The Warrior's Princess

  34

  ‘I sent to ask as you wished.’ The doctor smiled sadly at Julius. ‘The house is empty, I’m afraid. There is no one there.’

  He was sitting by the fountain in the old courtyard behind her house, his walking stick leaning against the bench beside him. ‘Did your messenger ask where they had gone?’ He struggled to his feet, leaning on the stick with a grimace of pain.

  ‘He asked. No one knew. It is dangerous in Rome, Julius. No one will admit to knowing a Christian at the moment. The lady Drusilla was a known friend to Peter the Apostle. The messenger went on to ask at the house of Aulus Plautius for Pomponia Graecina as you suggested. The lady has gone away to one of their villas in the mountains. The house steward he spoke to said she had been ill and wasn’t expected to return to Rome.’

  ‘Did anyone go with her?’ Julius asked. His face, still dreadfully scarred down one side, was ravaged with anxiety. The doctor shook her head. ‘The man didn’t know. He thought it unlikely. He said she had gone, as far as he knew with a couple of house slaves.’

  ‘One of them might have been her. She might have been in disguise?’ There was so much hope in his voice.

  A whirl of wind whipped dust devils round the courtyard, spinning dead fig leaves at his feet. It had taken him a long time to remember; to separate what had happened when his friends and family had been killed from his visit to Drusilla’s house in Rome. Eigon had been there, in Rome. She had been safe. She wasn’t killed with Antonia and his grandfather. So what had happened to her?

  The doctor noticed he had begun to shiver. She guided him slowly back inside the house. The day he had remembered the woman he loved she had known he would go. It was just a matter of time now. All she could give him was enough care and rest to make him strong and complete his cure. She sighed. She had come to love him more than she would like to admit, this most wayward and tricky of patients, but he was not for her. All she could do for him was to help him try and locate his Eigon and send him on his way.

  Word came sooner than she expected. Her messenger had, it seemed, had the wit to leave a scratched note for anyone in the household who returned, a note beneath the secret sign of the fish; only three days later someone picked it up and within a week a messenger arrived at the doctor’s house. It was someone Julius knew, Silas, who had once been a slave in the villa of Caratacus.

  The young man stared at Julius in horror. He was the first person outside the household to see him since he had been wounded. His expression, swiftly veiled, told Julius that he was no longer a handsome man.

  His heart plummeted. Leading the newcomer outside where they couldn’t be overheard he asked him what had happened. It was only now he discovered the awful train of events which had followed the massacre at the farm. As far as he knew Silas had been the only one to escape the massacre. He had fled to Drusilla’s house, so they had heard almost at once what had happened and that everyone had been killed. ‘Including you, lord, so we thought.’ He shrugged miserably. ‘Princess Eigon was devastated. No amount of prayers would comfort her. In the end Peter sent her away.’

  ‘Where?’ Julius held his gaze. He already knew that he would not follow. How could she love a man as disfigured as he was?

  ‘To Britannia.’

  ‘What!’ Julius stared at him.

  ‘I think Peter knew the end was coming, lord. We persuaded him to flee, and he left Rome when we did, going to friends where he would be safe from the Emperor, but, the story goes,’ he moved a little closer and lowered his voice, ‘that he met our Lord Jesus on the road and Jesus asked him where he was going, when He himself was going to Rome to be with his followers in their hour of need. Peter knew then he could not leave his poor persecuted flock and he turned round and went back. He was captured almost at once.’ The young man’s face tightened into a mask of misery. ‘You know he’s dead?’

  Julius nodded.

  ‘The lady Pomponia Graecina has asked me to take you to her. You can stay at the villa with her. It is a long way from Rome. You will be safe there.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Julius gave a faint smile. ‘I should like that.’

  The doctor had other ideas. ‘I’m sorry, he’s not well enough yet. Soon. I will let you come and take him soon, but while he still needs a stick and medication I can’t let him go.’

  Julius smiled when he heard Silas had gone without him. ‘So, you can’t bear to part with me?’

  She nodded. ‘You are too good a specimen for my students to practise on.’ She gazed at him with her steady clear eyes fixed on his. ‘Did he tell you where your Eigon has gone?’

  He nodded. ‘Far beyond my reach.’

