Cassia had mentioned that those who wished to acquire property sometimes did so by ruthless means.Had Livius wanted the building and kindhearted Priscus wouldn’t turn out the tenants, and so Livius had killed Floriana?Or had Priscus been restricted on selling the building with tenants in it, even prostitutes?
Something tightened in my stomach.I’d hoped I could simply run Floriana’s killer to earth and make him take the blame.An easy solution.Untwisting property ownership and motives for acquiring or selling it made my eyes itch.
“Thank you,” I told Gallus, and turned to leave.
“Now where are you off to?”he called behind me.
To see Priscus, but I did not tell him that.“Errands.Good day to you.”
“You seem quite interested in that house, Leonidas.Is there anything I can do to help?”
Gallus sounded genuinely willing to assist, but I had to wonder about his motives as well.He longed to make his name as an architect—he could have found an opportunity with a house in a cheap district occupied only by women who sold sex.
“No.”I glanced around his shop, liking it and hoping I was wrong.
“Do come and see me if you decide to return to building,” Gallus said as I stepped out the door.“I need another assistant.”
I nodded and took myself away, heading in a steady stride toward the Esquiline and Priscus’s luxuriousdomus.
Two clients waitedoutside Priscus’s door.He did not have many compared to his neighbors—on my way, I passed houses where the clients filled the benches and spilled into the street, men waiting patiently for their turn with thepaterfamilias.
The middle-class man, the one who’d saved Priscus’s life by drinking poison meant for him, was again in the vestibule.His face screwed up in annoyance when I appeared.The second man I’d not seen there before, but that client kept his eyes on his boots as he slumped on the bench.
The lad at the door ran inside when he saw me.Soon he reappeared and beckoned me in, earning me a snort of distaste from the Equestrian.
Celnus met me and disdainfully led me, not to the garden, but to Priscus’s tablinium.
“He is very busy,” Celnus snapped before he pulled back the curtain of the tablinium and announced me.
“Leonidas.”Priscus, in spite of Celnus’s insistence, sounded glad to see me.“How are you, dear boy?How is Cassia?”
A man who asked after a slave was unusual, but then, Cassia was an unusual slave.
“She is well.”I said nothing more, and Priscus glanced at the majordomo, who hovered.
“I’ll speak with Leonidas for a time, Celnus.I’ll call you when we are finished.”
Celnus sent his master a cool look but turned and stalked away.He left the curtain drawn back.
“He belonged to my wife’s family,” Priscus said apologetically.“Freed upon her father’s death, but he wished to continue working for her.To keep an eye onme, you see.”His smile was thin.“Dear Porcia married beneath her.”
“You are a patrician.”Rich or poor, patricians had lineage stretching back to the old Republic.
“Yes, and Porcia’s was of the Equestrian class.But my family never had much power, in spite of our name, and never any money to speak of.In Celnus’s opinion, my wife shouldn’t have glanced at me twice.But I am very glad she did.”
The sorrow in his eyes struck me anew.Priscus had loved her well.
“She owned property,” I said abruptly.I glanced behind me to see if Celnus listened, but he’d retreated to the atrium, where he and Kephalos conducted a discussion in low but heated voices.
Priscus blinked.“She did.Rather, her father did.All over Rome and around the Bay of Naples.I’m not sure of all of it.Celnus looks after that part of the business.”
“One building was sold recently.A house in the Subura.It was used as a brothel.”
Priscus’s brows went up.“Was it?Well, that old devil.I had no idea.I wager my wife did not either.”
“Did you know about the sale?”
Priscus shook his head, the very picture of innocence.“I told you, I don’t delve into the business much.I help my clients and those of my late wife’s father—she was his only child.She had married before, but she kept all the properties she’d inherited from her father, and kindly passed them to me and to Decimus.But the accounts are beyond me.I’m a soldier, not a merchant.Celnus and Kephalos take care of all of it.”Priscus gestured to where Celnus and Kephalos continued to whisper together.
