what first made me suspicious.
‘We’re going on,’ Claudia said. ‘Correction, I’m going on. You, of course, can turn back any time you wish.’
His face drained. ‘Madam! You know I’d never leave you! Not out here-’
‘Then that’s settled. Now be a good boy and lend a hand with the labouring, will you?’ She shooed him away with the back of her hand. ‘There’s a considerable amount of repair work outstanding.’
Dazed, the bodyguard stumbled off and only when she was satisfied that not even a gnat was close enough to see what she was doing did Claudia delve deep down into the satchel which she’d slung round her neck when Junius first told her to jump from the trap. Thoughtfully she weighed the small deerskin pouch in her hand and felt something, as she had felt it many times before, chink softly in the cloth. Gemstones, she presumed. What else? Stolen, in all probability, but that wasn’t her concern. All that mattered was that a man whom she’d never seen before had approached her in her own house and, on behalf of his master, had offered her a place in this prized delegation to Gaul. Then, without so much as a change in voice tone, had calmly added that if Claudia Seferius felt she could convey this package along with her on the journey, the man he worked for would be prepared to purchase last year’s vintage in its entirety.
In its entirety.
Claudia re-buried the pouch in her satchel, her fingertip dancing over the embossed salamander. Such a sum would tide her over for another year, allowing her to become fluent in Greek, learn more about the trade, develop connections, make contacts, who knows, maybe even expand? She had not hesitated, and the following day ten per cent of the promised payment had arrived via a messenger.
However, every enquiry she’d made, discreet as they were, had met with a blank-a dead end every time-leaving her unable to trace this utterly distinctive seal and therefore put a name to the man who was so generous when it came to smuggling. And more than once during the past twelve days, Claudia had wondered why, if these were gemstones in the pouch, the Salamander had covered their cost twice over in his proffered payment to her?
Who cared? Curious it might be, but it was absolutely none of her business. And in spite of the very real dangers which threatened by tagging along with this little group, what spurred Claudia on was the knowledge that, waiting for her in Vesontio, would be another agent.
With the remaining ninety yummy per cent!
IV
Had the crow sufficient stamina, it would discover that by flapping its black shiny wings from Rome to Vesontio it would cover the best part of five hundred miles. Which possibly explained why it preferred to stay at home, preening itself on the rooftop of a modest, white-fronted townhouse on the Esquiline Hill instead.
Its perch overlooked a bedroom whose double doorway faced on to a courtyard, where the scent of white roses mingled with the pinks growing beneath them, where sparrows took mudbaths in the shade of clipped laurels and a gleaming bronze fountain splattered and chattered to a long line of white marble ancestors, their noses turned snootily upwards.
‘We can try again later, if you like.’ The girl swung her long, naked leg over the coverlet and propped herself up on one elbow.
Marcus Cornelius Orbilio smiled wanly.
‘Don’t feel bad about it,’ she breathed, tracing a finger over the solid musculature of his chest. ‘Most men suffer the droops eventually.’
Eventually? For gods’ sake, he was twenty-five!
‘Pressures of work,’ he mumbled, closing his eyes and imagining she was that skinny blonde from the cookshop.
From outside he heard the mocking caw of a carrion crow, and imagination deserted him.
‘Perhaps if I-’ The girl’s fingernails slid down his armour-hard stomach.
‘No.’ It was kinder she attributed his lack of ardour to stress, but even as he forced his cheeks to bunch into a smile at the voluptuous creature lying beside him, dark hair cascading over her shoulders, pink nipples taut and erect, he felt a distinct ripple of guilt as he pushed her hand away. ‘Why don’t you-er, pour us some wine?’
There was no way he could tell her the truth. That he’d chosen her because she was the spitting image of another, with her dark tumbling curls and the flounce in her walk, for the way she threw back her head when she laughed. But the resemblance was purely superficial and in the harsh afternoon sun, Orbilio found he had no physical desire whatsoever for this mediocre substitute. There was none of the electrical surge he felt when Claudia Seferius entered the scene. No white lightning crackled around this girl the way it did around the beautiful widow. Her rosewater perfume lacked the spiciness of Claudia’s heady, Judaen scent and no matter how hard he searched, he could find no hint of molten-metal tints in those tumbling tresses, no dying sunsets, no flaming autumn hillsides.
It had been a mistake to bring this pale imitation to his bed, for the agony had been compounded, rather than eased, and a talon inside ripped at his liver as he thought about the wildcat who, if the schedule was on target, was ensconced in Vesontio right at this moment. He wondered vaguely which poor bugger was on the receiving end of Claudia’s tongue now.
Quite how she’d wangled a place on that prestigious trade delegation, Orbilio wasn’t sure, but he smiled at the bittersweet memory of the release of a thousand white doves as a signal for the delegation to set off to Gaul. Her flaming orange gown had stood out like a beacon among the rigs and traps assembled in the Forum, and once he’d watched her out of sight, Orbilio had raced up to the Capitol and remained there until the procession was just so many specks of grey dust. Twelve aching days had passed since then, and without her the city lacked vitality and life. Twelve whole days. Twelve long nights. How long before she’d be home? How long before he would see her again? Inhale the balsam from her hair? Watch that little pulse dance at her throat? Feel the heat of her firebrand temper?
He groaned, and when his bedmate tutted sympathetically, Marcus did not bother to correct her. He gulped down a goblet of chilled Thracian wine, shuddering at the shards of ice washed down with it, which slammed into his stomach like a punch. How come thoughts of Claudia half the world away could light his loins, while this girl who so closely resembled her could not? Why could he not imagine these were Claudia’s shoulders he nuzzled? Her breasts he cupped ‘Sorry to disturb you, sir.’ Orbilio’s steward tapped at the door. ‘There’s a messenger outside, says it’s urgent-’
‘No problem.’ Marcus was out of bed and reaching for his loincloth long before the steward’s knuckles had fallen away. ‘Tell him I’m coming.’
‘That’s a joke,’ snapped the girl on the bed, but Orbilio, pulling on his long, patrician tunic, didn’t hear and by the time he’d laced up his high boots, he’d forgotten all about her, including her name.
In the city centre, public notices were being hammered up, speeches delivered from tribunals, from platforms, from the steps of the Rostra. Marcus was forced to weave his way through the hoarse-throated beggars and skirt porters wiping sweat from their brow as they pushed heavy, wheeled barrows. Around Vulcan’s sacred lotus tree, chickens clucked inside barred wooden crates, baby goats bleated and urchins snatched a spilled melon here, a dropped sea perch there. This being market day, none of the charioteers whose wheels clattered so noisily over the travertine slabs gave a thought as to what might lie beneath them, and the astrologers looked to the stars to draw up their charts, not the bowels of the earth. Yet it was here, right under the Forum, that Marcus Cornelius made his descent.
‘Talk about a different world,’ he muttered, raising his torch above his head for a better view of this subterranean warren.