  ‘She’s not dead?’

  ‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘Not quite that bad. She has gone to Britannia with Drusilla and a handsome escort called Commios. She has no need of me.’ He groped for his stick.

  She could see his pain in every movement; not just physical pain now but the pain of loss all over again.

  ‘Did she love you, Julius?’

  He nodded. He was biting down hard on his lip.

  ‘And you think she will have given her heart away already?’

  ‘Why not? She thinks I’m dead. I might as well be. Look at me!’ His barber had never let him look into a mirror, but he had in the end got hold of one belonging to the doctor’s pretty daughter. It was made of polished bronze and he stared for a long time into its depths. It told him what he already knew from leaning over the basin in which he washed his face, and from running his hand endlessly over the great rough ridges down his cheek. He was ugly.

  The doctor rested her hand lightly on his chest. She moved it to his face and stroked it. ‘She will see the man behind the scar, Julius. Besides, I take pride in my stitchery. It will get better. It is hardly healed as yet. Go after her.’ She gazed up at him.

  ‘You said I wasn’t well enough.’

  ‘I lied.’ She smiled. ‘I want you out of my house before I lose my own heart to you!’ She already had, but she was never going to tell him that. ‘Take my son, Drusus. He is but fifteen, but he is strong and as the eldest he craves adventure. I charge you to take care of him as if he were your own. He will look after you and help dress your wounds and he has a good sense of direction! I will lend you the money you need for your journey. I am a wealthy woman; you didn’t know that, did you!’ She managed to laugh. ‘I have to spend it on something so why not on him. It will cover you both. You can travel for a while, as his tutor!’ Again she laughed. ‘If you travel fast you will manage to get there before the weather changes and the roads close for the winter. May your God go with you, Julius.’ She stood on tiptoe and kissed him, just that once, on the lips, then she swept out of the room to tend her other patients.

  They found where Jess had been lying. She seemed to have missed her footing, slipped down the steep bank, and rolled down between the trees at the bottom to come to rest near the brook at the foot of a young oak tree with half its roots overhanging the red-brown water that raced down off the high mountains. She had torn her blouse; a fine strip of green cotton was caught on a bramble, its pattern easily identifiable and Rhodri found some of her hairs tangled among the thorns. How long she had remained there no one could tell but there was no sign of her now. No footprints; nothing to say she had slipped into the stream. If she had she would have been caught on the rocks and mossy stones; it was not deep enough here, for all its speed after the storm, to carry someone away.

  ‘So, where is she?’ Rhodri sat down, his head in his hands. Steph and Aurelia sat down near him; they had brought torches and a length of rope, and a first aid box in a backpack.

  ‘Could someone have carried her away?’ Steph asked at last. For ‘someone’ they all understood Dan.

  ‘If he had, we would have seen his footprints,’ Aurelia said wearily. She gazed up at Meryn, her eyes brimming with tears. ‘Tell us what to do.’

  Meryn was thoughtful. He wandered away from them upstream, scrambling over the sl
ippery rocks, illuminating the water with the torch they had given him. In the lightbeam the water was clear. He crouched down near a small backwater where it was still, fringed with green fern and tried to focus his eyes into the depths. For a short while, before he had descended the slope, he had made contact; he had sensed her near him. So where had she gone? There were strange forces here; he wasn’t alone for one thing. There were others poking around in the atmosphere, muddying the water. He glanced back towards Rhodri and the two women, studying their anxious faces in the torchlight as they huddled together. It was very dark down here, apart from the occasional flashes of light from the water as small crests and waves broke against the rocks. The noise of the water hurtling down from the faraway tops of the hills was deafening, funnelled between the rocks and banks. If she was calling they wouldn’t hear her; but she wasn’t calling. He sensed a total quiet which worried him more than he would like to admit. He scrambled back towards them.

  ‘Does the name Marcia mean anything to any of you?’

  Steph exchanged glances with Rhodri and shrugged. They both looked blank. He looked at Aurelia, who didn’t know either.

  Meryn shook his head wryly. ‘Someone else is out there looking for Jess. Not your friend Dan.’ He paused, then shook his head again. ‘I think we are looking into the past here. At Titus.’

  The name reverberated strangely in his head; he flinched.

