Vita Brevis by Ruth Downie

Author:Ruth Downie [Downie, Ruth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781620409596
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2016-05-31T04:00:00+00:00

33

The patient had collapsed on the way home from a dinner party, as middle-aged men who ate and drank too much sometimes did. There was rarely anything anyone could do to save them. While the rest of Rome was waking up, washing its face, and preparing to deal with the new day, the family would be mourning their loss. The doctor who had been called from his bed in a hopeless attempt to hold the patient back from the next world should have been catching up on some sleep.

Instead, he was blundering around the surgery picking up containers and examining them, and opening half-empty bottles of medicine to sniff what was inside.

“Have you lost something?”

Tilla had to repeat the question before he noticed she was there.

“It’s all old,” he muttered, not looking up. “Useless.” He upended a jar. Several black lumps thudded into the waste bucket.

“What are you doing? Is that the cyclamen root?”

“It needs replacing.” He picked up another jar. Its contents too ended up in the bucket.

When he reached for a third she stepped forward and seized his hand. “Husband, what are you doing?”

He shrugged. “Having a clearout. Might as well do it sometime.”

She wrested it out of his hand and put it back on the shelf. “You should sleep.”

“I’m not tired.”

She peered at him, reaching up to push a strand of hair off his forehead. “Either you are very tired, or some god has made you ten years older during the night. Go and rest. I will call you if we need you.”

He opened his mouth as if he was about to argue, but then seemed to change his mind and put his arms around her, resting his chin on her shoulder. She felt rather than heard the depth of his sigh.

Just at the wrong moment, Esico wandered in from the kitchen with a jug of water. Behind her husband’s back, she gestured frantically to him to go away. The door closed again and they were alone. “You did your best,” she said softly.

“It looked as though he hit his head on the curb.”

“Then what could you do?” she asked, surprised at how upset he seemed. Of course it was always bad to lose a patient, but he had met this one only two days ago, and the man was not young. It was not like her husband to mourn the loss of someone just because he was rich and powerful. “I know he was very important,” she continued, “but I am sure nobody could have done any more for him. Not even Doctor Kleitos.”

The grunt could have meant yes, or no, or stop talking—it is not helping.

“We will manage without him,” she promised. “We know lots of people here now.”

He said, “I’ve been to tell Accius. I’m not sure what’ll happen now.”

“What did he say?” If it was Accius who had upset him, she would go over there and tell him what she thought. She had given up trying to be a Good Roman Wife now. It was very confusing having to say one thing and mean another all the time.

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