A Dying Light In Corduba Part 20

'That's disgusting.'

'It was a trumped-up charge.' I smiled. I nearly added that nothing changes - but the dumb optimist in me hoped that with Vespasian's arrival it might have done.

'You amaze me, knowing all that, Falco!'

'I collect information.'

'For professional reasons?'

'I'm an informer. Stories are the material of my trade.'

'I'll have to be careful, then,' Quadratus grinned. 'My father's on the Senate committee that runs the mint mines.'

That gave me an unpleasant feeling: Quinctius Attractus trying to dabble one more sticky finger in Baetica. Fortunately there was an imperial procurator actually in charge of the aes Marianum mine. He would be an equestrian, a career official whose only concern would be doing the job right for his own sake. The other side of government: and not even the Quinctii could interfere with that.

'The Senate committee, eh?' It fitted the pattern. Attractus wanted influence in every sphere of this province. Getting a place on the committee would have been easy, given his strong local interests. 'I'm surprised your family aren't involved in mineral production.'

'Oh, we are,' laughed young Quadratus. 'There's a silver mine that's run by a society at Castulo. My father shares the franchise; he's a leading member of the Society. I'm standing in for him while I'm out here. We have our own copper mine too.'

I should have known.

'I'm surprised you have the time for personal work,' I cut in coolly. I had let him run until I felt I knew him, but his time was up. 'A quaestors.h.i.+p is not an easy ride.'

'I'm not really worked in yet.'

'So I gather.'

His face did not alter. He had no idea what those in the know would think of him being given hunting leave before he had even started. How could he? He was a raw egg in bureaucracy. He probably thought the proconsul had done him some kind of favour. Favours are what people like him expect. Duties don't come into it.

'Of course there's a lot of responsibility,' he declared. I put on my sympathetic face and let him talk: 'I reckon I can handle it.'

'The Senate and the Emperor must believe you can, quaestor.'

'Of course there are well-established routines.'

'And permanent employees who are used to doing the work.'

'There will still be some tricky decisions to take. They'll need me for those.'

The po-faced scribe from Hadrumetum whom I had met at the proconsular palace would be able to cope with any decisions the quaestor was supposed to put his name to.

I served Quadratus more wine. My own cup still sat brimful on the bal.u.s.trade. 'What's in your remit?' He shrugged vaguely. These lads are never sent to their provinces with a proper brief; I summarised the quaestor's role for him: 'Apart from deputising for the proconsul in the lawcourts, there's collection of property taxes, provincial poll tax, port taxes, inheritance tax, and the state percentage on manumission of slaves. Hispania's huge. Baetica may not be the biggest province, but it's the richest and most populous. The sums you oversee must be significant.'

'It's not real money, though.'

I disagreed. 'It's real enough to the merchants and heads of household who have to cough up!'

'Oh, it all comes out of their budget ... From my point of view it's just figures. I'm not obliged to get my hands dirty counting coins.'

I refrained from saying I was surprised he could even count. 'You may never touch the dosh, but you've beenentrusted with a full range of headaches: "Me collecting, disbursing, safeguarding, managing and controlling of public funds".'

Quadratus was taking the flippant line. 'I suppose the records will come to me and I'll approve them - or I'll alter them if they don't fit,' he giggled. He showed no sense of responsibility. I was struck by the horrific possibilities for embezzlement. 'Let's face it, Falco - I have a t.i.tle and a seal, but in reality I'm impotent. I can't alter the way things are run. Rome is fully aware of that.'

'You mean because your stint in the post is only a year?' He looked surprised. 'No, because that's just how things are.'

This was the rotten side of government. Enormous power was placed at the disposal of an untried, overconfident young man. His only superior here was the hard- pressed governor who had a full complement of legislative and diplomatic work himself. If the salaried officials who really ran the provinces were corrupt, or if they simply lost heart, here was an outpost of the Empire which could fall apart. With a brash and completely unprepared master placed over them, who could blame them if they did lose heart?