  ‘Meryn?’ Aurelia whispered. ‘What is it?’

  ‘Marcia Maximilla,’ he murmured. ‘Ah, lady, there you are. I can see you. Very clever.’ His eyes were shut. ‘Very powerful. Impressive.’

  The other three glanced at each other; no one spoke.

  ‘So, have you found her yet? Is it Jess you are looking for?’ He seemed to be talking to himself. ‘No, I see it’s Eigon you are after, but Jess is your route to her. What a tangled web you’ve woven down the years. Eigon has sealed herself away from you hasn’t she. She’s been taught well.’ His torch went out suddenly. He didn’t seem to notice. ‘Jess has been taken into her protection.’ He breathed out slowly then he opened his eyes. ‘We are wasting our time here. I’m sorry to have brought you on a wild goose chase.’

  ‘But she was here!’ Aurelia pointed at the fibres hanging from the brambles.

  ‘Yes, she was, but she’s gone.’ Meryn reached out a hand to help her stand up. ‘Come back to the house. She may be back there already.’

  They followed him in silence back up the steep muddy gorge, hauling themselves up from tree to tree panting until they were once more in the field and then back in the lane. Exhausted, Steph fumbled in her pocket for the key and pushed the front door open. She paused. The sitting room door was open, the light on. ‘Jess?’ She hurried across the hall, the others following.

  Dan was sitting on the sofa near the window, his back propped up with cushions, a cup of coffee on the low table in front of him. A shotgun lay on the table.

  Steph stopped. ‘Dan!’ She scanned the room, aware of the others behind her clustered in the doorway. ‘How in God’s name did you get in? Where’s Jess?’

  Dan stared at them. The spare keys he had taken so long ago from the board in the kitchen were lying on the table in front of him. He ignored her question. ‘About time. Where have you been?’ His voice was husky with exhaustion. His jeans were muddy, his shirt rumpled. ‘You’ve been so long I had to make myself something to eat and drink!’

  ‘We were out looking for Jess,’ Steph said slowly. ‘Where is she?’

  He gave a grim smile. ‘Not here,’ he gestured round the room, ‘as you can see.’ His glance flicked behind her to where Aurelia and Rhodri were standing in the doorway. ‘Come in, please. Do I know this lady? I wondered whose car that was outside.’ He focused on Aurelia.

  ‘I’m Jess’s mother,’ Aurelia answered. ‘You, I take it, are the man who has been pursuing her.’ Her voice was acid. Behind her Meryn had melted out of sight, tiptoeing unseen towards the kitchen. Well and good if Dan thought his car belonged to Aurelia.

  ‘Your daughter is a silly little flirt!’ Dan said conversationally. ‘But I do need to speak to her. Why else would I come to this godforsaken hole! SIT DOWN!’ His voice hardened as Rhodri put his hands on Aurelia’s shoulders and moved her aside so he could enter the room. Dan leaned forward and pushed aside his coffee cup almost casually as he pulled the gun towards him and hefted it onto his knee.

  ‘Where did you get that?’ Steph whispered.

  ‘I stole it!’ Dan smiled. ‘Astounding really. I parked next to this ancient Land Rover in Newtown. The old farmer just got out and walked off. Never even locked it. There was the gun lying half-covered with a blanket in the back. What is more the old fool had left his keys in the ignition. I took the car as well!’ He chuckled. ‘Full box of ammunition in the glove pocket. I’ll bet he hasn’t even reported it missing. He could go to prison for being so careless with a firearm!’

  He moved the gun fractionally, easing his position, loosely hooking his finger round the trigger.

  ‘Is that loaded?’ Aurelia asked softly.

  ‘I’d be more of a fool than even you could dream of if it wasn’t!’ Dan retorted. ‘Yes, Mrs Kendal, it’s loaded. And cocked.’ He smiled. ‘So, I ask you again. Where is Jess?’

  ‘We don’t know. That’s the point!’ Rhodri put in. ‘We have been looking for her all day. We thought you had taken her.’ His eyes were fixed on the gun.

  Dan shook his head. ‘Obviously not.’

  ‘If you’re serious, then she’s in trouble. She’s out there somewhere, lost!’ Rhodri said tautly. He was holding his temper in with difficulty.

