'If that were true the whole of Rome would be villains, especially your ill.u.s.trious papa, who has his whole life in hock.'

'He can't help that! The moment a Roman has any status, he is compelled to spend.' I was glad to hear Aelia.n.u.s defend Camillus Senior, who had already wasted hope and cash on him. At least the son sounded grateful.

'The same goes for these people, unless we learn of any debts that are -'

'Enormous?' Aulus demanded eagerly.

'No, no; their debts can be any size - just so long as they believe they can pay them back. What I'm searching for is somebody who felt under pressure.'

'Are you coming with me on this?' A faint hint of anxiety had finally struck him.

'No.' I gazed at him with what I hoped was an inscrutable expression. 'We are a two-man operation. We have to keep one man in reserve so he can go round later and apologise if you offend someone.'

'You love a joke, Falco.'

'Who was joking?' Camillus Aelia.n.u.s was a twenty-five-year-old patrician who had never had to negotiate a delicate social situation in his life.

Aelia.n.u.s went off alone, with a list of addresses. I had to provide him with a note-tablet; I told him to bring his own next time. At the last minute, he thought of asking me if this was likely to be dangerous. I said I did not know - then advised him to take up self-defence lessons at his gymnasium. Always one for wearing scowls, he grew even more sullen when I reminded him it was illegal to go armed in Rome.

'So what do I do if I'm in trouble?'

'Back off. If it becomes unavoidable, you can hit people - ideally, just before they hit you. But try to remember that any ugly characters you meet may be friends of mine.'

He was bound to wreak havoc. I was content to let him. Firstly, he thought he knew it all; making mistakes was the only way he would ever learn. And secondly, havoc always comes in useful when a case is stuck.

'I suppose if trouble arises, you will just blame me anyway, Falco?' Helena's dear brother was brighter than I had feared.

I a.s.signed my apprentice the straightforward clients Unknown to him, I was out there myself nosing around the names I thought looked tricky.

We worked on the debtors and creditors for a few weeks. Meanwhile, Petronius had formally requested the responsible vigiles cohorts in the Forum environs to look out for Pisarchus.

The month changed. That August was stifling. I had to explain to Aelia.n.u.s that only honest men and career criminals stopped for holidays. In our twilight world, we kept going. At best, people would be so surprised to see us, we might catch them off guard. At worst, like the shipper Pisarchus, they would be off and un.o.btainable at some fern-shaded retreat.

'I don't mind a trip to Praeneste,' my junior offered hopefully. I ignored him. He was too new to be told that the jaunts were mine, while the learner minded the shop. You have to ensure that a young person, faced with life's inequalities, does not lose heart.

We had found nothing. We had to admit we had no real idea what to look for. I marked up Praeneste on a road map in a desultory way, none too keen to undertake the journey in hot weather. I knew Petro would be unable to fmd the cost of transport, since it lay outside his jurisdiction. Rubella would love to jump on such a breach of the rules.

Anyway, if I had to go outside the city, I would from choice be at Tibur, where I possessed a farm and needed to check on its new tenant. No chance! Informers are not supposed to have a private life. 'Is this a waste of time, Falco?'

'Most of this job is a waste of time, Aulus.'

'Why do we bother then?'

'For the tiny sc.r.a.p of information that solves everything.' If and when we found it, we were unlikely even to recognise what it was.

Almost collapsing in the heat and thoroughly depressed, we were still waiting to discover any helpful clue when my dog started having her pups.

Nux had been making strange nests for a while. She had chosen me as a master; it was her mistake, but as with women, that made me feel responsible. I had been expecting the birth for some days, but we could not he sure which of her horrible suitors had fathered the pups - or when it occurred.

As soon as Helena sent me word that things were happening, I rushed back home, meeting my young nephew Marius on the stairs. After some comment from Helena that I was better at attending the dog's labour than I had been about the birth of my own daughter, Marius and I crouched alongside, while Nux struggled to deliver. She was having problems.

'Uncle Marcus, it is hopeless!' Marius was frantic. So was I, though I could not show it. He was nine; I was thirty-three. Besides, Helena was listening. 'Stuff this for a game of soldiers!' he roared. Marius had been working at Pa's warehouse. His language had deteriorated sadly. 'There's a friend of my father's who keeps dogs; I'm going to get him.'

So Marius hared off and returned with a bemused horse-vet from the Greens. This man was a typical friend of Famia's - vague, dozy and sinister. He did have more application than my departed brother-in-law; he grunted and muttered, then while Marius and I clung together unable to watch, he eventually helped Nux to whelp a single, absolutely enormous pup.

'It's a dog.'

