“You are very welcome,” Marcianus said.“You’re a smart young woman and a good deal of help.”
Marcia relaxed a little, but a former slave, used as she had been, would never be completely free of fear.
“I will keep Marcia on as my assistant,” Marcianus said, sounding proud.“I can’t pay much, but at least I can give the poor girl bread and a place to sleep.”
“Enough for me,” Marcia said, sanguine.
“You won’t take her to theluduswhen you treat the gladiators, will you?”The men there would recognize her from Floriana’s and be happy to drag her aside whether she willed it or not.
“Of course I won’t,” Marcianus said, offended.“She’ll stay here and mix medicines and look at patients who come in my absence.I’ve needed an assistant for some time.”
Marcia said nothing, but I sensed the relief in her.
“Do you know where Floriana was struck down?”I asked Marcia.
“No, but I think she parted with Lucia because she wanted to meet someone.Not in her usual places.The vigiles who brought her body home didn’t tell us much.”
I thought again about the young vigile who’d invaded our house, claiming he was checking for fires.He’d come to us deliberately, and he’d admitted he skulked about Floriana’s the morning she’d been poisoned.I would hunt him up and shake him a little, find out what he knew, if anything.
“What about Lucia?”I watched Marcia, gauging her reaction.“She thought she was in danger by the same killer, that all of you were.That’s why you came here.”
“I came here because I had nowhere to go,” Marcia answered without a pause.“I’d liked helping Marcianus, so I wanted to see if he’d teach me.”
Marcianus’s face pinched in worry.“Marcia is in danger?From whom?”
I shifted in frustration.“That is what I am trying to find out.Marcia, do you know any reason why someone would want to kill Floriana?”
Marcia shrugged.“I thought perhaps she owed someone money or she didn’t do what someone paid her to.She took side jobs to make more money—Floriana was a hard businesswoman.She made sure we had plenty to eat and rest times, but that was only so we’d be fresh and strong for her customers.”
Marcia spoke without rancor, but Marcianus’s disgust was obvious.“Well, you have no more fear of that, my dear.That life is behind you now.”
I could tell Marcia didn’t quite believe him.I’d been on my own on the streets as a lad, and I knew exactly what she had faced.I’d known the mistrust of every man I met, including the builder who’d finally employed me.It had been a long time before I’d been able to let down my guard around him.
“Marcianus is a good man,” I told her.“You will do well here.”
“Leonidas is flattering.”Marcianus folded his arms, his smile slanted.“And wiser than he knows.”
I wasn’t certain how to answer, so I took my leave of them both and went on with my pursuits.
It was the fourth hour,breakfast finished.Shops were doing flourishing business, Rome as vigorous as ever, despite the rain.
Saturnalia was over, and the new year had begun.Janus, the two-faced god, looking both forward and backward, ushered in a new month.I remembered Marcianus telling me that the senate had once proposed naming December as the first month of the year, since it held Nero’s birthday, but Nero had refused the honor.
I thought of the haughty young man who’d delighted in Cassia’s applause.Many believed Nero didn’t care about the running of Rome, only his own preoccupation with music and drama.Rumor went that he’d instructed for his mother, Agrippina, to be killed because she’d interfered with his pursuit of music.Others speculated that his new wife, Poppaea, had simply encouraged him to get rid of Agrippina so the two could marry.
The quirks of theprincepsdidn’t concern me at the moment, beyond his admonishment to protect Priscus.I wasn’t foolish enough to involve myself in the affairs of those on the Palatine.Everyday life was challenging enough.
I made my way past the Circus Maximus, where the thump of hoofbeats told me teams of horses were being trained.Nero favored chariot racing, which made him liked by most Romans.He defied the stuffy senators and gave the rest of Rome games and races.
The house where the vigiles of the Subura slept during the day and brought in miscreants at night was near the Clivus Pullius as it went up the Oppian Hill.
I did not know the name of the man I sought, but I had no fear of plunging into the house and searching through beds until I found him.The vigile had plunged into mine.
I didn’t need to look for him, as it turned out.The young vigile walked out of the house as I approached it, saw me, and tore off in the opposite direction.
Chapter 13
Ichased my quarry through the rain, splashing over stones, bumping through crowds and around shouting vendors.The vigile fled past the fountain of Orpheus, tearing around clumps of people, and toward the Porta Esquilina.I pounded after him.
