I answered him quietly. ‘If you want to talk about it later, we can do that. Here is my advice, don’t brood. Right now, it is better for you to keep busy. I have a little job for you. While we are so near, please go up the Aventine and tell Manlius Faustus what has been happening. You can find your way. Over the market – don’t slip in the blood. There’s the Trigeminal Gate waiting for you, then straight up to Ceres.’

‘You have to write it all down, what you want to tell him. The messages I take are written.’

‘Get a grip, Dromo. You can describe what you saw this morning. You were there and I was not.’

Dromo remained agitated. ‘No, he likes it written by you; he has a laugh, the way you put things.’

‘Well, none of this is hilarious, so you can go and tell your master for me.’

Dromo still gnawed away. ‘I’ve seen him read your tablets, having a good chuckle—’

‘Not today. Go, Dromo.’ I had nothing to spare for the slave boy; I wanted Faustus to see his distress and take over. Faustus ought to comfort him. The boy belonged to him, so he must do it. I had my own sadness to deal with.

I watched Dromo set off, stumbling over his feet in his unhappiness. Then the rest of us began to trudge homewards with the orphaned baby.

Behind us, ships plied upon the river, people went to the cattle market, the vegetable and flower markets, the Temple of Fortune and the Temple of Portunus, while the hot June sun beat down upon the bridge, where the pavement was already drying.

47

Galla Simplicia, to whom rumours flew like messenger pigeons, was waiting for us on the apartment doorstep. A carrying chair stood nearby, with two carefully matched bearers; a couple of maids were flittering about in attendance. She had the full parade. Galla seemed to grow in importance daily, as she reclaimed her position as the matron who mattered.

She said she had come to see Graecina, after being told she was scalded. From what Graecina had told me about Galla, this closeness was new, though useful to the freedman’s widow. I saw it as one way Galla was reasserting herself in the family from which she had once been divorced.

Just as we arrived, Graecina returned from having treatment for her blisters. Full of concern, Galla took her into the ground floor apartment, along with Myla’s baby, whom she took from me as her property. Fauna tagged along indoors too. The inquisitive neighbour did not intend to miss a moment.

I stopped behind for a moment to talk to Myrinus and Secundus. I had a point I wanted to take up with them.

‘Right, my boys! You need to explain yourselves …’