The Vestal Vanishes (18 page)

‘This other couple?’ I had heard before that there were other people in the house, but I had imagined they were simply unrelated guests. ‘Were they acquainted with Audelia, then?’

There was a curt laugh behind us. ‘Oh indeed so, citizen. More than acquainted. They were her relatives – though fairly humble ones.’ It was the husband who had come in unobserved and had clearly overheard this last remark.

‘Don’t tell him any more,’ the woman said. ‘Audelia is gone. Oh dear Mars, what will become of us? I wish by all the gods that she had lodged with them, as she originally planned, and I hadn’t talked you in to having them stay here.’

I turned to Trullius.

He sighed. ‘I could wish my woman didn’t talk so much, but since you’ve heard the half of it you’d better hear the rest. No, don’t tell me to be quiet, wife! If he’s come here from the family, he had better know. It’s quite true, citizen. I think Audelia might have sought to stay with them, till Lavinius put a stop to that by arranging things with us. When he did so, she wrote privately to me, asking me to find a room for them as well.’

‘And you agreed to that? Against her uncle’s preference?’

He looked defiantly at me. ‘Why not? As a Vestal, she outranks him anyway, and a priestess’s wish should always be obeyed. Besides, she was prepared to pay me very handsomely and her uncle had not forbidden them to meet – although she hinted that she’d rather that he did not hear of it. Though in the circumstances, I suppose he’ll have to know.’

‘Dear Mars! He will blame us for everything, without a doubt.’ The woman wailed. ‘I don’t know why Lavinius should object to them, in any case. Nice, gentle people and perfectly polite.’

‘Not rich enough to suit Lavinius,’ the husband said. ‘That’s the front and back of it. But they didn’t seem to mind. Said that they wanted to come to Corinium anyway, and would take advantage of the trip to visit the slave-market and get a slave or two.’

I was very interested in these poor relations of the bride. ‘Where are they now? I may wish to talk to them.’ I absently poured myself a little watered wine.

‘I can tell you where they live. It’s only a few miles’ journey to the east of here. I had to send a letter to say we had a room.’

‘I only wish she’d gone there after all,’ his wife said, tearfully. ‘It would have made a convenient stopping-place for her. Personally, I think it was their child that prevented it. The girl is afflicted – deaf and dumb since birth.’

‘And allowed to live?’ I was surprised at that. Most afflicted Roman children were exposed and killed at birth, saving their family the embarrassment and expense of raising them.

‘The parents did not realize for a month or two, and by that time the mother had got attached to it. So they did not leave it out to die or feed it to the dogs – though they could still have done so until the child was three. Instead they made a pilgrimage to every shrine there is, including the Vestals, to offer sacrifices and petition for her health.’

‘So Audelia knew them?’

‘I believe she did, but then the mother died. She had been frail and ailing since the birth, and in the end the worry was too much for her.’

I paused in my enjoyment of the stew. ‘But I thought . . .’

‘That was his first wife, citizen – this is the second one. I don’t believe Audelia had met her before,’ Trullius told me, in a patient tone.

‘Though it would have been a good idea if she’d gone to the shrine herself,’ the woman said. ‘She’s delicate as well. Look how the journey here distressed her. Completely wore her out. She was forced to go to bed and rest for several hours until Audelia arrived, and even then I hardly heard her say a word. Of course she has that child of his at home to worry her.’ She broke off suddenly. ‘I’m sure that’s why Lavinius refused to let Audelia stay with them, and why he did not ask them to the wedding-feast today. It’s enough bad luck to cross a leper or a blind man on the street before your marriage day. To share a household where a deaf-mute lives would be a dreadful portent for a bride-to-be.’

The man laughed. ‘Nonsense, wife. Paulinus and his wife are not rich and powerful enough to suit Lavinius, that’s all. Just simple people living on a farm. I don’t believe the theory of the evil auguries. It did not alarm the bride-to-be to meet them here—’

She cut him off. ‘But Trullius – dear Mars! Perhaps it should have done. Audelia is dead. Did you not hear him say? I still can’t believe it.’