Something like that had happened in Britain over a decade earlier. I was there. I knew. The Icenian Revolt was brought about by a combination of indifferent politicians, overbearing armed forces and ill-judged financial control. This had alienated the local populace, with results that were sheer murder. Ironically, a major catalyst for trouble had been the sudden withdrawal of loans by Seneca - the big name from Corduba.

'I see what they mean about you,' Quadratus said suddenly. I wondered who 'they' were, who had been briefing him about me. He wanted to know how good I really was at my job - and how dangerous.

I quirked up an eyebrow, enjoying his unease as he went on, 'You sit drinking your wine just as pleasantly as anyone. But somehow I don't reckon you're thinking "This is apalatable vintage, if a little sweet." You're in another world, Falco.'

The wine has its moments. Baetica suffers from too much wind from the south; it troubles the grapes.'

'Jove, you know everything! I do admire that. I really do -' He really did. 'You're a complete professional. That's something I'd like to emulate.' He might - but not if it meant he had to work on my pay, eating gritty bread and paying too much rent for a hovel in a lousy tenement.

'You just have to be thorough.' I couldn't be bothered with his sham flattery, or his ignorance of conditions in the real world.

'So what's on your mind, Falco?'

'Nothing changes,' I said. 'Lessons are constantly put before us - and are never learned.'

Quadratus was still game, though his speech was becoming slow. I had drunk much less. I had no taste for it. I had lost my taste for philosophy too.

Below in the garden dim figures rushed about, engaged in some dubious form of hide-aud-seek. It required neither skill in the chase nor subtlety in claiming the prize. I watched for a moment, feeling my age, then turned back to the quaestor. 'So what, Tiberius Quinctius Quadratus, are you intending to do as quaestor to prevent the formation of an oil cartel in Baetica?'

'Is there one?' he asked me, suddenly as wide-eyed as the second-rate virgins who were squealing among the clipped myrtles on the terraces below.

x.x.xVIII

I stood up to leave. I clapped his shoulder, and handed him the jug of wine. 'Enjoy your evening.'

'What cartel?' he slurred, much too solemnly.

'The one that can't possibly exist in this respectable province where the businessmen are so ethical and the officials perform their duties to the highest standards of probity!'

I stepped back into the heated room indoors. There was wine everywhere. The ill.u.s.trious s.p.u.n.ky and his cronies were roaring with laughter, looking s.h.i.+ny and much redder in the face. They had reached the happy stage of dying with mirth at their own silliness. Marius Optatus had disappeared somewhere. I didn't blame him, though since we were sharing a carriage it was somewhat inconvenient. He had probably found a bailiff and was discussing the fine details of making chestnut withy baskets. His interests were so practical.

'Grand party!' I applauded my host. He looked pleased. 'Is your sister here?'

'Locked in her bedroom pretending not to know it's going on!'

Maybe Aelia Annaea would welcome some refined masculine company. It had to be worth a try.

When I clambered over the revellers and out into the corridor, I left behind whoops of determined foolishness. I had noticed one poor soul already lying p.r.o.ne beside a cabinet of curios with his eyes tightly closed in misery. His capacity must be no bigger than a gnat's. By my reckoning they were all less than an hour from being sick over the balcony. There would be one or two who could not crawl that far. It boded ill for my host's father's porphyry vasesand his silk-covered ivory-ended reading couch. His collected works of Greek men of letters had already been well trampled by flailing boots and his Egyptian carpet was being rolled up to make a swat in a game of 'Human Fly'.

Sticking my thumbs in my belt I moved carefully through the groups of rich children dangerously rollicking. This was not an occasion to rea.s.sure a father whose first offspring was only weeks from birth. Annaeus Maximus could have picked a better month to visit his Gades farms.

