‘Fortunata?’
‘That’s the one. Knew her in Londinium when she worked for a friend. She was a dancer, and not a bad one, although reckon she’s out of shape now.’ Flora frowned. ‘Poor lass, I doubt she’ll ever learn, but she’s one of those who tries to please every man she meets. Probably thinks that will make her safe. The more important the man, the harder and quicker she flings herself at him.’
Ferox remembered the freedwoman rubbing against him and the servants’ gossip passed on by Philo. ‘What does make you safe?’ he mused.
‘Nothing.’ Flora’s tone was brutal. ‘Not any damned thing. Money helps, and influence, and luck, quick wit and real friends, but it can all go in a minute. Doesn’t matter if you’re an emperor or a slave, it can all end just like that.’ She tried to snap her fingers, but no noise came until she did it for the fourth time. ‘See, can’t even rely on that. It’s just the world, and the world doesn’t care and it ain’t always kind and it ain’t always nice.’
‘You always cheer me up.’
The dirty laugh came back again. ‘And you always get me talking and preaching.’
‘Cerialis?’
‘Oh, still nosy. Well, he’s always the same. Wants the twins, both of them together. They say he’s keen and energetic – I can draw you a picture if you like, but I didn’t think you were the sort who likes that sort of thing. Talks a lot and likes to tell them things, though – quotes poets and books. They swear he’s the wisest man they’ve ever met.’ Flora was dismissive. ‘What do those silly things know except what to do in bed or out of it? Now I’m thinking that if he was really so clever then he’d be discussing such things with his lady wife and not a couple of tarts. So I reckon he likes to feel big in every way – not just the same way as all the other men.’
‘What do you know of his wife?’
‘Hmmm. Sniffing around, are we?’ she said and laughed again. She offered him the wine, but he shook his head.
Ferox looked down at his cup. He had always been drawn to the delicacy of fine glass – so beautiful and yet so fragile. It was a wonder of the empire, smaller and less important than many, but never failed to make him marvel at the skill of its craftsmen.
‘I like her,’ Flora said after a moment. ‘She came here once – no, not in that way! You should be ashamed of yourself, you little beast.’ She drained her glass and wagged it at him reprovingly. ‘Not that there’s not some who would, but not that one. No, she sent a slave to ask for an appointment, then came and bid me good day and took my hand as courteous as you like.’ The brothel owner, former slave and whore, preened at the memory. ‘They were making a little bathing pool in the praetorium and the workmen were telling her that it couldn’t be done the way she wanted, so she wanted to see mine and ask whether I was happy with it.
‘Venus alone knows how she had heard about it,’ Flora continued. ‘Husband’s been in there often enough, but doubt he tells her!’ She sniggered for a moment, before resuming a dignified posture, her free hand in the air, fingers outstretched like a statue. ‘Took her there, and she didn’t bat an eyelid at the pictures.’
Ferox had not been in the bath here for some time, but could dimly remember walls covered in paintings of nudes and couples, of a whole wide and sometimes baffling array of lovemaking, some accurate, some mythical and some surely downright impossible.
‘Well, she asks precise questions, and I got the clerk who arranged it to answer. He turned to jelly under her gaze, but spoke up well enough. From what I hear she lectured the work party and now the prefect and his wife reckon they have almost as good a bath as mine.’
‘Perhaps without the pictures.’
Flora chuckled. ‘Perhaps without the pictures.’ She thought for a moment. ‘Might warm her up though, poor thing. Not a lot of joy in her life. As I say – emperor or slave, it doesn’t matter.’
‘Do you know much about her?’
‘You don’t give in, do you?’ She stared at him, glancing at the flagon of wine and then changing her mind. ‘If you weren’t a friend I’d let you wonder. Still, truth is that I don’t know that much, just bits and pieces I hear from the girls or when I keep my ears open. A blind man could see that the marriage is not founded on love, but then how many really are, especially with the rich?’
‘Keeps you in business.’
‘Cheeky lad, aren’t we?’ Flora glared at him and then tilted her head from side to side. ‘You know enough of the world to know that the likes of me will never be short of business. There are some, you know, who are happy, really happy. Take Aelius Brocchus and his wife. Not the brightest, either of them, but they’re well matched and content.’ Her admiration was mixed with wonder at such good fortune.
‘Do you know everyone, Flora?’
‘You know the old joke about the most famous whore in Antioch. They asked her whether she knew every man in the city, and she said no, but there was one part of all of them she knew about.’
‘They don’t usually tell it that way.’
‘Just because I grew up in a sewer doesn’t mean I have to live there whether I want to or not. Now, do you want to know what I can tell you or not? No skin off my nose either way, you’re the one who asked. Good, then shut up for a moment and let me speak. The Lady Sulpicia had to marry him. She’s got a brother in exile and a father up to his neck in debt. Cerialis has money, lots of it, although no one is quite sure how he got it. He’s also got the favour of the emperor – the new emperor – so might help with influence, and he’s a kind man even if he’s only marrying her for her name and her ancestry. He’s a fool, if you ask me, and I speak as a professional, because that’s a beautiful woman, so if I were him I wouldn’t be wasting so much time with whores who don’t really give a curse about him.’
‘Brother in exile?’
‘Thought you’d pick on that. Seems it’s the second time. Was a young officer on the fringes when they caught Saturninus. Might even be one of your victims?’ When the Legate Saturninus rebelled against the Emperor Domitian it had not lasted long before his plans fell apart and he was deserted. The investigations ordered by the vengeful ruler had gone on a long time, and Ferox had spent months examining charges. He had done his best to blot out the memories of those dark days, but some of the faces returned in his nightmares.
Ferox shook his head and hoped that he had had nothing to do with her brother. He did not remember anyone called Sulpicius, and most of the men he had been sent to find had ended up dead. He wanted to say that he had only found out the truth, but knew full well that even men he had shown to be innocent were still executed.
‘Well, perhaps, perhaps not. He gets recalled by Nerva and a couple of months later is posted to Syria and gets caught up in a new conspiracy led by the provincial legate. Not the smartest boy, by the sound of it, but then the father doesn’t sound much either. Reckon the lady must take after her mother.’
Ferox stood up and walked over to the little woman, putting a hand affectionately on her shoulder. It was the closest to intimacy they ever got, and a rare privilege, but he felt her shudder. Too many men had touched her too many times.
‘You never cease to amaze me, Flora. I thought you said that you didn’t know much.’ He took his hand away and she relaxed. ‘Sorry, but I haven’t really got much family any more, and somehow you make me feel as if I have.’
She looked up at him, and perhaps it was the light, but he thought he saw a moistness in her eyes.
‘Piss off!’ she said and then sighed. ‘Why do you always pull me back towards the sewer? If I didn’t like you I’d pay someone to kick your teeth in. Not that I’d probably have to pay, if I asked in the right places. You’re not good at making friends, are you?’