“No, you do not. Have patience.”
Vibius and I were not participants in this drama. We remained in the doorway, the audience, silently observing.
I understood, as the scene unfolded, why Cloelius had been unable to stop Aelia marrying as she’d chosen. He might have had legal power over her life, but Aelia knew exactly how to handle him. She did not fear him, and in fact rather despised him. By marrying Vibius, she’d neatly cut any hold her brother had on her, and I had no doubt that she could control Vibius.
I wondered anew if she’d inherit her family’s lands if anything happened to Cloelius. Maybe she would, and this was why Cloelius, as angry as he was at the moment, did not interfere as she went through the scrolls.
“Ah. Here it is.” Aelia laid a partially unrolled scroll on the desk, weighting it with the decorated bronze disks Cloelius had stacked there. “This piece of land, where Vibius is working now. Tell me all you know of it.”
Cloelius glared down at the papyrus. “It’s a square lot by the river. What of it? I didn’t manage the properties myself, especially not ten years ago. I had a man for that.”
His disgruntled tone said that he longed for the days when a horde of servants had been his to command. The few that roamed this house were unable to depart.
“How did you know it was ten years ago?” I rumbled.
“What?” Cloelius jerked his head up, transferring his irritated glare to me.
“Your sister did not say how long ago. How did you know?”
Cloelius stared at me in bafflement. “The property was sold about then. Ten years ago. That I do know.”
“A man was found dead there,” Aelia informed him. “I have been chanting spells this morning to keep the place quiet.”
Cloelius’s eyes nearly bulged with his rage. “You … what?”
“Gnaeus Gallus worried about resentful spirits,” Aelia said calmly. “I made certain they were put to rest.”
“How dare you?” Cloelius’s face went scarlet, spittle flecking his lips. “Aelia, you have shamed us, and shamed us. You—”
He broke off, hand going to his heart as he started to gasp. His flailing arm caught the stack of scrolls and sent them rolling from the desk and bumping to the floor.
“Sit down, you fool.” Aelia caught Cloelius as he sagged and pressed him into the chair behind the desk. Its carved back and arms cradled him—he’d have fallen from a stool or bench. “Quickly, Vibius, fetch Euphemios.”
Vibius swiftly disappeared in search of the majordomo. Cloelius drew a ragged breath and batted Aelia away.
“Get out,” he commanded. He switched his fury to me. “Get out, gladiator. Infamis. How dare you enter my house?”
Aelia sent me a kinder look. “Leave him to me.”
I nodded. Before I departed, I gathered up all the scrolls I could find and returned them to the bag. I knew Cassia would never let me rest if I left them behind.
Not long later, I found myself outside Cloelius’s villa, the gate clanging behind me.
Vibius had accompanied me as far as the gate, which the majordomo had herded me toward, after he and the other worried servants had answered the summons to the tablinum. I’d allowed myself to be escorted out, reasoning that arguing to remain would accomplish nothing.
“I’ll stay,” Vibius told me through the grating. “Aelia doesn’t much like the old bird, but he’s family. Her only family. Besides me, I mean.”
“Cassia,” I said, my worry jolting through Vibius’s melancholy. I assumed she’d be shoved out a back gate, but I couldn’t be certain.
If Cloelius died suddenly, and someone decided to accuse a slave of poisoning him, the lot of his slaves would be executed for it. The household servants might hold on to Cassia as an outsider to blame.
“I’ll see that she is sent home,” Vibius promised. “I’ll escort her myself, if need be.”
I had to leave it at that. If Aelia nursed her brother back to health, all would be well. Vibius, as I’d observed, was painfully honest, and I knew he’d do as he offered.
I moved with reluctant feet down the hill, knowing that prying Cassia out through the servants’ entrance myself might only get me arrested. No one on this hill wanted to see a gladiator storming his neighbor’s gate. I’d have to trust Vibius.
If Cassia did not reach home within the hour, though, I was climbing back here, after asking Livius to lend me a few of his large guards. Cassia would not stay longer in Cloelius’s house than necessary.
