Lynne Ellison's The Green Bronze Mirror

You can sit in the shop until tbey come for you.'

  The House of Caecina was perched on the slopes of the Viminal Hill. It was a huge place; one of the great city mansions, built to the ground plan of a rectangle, with two courtyards down the centre, open to the sky. The first was the atrium, where Lucius received his guests, and the second was a small garden, with flowering shrubs and fountains and little statues. Around these courts were colonnades of pillars, and behind these were the rooms.

  Karen was not brought into the house by the main entrance, however. The under-steward sent to fetch her took her in by one of the many side-doors and she was hurried along passageway after passageway, until they came out into the atrium. There she was told to wait.

  'What for?' she asked.

  'Shhh!' said the man, 'The Lady Julia wants to see you. Stay here.'

  The Lady Julia was some time in coming, so Karen explored the place.

  If she looked up she could see the edges of the roof sloping in on all four sides, and the evening sky above. Holding the roof up were long rows of stately, slender, white pillars, throwing long shadows across the floor.

  She looked at her feet. The sandals she had been wearing when she had found the mirror were almost worn through, and one of the straps needed mending. Originally they had been white, but they were hardly that now, covered in dust and dirt, like her feet. The dirt was right down her toenails, which gave some idea of the condition of the rest of her.

  She studied the floor. It was made of tiny mosaic pieces, beautifully set to make a picture. Around the oblong pond sunk in the centre of the room was a wide border of leaping dolphins, with another border of dolphins going the other way round the outer edge of the floor. The rest was taken up with pictures of Neptune and his nymphs and tritons, all in a gay procession with clouds and frothing seas in the background. The main colour was blue-grey,

  and the people were a lifelike and healthy pink. The backs of the dolphins gleamed navy blue, looking even darker than they really were against the pale yellow basic of the border!

  As she admired these, Karen heard a rustling of silk, and looked up from her scrutiny of the floor to see a young woman, who seemed to be in her early twenties, standing in the shade of the pillars, watching her. The woman came forward into the light and beckoned, and as Karen approached, she took a good look at her prospective owner.

  The most striking feature was the hair; it was built up around the face in a mass of tiny curls, and Karen could see that its light blonde colour was owing to dye. The woman's face was a perfect oval, but it was plastered with make-up and her eyes were shadowed with blue paint. Large gold earrings swung from her ears; and she had gold rings for her fingers, necklaces, and bangles as well. Her loose dress of rose-pink silk fell to her ankles, and as she came nearer Karen was engulfed in a wave of scent.

  'So you're the girl who can read and write, are you?' said the woman languidly. 'How unusual.' Her voice was quiet and purring; she was sleek like a cat, too. Suddenly she sniffed.

  'Girl, when did you last wash?'

  'A .. about a week ago.'

  'Disgusting! You must bath at once. Tiro!' She beckoned to a passing slave-boy. 'Take this girl to the bathroom. And find her some clean clothes. By the way, girl, what is your name?'

  'Karen.'

  'Karen? Some barbarian name, no doubt. Still, I like it. I don't think I'll change it, or not yet, at any rate.' Go along, then, Karen, or whatever you said your name was. Doubtless I shall forget in a day or two!' She swept off, and the cloud of scent left behind gradually dispersed.

  'Come on, then,' said the boy Tiro, and he set off at a fast walk, while Karen trotted to keep up. As they went, she asked him if the Lady Julia often changed her slaves' names.

  'Oh, yes,' he replied with a laugh. 'Hardly anyone comes here without her changing his name. I used to be Mikkos once, but she thought Tiro was better. One gets used to it, but it does confuse her husband. He's long since given up calling us anything, he just beckons or says, "You!" '

  Soon they came to the slaves' and servants' bathroom, and Karen was delighted to see that it was very attractive, with bands of painted fish around the walls, and the large sunken bath faced with polished stone. It was full of hot water, steaming thickly; and through the next doorway Karen could see a cold plunge-bath.

  'Here you are,' said Tiro. 'Get in.' There was a pause. 'Well?' he went on. 'What are you waiting for?'

  'I'm waiting for you to leave,' said Karen with some dignity, and Tiro laughed pleasantly.

  'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I'd forgotten. All right then; I'll go and get you some clothes and a towel. If you're not out by the time I get back I'll not look, out of respect for your modesty. Anyway, the water's very murky. It's the heat.'

