Nine for the Devil by Mary Reed, Eric Mayer Read Free Book Online Page A

intimate nature.”
    Vesta. John recalled the name. Hadn’t the client who had arrived to see Anatolius been called Vesta? “Describe Vesta.”
    Kuria’s description matched the girl John had glimpsed at Anatolius’ house.
    John looked across the garden. The sun had disappeared behind the trees. White poppies glimmered as if they retained some fading remnant of the sunlight.
    It appeared he would have to look further afield than visitors to the sickroom to find the culprit.
    The imperial cook had every reason to hope Theodora continued to live, assuming he had been allowed to live this long. Given Justinian had ordered all the empress’ guards executed, the cook was probably dead now as well. As for poor Kuria, about to be set adrift, she had gained nothing but misery by Theodora’s demise.
    As for Vesta, her mistress Joannina was besotted by Theodora’s grandson Anastasius. Yes, “besotted” was the word everyone at the palace used, Cornelia had told him. On the other hand it was common knowledge that Joannina’s parents were against the fast-approaching marriage. The last thing Joannina would want was for Theodora, her matchmaker and protector, to die and permit Antonina and Belisarius to have their way.
    “Is Vesta fond of her mistress?”
    “Oh, yes indeed, excellency. She wanted to be like her in every way. She’d dab Joannina’s perfume behind her ears. She thought Anastasius so handsome. She was always saying what a romantic couple he and her mistress made.” Kuria buried her face in her hands. “She will be thrown out too, excellency. When her parents take Joannina away from Anastasis, Vesta will be as homeless as I am.”
    The girl sat on the bench sobbing. John supposed there was nothing more she could tell him. It seemed callous to get up and leave her alone. Yet what could he do to comfort her?
    He would have to talk to Vesta and her mistress Joannina. Anatolius had quoted poetry denouncing bad marriages just before Vesta arrived. Was the subject on his mind from a legal perspective? If Antonina and Belisarius wanted to thwart Joannina’s marriage they might well have another match in mind for her. A bad one by Joannina’s reckoning, no doubt. Perhaps Vesta was fetching legal advice and papers from Anatolius on behalf of Joannina.
    Quite aside from that, it seemed clear those best positioned to be used as tools by a murderer all desperately needed the empress to go on living.
    Now it was so dark the clipped animals were fading into the gloom. John could still see the bear. Its snarling mouth appeared to be forming a silent laugh. Was it laughing at the impossibility of the task John faced?
    The sound of a light step, and a woman appeared through the archway. She carried a basket brimming with greenery. Startled, she glanced at Kuria and then looked up at John.
    “Hypatia! I have been looking for you.”

Chapter Nine
    “It was Anatolius who caused you to leave, wasn’t it?” Peter asked.
    Hypatia shook her head and a lock of hair, black as a raven’s wing, fell across her forehead. She pushed it away with a tawny hand. “No, Peter. I just felt you didn’t want my assistance.”
    Peter levered himself up with his elbow. A cushion from one of the house’s virtually unused reception rooms was wedged between his bony back and the wall. “That young man was paying you unwanted attention. Don’t think I didn’t notice. It was most improper.”
    “You mean because he’s a senator’s son and I’m a servant?”
    “That’s not what I meant exactly, Hypatia. What I meant was that Anatolius is not the sort of man you would, well, get along with. Flighty.”
    Hypatia couldn’t help smiling. Scowling as he was, Peter looked very fierce. His leathery, wrinkled face displayed a finely lined map of his long life. Had he always looked aged? When Hypatia imagined him at twenty, he looked the same as the man before her. His eyes were still as young and lively as they must have been then, she