‘If anyone is going to travel on the lane alone, it should be me,’ he said. ‘But if I think you two have gone too long, I shall bring Maximus and come and look for you. And I’ll bring the wood-axe with me, just in case!’ He waited till Minimus had climbed up ahead of me, then he smacked Arlina’s rump and turned away in the direction of our homes.
I found myself bumping down the lane again towards the prospective vineyard where the land-slaves were.
SIX
The chief land-slave saw us coming down the lane. He abandoned his view-point position on a high point of the field and called out in surprise, ‘Why citizen, I see you’re here again! But be assured, we’ve not been idle while you were away. We’ve started digging the trenches for the vines. I’ll show you, if you wish!’ The undertone of mocking half-contempt was, as usual, barely concealed by the outward courtesy. ‘Come down to the enclosure gate and I will let you in.’
I ignored this invitation. I dismounted where I was and went directly over to the boundary wall, leaving Minimus to tether up the mule. ‘Never mind the vines,’ I shouted back. ‘I’ve more important things than vineyards to discuss with you.’
He must have realised that something was afoot because the carefully adopted fake-attentive smile faded from his lean, tanned features instantly. He positively scurried across the field to meet me where I was and when he spoke his manner was quite different from before. ‘Why, whatever is it, citizen?’ For the first time in our acquaintance he looked straight into my eyes. ‘Has something happened to the master while he’s been overseas?’ He saw that I was beginning to shake my head, denying this, and before I could say anything, he’d made another guess. ‘Or has the mistress perished giving birth to the new child? It’s something serious, I can see that from your face.’
‘It’s not what happened to your owners, it’s what has happened here.’ I had to hold my hand up, even then, to silence him before he started to interrupt again. ‘But before you ask me questions, there’s one I have for you. Think carefully before you answer it — much may depend on what you tell me now. Did anything strike you as unusual last night when you went back home to the main estate again?’
He was frowning. ‘But we didn’t! Surely you must have been aware of that?’
‘Didn’t what?’ I was as perplexed as he appeared to be. He was still staring at me in bewilderment, so I said, to make it clearer, ‘What was it that you didn’t do?’
‘Go back to the main estate last night!’ he said, as if this were the strangest notion in the world. ‘Even since that message was delivered two days or more ago, none of us land-slaves has been back at all.’
‘Message? What message?’ I was beginning to sound like Echo in the myth. ‘I didn’t know there had been any message to the house.’
He gave me a sly grin. ‘Then you’re not as much in the master’s confidence as I supposed you were. Oh, indeed there was a message, citizen. A whole great scroll of it. We had strict instructions. There’s a disused farmhouse here and we were to sleep in that till they had finished in the villa — even the animals were moved down here meanwhile.’
I nodded. Obviously the cleaning operations had been Marcus’s idea — that was only what one might expect. But moving all the land-slaves out was rather radical, and had obviously led to the slaughter of the indoor staff. ‘So you aren’t even using the courtyard barns down there?’ I persisted. I was remembering the empty stalls and stock enclosures at the rear of the villa. I should have realised that it was unusual, but I had been too anxious about the missing slaves to really take in the significance.
‘Not at the moment, citizen.’
‘But why not? Isn’t that what you generally do? Even if this great cleaning spree is taking place, you wouldn’t hinder it. And the outbuildings at the villa are in much better repair.’
‘We weren’t wanted at the main estate, tending the creatures and getting in the way, and this arrangement made things more convenient. Or so the master thought, apparently — though, of course, in fact, it made a lot of extra work for us.’
I waved away this piece of grumbling. ‘Convenient for what?’
He was edging towards that former mocking air again. ‘For seeing to the animals, citizen, of course. Even during this season there is lots of work to do, especially when you’re caring for the new kids and lambs and calves.’ He gazed at me and seemed to realise that I really was bemused. ‘There are empty barns and stables here that are quite usable. Plus, there is a chicken coop or two, and quite a nice enclosure for the goats — the whole place was a working farm till recently. You’re right, of course. Several of the buildings were in a dreadful state. But I’ve had such labour as I could afford doing their best to mend them while we moved the stock — and I’m glad to say that everything’s a little better now.’ He stopped and looked at me triumphantly.
He was obviously seeking to be as helpful as possible, but I still had no idea what this was all about. However, a suspicion had begun to dawn on me. ‘Never mind the arrangements for the animals. Who was it decided that you should stay up here?’
He took a small step backwards in surprise. ‘It was the master’s orders. I thought I’d told you that.’ He had adopted a weary, patient tone, as if talking to a failing intellect. ‘He sent this message several days ago saying that on his travels he had found a house in Gaul and all the precious objects in the villa here were to be packed up and crated and sent over to him there.’
I boggled at him. ‘So he’s closing down the villa?’
‘Not immediately, citizen, I think. I understand he hopes to come here now and then, if only to see this vineyard that he wants so much. But in the end, perhaps. It would not affect his role as magistrate — he still has a smart apartment in the town.’
‘Of course,’ I murmured. ‘And a fine house in Corinium as well. But he’s devoted to this villa. And I know he planned to pass it to his son when he’s of age. Why would he part with it?’
He acknowledged this information with a little bow. ‘Perhaps he thinks that this new place he’s found would make a sort of halfway house where he can stay if he is travelling more frequently to and fro from Rome, and obviously that’s something that he intends to do.’ He gave me a knowing grin. ‘Not surprising now his friend’s the Emperor. But I thought you would have known all this in any case. Marcus always seems to tell you everything.’
I looked thoughtfully at him. In principle, the thing was not impossible. My patron was given to sudden whims like this, very often not thought through in any detail — as witness the very vineyards we were looking at, or his one-time enthusiasm for those neatly matching pairs of slaves. And it would certainly explain the missing items from the house. I could see why the overseer had not questioned it.
But it did not explain what had happened to the slaves. I shook my head. ‘You are right. I hadn’t heard,’ I told him, soberly. ‘And I’m not sure that I believe it now. You are quite sure that the message was from Marcus Septimus?’
He stared at me as though I were insane. ‘I’m absolutely certain, citizen. I saw the scroll myself.’
‘And you could read it?’ I enquired, genuinely impressed. One does not expect land-slaves, even senior ones like this, to be literate at all. Such skills are not required in the fields and few owners go to the expense of teaching them, though occasional bright individuals do contrive to teach themselves by studying known inscriptions on public monuments, learning to decipher the letters bit by bit.
But the overseer was not one of these exceptions, it appeared.
He looked at me, abashed. ‘Well, not exactly, citizen. I can make out a word or two of course, but it takes me quite a time. The steward read it to us and handed it around to let us look at it. It’s what he always does. He would not have made it up, I’m sure.’ He brightened. ‘Anyway, I recognised the seal. It was the master’s, I am positive of that. And the message even listed all the things that had to go … which stools and statues and which ornaments. Who else but His Excellence could know details like that …?’ He saw my face and trailed off in dismay. ‘Oh, I suppose the steward would. You really think the letter was a fake? So … there’s been some kind of robbery? Is that what you believe?’