No one paid any heed to me. I could not depart and leave Herakles here on his own. I feared I’d find his body in pieces by morning, and Aemil would never forgive me for losing him another gladiator.
I also had no wish to join the two in whatever antics they would adjourn to do. I silently withdrew from the room, seeking the peristyle garden and its quiet comfort.
I decided to find the servants’ quarters and search for Cassia. I did not want to betray her presence, but at the same time, I wanted to make certain she was safe.
When I turned to make my way toward the back of the house and the passageway I’d spied under the stairs on my last visit, a large man stepped in front of me. I recognized him as Severina’s bodyguard, the one who had stopped me at the bathhouse.
“My lady requests your presence at her house two nights hence,” he intoned. “After the Lupercalia. Her home is on the Caelian Hill off the Clivus Scauri, near the shrine of Minerva.”
I nodded to his glittering eyes. I’d already accepted her invitation, but he was making it formal.
The bodyguard said not another word. He turned and marched away, his footsteps surprisingly quiet for such a large man.
As I’d suspected, theculinaand storerooms for foodstuffs lay at the other end of the peristyle, the entrance to them under the staircase. The kitchen I glanced into had a larger stove than most domii—a rectangular stone cabinet with a fire below and tripods on which to set the cooking pots on top. No one was there, the food already finished and served.
Laughter floated from the storeroom next to theculina. I stepped inside it to behold Cassia, her eyes shining, laughing in an easy way I’d never heard from her before. A tall and gangly young man stood in front of her, holding her hands and gazing at her in adoration.
Chapter 17
“Cassia.” The word jerked out of me, and I heard the snarl that came with it.
Cassia turned without starting, her smile fading in concern, but concern for me, not herself. “Leonidas. Why are you here?”
The young man dropped Cassia’s hands and stared at me in stark terror. He had very thin limbs that held wiry strength, and a prominent lump that moved up and down his stick of a throat as he swallowed hard.
“I’m not wanted,” I said, “but I can’t leave without Herakles.” I fixed my gaze on the man. He swallowed again and backed a step from Cassia.
“This is Helvius,” Cassia told me.
As I’d guessed. The young man possessed the slightly protruding eyes and hunched back of someone who stared at scrolls all day.
“Why are you in the storeroom?” I asked abruptly.
Helvius spluttered, but Cassia replied smoothly, “No servant except a bedroom attendant is allowed in the family’s rooms at night. The household staff either gathers here or outside in the kitchen garden behind the house.” She peered at me. “Won’t they miss you in the dining room?”
“I doubt it.” Herakles and Domitiana had been melding ever closer as I’d gone and would never notice my absence. “What do you know of Severina Casellius and her household?” I directed this question at Helvius.
Helvius glanced quickly at Cassia, but she nodded at him to answer. He cleared his throat. “She’s married to a retired proconsul.”
“I know that. I met him. He joined us for dinner.”
Cassia’s brows went up, and even Helvius was startled. “Unusual for Vestalis,” he said. “He mostly ignores Severina. Perhaps he didn’t want her too involved with gladiators, especially when they are being killed.”
“You mean he ordered her home to protect her?” I asked. “Seems unlikely. He fell asleep while Herakles and I fought an exhibition match.”
“He is nearly seventy years old,” Helvius said, his voice tinged with awe. “Most men aren’t alive at that age, let alone awake.”
Cassia chuckled in appreciation of his humor.
I wanted more than anything at that moment to grab Cassia by the hand and pull her home with me. The feeling startled me—it should make no difference to me if she laughed at a young man’s jokes, especially those of a scrawny specimen like Helvius. But the impulse persisted.
Helvius continued speaking, oblivious to my tension. “Severina is Vestalis’s second wife. His first died when they lived in the provinces, as did his daughter. Very sad. He never had sons.”
Sons were what every highborn Roman man desired. Someone to carry on his name, his business, his honor. Today had begun the nine-day long festival of Parentalia, a tribute to deceased parents and ancestors, sons venerating fathers. Family and heritage were very important, the celebration taken seriously.
Tertius Vestalis Felix must hope to achieve sons with Severina. Perhaps that was why he’d dragged her away from gladiators tonight, to ensure that any child she carried would be his. But if that were the case, then why had Severina dared to extend an invitation to me?
I caught Cassia and Helvius exchanging a glance, as though they shared secrets I was not to know. My irritation rose.
