Man Eater

Pallas tipped his head back and roared so loudly that Timoleon and Barea had to start their arm-wrestling all over again. ‘Me?’ Tears rolled down his fat face. ‘My dear child, Eros forsook me long ago.’ For an instant, his expression hardened. ‘She intimated at a certain lack of proficiency on my part.’

Eros might be many things, but Eros was not a ‘she’. ‘Are we’, Claudia hazarded, ‘talking about your wife?’

‘To be accurate,’ he said bitterly, ‘the word she used was “pathetic”.’ Then the old Pallas bounced back, gossiping for all he was worth. ‘No, no, it’s Euphemia who steams up the windows. Trying to find new ways to keep her stud entertained, and who better to learn from than Tulola?’

Sergius didn’t know, or he’d never have called Macer. ‘Honestly, Pallas, I’ve never been to a house with so much intrigue under one roof.’ Claudia paused to nibble a handful of raisins. ‘You don’t believe the murderer is one of the henchmen, do you?’

‘Do you?’

‘Me?’ She gnawed at a honey cake. ‘I’ve no idea what’s going on.’

Amusement filled his face. ‘Haven’t you, now?’ he chuckled, ambling over to join Marcus by the bridge. ‘Haven’t you really?’

Pallas’ laughter hadn’t died before Tulola had taken his place. It was inevitable, Claudia thought. The girl couldn’t face her own company for long.

‘What was all that about?’ she asked, slowly brushing an invisible crumb off Claudia’s tunic.

‘Sex.’

‘With anyone special?’ Tulola’s eyes were fixed on Orbilio’s rigid back.

Mummy Duck with seven, eight, good grief, nine fluffy ducklings paddled past and a coot honked from the margins.

‘Pallas was telling me he’d given it up. Apparently his bitch of a wife called his manhood into question, it left a telling scar.’

Half a minute passed before Tulola answered. ‘We’d… had a row,’ she said awkwardly. ‘It was the heat of the moment. Words often get said that shouldn’t. I didn’t expect him to take it to heart-’

‘You and Pallas are married?’

‘Were, sweetie.’ Tulola’s smile was clearly an effort. ‘It all happened a long time ago. But I’ll have you know, I’m still very fond of the old bugger.’

Claudia watched a small dog chase a squirrel up an oak tree. Round and round the bole it ran, barking, yapping, jumping up. High in the branches, the squirrel curled its tail up its back and swore. ‘hak, chak, chak, chorrrrrr. Chak, chak, chak, chorrrrrr.

Claudia’s mind was whirling as well. Chak, chak, chak, chorrrrrr. By the gods! Tulola and Pallas? Chak, chak, chak, chorrrrrr. Small wonder Sergius put up with this amiable parasite, he had little choice.

Neither, she realized, did Alis.

And it was Alis who footed the bills.

XXIX

Blame it on the heat, blame it on the chilled red wine, blame it on the boogie, but by the time lunch was over, the presence of one muscular man-tracker by her side did not seem desperately intrusive. Not, for instance, the way it had been in her bedroom. Nevertheless Claudia was still not sure how she came to be sitting under a willow in the middle of the island one minute and walking round the lake with this handsome patrician the next-especially since not one word had been spoken aloud. Behind them, the Temple of Sarpedon grew smaller and smaller, and even the lake fell from view.

‘A copper quadran for your thoughts,’ Orbilio said at last, swishing his ankles in the long grass beside one of the many gabbling streams that drained the lake and made these meadows so green and so lush.

‘Treecreepers.’

‘I… beg your pardon?’

‘If treecreepers always creep up,’ she pointed to an oak across the stream, ‘and nuthatches always creep down, what happens when they meet?’

There it was. That infuriating hand covering his mouth. What’s wrong with a smile, for gods’ sake? You don’t pay tax on it, no one can steal it, why be stingy with it? Claudia, who had no time for misers, said, ‘Tulola-’

‘That bitch! She’s evil, she corrupts! Everything and everybody!’

A dipper braved the gabbling waters, oxen lowed in the meadows and a dappled white butterfly came to rest on a radish.

‘Relax,’ Claudia breezed. (What a grouch) ‘She doesn’t always get her man.’

There was a dangerous fire in his eyes. ‘What do you mean?’ Also something lodged in his throat, by the sounds of it.

‘Salvian,’ she explained. ‘Loyalty to his lovely wife triumphed over lust.’