  ‘Lost and waiting for me to find her!’ Dan raised an eyebrow.

  Steph was staring at him, mesmerised. ‘We know you killed Will,’ she said, her voice shaking. ‘How could you!’

  ‘Ah, you probably shouldn’t have told me that,’ he said, shifting his gaze imperceptibly so he could see her face. ‘Now I know I have nothing to lose by killing you as well.’ He paused thoughtfully. ‘At least two of you, anyway. A left and a right. That would be easy at this range. After that of course I would have to reload. That would be harder with one person left, afraid for their life. The question is, which two will I shoot first? Rhodri of course because I dislike him intensely. But you two.’ He shook his head as he looked with mock concern from Steph to Aurelia and back. ‘That I don’t know.’

  There was a sharp bang on the window behind him. Dan leaped to his feet, the gun held low in front of him and backed towards the wall. ‘What was that?’

  ‘Perhaps it was Jess?’

  Rhodri stared at the window. Meryn must be out there. He had caught a glimpse of movement in the dark as a figure dodged across the window out of sight. Another bang on the pane caused Dan to lift the gun to his shoulder. ‘Who is it?’ he shouted. ‘Come out or I’ll shoot!’

  Another bang. Someone was throwing stones at the glass. Dan swore. He was finding it hard to hold the gun steady. ‘Who is it?’ He swung it at Rhodri. ‘Who’s out there?’

  ‘Jess!’ Rhodri shouted. ‘Jess, for God’s sake keep away. Call the police.’

  Dan swore again. He edged round towards the French window. ‘You said she was missing!’

  ‘Obviously she is found!’ Rhodri retorted. He stepped closer to Dan as Dan’s attention veered between them and the window and stopped as the gun swung towards him again. Behind him something flew at the window out of the darkness. The glass smashed and Dan swung the gun back. He fired off one barrel, the sound deafening inside the room as a flowerpot landed on the floor, scattering earth and geranium petals at Dan’s feet.

  ‘One shot gone,’ Rhodri said, taunting. ‘So this one’s mine?’ He lunged forward into a rugger tackle which managed to put him under the gun’s barrel, pushing it violently upwards. The second blast hit the ceiling between the beams and chunks of plaster fell round them as with a roar of fury Dan hurled the gun away and leaped forward eluding Rhodri’s clutching fingers,
pushed between Steph and Aurelia and hurtled out into the front hall.

  ‘Out of my way!’ Rhodri threw himself after him. ‘I’m going to get that bastard!’ In seconds the two men had vanished into the courtyard and out into the night.

  ‘She’s betrayed us!’ Drusilla burst in through the door, her face white. ‘There are soldiers outside.’

  Commios leaped to his feet and ran to the doorway. ‘Where?’

  ‘Outside! I had gone to the latrine! I turned the wrong way in the passage outside and there they were at the outer door. Our oh-so-kind hostess was talking to two men in uniform. She was pointing over her shoulder towards this room.’

  Commios turned round, frantically searching the room for another exit. ‘This way!’

  He led the others through the door which led directly to the kitchen quarters. A single slave was in there languidly finishing rinsing through the bowls and plates they had used at dinner. He turned in surprise as they burst in.

  ‘Which way to the street?’ Commios shouted in Celtic.

  The man pointed at an open door. It led into a deserted alley, strewn with windblown rubbish. A dog, nosing through the piles of refuse, took one look at them and fled. They followed it away from the main street to where the alley debouched into a quiet back road lined with high walls. ‘There’s nowhere to hide!’ Commios swore. ‘This way!’ They followed him a few paces, then doubled back with him into another doorway. It led into the kitchen of another house two doors down from the one where they had been staying. He paused, holding up his hand to stop them in their tracks. They waited, trying desperately to quieten their breathing as they crept forward. There was no sign of anyone there. Then they realised what had happened. The sound of raised voices from the street outside had attracted the people in this house to the main door where they were clustered staring out at a party of soldiers, swords drawn, who were pushing their way into the house from which they had escaped.

  ‘Which way?’ Commios stared round. ‘Where do we go?’

  ‘Upstairs?’ Drusilla pointed behind them at a steep ladder which led from the kitchen up into some kind of store room. ‘We can hide there until it’s dark.’