'A boy - he's mine!' screamed Marius determinedly. The horse-vet and I surrept.i.tiously worked on the creature, trying not to let Marius realise the imminent tragedy: the puppy was lifeless. Marius was told to look after Nux. The animal doctor sighed. My heart sank. I presumed he meant it was all over.

He faced up to the limp wet puppy, holding it between both hands, one dirty thumb propping up its flopping head and two fingers opening its pale mouth. To our astonishment, he blew air from his own lungs into it. After a moment of pa.s.sive resistance, the pup could no longer bear the reek of garlic on his breath. It choked and glugged and tried to escape. It was handed to my nephew who was told to wrap it up and rub it vigorously to make it breathe by itself. I gave the vet the price of several drinks mainly for preventing heartache for Marius; he sloped off, then when the pup had warmed up, we placed it beside Nux.

At first, she just wagged her tail at us. Noticing the bedraggled creature, she sniffed it, wearing the bemused look she had whenever Helena mentioned that Nux had let out a fart. Then her offspring moved; Nux pawed it - and decided she might as well clean it and allow it to take over her life.

'She knows she's his mother.' I felt thrilled, 'look, he's starting to suckle. Helena, come and look at this!'

Marius tugged at my tunic. 'Come away, Uncle Marcus. We have to leave her quiet now. She must not be disturbed, or she might reject him. There must be no parade of nosy sightseers, and I think your baby had best stay in another room.' Marius, an intellectual at heart, had gone into this. I knew Helena had lent him a compendium of animal husbandry. Flushed with knowledge and ownership, he refused to entrust his precious pet to amateurs. 'I'll feed Nux for you when it is needed. You two,' he told Helena and me balefully, 'are rather too excitable, if you don't mind my saying so. By the way, Nuxie seems to have given you a problem. . .'

How right he was. Despite all my efforts to find her an attractive basket in a dark nook where she could have her grotesquely oversized pup in privacy, Nux had chosen her own spot: on my toga, in the middle of our bed.

Let us hope,' said Helena, fairly gently, 'you are not required at any formal dress functions in the next few days, Marcus.'

Well, at least that was unlikely; August has some advantages.

x.x.xIV.

HELENA AND I had to make up a bed that night on my old reading couch. This, it has to be said, was so much of a squash for two of us that we did start behaving like infants and were without doubt what Marius would pompously call too excitable.

'Does Nux having a puppy make you want another baby of your own?' I giggled.

'You want an invitation to do something about it?'

'Is that an offer?'

That was when Helena told me she was expecting for the second time - and when we both grew still and a good deal quieter.

All the time Helena had been pregnant with Julia, she had been terrified the birth would be difficult. It had been. They both nearly died. Now neither of us was able to talk about our fears for the next baby.

The following day Marius spent most of his time with us. Sitting cross-legged near his puppy, anyway. The presence of Helena and me was irrelevant to him.

I was at home, writing up records for the vigiles of the debtors Aelia.n.u.s had interviewed. As a senator's son, doc.u.mentation was beneath him; if he continued to work with me, I would have to teach him better habits. He expected me to provide a cohort of secretaries to make sense of his notes.

Well, I would give him advice. If he ignored it, then some day when he was in court with a client (some client I did not care for; there were plenty of those), a barrister would demand written evidence and the n.o.ble Aelia.n.u.s would come sadly adrift.

In the afternoon Marius disappeared, but he was back again that evening, this time carrying a rolled blanket and his personal food-bowl.

'Joining us as a lodger? Does your mother know?'

'I told her. The puppy has to stay with Nux for several weeks.'

'Nux and the puppy are fine, Marius. You can come and see them whenever you want. You don't need to guard them all night long.'

'Arctos.'

'Who's that?'

'I'm going to call him Arctos. The Great Bear. He doesn't want a stupid name like "Nux".'

'It sounds as if you don't trust us with little Arctos,' Helena said. 'Nux will take care of him very well, Marius.'

'Oh, this is just an excuse,' Marius replied off-handedly. Helena and I were taken aback. 'I prefer to be at your house. It is such a bore going home after a long day's heavy work in the warehouse' - I knew from Pa that Marius only did light duties, and he only turned up when it suited him. As he moaned about his labours, I could hear his late father in him, different though he and Famia were - 'only to find that man Anacrites is always there.'

'Oh yes?' I said, stiffening. 'What does "always" mean?' 'Most evenings,' Marius confinned glumly.

'Is that all?'

'He doesn't stay the night. It has not come to "This is your nice new father" yet,' my nephew a.s.sured me, with the astounding self-confidence Maia's children had always possessed. For nine, he was quite a person of the world. A fatherless boy has to grow up fast, but this was frightening. 'Cloelia and I would do our best to put a stop to that.'

