‘Falco can dig and prune.’

‘Unlike your father, I never had a country background. Do you call Falco your father, by the way?’

‘Of course.’

‘I was not sure what kind of arrangement Falco and Helena had about you.’ Anacrites was obviously hinting there was something irregular he could use against us.

‘I have my citizen’s certificate!’ Albia slapped him down.

Anacrites jumped on it: ‘Was that after appearing before an Arbitration Board?’

‘Not necessary in a foreign province,’ Albia sneered. ‘The governor has full jurisdiction. Frontinus approved it. Didius Falco and Helena Justina adopted me.’

‘So formal?’ So necessary, with people like him out to get us.

‘Well, there you are, Anacrites. You don’t know everything about Falco!’

Though I grinned at the way she attacked him, I kept absolutely still. I was standing in shadow, by a great tangle of foliage supported on some kind of obelisk. Anacrites’ eyes wandered one way and another. I reckoned he suspected I was somewhere watching and listening.

‘You talk as if you think I am pursuing Falco! He and I are colleagues, Albia. We have worked together many times. In the year of the Census, we worked very hard in a perfectly good partnership; the Emperor congratulated us. I remember that as a happy experience. I feel very affectionate towards Marcus Didius.’

‘Oh he loves you too!’ Albia chopped the subject off. ‘Tell me about Antonia Caenis and Istria. Why did she care so much about where she came from? Was she hoping to find her ancestors?’

‘That I don’t know. Perhaps she was. We all have a yearning to discover our background, don’t we?’ Anacrites’ question was incongruous from him.

‘I think what matters is the person we are now.’

‘That sounds like Helena Justina talking.’

‘She speaks good sense.’

‘Oh yes; I too admire her immensely.’

‘Are you jealous of Falco for having Helena?’

‘Certainly not. It would be inappropriate.’

‘Why are you not married?’

‘Never seemed to find the time.’

‘Don’t you like women? Do you prefer men?’

‘I like women. My work tends to mean keeping very much to myself.’

‘Not many friends then? Or no friends at all? You were a slave too—like Caenis. Do you know about your own family?’

‘I have some idea.’

‘Really? Did you ever meet them?’

‘My earliest memory is being among the palace scribes.’

‘So you must have been taken away from your parents very young? Was that hard?’

‘I never knew anything different. Where I found myself, we were all the same. I enjoyed my training. It seemed normal.’

‘So—I always want to ask people this—don’t you want to try to find your relatives? If anyone could do it, a spy should be able to.’

‘I suppose you ask this question because you feel a driving need to find your own people?’