A Body in the Bathhouse by Lindsey Davis Read Free Book Online

Julia. By now, the Urbans were greatly miffed that no solution had been dropped into their laps by the gods. All they knew was that Gloccus and Cotta had both left Rome. While this seemed to confirm their guilt, it meant no arrest. Were we surprised? What do you think?
    The Urban Prefect wanted to clear up the case—and the situation was even worse for me. Pa expected me to take over when the real investigators feebly dropped out.
    Well, at least it could be a training exercise for my bright young assistants.
    Young, yes; bright, perhaps. Assisting—no chance. I got more help from Nux. The lads were an unlikely pair for informing. Friends of mine thought they would quickly tire of me. I reckoned I would soon be dumping them.
    Helena Justina had two well-brought-up patrician brothers: Aulus Camillus Aelianus and Quintus Camillus Justinus. When I first knew her, both had looked promising citizens—Justinus, the younger, especially. He and I shared some foreign adventures; I liked him and, although he could behave like an idiot, I was impressed by his abilities. I never expected to work much with him because he seemed cut out for higher things.
    Aelianus, two years the elder, had been on the verge of standing for the senate. To look respectable, he became betrothed to an heiress from Baetica, Claudia Rufina. A nice enough girl, with
extremely
nice financial assets. Then Justinus stupidly eloped with Claudia. They were in love when they ran off, though probably not now.
    The abandoned Aelianus felt a fool and refused to go through with the senate election. He had a point. The family had already survived a political crisis when an uncle tried some dangerous plotting. Now public scandal gathered again. All the chalk-white robes in Rome could not really make Aelianus look a pristine candidate, one with illustrious ancestors and blameless modern relatives.
    Deprived of his expectations and in retaliation, while Justinus was away marrying the heiress in Spain, Aelianus wormed his way in with me. He knew Justinus was planning to come home to work with me, and hoped to steal the position. (
What position?
skeptics might well ask.)
    Justinus reappeared in Rome early that spring, not long after my daughter Sosia Favonia was born. Claudia had married him. We had all thought she might lose interest (mainly because Justinus already had), but they were both too stubborn to admit their mistake. Her rich grandparents had bestowed
some
money on the pair, though Justinus told me privately it was not enough. He appealed to me for support, and since he had always been my favorite, I was stuck.
    I did escape one hairy proposal: Helena had talked about Justinus and Claudia coming to live with us. But their first visit on their return to Rome coincided with one of our nursemaid’s days off. While Hyspale was gallivanting on yet another shopping trip, Julia was racing about our new home’s corridors with Nux. My dog thought being “good with children” meant pretending to savage them, so that was noisy. Nux smelled too. Mico’s Valentinianus must have rubbed bits of gherkin into her fur. At the same time, the baby—who picked up tricks very quickly—had just learned how to turn herself blue with hysteria. Dear Favonia was well tended, but an unkind father might say babies produce as many smells as dogs. So our newlyweds backed out of sharing accommodations, rapidly. I’m sure I would have begged them to reconsider, if I had thought of it.
    Over the job, however, Justinus refused to give way to his brother. So now I had both lads at my tunic tails. It was a misery to their parents, who had already lost their daughter to the low-life Didius Falco; now both their noble boys were coming to play in the gutter as well. Meanwhile, I had to keep the jealous pair apart.
    I gave them the bathhouse incident to experiment with. They had been hoping for more impressive clients than Pa. For instance, ones who would pay fees.
    “Wrong,” I explained