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table top, and used it to motion angrily at me. ‘Since he is the most likely suspect in this whole affair.’
    I was so startled that for a moment I could not speak at all, but the young widow forestalled me by crying out at once, ‘Helena Domna, I understand that you’re upset, but by all the gods you can’t behave like this. Vinerius could be poisoned, too. Have you considered that? If someone has really been tampering with the wine! And this man is a guest . . .’ Her voice was shaking with emotion and distress.
    Her mother-in-law dismissed her with a scornful laugh. ‘A guest? You know that he was discovered skulking round the house without so much as an escorting slave? Just before Honorius was taken gravely ill? If anyone had the opportunity to poison my poor son, it was this wretch. What proof has he that he was ever invited to the house? He didn’t show the page an invitation scroll and he is not known to me. Do you know who he is?’
    Livia shook her head.
    ‘In that case, steward, you can seize him now.’
    The steward did not dare to disobey. He put a reluctant hand around my wrist. ‘A thousand pardons, lady . . .’ He threw a frightened glance at me. ‘He is known to me. This is the protégé of Marcus Septimus, and I am assured that he was properly invited to the feast. This red-headed lad is Excellence’s own slave . . . or was.’ He gestured towards Minimus. ‘I can vouch for that. He has been here on his Excellence’s business many times.’
    Helena Domna seemed to waver for a moment, then she swept all this aside. ‘Silence, fool! What difference does that make? A slave is in the service of whoever owns him now – and you can see what kind of man his present master is. The representative of Marcus Septimus? In that dishevelled toga? A sneak thief more likely – taking the chance to steal the wedding gifts. Look at that piece of silver he is carrying. The slave is his accomplice, I expect – used as a way of getting access to the place. It seems quite clear to me. He was prowling unescorted in the house and he’s very well informed on poisons, it appears. He could easily have put something in the wine. Who else had the opportunity? Livia, send for the household guard at once and have him put in chains. We’ll let Honorius’s bodyguards work on him a bit. Whatever the truth is, they’ll beat it out of him.’
    My mouth went dry. I had seen those bodyguards and the whips and clubs they used. A few moments in their company would have me gibbering and ready to admit to anything they chose – and then no doubt I would be bundled to the courts for sentencing, just at the moment when Marcus was not here! It was likely that I’d never see my wife and son again. As a citizen I was protected from the crueller deaths, of course, but if I was found guilty of this poisoning I would probably be glad to drink a lethal brew myself. And as for what would happen to poor young Minimus! I dared not look at him.
    I was still trying to make my tongue obey me, when to my great surprise the younger woman said, in a suddenly clear and quite determined voice, ‘With respect, Helena Domna, we shall do no such thing. I’m sure this citizen is what he says he is – the friend of Marcus Septimus. I was there when Honorius agreed to send the scroll. I shall certainly not ask the guards to lock him up.’
    Helena Domna looked first startled, then furiously annoyed. She rapped the young woman sharply with the fan. ‘How dare you contradict me – and in my own son’s house. Mind out of my way there – I shall send for them myself.’
    Livia was a smaller woman, and a less imposing one, but she held her ground and stood firmly in Helena Domna’s way. ‘Steward, please release that citizen at once.’
    ‘But lady, I cannot. I very much regret . . .’ the poor fellow stuttered. ‘Helena Domna . . .’ He looked helplessly at Livia, as if for some advice.
    ‘Steward, do I understand aright?’