Part 21 (1/2)

'Why, what did you do?'

'I found out that Dotty and his merry selection of friends were -'

'In the cellar?'

'Yes.'

'Soaking up all Papa's choice imported Falernian?' 'Yes.'

'Putting the world to rights like depressed witches when half the coven's failed to show - Yes?'

'And watching a dancing girl,' said Marius.

Helena Justina gripped me by the shoulders and removed me from my cosy position. I sat up with my arms around my knees. Helena demanded, 'Marius Optatus, would this be a dancing girl Marcus has seen before?'

'How should I know?' He was still angry, though being polite to Helena. 'I could not find Falco to compare points of similarity! I had decided to accost the girl myself, but then Annaeus Maximus came home and the row started. In the chaos the dancer slipped away somewhere; that was understandable. Clearly you had done the same,' he sneered at me. 'I wanted to leave myself, but I thought I should try and find out about the girl for you -'

'You've taken to undercover work! What was she like?' I inserted quickly. 'Loose-limbed, gorgeous and with luxurious black hair?'

'She was nothing of a looker - but she could certainly dance.'

That was a surprise. I must have been even more drunk than I remembered at the dinner for the Society of Olive Oil Producers of Baetica. I had thought Diana was fairly personable but her repertoire lacked skill. Aelia.n.u.s had also said she had her limitations. Maybe we were right; maybe Optatus took the uncritical view. For some men, if a woman has very few clothes on and is signalling that the rest might come off with modest encouragement, that's enough. 'Marius, Baetica is full of women wielding tambourines to make a quick denarius. Why did you decide this one was significant?'

'Dotty told me she had been asking curious questions. She wanted to know where his father was. He reckoned she was making sure there was no chance of parental displeasure - wrong, as it turned out.'

'She's a decent dancer, yet she was tantalising teenagers?' 'Most dancers are short of money,' he corrected me frostily.

'Was she dancing in a costume?'

'She was dancing in an immodest s.h.i.+ft, Falco. That iswhat young men expect.' The stern Marius had reached the sarcastic stage.

'I wonder how they found her? Is some sort of directory of dubious entertainers kept at the Temple of the Capitoline Triad, perhaps? I don't suppose the young Annaei were able to consult the aedile's list; the aedile would have gone straight to their papa.'

'Please don't be facetious, Falco. Dotty was taking the credit for hiring her.'

'My good Marius, you've been working hard.'

'Don't bother to thank me! Dotty said that she had heard about the party and presented herself, offering to perform. He did not know where she came from.' She must be hanging around Corduba - and she must have her ear to the ground.

'Rich young men have all the luck.'

'I expect she charged a gigantic fee,' chided Helena. 'Rich young men don't feel the pain.'

'Anyway Optatus deflated and confessed with a sigh, 'I know this is not the girl you want, Falco. Dotty was perfectly frank. He knew of Selia - she is familiar to all those young men, apparently. They don't care that she is not the most perfece dancer - she has other attractions that compensate. Dotty hadn't been able to hire her this evening because she is supposed to have returned to Hispalis. He did say the older one, the one they did have there, had been trying to find out what other dancers he knew.'

'Did he own up to her that he had wanted Selia instead?'

'He's an oil producer's son, Falco! He's much too cute to do that.'

While I was wondering whether the appearance of a second dancer was just coincidence, Helena decided to confess about the two young disasters who were asleep in a guest bedroom. Optatus was furious.

However, he calmed down next day, thanks to a j.a.pe we two devised. The quaestor and Constans had arrived at our house the night before riding together on a highly bred horse which they had stolen from the Annaeus stable. Wesolemnly promised to return it for them before there was a hue and cry. Then I sent them off back to their own homes on a special horse of my own.

'His name's Prancer. You have to check him or he dashes away. Hold on tight in case he bolts.'

'Thanks, Falco.' Quadratus had already realised he was the b.u.t.t of a joke. 'But this leaves you without a mount -'

'I will find Marcus Didius a horse,' grinned Optatus pleasantly. 'You keep that one - with our compliments!'

XL

Where next?

I was glad Optatus had offered me a decent mount. I had run out of options in Corduba, and badly needed to visit Hispalis. According to the middle Annaeus, that was where Selia would be found. She had always been my prime target.

Had events been different, Helena and I would have enjoyed a slow boat ride together as offered by Cyzacus and Gorax. We had first come to know one another well on a trip across Europe which had included journeys by river. Ever since those long weeks falling in love we had adored water transport; we were nostalgic types. This time though, time was against us.

There was a good road all along the Baetis - the Via Augusta which travelled to Gades. If dispatch-riders of the imperial post with urgent missives could gallop fifty miles a day, I could certainly try to match them. I would use the horse our friend produced for me and ride into Corduba, then I would call at the governor's palace and demand that he give me authority to use the stables and lodges of the cursus publicus. Two days there; two days back; plus however long it took me to interview Cyzacus senior and Norba.n.u.s, then to search for the dancing girl.

While I executed this fantastic feat of logistics, Helena could wait on the estate, sleeping mostly. That was what she needed now.

Helena Justina pointed out quietly that I hate horses. I said I was a professional. I thought she hid a smile.

I had been up at dawn so I was at the Palace waiting when the clerks first strolled into their offices discussing last night's drinking bout. They had barely got on to how manystairs they had fallen down when they found me, looking brisk. My previous visit had left me a hero. There was no need to see the proconsul; these lads were mine to command. My scandalous stories about their master, invented or not, had worked: clerks are always longing for somebody to brighten up their lives.

Permits to use the cursus publicus are not readily available. They have to bear the Emperor's personal signature; that's their validation. Governors of provinces are supplied with a finite number, which they are supposed to use only in the proper circ.u.mstances. Prissy ones actually write home to check whether they are following the rules. But the clerks of the proconsul of Baetica decided that their man would approve one for me, without being put to the trouble of knowing he had done it. Nice lads.

I usually go on foreign missions already equipped with my own pa.s.s. I had not thought about it this time, and neither had Laeta - a.s.suming he possessed the authority to give me one. I had been trying not to think about Laeta. But when I did, I asked the clerks whether he had become the official point of contact for intelligence issues.

'No, it's still supposed to be Anacrites, Falco.'

'Isn't that typical! I left Anacrites on his deathbed. He must have been formally replaced by now.'

'Well, n.o.body tells us - unless Rome's decided to leave a corpse in charge!'

'Believe me, lads, you won't notice any difference if they replace the Chief Spy with a stiff.'

'Suits us!' they giggled. 'We hate getting letters from him. The old man always goes on the rampage because he can't understand what Anacrites is on about. Then if we send for clarification we get the same message back, only not just in cypher; all the references are changed to code names as well.'

'How about Laeta? Have you noticed an increase in the volume of messages from him? More urgent signals, perhaps?'