Albus turned to me in disappointment. “I thought you said he was the one killing gladiators.”
It took me a few moments to understand what he meant. “He didn’t order the armor?” I asked.
“No.” Albus drained his wine cup. “Not the same man.”
Cassia craned to watch the litter and bodyguards disappear around a corner. “Are you certain?” she asked Albus. “Imagine him with a full mop of hair.”
Albus was already shaking his head in negation. “He’s big, yes, and has a large nose, but otherwise not at all like the man who came to Volteius. This one’s face is wide, but our man’s was long and narrow. Like a horse’s. And his forehead stuck out, even through all his hair. This bodyguard has a smaller head with a more pleasing shape. And his eyes didn’t make me shiver and want to clutch a charm.”
I leaned against the wall and tried to stem my disappointment. I’d been so certain that Severina’s bodyguard and the man Albus and the basketmaker had seen were one and the same.
Now I’d have to start hunting for him one street at a time, just as Vatia the vigile captain mourned he’d have to do.
I also had to find Regulus. Maybe Praxus was wrong, and Regulus had gone to Domitiana after all, or to some other woman on the Caelian.
I scowled in frustration. I was no closer to discovering answers than when I’d started.
Albus, restless, leaped to his large feet. “Thank you for the wine, Leonidas. And the holiday. If I see the man again, I will lock him in Volteius’s shed and run to fetch you.”
“If you see him, you will stay far from him,” I said sternly. This murderer would have no trouble felling an untrained apprentice. “But send word to me if he returns to make another order.”
Albus grinned at me without promising anything, then he loped off into the street, heading back down the hill to drudgery. The afternoon out had cheered him considerably.
“Return home,” I said to Cassia.
She regarded me in surprise. “Where will you go?”
“To discover if Regulus truly is in that house. Severina is the sort of woman who’d leave him to sleep while she went off to visit her mother. If he is not there, I’ll see if he’s in any of the other domii.” I hesitated. “Can you ask Helvius if Regulus is a regular guest of Severina? Or of any of her friends?” I dug into my pouch and produced the earring I’d found in Regulus’s cell. “This might be one of Severina’s. She either gave it to Regulus, or he managed to filch it.”
Cassia studied the earring with interest. “Severina has no friends, from what I hear. I’ll enter her house with you, and maybe talk to the servants. They’d know if the earring was truly hers. I can say I found it and am returning it …”
I was already shaking my head. “I haven’t yet dismissed Severina as the one ordering the deaths. The head bodyguard might not be the man doing her fetching and carrying, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t hired another to help her.”
“Exactly.” Cassia closed her tablet and slipped it into her bag. “The servants can tell me if the man Albus describes has ever been there. I know how to be discreet.”
“No.” Fear made me short-tempered. “If you poke around in a patrician’s house without their permission, you can be flogged, or arrested, or killed. You will go home and send word to Helvius.”
We spoke in low, rapid tones, keeping our argument from the curious proprietor.
“Butyouwill be safe? You’re a freedman, not the son of a rich senator. You could also be arrested, flogged, or killed.”
“Not as easily as you,” I returned stubbornly. “Gladiators are welcomed for exhibitions. I can say I was summoned to perform and got the house wrong, or the day wrong. We’re expected to be stupid too.”
Cassia took in my rigid stance, my clenched fists, my adamance. She usually did exactly as she pleased, no matter what kind of orders I gave her, but this time at least, she seemed to recognize the danger.
“Very well,” she said with the air of one conceding with great reluctance. “I will speak to Helvius and try to locate Regulus. Helvius and I between us likely know every servant on this hill, and we will encourage them to gossip. Have your peek in Severina’s house, but be careful. Her husband was courteous to you, but he might object to you bullying your way inside.”
“Asking politely to go inside,” I countered. “To pay my respects to the paterfamilias and his ancestors. It is Parentalia.”
“I know it is.” Cassia’s insistence died away, and the sadness I’d observed earlier again entered her eyes.
I gentled my tone. “We will light candles to your father on Feralia. And Xerxes.”
Cassia lifted her bag over her shoulder. “Hurry home, Leonidas,” she said softly.
She turned to go, every line of her sorrowful. I hated when she was dejected, but I’d buy some trinket or sweetmeat that we could lay on the altar for her father.
I waited until Cassia had trudged her way down the hill, out of sight, before I turned to Severina’s home.
