My sister laid a hand on his arm. ‘Lucius, not now.’ Maia, with her dark curls and characteristic quick movements, looked odd and unfamiliar in black; she usually flitted about in very bright colours. Her face was pale, but she was businesslike.

I would have hugged her, but now the house had emptied, Maia broke away and threw herself onto a couch. ‘Did you see this coming, sis?’

‘Not really, though Pa had complained of feeling off-colour. Your Egypt trip knocked it out of him.’

‘Not my idea. I had banned him. I knew he’d be a menace, and he was.’

‘Oh I realise. Look,’ Maia said, ‘I won’t annoy you with details, but I went quickly through the diary with Gornia. We will carry on with all the booked auctions but won’t take any new orders. You’ll have a lot of sorting out, whatever happens to the business.’

‘Oh Jupiter! Sorting out—what a nightmare . . . Why me?’ I finally managed to voice it out loud.

Petronius looked surprised. ‘You are the son. He thought a lot of you.’

‘No, he thought Marcus was a self-righteous prig,’ my sister disagreed in a casual tone. She threw insults as if she had hardly noticed doing it, though her barbs were generally apt and always intentional. ‘Still, Marcus always does a good job. And apart from behaving like a bastard at every opportunity, Father was a traditionalist.’

‘Maybe all fathers are bastards,’ I commented. I like to be fair. ‘He knew what I thought of him. I told him often enough.’

‘Well, he knew you were honest!’ said Maia, laughing a little. She had faith in me. I had never felt certain just how she regarded Pa. We were the two youngest in our family, long-time allies against the others; she was my favourite and held me in great affection. She had worked with my father because he had paid her, at a time when she had been desperate financially. Newly widowed then—it was about three years ago—she appreciated being in a family business during that hard period. She needed the security. Pa, to do him justice, offered it. He railed against having a woman interfering yet he let her do much as she wanted as his office manager. He recognised how good she was at organisation. He also liked having one of his own privy to his secrets, rather than a hired hand or a slave. That was why he let Junia run Flora’s Caupona too, even though her attitude upset half the customers. And that, I suppose, was why he landed me with his will.

I pulled it out. I held the tied and sealed tablets nervously between both hands, making no attempt to pull the strings undone. ‘So tell me about this, Maia.’ Maia just sniffed. ‘He rewrote it last week? Why was that?’