She started opening scrolls again as I went down the stairs to the still-sunny street.
I ended up at the same popina on the Vicus Salutis as I’d been last night, as it was the nearest. Fortunately, I did not spy Nero this time in the shadows, trying to pass for a pleb. Blasius and his friends were also absent.
“Leonidas,” the landlord greeted me. The popina was mostly empty, as it was a few hours before most took their evening meal. “No trouble tonight, eh?”
I hadn’t caused the trouble, but I nodded and pointed at a steaming vat set into the counter. “Is that a new pot of stew, or are there still dice in the bottom of it?”
“Fresh this morning.” The landlord shot me an annoyed glance. “I should charge you for the lot of it.”
“I’m sure no one noticed any difference.” I knew the landlord would have continued to serve the stew, not wanting to throw out a vat he could sell. “Two bowls to take home.”
The landlord turned away to fetch bowls and a ladle. Another man landed at the counter next to me, his elbows hitting it heavily.
“Back again, Leonidas?” Scaevola, the vigile captain, said to me. “Where is the little Greek man who saved your hide?”
“Home, I hope.” I had no idea where Hesiodos lived, I realized, though apparently Cassia did.
Scaevola chortled. “Handy fellow to have about. No thieving tonight?”
“I didn’t thieve last night,” I answered. “Your man saw wrong.”
“Of course. Of course.” Scaevola continued to smile. “All a misunderstanding.”
“Yes.” I saw no reason to keep explaining.
“What did you do today, Leonidas?”
Scaevola had lost his mirth and scrutinized me with hard eyes. His muscular body bulked next to me, and I noticed he had gradually inched me down the counter toward the wall.
“Had a job,” I answered. “At a building site in the Emporium.”
“I heard about that. People are full of gossip about you. Are you hauling rocks? Or guarding construction goods?”
“As you say.” I had no intention of telling him about Gallus and my new position.
The landlord returned and scraped stew into two wooden bowls, topping them with wooden disks for lids. He shoved them at me, and I handed over a sestertius.
“Staying in tonight?” Scaevola asked me.
I nodded, finished with him. I took up the bowls and turned to leave.
“Good night, Leonidas,” Scaevola said.
I grunted something and departed the popina. Both Scaevola and the landlord watched me go.
At home, I ate in silence. Cassia had her head down over tablets, whatever she researched absorbing her attention. She ate distractedly and never admonished me for paying so much for two bowls of indifferent stew.
By the time I finished the meal, I could barely keep my eyes open. I lifted the shutters into place to block off our balcony and shuffled my way to the bed. I fell upon it, remembering to drop my sandals to the floor before I swung my legs tiredly onto the pallet. A few moments after that, I was asleep.
I woke much later when the shutter to our balcony creaked.
My eyes opened immediately.
Faint moonlight framed a man’s silhouette in the balcony opening. He ducked to the right, into shadow, but the fleeting glimpse had been enough for me.
Moving in soundless fury, I pushed back the blanket Cassia must have draped over me, rushed across the small room, and caught the intruder in a headlock.
Chapter 5
