Much later, that evening when the house was quiet, Helena Justina and I discussed my journey properly in my small private study. I sat in an old basket chair I kept there purposely, so she could lean her elbows on the arms while she told me what a swine I was. At other times, the dog jumped up on it. Tonight, Helena pinched my reading couch, so I was reduced to the chair and the dog jumped on my lap.

Helena had thrown off her shoes and her jewellery, pulled out the ornamental pins from her fine hair and was massaging her head with those long fingers as if the pull of a chignon had made her scalp hurt. But I was the real headache.

‘Listen, fruit. The old rules apply. If you ask me not to, I won’t go.’

Helena thought about that, for about two heartbeats, which was longer than usual in fact. ‘The rule is we travel together, Marcus.’

Now I was stuck, as she intended. If I said it would be irresponsible and unfair to our children for both parents to risk death in the marshes, it just emphasised how stupid it was even for one of us to go.

Helena did not wait for me to bluster. ‘I can’t come. Julia and Favonia need me here for reassurance.’ They had played up a lot after we lost the baby. They probably needed me here too. Typically, Helena did not waste breath pointing that out.

‘I am sorry a big case has come up so soon. Well, maybe I’m sorry it has come up at all.’

‘Marcus, I know you will always need to work.’

‘I could become a full-time antique dealer, a permanent auctioneer. Do you want me to do that?’

Helena made an impatient gesture, left-handed; lamplight hit silver in a ring I once gave her. We had not addressed the issue of my future, but now we dealt with it. ‘I think you will be good at it,’ Helena told me, ‘but you would hate to do it permanently. You enjoy being an informer—it was one of the first things that struck me about you. And you’re very good. So be honest. You and Lucius Petronius have been offered a mystery and as usual you can’t resist.’

‘My connection with Modestus caused it. Apparently a new career won’t save me from mysteries!’

‘So your argument is, you owe something to Modestus? Not profits. I know what the statues brought in.’

‘You checked!’

‘I check a lot of things,’ Helena said, to worry me. I grinned happily. I kept few secrets from her. She was too likely to expose me.