Ways and Means by Kate Cotoner

Author:Kate Cotoner [Cotoner, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2017-06-26T04:00:00+00:00

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Lucilla’s wedding took place four days later at her father’s house during the early evening. After the brief ceremony, the bridal party left her childhood home on the far side of the Aventine and wended its way around the Circus Maximus, along the Via Ostiensis, and up onto the Caelian Hill to the villa of Gnaeus Vibius Fronto.

Alypia watched from the loggia of a neighbouring house as the party approached. Lucilla looked swamped by her bridal gown of saffron wool. The fluttering folds of her flame-coloured veil obscured her face, but every few feet she turned her head as if looking for someone.

Looking for her.

Alypia tightened her grip on the balustrade and leaned forward as Fronto came out to greet his new wife. He’d hurried home an hour ago, leaving Lucilla’s family to complete the marriage rites and offer sacrifices for a fruitful union. Alypia had heard him shouting at his slaves, ordering them to make ready the pans of fire and water to complete his part of the ceremony.

Over the last few days, Alypia had made discreet enquiries about Fronto and his four dead wives. Gossip and piecemeal evidence came back to her, and she’d chased cold trails until she’d discovered all she wished to know.

Lucilla was right to be afraid of her husband. Gnaeus Vibius Fronto had killed his wives and his first lover, a woman older and wealthier than him. The family of his second wife had tried to bring charges against Fronto for unlawful killing, but a court declared him innocent. When Alypia dug a little deeper, she learned that the judgement had been bought, the magistrates bribed—by Fronto.

This flagrant abuse of justice enraged Alypia. The Romans liked to preen and posture, claiming their system of law was the most advanced and fair in the known world, and yet she saw nothing good in it. Fronto had escaped punishment too long. This time, he would pay for his crimes—and he would pay for the wickedness he intended toward Lucilla.

Alypia drew back beneath the shadows of the loggia. Drawing her dark mantle around her shoulders, she hurried through the laurel shrubs to the boundary wall dividing the property from Fronto’s house. She vaulted the wall with ease and slunk through the open door of the servants’ quarters, guessing that all the slaves would be lined up in the entrance hall to greet their new mistress.

She heard the scattering of applause as Fronto lifted his bride over the threshold, listened to Lucilla’s calm voice as she claimed control over the fire and water of her household, and then the wedding party dispersed. Alypia crept through the courtyard, making her way to the front of the house. Fronto was introducing the slaves now, his nasal voice loud and echoing through the imposing rooms.

The fountain in the centre of the peristyle garden drew her attention. Alypia stared at it, wondering if that was where Fronto’s fourth wife had met her fatal accident. To her right was the tablinium, the private study of the master of the house.

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