As I rather expected I learned nothing else that helped my mission, only that the town house of the Annaei covered two floors, was exquisite though slightly old- fas.h.i.+oned in decor, and possessed every amenity. I found a large number of beautifully appointed bedrooms, some occupied, though not by people who wanted my staid company. Becoming morose, I wandered down a staircase, stepping over various young ladies without partners who were sitting on the marble treads getting piles while they bemoaned the stupidity of Corduban boys. I concurred with their view, though perhaps not for the same reasons; what's more, I had my doubts about some of the girls.

The ground floor comprised the normal public rooms and peristyles of a large, showy home. The rude huts of their forefathers had been transformed by the modern Annaei into high temples where they could act as patrons to the less well-off. It was meant to impress; I allowed it a few astonished gasps.

There was a full bath-house suite, where some luckier young ladies were being repeatedly thrown by young men into the heated swimming pool; they squealed a lot then struggled out and ran back to be thrown in again. No one had drowned yet. In the attached ball-park a lively group thought it good fun to dress up a naimygoat in a garland of flowers and the robes which the important householder wore when he officiated as a priest. I greeted them serenely, then pa.s.sed on into the covered arcade which led to the garden area.

This was more peaceful, apart from occasional troops of youths who galloped through it in a jiggling human daisy- chain. Turning away from the main terrace, where the merrymaking among the topiary looked more lewd than I could contemplate, I was heading for an ivy-covered gazebo, lit by torches. There were two figures conversing; they looked rather like Optatus and the gracious Aelia, sister of our three jolly hosts. Before I could reach them I was stopped by a pair who were stock-still on the gravel path, locked in a desperate, motionless embrace. They were about sixteen; she thought she might be losing him, whereas he held her with the calm, rea.s.suring air of a faithless swain who knew it had already happened.

Touched, I started doubling back to avoid disturbing their poignant and ultimately pointless idyll. Then I b.u.mped into Marmarides. He was coming to find me to ask permission to borrow the carriage; he had become embroiled with a group of young creatures who were fascinated by his African appearance. Just by asking him the question, I had embroiled myself too: 'I suppose they want to know about your Aethiopian potency!' He looked embarra.s.sed but did not deny that his female admirers had the usual curiosity about his personal equipment. 'Does this happen to you often?'

'Oh, all the time, Falco! My master Stertius lives in terror he'll be called to account when some citizen complains that I'm responsible for his lady having a dark child. The only reason I was allowed to come with you is that he reckoned yours was long past the dangerous stage!'

'Oh thanks! I wish I was back home with her now.'

'I can take you, easy.'

'We'd better deal with your supporters' club first. At least we may save a couple of young women from debauchery tonight!'

That was debatable, but I wanted an excuse to escape. Marmarides could have just dumped his admirers - but decent men don't, do we? He had promised to drive two of them home to Corduba before they got into trouble withtheir parents (or some such tale). I said I would leave at the same time. There would be no room for Optatus or Constans, but I could protect Marmarides from a.s.sault on the journey into Corduba, we could ditch the dames safely, then he could leave me in a tavern where I could have a quiet bite to eat while he went back to collect our comrades. Providing food of any substance lacked glamour for our hosts; they had omitted it.

We shoved a couple of the shrieking women inside the carriage; they were probably demure little things when sober, though drink had robbed them of all taste. I climbed up on top with Marmarides and we set off fast before our pa.s.sengers could thrill themselves by swarming out to join us. When our mules reached the gate at the end of the long entry drive, we had to swerve madly; we pa.s.sed a much larger piece of coachwork, drawn by two fiery horses and driven by a set-faced groom in livery. As we went out it was coming in.

'Keep going!' I grinned. 'Marmarides, I rather think that Annaeus Maximus has remembered what happened the last time he left his boys at home unsupervised.'

x.x.xIX

We found where the girls lived and persuaded them to go in quietly; we used the shameless trick of mentioning the return of Annaeus Maximus and warning them that that angry father would soon be talking to their own parents.

