'Yes.'
'And the same man always comes.'
'Yes. And then I send him away, so I can be alone.'
'And you tell him everything.'
'Everything. What my father ate for breakfast. What my father said to my mother in their bed last night while I listened at the door. Every time Cicero or Rufus visits and what they say.'
'And all the little secrets you can worm out of Tiro?'
She hesitated for just an instant. 'Yes, that too.'
'Such as my name, and the reasons Cicero hired me?'
'Yes.'
'Such as the fact that I asked Cicero to hire a guard for my house?'
'Oh, yes. That was just yesterday. He questioned me very closely about that. He wanted to know very precisely what Tiro had told me, the exact derails.'
'And of course you're very good at getting the exact details and remembering them.'
She looked straight at me. Her face had grown hard again. 'Yes. Very good. I forget nothing. Nothing.'
I shook my head. 'But what can you gain from it? What about your own life? What future can you have without your father?'
'No worse than the past, no more horrible than all the years he made me ... all the years I was his. . . .'
Tiro again tried to comfort her, and again she pushed him away.
'But even if you hate him with such a murderous hatred, what life will you have, you and your mother and little Minora, if this thing runs its course? With no one to turn to, reduced to beggars—'
'We're beggars now.'
'But your rather may be acquitted. If that happens, there's a chance we can restore his estates.'
She looked at me hard, considering what I said, weighing it while her face showed no expression. Then she delivered her judgment. 'It makes no difference. If you offered me the choice of doing what I've done, or going back to the way things were before, then I'm still not sorry for it. I'd do it all again. I would betray him in every way I could. I would do anything to help his enemies put him to death. Already he's begun to move on her. I can see from the way he watches her when, my mother leaves the room. The look in his eyes — sometimes he looks at Minora, and then at me, and he smiles. Can you imagine? He smiles to show me that he knows I understand. He smiles to remind me of all the times he's taken his pleasure with me. He smiles, tliinking of all the pleasure over all the years that he could take from Minora. Even now, with his life almost over, he still thinks about it. Perhaps it's all he thinks about. So far I've kept her away from him — by guile, by lying; once I even threatened him with a knife. But do you know what I think? If they condemn him to death, it's the last thing he'll manage to do. Even if he has to do it in front of his executioners, he'll find some way to rip off her clothes and put himself inside her.'
She shivered and swayed as if she might feint. In her helplessness she allowed Tiro to embrace her shoulders gently. Her voice was distant and hollow, as if it came from the moon. 'He smiles because a part of him still believes they'll never kill him. He thinks he'll live forever, and if that's true then there's no way I can hope to stop him.'
I shook my head. 'You hate him so much you don't care whom your treachery hurts or how many innocent men you destroy. Twice now I might have been killed, because of you.'
She blanched, but only for an instant. 'No man who helps my father is innocent,' she said dully. Tiro's embrace began to loosen.
'And any man is worthy of your body if he can be of use to you?'
'Yes! Yes, and I have no shame for it! My father has every right to me, so the law says. I'm just a girl, I'm nothing, I'm the dirt beneath his fingernails, hardly better than a slave. What weapons do I have? What can. I use to protect Minora? Only my body. Only my wits. So I use them.'
'Even if your treachery means my death?'
'Yes! If that's the price — if others have to die.' She began to cry again, realizing what she had said. 'Though I never thought, I never knew. It's only him I hate.'
'And whom do you love, Roscia Majora?'
She struggled to quiet her weeping. 'Minora,' she whispered.
'And no one else?'
'No one.'
'What about the boy in Ameria, Lucius Megarus?' 'How do you know about him?'
'And Lucius's father, the good farmer Titus, your father's best friend in the world?'
'That's a lie,' she snapped. 'Nothing happened with him.'
'You mean you offered yourself, and he refused you.' I was almost as surprise as Tiro when her silence admitted the truth. He pulled away from her entirely. She seemed not to notice.
'Who else has known your favours, Roscia Majora? Other slaves in Caecilia's household, in return for spying on your father? The spy who meets you here, this creature of the enemy, what about him? What happens after you give him the information he wants?'
'Don't be stupid,' she said dully. She was no longer weeping now, but sullen.
I sighed. 'Tiro means nothing to you, does he?'
'Nothing,' she'said.
'He was only a tool that you used?'
She looked into my eyes. 'Yes,' she said. 'Nothing more than that. A slave. A foolish boy. A tool.' She began to look at him, then turned away.
'Please—' Tiro began.
'Yes,' I said. 'You can go now, Tiro. We'll both go. There's nothing more to say.'
He did not attempt to touch her again, nor did he look at her. We stepped between the tangled leaves until we emerged into the slanting rays of the afternoon sun. Tiro shook his head, kicking at the dirt. 'Gordianus, forgive me,' he began, but I cut him short.
'Not now, Tiro,' I said, as gently as I could. 'Our little tryst is not quite over. I suspect we are being watched even now — no, don't look over your shoulder; look straight ahead and notice nothing. Every afternoon, she said. She would not have seen the man before your visit; she will see him after. He's only waiting for us to leave. Follow me to that willow tree that stands at the corner of Caecilia's house. If we stand behind it, I think we shall be able to watch the approach to Roscia's hiding place unobserved.'
We did not have long to wait. Only moments later a man in a black tunic stole across the open street and disappeared into the green defile. I motioned for Tiro to follow. We hurried back and made our way into the greenery until I began to hear their voices. I motioned for Tiro to stop. I strained my ears but caught only a few words before I glimpsed Roscia in a break between the yew trees. As luck would have it she saw me as well. For an instant I thought she would be silent, but she was loyal to her father's enemies to the end.
'Go!' she shouted. 'Run! They've come back!'
There was a sound of crashing foliage as the man blundered towards us.
'No!' she screamed. 'Go the other way.' But the man was too panic-stricken to hear. He crashed headlong into my arms, butting his head against mine and knocking me to the ground. An instant later he was on his feet again, knocking Tiro aside. Tiro ran after him, but the pursuit was useless. I followed and met him in the open street, returning with a defeated look on his face and streaming sweat. He was holding his forearm, where a thorn on one of the rose bushes had scratched him.