‘Dead!’ He was clearly shocked. ‘That news I hadn’t heard.’ He glanced sheepishly at me. ‘We did get a message from the temple in Glevum just before you came – brought by the same courier who took the news about Lavinia from here. He carried the answer that, since Lavinia was no longer in the house, the high priest would not come to Corinium tonight, and when he did come, would no longer call on us.’

So that was the explanation of the stew, I thought. ‘After all your preparations?’

He shuffled awkwardly. ‘The man did mention that Audelia had not arrived at the birthday games as planned, so I’d heard that before you came – but he said that it was generally assumed, by those few who knew that she was coming there, that she’d been kidnapped by brigands and there’d be a ransom to be paid.’

The woman started to her feet again. ‘You didn’t tell me that!’

‘I know I didn’t, wife, I thought to save you more anxiety – we had enough troubles of our own to worry us. But nobody told me that Audelia was dead.’ He turned to me. ‘Are you quite sure of that?’

I drained my cup. ‘I’m absolutely sure. We found the body in her travelling box. The work of Druids, by the look . . .’ I said no more. The woman had fallen in a faint upon the floor.

FIFTEEN

T
rullius looked at me. ‘I knew there would be trouble. Taking in Vestal Virgins – even retired and prospective ones – is not appropriate for the likes of us. I knew it was certain to offend the gods. I said so to my wife! But she wouldn’t listen. And now look what’s happened!’ Before I could stop him he had seized the jug and dashed the remainder of its contents in her face.

Priscilla stirred and moaned. He reached down and used his good hand to haul her to her feet. ‘Come on, wife, I will help you to your bed. You have had too much worry for one day as it is. Anyway there is nothing further we can do tonight.’ He hoisted her upright and would have hurried her away if it had been up to him.

But, she shook him off and sat down unsteadily on the stool again, resting her head between her hands. When she had come to herself a little more, she looked up breathlessly. ‘I may not be a Vestal, husband, but I am not a fool. I run this rest-house just as much as you, and this concerns us both.’

‘All this talk of Druids is not fit for women’s ears,’ he said. ‘Go to your bed – I’ll see to matters here.’

She shook a stubborn head. ‘I want to find out what’s been happening – and it’s obvious I can’t trust you to tell me what you know.’ She turned to me. ‘So, what befell Audelia, citizen? If it’s not so disturbing that it spoils your meal.’

I had eaten every morsel of the stew by now but she was still deathly pale and I really did not welcome telling her the details of that shocking corpse. I procrastinated, picking up a crust of bread. ‘I’m sorry that I caused you such distress,’ I said. ‘The news that Audelia had disappeared – as we supposed – was discovered this morning, before the games began. Knowing there had been an exchange of messengers between here and Glevum, I naturally assumed you knew at least as much as that . . .’ I tailed off, apologetically.

She cast a furious look at Trullius. ‘And so I would have done – if my husband had seen fit to tell me anything.’

Trullius spread his one good hand in outraged innocence. ‘And have you fainting at the news?’

‘I would have done nothing of the kind! Ignore him, citizen. A little while ago you told me that Audelia was dead, and did I faint at that? Of course I didn’t. But I thought we were talking about a robbery gone wrong. Attack by highway brigands I could have understood – though Mars knows that’s bad enough – but –’ she used one plump hand to fan herself – ‘if the Druids are involved it’s something else again.’

Trullius put out a warning hand, but she brushed him off.

‘Don’t interrupt me, Trullius! He will hear from others, if he doesn’t hear from us. Anyone in town will tell him what’s been happening.’ She turned to me again. ‘Perhaps, citizen, you don’t know what these Druids can be like – unless you’ve heard the tales – but there’s been a lot of trouble with them round here recently. Curse-tablets and spell-casting and Jove knows what. It’s said that sheep and cattle are falling dead from it, and children born with crooked arms and legs, all because the Druid priests are looking for revenge.’

‘Revenge?’ This was a new idea. I was so surprised I swallowed the whole crust and had to wash it down with the last dregs of my sharp-tasting wine. I knew that there were odd bands of western rebels still hiding in the woods and that they often clung to the old religion as part of the protest against Rome. But generally their efforts were not of much account – a futile rearguard action against the conquerors, harrying military convoys or picking off solitary soldiers as they passed. So . . . ? ‘Revenge?’ I said again.