'I recommend you not to interfere,' I told him man to man.

'You're right! When we tried, we had Mother snivelling. It was horrible.'

'Your mother is allowed to do what she likes, you know,' I said, biting my lip and thinking, "Not if I have any say in it." (Mind you, those idiots who write treatises on a Roman's patriarchal power have evidently never tried to make a woman do anything.) 'Yes, but it will go wrong, Uncle Marcus. Then he will go away, but we shall be left with the mess he has caused.'

Helena appeared to be hiding a smile; she started to prepare dinner, leaving me to cope.

I dropped my voice conspiratorially. 'So what's the score on the dice, Marius?'

'Mother says Anacrites is her friend. Ugh!'

'What does she want a friend for? She has you and me taking care of her.'

'Mother says she enjoys having someone to talk to - an outsider, who does not always believe he knows what she thinks and what she wants.'

Marius and I sat side by side on a bench thinking about women and their menfolk's responsibilities. 'Thank you for telling me all this Marius. I shall see what I can do.'

Marius gave me a look that told me to leave it to him.

I came from a family whose members saw it as life's greatest challenge to be first to interfere in any problem. I went to see my mother first. I explained the reason for my visit, becoming nervous as I did so. She was surprisingly calm. 'Has Anacrites made a move?'

'How would I know?'

'Maybe he's biding his time.'

'You are gloating over this!'

'I would never do that,' said Ma primly.

I glared at her. My mother continued pinching together the edges of little pastry parcels. She still did it dextrously. I thought of her as an old lady, but she was probably younger than Pa, who boasted of being sixty and still able to drag barmaids to bed. Mind you, the ones who agreed to it now must be a bit on the creaky side.

My mother had always been a woman who could whop three naughty children back in line while stirring a pot of tunic dye, discussing the weather, chewing a rough fingernail and pa.s.sing on gossip in a thrilling undertone. And she knew how to ignore what she did not want to hear.

'I hope that's not his dinner you are making,' I muttered. 'I hope he is not receiving his starters and entrees from my sister, then coming back for dessert from you.'

'Such nice manners,' retorted Ma, obviously meaning Anacrites. She knew mine were not worth complimenting. 'Always grateful for what you do for him.'

I bet he was.

I then forced myself to visit Maia. I was dreading it.

He was there. Just as Marius had said. They were on her sun terrace, talking. I heard their low voices as I let myself in with a spare latch-lifter I had for emergencies. Anacrites was sitting in a wicker chair, leaning his head back in the last rays of sunlight that day Maia was even more relaxed, with her legs stretched out on cushions and her sandals off.

He made no attempt to explain himself, though he soon got up to leave. I had destroyed one tryst anyway. Maia simply inclined her head and let him see himself out. They parted formally. I was not obliged to witness anything embarra.s.sing. I could not even tell whether things had reached that stage. Were they alone, would he even have kissed her on the cheek as a goodbye?

I tried to carry on as if the Chief Spy had never been there. 'I just came to say we have acquired young Marius. He is concerned about his pup.'

Maia regarded me with a look that reminded me a little too closely of Ma. 'That is very good of you,' she commented, a stereotype remark.

'It's no trouble.'

She was waiting for me to tackle her about Anacrites. I was waiting for her to explain herself: no luck. When Maia stopped being unpredictable, she was just plain awkward.

'I'm afraid the new dog may grow rather large...' It would be larger than its mother before long. 'Marius is besotted. He inherits his love of animals from his father, no doubt. He's missing Famia. This might comfort him, you know -'

'I have agreed he can have the puppy,' Maia replied steadily. Of course we were not quarrelling. But I knew my sister well enough to sense her irritation simmering.

I had sat down briefly, not in the same chair that had been occupied by Anacrites. Now I rose. 'Marius is still afraid you may not agree.'

Maia was still very quiet. 'I'll come and have a look at it and tell him.'

'Right. It's cute; they always are... How are things with Pa?'

On neutral ground, she brightened up slightly. 'I'm getting the hang of what needs doing. Actually, I quite like the work. He hates telling me anything, but I'm interested in the antiques.'

'Ha! You'll be running the whole business soon.'

'We'll see.'

When I rose to go, Maia stayed where she was, peacefully reclining, just as she had with Anacrites. A neat, compact woman with a crown of natural curls and an equally natural stubbornness. Left to her own devices for so long while Famia hit the flagons in her own home she had developed a powerful independent att.i.tude. n.o.body told Maia what to do. She had grown too used to deciding for herself.

Tonight, there was also a stillness about her that I found ominous. But as her male head of household, I made sure I did stoop over her and kiss her goodbye. She let me - though like most of my female relatives when treated to unaccustomed formality, she hardly appeared to notice it.