Part 5 (1/2)

Pallas surprised Vespasian by breaking into a genuine half-smile, something he had rarely seen before. 'Indeed; and Seneca quite understood the argument, just as he understood the ten million. So he added the money to his ever-growing fortune and took the argument to Nero; Sabinus was recalled from his province and made prefect of Rome.'

'Very neat; but to what end?'

'To this very end: we need your help and your family owes me a favour.'

'Sabinus owes you the favour, not me.'

'But you are better placed to deliver what we need.'

'In what way?'

'You know Cogidubnus, the King of the Regni and the Atrobates, very well from your time in Britannia.'

Vespasian took a moment to register the Britannic client king whom he had not seen, and had barely thought about, in more than ten years. The man he had defeated on the Island of Vectis off the south coast of Britannia and who had subsequently become his ally and friend. The man to whom he owed his life. The man who had helped him to rescue Sabinus from the druids. 'But my brother also knows him.'

'He does indeed, but as prefect, Sabinus cannot go more than a hundred miles from Rome without the Emperor's permission.'

Vespasian began to have a nasty suspicion that Pallas was once again going to coerce him into doing something against his will. 'Whatever it is I'm not interested, Pallas.'

'What we want,' Agrippina said, taking absolutely no notice of Vespasian's remark, 'is for you to go back to Britannia and speak to Cogidubnus on our behalf.'

'Why?'

'Shortly after I married Claudius, Pallas and I made some investments in the new province; large investments in estates and mines. Their value was low at the time but with good estate managers and mine supervisors we've made them very profitable and they must have tripled in value. We only bought in the Regni and Atrobates' lands as those tribes were very pro-Roman and Cogidubnus was friendly.'

'And he needed the money,' Pallas added, 'in order to start a programme of building works in our style, including his new palace.'

Vespasian could well imagine the proud Britannic King wanting to build a Roman-style residence that he felt was fitting for the monarch of the united tribes. 'So what would you have me do, in the unlikely event that I would agree to do your bidding?' The question was levelled at Pallas as he certainly was not going to do Agrippina's bidding.

'We want you to use your friends.h.i.+p with Cogidubnus to persuade him to buy our investments back.'

'At the current market value,' Agrippina insisted.

Vespasian looked at her for a moment in disbelief before breaking out into laughter. 'You want me to travel all the way to Britannia to try to persuade an old friend, whom I haven't seen for years, to buy back the property he sold you for three times the amount you paid him? Is that what you're asking?'

'Of course,' Agrippina snapped. 'He should be honoured doing business with the mother of the Emperor.'

Vespasian ignored Agrippina's arrogance and looked, instead, at Caenis. 'Were you really going to come and put this daft proposition to me?'

Caenis smiled and stroked his arm so that the hairs rose. 'Of course, my love.'

'Whatever for? You must have known I would reject it out of hand.'

'For a start they've paid me very handsomely to do so.'

'How much?'

'My love, does everything have to come down to money? No, this payment was in a far more valuable currency: information.' She patted a cylindrical, leather scroll-holder next to her.

'Just because you've been paid to present this proposition to me doesn't mean I'll accept it or even listen.'

'If you don't listen you won't hear the really interesting part.'

Vespasian turned back to Pallas. 'So what's the really interesting part?'

'Ah, I was coming to that.' Pallas paused for effect, taking a sip from his cup and swilling it around his mouth in the manner that Vespasian had done earlier. 'In going you will repay the favour I did Sabinus and that is all very well; but even if you did agree to go I can see by your laughter that your heart would not be in it because you don't think that there is any chance of success.'

'Who's ever going to buy back something for three times the amount he was paid for it?'

'We will take double.'

'Three times!' Agrippina almost shrieked.

'Double, my dear,' Pallas countered, 'and we would still have done well on the deal. Cogidubnus will see that the property is worth more than that so he would be more likely to agree to the deal.'

Agrippina seethed quietly to herself, her eyes boring into Vespasian.

'Although, of course your opening offer will be three times,' Pallas continued, 'but if you get double then the really lucrative part from your point of view will be your reward.'

Vespasian was now becoming interested. 'Which is?'

'Seneca's greed is such that if I can purchase Sabinus' position as prefect of Rome then it would be easy for me to get him to make you governor of Africa.' He looked at Vespasian with his eyebrows raised questioningly.

Vespasian's heart jumped; and then he cursed Pallas inwardly for always knowing what strings to pull to manipulate him as if he were a puppet. 'Africa?'

Pallas inclined his head. 'The very province that was taken away from you.'

'What if Seneca doesn't agree?'

'For another five million sesterces, which is a fifth of the profit that we'll make on the deal should we only double our money, Seneca will do anything. You can't go until the sea-lanes open again next year, so if you're interested come down to Agrippina's estate at Bauli on the Bay of Neapolis after the ides of March and we will give you the deeds to all the properties. Then you can take a s.h.i.+p from Misenum to Forum Julii on the south coast of Gaul as soon as the equinox has pa.s.sed and the sea routes open.'

Vespasian was shaking his head, unable to believe what he was just about to say. 'All right, Pallas, I'll do it. But one question: why are you both so desperate to sell?'

The Greek stroked his full beard. 'I would have thought that was very obvious: the Emperor's spending is becoming more and more profligate at the same time as the demands of keeping the province subdued are becoming increasingly unaffordable. Put the two things together and what is the obvious conclusion?'

It was not what Vespasian wished for; quite the reverse, in fact. 'But we can't withdraw from Britannia; it would destabilise the whole Empire.'

'Not if we turned it into three client kingdoms with Cogidubnus the king of the southern one, Cartimandua the queen in the north, and Prasutagus of the Iceni, king in the east. Then we could save face by claiming that our mission had been a success and that all the kingdoms nearest the Empire were now our clients, trade had been established and so there was no more need to spill Roman or Britannic blood. That's what I would do and I don't think it'll be long before Nero realises the same thing: it's time to leave Britannia.'

CHAPTER IV.

NERO'S EXPRESSION WAS one of ill-concealed l.u.s.t as he looked Poppaea Sabina up and down.

Otho, next to her, laughed uneasily, the hollowness of it echoed around the cavernous atrium of the imperial palace on the Palatine. 'What did I say, Princeps?' Otho asked. 'Is she not a rare beauty?'

Nero was too distracted to answer.