Then again, Vibius might have nothing to do with this at all.
“I’ll mend those.” I indicated the tablets, then I yawned.
Cassia sent me a grateful glance. “Thank you.”
“Sleep on my bed tonight.” I rose and went to the pallet she’d vacated on the floor. I scooped it up and moved it nearer the balcony, placing the little bag with her earrings on the table before I arranged the bedding in front of the shutters. “If the thief returns, he’ll be surprised when he steps on me.”
I felt grim pleasure at the thought and spread out the blankets, still warm from Cassia’s body.
Cassia stared at me, making no move to seek my bunk. A slave slept on the floor, she must be thinking, while the master took the bed. Cassia was always very conscious of the rules.
My body, exhausted and depressed, didn’t much care for rules tonight.
I pretended not to notice her bewilderment, laid myself down, and was quickly asleep.
In the morning I walked to the site, warily watching everyone I passed. I had a few bruises on my upper arm from chance hits the thief had got in, but otherwise I hadn’t been hurt.
When I reached the building site, Gallus was already there, wind tugging at his graying curls. Vibius, like me, had turned up today though Gallus had said we didn’t need to. He walked the far end of the site, his head down, as though hoping to find another ring.
Vibius left off his searching when he saw me and marched over, his long legs and arms splaying like a spider’s. He definitely had not been the man I’d fought in the dark.
Both he and Gallus frowned at my bruises. “Brawl at a bathhouse?” Vibius asked me, a grin pulling at his lips.
“Someone broke into our apartment last night.” I kept the statement terse. “He got away before I could see his face.”
Gallus sucked in a breath of distress. “Is young Cassia all right?”
I liked that his first worry was for her. “She sensibly stayed on the other side of the room,” I told him.
Vibius gaped in as much amazement. “Were they after the ring, do you think?”
“Yes.” I regarded him steadily, but he only returned my gaze without guilt. Either he had nothing to do with the attempted robbery or he was a very good liar.
“He didn’t steal it, did he?” Vibius asked in concern. “That ring was worth a few aurei, I’d say.”
“I was able to beat him off before he could find it,” I said.
“Good.” Vibius’s relief was obvious.
For my sake, or because he hoped he could still benefit from it? “Cassia says the ring is Etruscan.”
I watched both men’s reactions, but like me when Marcianus and Cassia had explained, they didn’t freeze in stunned amazement.
“Truly?” Gallus asked. “How fascinating. I wonder if the foundation stones here were from before the Republic.”
He trotted to where the stones poked from the ground, weeds bunched around them. I wagered he was more interested in what sort of rock the Etruscans had used than whether he’d find more treasure.
“Does that make the ring worth more?” Vibius asked in curiosity.
“I don’t know,” was all I could answer. “My scribe is looking into it.”
“You have a scribe?” Vibius’s disbelief rang from him. “What sort of scribe works for a gladiator?”
“A slave,” I responded. “She has no choice.”
“She?” Vibius broke off, working through all he’d learned of me yesterday. “This scribe is the woman Gallus says you go home to?”
“She keeps my accounts.” I tried to sound like a sophisticated man of the world, but Vibius could barely contain his laughter. Some of his annoyance with me vanished, and he moved back into the field, shaking his head.