's.p.u.n.ky, Dotty and Ferret are in big trouble! Best to nip indoors looking innocent and pretend you never went anywhere.' I could just hear some pert little minx in the distant future trying this one out on me. I could just see me too, willing myself to believe the lie ...

My plan to have supper alone seemed churlish now; we went back together to try to extricate Optatus and young Constans, if possible before they were publicly linked with the row. Approaching the town house we met a string of chastened youngsters being marched home in the custody of Annaeus' slaves. These were the walking wounded. Up at the house others who could not stagger had been collected up and laid out neatly in a colonnade. We gathered that parents had been sent for. We also sensed that it had not been done out of malice - but as a sensible precaution in case any of these stupid children had actually poisoned themselves with too much wine.

Of s.p.u.n.ky, Dotty and Ferret I saw no sign. Nor were their father and mother visible, though the slaves mopping up the battlefield were doing it very quickly and efficiently, with downcast eyes. The master's physician, overseeing the row of unconscious young bodies, was fiercely purse- lipped. There was no longer an amphora in sight.

We could find neither Optatus nor Constans. In the end we went home, before the oil in the carriage lamp ran out.

Helena Justina was still up, quietly writing letters to Rome.

I sat on the floor at her feet and hugged her. 'Dear G.o.ds, I'm sick of other men's sons! I hope mine's a daughter!'

As if to confirm it, the baby kicked me soundly in the face. 'She's got huge hooves!' Helena muttered, after crying ouch herself.

'She'll be a darling ... Listen, I'm establis.h.i.+ng the rules now - boy or girl, it doesn't go out to visit friends without permission, without an escort of extremely prissy slaves, and without me personally going to fetch it home not more than an hour after it departs our house.'

'Very wise, Marcus. I'm sure this will work wonderfully.'

Helena laid down her pen on a side table and closed the inkwell gently. She ran her fingers through my curls. I pretended not to notice, while I let myself relax. Too large now to be flexible, instead of bending down to me as she once would have done, she kissed the tip of her finger and touched my brow consolingly. 'What's the matter, you poor tired, miserable soul? Didn't you enjoy the party, then? What went wrong with your boys' night out?'

'They were too rough for me. I had a depressing experience talking to the fabled quaestor, who is the last word in moral toughness - if you think fluff is tough. Then the hosts' parents came home unexpectedly - a scheme I shall follow myself when our limb gets old enough. I scarpered. I couldn't find the other two -'

'Constans came back,' she told me.

'The night is full of surprises. How did he find his way?' 'The quaestor brought him.'

'That's commendable!'

'Charming,' she agreed.

'You don't like him?'

'I deeply distrust charm. Even so, I let him share the guest room where he had deposited the snoring Constans.' 'So Quadratus is not beyond redemption?'

'He seemed appalling. He apologised in a well-spoken voice. He introduced himself politely, then praised mybrother Aelia.n.u.s. I loathed him instinctively. But it was very late '

'Are they in the same bed?' I asked, wondering. 'No.'

'It's not like that then!'

'He seems to treat young Constans as an immature lad who needs an older friend.'

'Really charming!'

'So we are supposed to believe,' said Helena.

It was then that Marius Optatus reappeared. He had walked much of the way, apparently. 'I was looking for you, Falco!' he stormed tetchily.

'I looked for you too - honestly! I'd seen you hobn.o.bbing with Aelia Annaea so I thought that since she owns her own gold mine you were in there doing yourself some good!'

'Was Claudia Rufina at the party, Marius?' asked Helena sympathetically.

'No,' he said. presumably that was one reason for his short temper.

'He was too wrapped up with Aelia,' I teased. 'The man has no loyalty.'

'Probably talking about Claudia,' retorted Helena.

Optatus had no sense of humour this evening. He was white with tiredness, and irritation too. 'I did my best for you, Falco, and in return you stole the transport and stranded me!'