This time Trullius did exert himself. ‘Silence, woman! You have already talked too much. I will tell him, if anybody does! I won’t have you spreading rumours that there’s no foundation for. I am still the master of this house.’

And so he was, of course, and I would need his help as well. I turned towards him with a deferential smile. ‘I’d be glad of any information you can give.’

He was a little mollified. He cleared his throat – so like an orator on the forum steps that I half-expected him to strike a pose before he spoke. ‘Then I will tell you what is certain – not stoop to rumours. The authorities found a nest of Druid rebels in the woods. They had been making their usual bloody sacrifice – several heads of murdered legionaries were hung up on the trees and it was decided that an example must be made. A trap was set against them, and instead of killing them, the military managed to bring a lot of them to trial.’ He paused, to make sure I was following all this. ‘You can imagine the result.’

‘Of course! It is a capital offence simply to be a member of the sect – let alone murdering soldiers,’ I replied.

He nodded. ‘There have been public executions every day, as part of the civic
munus
– the five days of public games, leading up to and including the Imperial Birthday feast. Most of the prisoners were sentenced to the beasts – though one or two were fortunate enough to purchase poison and escape the worst of it. The last of them was executed only yesterday.’

His wife broke in again, clearly unable to hold her tongue for long. ‘There were some more victims in the ring today, but they weren’t dangerous, they were only followers of that Jewish carpenter – refusing to make a sacrifice to the Emperor, publicly saying that he is not a god, instead of keeping silent and going through the pretence, like anybody else. But of course they’re funny folk. They even claim that they forgive their enemies. The Druids don’t! They’re quite the opposite! So that is why I ask. Do you suppose the Druids killed Audelia in revenge?’

I nodded thoughtfully. It was the likely explanation, given these events. There would be a risk, of course – penalties for laying sacrilegious hands on a Vestal Virgin are even more severe than being fed to beasts. But provided that the rebel perpetrators felt themselves secure . . . ‘A Vestal Virgin would be a kind of symbol, I suppose,’ I said slowly.

Priscilla looked impatient. ‘More than just a symbol, citizen. Everyone knows the fate of Rome depends upon the sacred flame that they maintain in the Imperial capital. And it is the same with the Vestal temple in Britannia. Audelia was telling us about it yesterday: the altar flame was brought here in braziers as a “daughter fire”, and if that goes out it’s said the Empire will fall.’

I doubted that the Druids believed all this, in fact – they had their own ways of trying to defeat the might of Rome – but I could see how the ritual murder of a Vestal might affect the public mind.

It was clear what the authorities had intended to achieve by the recent executions in the ring: to punish the victims with humiliating death and frighten off other would-be supporters of the sect, and also to undermine the influence of the Druid priests – whose skills at divination are supposed to be their strength. It was equally clear why the rebels might have seized and killed Audelia in revenge. What defeated me was how they’d managed it.

Which did not mean they hadn’t done it: quite the contrary! It was just the kind of coup which would appeal to them, designed to terrify the populace and taunt the conquerors by proving that the sect had secret, magic powers and that its members’ deaths would not go unrevenged.

‘I can understand the impulse to retaliate,’ I said. ‘I have witnessed an execution
ad bestias
myself, in company with my patron. It is a dreadful death.’

Even now the memory raised bile in my throat. First the snarling and slavering of the wolves and bears (the favoured animals in this northern outpost of the Empire, where more exotic creatures are not easily obtained) as a taunting fragment of raw meat was held in front of them, to demonstrate that they had not been fed for days. Then the convicted criminal dragged screaming to the ring, flogged so that the smell of fresh blood would reach the starving beasts, before he was tied naked to a post on a sort of chariot, and thrust into the snarling cage to be torn apart for the entertainment of the crowd. I pushed my plate away.

Trullius seemed reluctant to accept this train of thought, perhaps because it had been suggested by his wife. ‘What makes you so certain it was Druids, anyway? I’m sure they’ve not confessed. You must have a reason for thinking it was them?’

There was nothing for it. I told them everything, including a description of the mutilated corpse. There was a silence. The woman turned a paler shade of white and I almost feared that she would slump onto the floor again.