  He loped off, and Karen left her clothes in a pile and lowered herself into the water. The flowing warmth caressed her tired body, and she floated on the surface with her hair rippling up and down on tiny waves she made herself. After a while she turned over and swam around the bath; it was just big enough to permit swimming three strokes each way. Then she lay back again, feeling the dirt rolling off her. There was an assortment of sponges and brushes by the side, and she scrubbed her feet and nails.

  That's better, she thought; I wish we had this sort of bath at home. It's much more fun. I hope Tiro'll bring me a decent dress. I'd better get my hair dry before he comes.

  The sound of sandalled feet approaching heralded Tiro's return. He had a white linen dress on one arm and a towel on the other. He put them next to her other clothes, and beckoned Karen out, turning to the wall.

  Karen climbed out on hands and knees, and enveloped herself in the soft folds of the towel. It was not long before she was dry and had slipped on the white dress.

  'You can turn round,' she said, arranging the folds of it under the narrow scarlet tie-belt.

  Tiro whistled. 'Some difference,' he said, and swept her a half-mocking bow. He told her to bring her old clothes, and led the way down the corridor and turned left; this brought them to the kitchen.

  The kitchen was full of people all bustling about, for it was time for the evening meal. A delicious smell of cooking fish, mixed with aromatic herbs, pervaded the place, and Karen sniffed appreciatively. The cook pushed her out of the way.

  'Don't just stand there sniffing like a retriever dog,' he fumed. 'Get me the biggest pot on the shelf. And hurry ... my precious sauce is boiling over. How could you let my fish sauce spoil? And the family will want it in a minute! Hurry up, girl. Haven't you the wit to find that pot?'

  'This one?' said Karen, lugging it off the shelf. It was huge and squat, made of earthenware and very heavy. Unfortunately, Karen didn't know just how heavy it was, and when the full weight came down on to her she dropped it straight on the floor. There was a splintering crash, and pieces of red earthenware rolled in all directions like dropped coins. Karen was suddenly afraid of what she had done. 'Good gracious! I ... I'm awfully sorry. I'll clear it up immediately--'

  The cook was furious. His face was as red as a boiled lobster, and he breathed through flaring nostrils with his mouth clamped shut. 'You- you stupid girl!' He stamped his foot at her. 'Get out! Just get out of here!'

  Tiro grabbed Karen's arm. 'Come on,' he said. 'Don't wait to be asked twice.'

  They fled.

  Tiro took her off to a small room behind the kitchen, which had racks piled high with clean clothes all round the walls.

  'This is the laundry-room,' he said. 'You can leave those filthy objects you call dresses here. Sooner or later they'll get washed. Once a week we come to get our clean things and leave the dirty ones. The Lady Julia can't stand for us to be in dirty tunics. Actually, all the clothes are communal, which makes it simpler. You just dig out something that fits you when you need it.'

  'Oh.' This all sounded very impressive and well worked out.

  A bell rang. This meant that the slaves' meal was ready as well as the famil
y's, so they went to have it in the kitchen.

  VI

  THE NEXT DAY KAREN WAS SUMMONED TO THE LADY Julia's bedroom, where she found her mistress sitting at the polished ebony dressing-table, with two girls brushing her long fleecy hair. When she saw Karen Julia signed to the girls to stop.

  'Well,' she said with her slow smile 'you look more presentable now. We must find a job for you, must we not? Let me see ... are you any use with children?'

  'I used to baby-sit for a neighbour. And I had a younger sister.'

  'Baby-sit?'

  'Yes ... stay in with the children while the parents went out.'

  'Didn't they have slaves for that?'

  'Goodness, no. We didn't have slaves at all. They used to pay me two shillings an hour. Something like that.'

  'Well, well. I shall never get used to the strange customs some people do have. You haven't been trained as a nursemaid, have you? No matter. From now on your duties are to amuse my little Gaius and Lucilla; keep them clean and out of mischief and put them to bed. They're in the garden at the moment, I should imagine.' She waved a hand imperiously. 'You are dismissed.' The two girls continued with brushing her hair.

  Karen wandered about for quite a time, trying to find the garden, and eventually Tiro told her where to go. It was another open square like the atrium, but larger, and the floor was earth instead of tiles. It was a pretty place, a tiny miniature park, with small trees and shrubs,