‘Pericles?’ Xanthippus said at last. ‘Stay here with your mother and sister. That is an order. I will head back into the city. I’ll see you when I return.’

Pericles only bowed his head, not daring to reply. His father’s mood had lightened just a touch and he did not want to risk any more anger. The young man was completely exhausted and he welcomed a chance to escape the thunderstorm. Instead, Pericles watched, putting his arm around his sister as the two men walked back to the gate, then onto the road into the city.

‘I can’t believe Ariphron won’t come back,’ Eleni said suddenly. ‘I wanted him to see the house. I’ve … been doing so much, just to have him look pleased and … smile in that way of his. Now he won’t … I’ll never hear his voice again, or see him laugh.’

Pericles shook his head. He could feel his brother’s gaze on him.

‘He knows,’ he said, turning to go inside. ‘He’s already home. I’m sure he made it here before we did.’

31

Xanthippus woke with his son’s name on his lips, calling out in panic, then suddenly ashamed. He could not reach Ariphron, could not bring him back. He could not undo one day, one single heartbeat that had gone before. He groaned as he sat up, smelling vomit on him. He had always been a fastidious man and he winced at the stench. Worse than vomit. His bowels had emptied! It happened sometimes, he knew, when a man drank as much wine as he had. Yet it had never happened to him. It had all dried, of course, sticking his clothes to him in the night. He wished briefly that he was still at sea, where he could swim. He needed buckets and a great deal of water, perhaps a river … He looked around, trying to work out where he was. Two days had passed since he had set foot in Athens once again, or … three, he was no longer sure. He had tried to drink himself to death, but it just kept pouring out and then he would start again. By Athena, he was starving! His head! His leg was like a board, the knee was so stiff. The air seemed to fill with flashes of light whenever he moved.

He was not alone in the room, he realised. A strange man lay in the opposite corner, his tunic pulled up, exposing himself in his slumbers. A woman with curly brown hair in her armpits lay alongside him, snoring like a child. The man had a huge black eye, but Xanthippus had no memory of either of them.