'When you go out, march straight up and ask who sent them here.'
'You know?'
'Petronius. He has equipped us with a highly visible vigilante guard.'
'If Petronius thinks that necessary, it frightens me even more!' We stared at each other. Helena must have decided there was no point creating a fuss. 'Did I ask the right questions?'
'You always ask the right questions!'
'The cakes are important, Marcus; I know they are. You could poison cakes individually. But ensuring the right victim took the right cake ... I thought it must be the extra large one.'
'I know you did,' I smiled at her.
'That would have been perfect, Marcus! Hortensius Novus was the host. In such a vulgar house I bet they offer platters to the host first; Novus could be guaranteed to grab the best!'
I smiled again. 'Yet Severina took it off the plate!'
'This is a complete puzzle.'
'Perhaps not. It could be that Severina is innocent. Maybe she went to the house, even though she was feeling off colour, because she had realised the banquet could be dangerous for her beloved. Maybe she really wanted to check for anything suspicious in the food.'
'Is that what she says?' Actually, that was one line she had not inflicted on me yet. 'It could be,' Helena retorted bleakly, 'this is just what Severina wants you to think. Do you believe Viridovix knew she was checking for people trying to get at his food?'
'Viridovix was no fool.'
Helena growled. 'Perhaps you were meant to discover the business with the giant pastry; it could be a clever double bluff, while the poison was really somewhere else -'
'Oh it was somewhere else!' We both fell silent. 'If he was poisoned at the dinner,' I said, 'it may rule out any connection with Priscillus. His business rival could not easily snuff him out in his own house.'
'Could not Priscillus have bribed one of the Hortensius slaves?'
'Risky. Slaves fall under suspicion so easily. It would take a large bribe-and then there is a risk that a slave with too much money becomes conspicuous.'
'Not if the slave was Viridovix; and if Viridovix is now dead!'
'I won't believe it was the cook.'
'All right. You met him!' She noticed I was really too tired to go on. 'Are we any further forwards?' she asked, smoothing my bedcover.
I lifted a scratched finger tenderly to her cheek. 'Oh I think so!' I leered at her cheekily.
Helena put my arm back under the cover. 'It's time I fed the parrot; go to sleep!'
'The parrot is old enough to feed itself.'
She was still sitting quietly with me. 'You sound better; it's a good sign when you can talk.'
'I can talk; I just can't move.' Something was on her mind. 'What is it, fruit?'
'Nothing.'
'I know my girl!'
'Marcus, how do you bear the pain?'
'At the time you're being beaten up, you tend to be too busy to notice it. Afterwards, you just have to be brave ...' I was watching her. Sometimes Helena's dogged way of tackling life made her close in on herself. It was hard for anyone to reach her then, though sometimes she would turn to me. 'Sweetheart ... when you lost the baby did it hurt?'
'Mmm.' Despite the brief answer, she was prepared to communicate. There might never be another opportunity like this.
'Is that why having another frightens you?'
'I'm frightened of everything, Marcus. Not knowing what will happen. Not being able to do anything about it. The helplessness . .. Incompetent midwives, crass physicians with terrifying instruments-I'm frightened I'll die. I'm terrified that after all that effort the baby will die, and how will I bear it?... I love you very much!' she said suddenly. It did not seem irrelevant.
'I would be there,' I promised her.
She smiled sadly. 'You would find some urgent job to do!'
'No,' I said.
Helena wiped away her tears while I lay trying to look reliable. 'Now I'll go and feed the parrot,' she said.
She made the mistake of looking back from the door.
I grumbled plaintively, 'You're only using that parrot as a handy alibi!'
'Look at the state of you!' Helena scoffed. 'Who needs an alibi?'
Then before I could reach out and grab her she had to run, because a grinding noise announced that the damned parrot was learning to bend open the bars of its cage.
'Oh stop being so wicked and tell me who did it!' Helena roared.
But Chloe only shrieked back, 'Marcus has been a naughty boy!'
Untrue, unfortunately.
Chapter LIII
Helena decided she would visit her parents before the Senator (with a large cudgel) came to visit me.
I was half dozing when I thought I heard her returning; I lay low until someone came into the bedroom, when I shouted out, 'Is that you?'
'Oh Juno!' Wrong voice! 'Yes; it's me-you frightened me!'
Severina Zotica.