She saw the priest and gave an awkward bob, setting her rolls of flesh aquiver as she moved. ‘I’ve finished with the body. You can get on with the room,’ she boomed, without ado. ‘I’ve left a slave and a young citizen in there — if you’ve got roast spelt and salt to purify the place, the citizen can help you scatter it, and the slave will help to sweep the floor clean afterwards. There’s a broom of tied twigs hanging up behind the fire.’ She turned to me. ‘Your son has moved your chippings into neater piles, and put the ladder back where it belongs, so the ceremony should not disturb your working place too much.’
The priest looked quite shocked at the effrontery of this. Women were not expected to know how rituals were performed. But Alfredus Allius gave me a glance that said, ‘What did I tell you? She thinks of everything!’ as clearly as if he’d spoken the sentiment aloud.
I nodded. I was secretly impressed by her thoroughness, myself.
She turned to me. ‘Your slave was not registered with the Slave Guild, I assume. Otherwise you would not have called on me. Which means that you are arranging the funeral yourself. If you wish to move the body, you may safely do so now. Where do you hope to take it?’
‘To my roundhouse,’ I told her. ‘It is some miles away, but we have a mule outside. We’ll carry him on that.’ Maximus had ridden on Arlina many times — it seemed fitting that she should carry him on his last journey home.
She nodded. ‘I see that you have wooden racks — to carry your pattern pieces on, your son declares. One of them would make a fitting bier — the body isn’t large, and it would fit on your donkey easily enough.’
It was a good suggestion, though I hadn’t thought of it — much better than having the poor boy dangling, as he would otherwise have done. ‘Thank you,’ I acknowledged.
She met my eyes again. ‘And don’t forget that you require a cleansing ritual too. Put out your hands and I’ll pour water over them.’ She lifted out the jug and suited the action to the words, murmuring some incantation which I could not hear. ‘And then you can have a spring of rue to eat — that will cleanse you from the inside out. Open!’ she said, as a mother feeds her child, and put the bitter-smelling herb into my mouth.
I chewed on it obediently, though it tasted sour and sharp.
‘And don’t forget your talisman. I’ve chosen this for you.’ She reached into the inner recesses of her Grecian robe and pulled from somewhere between her massive breasts a thin plaited leather cord on which was suspended a crude miniature marble carving of an arm.
I could see no evidence of there being any ‘choice’ but since Alfredus Allius was providing this for me, it would have been bad-mannered to refuse. I took it from her with my still-dripping hands.
‘Put it round your neck,’ she boomed, imperious as a centurion rallying his men. ‘And do not take it off until the slave is laid to rest.’
I did as she instructed, though I felt ridiculous. As I tucked it in my tunic, though, I glanced at the clenched fingers of the modelled hand — and realised why it counted as a talisman. ‘Ah, that’s clever,’ I said, with admiring surprise. ‘The edge of the fingers make the profile of a face.’ It was crude, but quite effective. ‘Is it Jove or Mars — or does it represent some local Celtic god?’
‘It is whoever you expect to see,’ she said unhelpfully. ‘And may it guide you safely through the next few hours.’
This conversation was interrupted by the priest, who was clearly impatient of these rival rituals. ‘Well, if you are going to move the body, citizen, I suggest you do it now — as soon as possible. I can’t pretend that it won’t make my job a great deal easier.’
‘And if you’re going into the town I’ll come with you, citizen,’ the councillor chimed in. ‘I’ll pay the celebrants and after that I won’t be needed here. It’s time that I got back to my warehouse, anyway. I’ll take Vesperion to accompany me, and leave my young attendant here to guide the priest. But won’t you need to wait until the shop’s been purified, so that you can lock it after you?’
I had thought of that. ‘I’ll leave my son,’ I said. ‘He has an errand to the east gate that he’s going to run for me. He’ll wait until rites are finished here and then he’ll follow me. My living slave can help me, and I’ll take my dead one home.’
TWENTY-FOUR
It was no simple matter to arrange the bier, in the event, but with the aid of Minimus and Vesperion (who was released from his vigil to assist) I managed it. Minimus was almost overcome again at dealing with the body of his friend, but he put a brave expression on his little face and did his best to help, while the old steward’s knowledge of transporting packages made him a very useful assistant in the task. So a little later we had Maximus arranged, decently swaddled in my toga winding-cloth and securely lying on the frame along Arlina’s back.
I sent in for Alfredus Allius (who had by this time paid the celebrants their promised fees) and together we four set off towards the town, leaving the priest and Junio to complete the cleansing rites. As we were leaving, the herb woman waddled out, still carrying her pail.
I half expected her to want to walk with us — the Egidius house lay in our direction anyway and she would have had an escort for the best part of the way — but she’d obviously decided to accept the pageboy as a guide this time. She waved her bucket at us in farewell, lowered her enormous bulk onto my stockpiled stones, and began to ply him with stories of successful prophesies and ghosts she’d laid to rest. When I looked back from the corner of the road, she’d drawn a little audience of passers-by, including Festus and the tanner’s wife, both of whom were listening open-mouthed.
I nodded, satisfied. The future of my shop was in no danger now — these tales of her expertise would spread across the town and do more to restore the confidence of potential customers than any cleansing rituals by the priest. I turned my attention to dealing with the mule.
Arlina did not seem to mind the strange contraption on her back. Indeed she moved quite willingly, without the need for me to use my switch at all. ‘Almost as if she senses what she is carrying,’ Minimus said, wistfully — though privately I suspected that this unusual obedience had more to do with her being accustomed to bearing panniers: her previous owner used to fit her with a pair to carry crops into the town for him to sell.
‘I hope the soldier on watch will let us through the gate,’ I said, as our little party plodded through the muddy streets towards the northern entrance to the town. ‘And we’re not delayed by a lot of questioning. The shadows are already lengthening. I want to be sure that we are home by dusk, and I don’t want to take the long way round the outside of the walls.’
Alfredus Allius, who was picking up his feet and carefully lifting his mourning toga clear of mire, looked up anxiously. ‘But I hope we’re not caught up in the proclamation crowds. There may be a disturbance when the news about the Emperor is read, and the army won’t be gentle if they have to curb the mob.’
But we need not have worried on either count, it seemed. It was clear that rumours of all kinds had been spreading faster than the plague through the suburb where the workshop was, and people were pouring out of every shop and alleyway and surging through the gate in the hope of getting to the forum to hear what this promised proclamation was about. There was no question of the soldier stopping them.
If we had not had Alfredus with us, in fact, we might have been caught up by the throng and simply swept along like sticks in the Sabrina when the tide-race runs. The councillor was not wearing his curial stripe, of course, but even his dark toga pulla was a distinctive one, marking him out as an important man, and people did their utmost not to jostle us. So with myself and Alfredus flanking Arlina at the front and our two servants doing the same thing at the back, we managed to transport Maximus with a little dignity.