When I came in, she had only just arrived and was addressing Myla. ‘I heard a baby crying.’

‘He’s watching her,’ replied Myla gruffly, nodding at the youth Cosmus who was with her. ‘Supposed to be.’ He was peering into food stores like any ravenous young boy. Unlike the sharp knives in my family, he had no notion of stopping and looking innocent on the approach of adults.

Simplicia was indignant, though not because the baby had been left to cry. She pointed to the child, who was no longer lying in the basket I had seen before, but in an elderly wooden cradle. Despite its age, it was well-made, perhaps by the family’s estate carpenter. ‘I have been searching for that!’ Simplicia exclaimed indignantly. ‘It was ours – we all had it, my sister and brother and me. It is now wanted for my sister’s baby. You have no right to it; please remove your child at once.’

A married woman even though still young, she spoke forcefully and with obvious annoyance, but Galla had brought her up to treat slaves politely. Simplicia clearly knew Myla, and made no threat of punishment.

Truculent but mute, Myla lifted the child, then took her out of the kitchen.

‘You can go!’ snapped Simplicia at Cosmus. She seemed to know him too. From her tone, she may have been afraid he would refuse her instructions.

He ambled off, but that was because I added sharply, ‘Get lost, Cosmus!’

Simplicia dropped onto a stool and momentarily covered her face with her hands as if things were all too much.

I sat down with her. ‘Do you mind if we talk?’

Simplicia raised her head, rocking the cradle absent-mindedly with one narrow foot, perhaps unconsciously reclaiming the heirloom. I said what I wanted to ask was delicate and I particularly hoped to spare her mother. That gave the daughter an excuse to speak frankly, if she needed one.

‘Can you tell me about your father’s relationship with Myla?’

Her mouth tightened and she gazed fixedly at a pot on the hearth. ‘She was there, she was available, he slept with her.’ Her voice was tight; it obviously rankled. I waited. ‘There was never anything to it, other than he was the master and she was his slave.’

I reassured her quietly. ‘This happens everywhere.’ As the young woman remained frowning and silent, I went on, ‘I am not condoning it, but men who own slaves, and women too, presume that is what the slaves are there for. A condition of slavery is to be used for sexual purposes. Masters have the right to do it. Slaves have no right to say no.’

Simplicia relaxed, heaving a large sigh. ‘She accepted it. My father was head of the household so she thought it made her better than the rest.’

‘He only slept with Myla?’

‘He was a man of habit.’