A Day of Fire: A Novel of Pompeii (4 page)

“And how many times have you been
in love
?”

I frowned, not liking the way she said the last two words. “Just once. With you.”

“And you think that will last longer than say, oh, I don’t know, until the Ides?”

“Yes!” I said loudly. Too loudly. Her owner looked over at us, frowning.

“Let me tell you something, little boy.”

Little boy?

“You will fall in love a million times over before the year is out—“

“That’s not true.” I’d never seen her look so angry and bitter. Where had my Prima gone?

“It
is
true. And what will I do in six months when you tire of me and you have fallen in love with another whore?”

“That will never—“

“Or when you fall in love with a sweet little virgin you want to marry? I’ll tell you what’ll happen. You’ll toss me out the back door like old fish.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head.

“Yes,” she said, leaning forward. She looked angry. “And what about my sister?”

“What about her?”

“I am Capella’s protector,” she nearly growled. “I cannot be separated from her. She needs me!”

I looked down at my pack. My heart sunk. Her sister’s creamy blonde prettiness would fetch a very high price. It was highly unlikely that I could afford both of them and still keep Prima in a place by the sea. “I might need some time to get more money—“

“You don’t seem to understand,” she interrupted and her eyes looked hard and mean. “I do not love you. I never will. What you ‘love’ is what I do for you upstairs. For money. It’s an illusion.”

Heat spread over my head and chest. “But … but you chose me. Remember? The first time, you said … I thought … that maybe you—”

“The younger ones are easier because they finish faster,” she said in a hard tone. “And you paid extra for the whole night. I’d be a fool if I didn’t take advantage of that. But you’re a bigger fool for thinking I’d feel anything for you. Your coin bag, though—now that
is
something I loved. But not you.”

I actually curved over my wine cup, as if she had physically struck me in the chest.

She blew air out through her cheeks and stared up at the ceiling. “Venus’ tit, if I’d realized how stupid you really are, I would’ve taken you for much, much more, boy. You need—“

“Stop calling me a boy!”
I shouted.

The place went quiet.

“Pay for the wine and go, Caecilius.”

The stool clattered behind me as I scrambled up. I slammed some coins on the table and clutched the bag of what I’d taken from my uncle hard against my stomach.

Prima stood wearily. “Come back when you grow a pair. I’ll take your money then, same as any other.”

I don’t know how I got outside, or when I remembered to start breathing. The road under me began to vibrate and a bread cart across the way almost toppled over. Dizzy and nauseated, I fought to keep my balance. It took me a moment to realize that it was not just my world falling apart around me but another tremor shaking the earth.

But this one felt stronger. More dangerous. I put my hand on the wall outside the tavern almost hoping it would fall on me. When the vibrating stopped, someone started laughing too loudly across the street. A chicken squawked in outrage—wings outstretched as it ran desperately to get away from two barefoot children. People jostled me as they resumed their treks to and fro. I began putting one foot in front of the other, not caring or noticing where I went.

I let the crowd sweep me around unfamiliar streets. A man carrying a squealing piglet pushed me into a wall outside a large house as he swept by. My eye caught a word scratched onto the side of the door:
Prima.
I blinked and forced myself to read all of it.

Secundus says hello to his Prima, wherever she is. I ask, my mistress, that you love me.

She doesn’t love anyone, I thought. And I was not the only fool for her. Still, the gods had led me to focus on her name. Clearly, they laughed at me most of all.

I found myself walking in circles around the basilica in the forum. I should go home, I told myself. I should replace what I took before my uncle notices. But that meant walking through Prima’s end of town and that I could not do. Not yet. Besides, the horses would not be rested enough.

What a fool I was! What an idiot. The worst kind of stupid. She called me a boy. She cared nothing for me. How could I have misjudged her so completely? The humiliation washed over me in waves.

Three men suddenly stepped in front of me as I neared the unoccupied end being renovated. “The
aedile
would like a word with you,” the stocky one in the center said.

“I’m not talking to anyone right now,” I said, turning to walk around them.

“Oh, but you are,” one of the men said, grabbing me by the upper arm. That snapped me out of my miserable trance.

“Take your hands off me!” I tried to pull my arm away but he held on tight.

They dragged me to an abandoned alcove. Scaffolding climbed halfway up the brick wall, though no one was working on it. Pompeii was like a little child with blocks: it began projects in one corner, then got distracted and started something else streets away.

The
aedile
who’d insulted Prima stepped out of the shadows. He gave me a brilliant smile. “How nice to see you again, Gaius Caecilius Secundus,” he said.

Gods, the man knew my full name. What else did he know?

“What do you want?”

“Come, let us go into the shade and talk privately,” he urged, as if we were old friends. One look at his thugs and I knew I had no choice. I followed.

“I wonder if your uncle knows what you’ve been doing in Pompeii,” he said mildly.

“It’s no business of yours,” I said.

“Oh, but it is.
Everything
that happens in Pompeii is my business.” He pointed to the bag I still gripped tightly under my arm. “Like what you have there. I think you should hand it over to me.”

I blinked. “What? No!”

Pansa smiled and shook his head as if he were dealing with a recalcitrant child. And like a child, I wanted to spit in his face.

“Oh what a thrill it will be to inform the great Admiral Pliny that his nephew and likely heir is stealing from him,” he said with a smarmy smile. “The favors he will owe me! That
is
why you ran home in the night and came back with that package, yes?”

I said nothing.

He stared at me for a moment then laughed. “Ha! I had you followed but could only guess what you were doing. Your silence tells me I guessed right. Now give me what you took from your uncle’s villa and I won’t tell him that you tried to buy a common tavern whore from a seedy
caupona
in Pompeii.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He sighed. “You have yet to master your expressions, my boy. There is no point in lying. Prima told me everything. The skinny little slut even laughed while betraying you.”

My heart thundered in my ears.

He held out his hand for the bag.

Still, I did not move.

Pansa cocked an eyebrow. “You can do this the easy way or the hard way.”

That this backwoods politician thought that he was good enough to even
approach
my uncle, made me want to spit at him again. “You are a prick and an asshole and I hope Prima shits in your mouth the next time you go near her,” I blustered out. “And you aren’t taking anything of mine.”

His lips quirked in amusement. “Well, I see you’ve made your choice.” He signaled to his men and sauntered away.

“
Aedile!
” someone called when he stepped into the sunshine. “There you are! I have something to discuss with you …” Pansa smiled widely and directed the petitioner away from us and into the flow of people.

Meanwhile, two of his men approached me while a third kept watch. “This is going to be too easy,” one joked.

“Fuck you,” I growled.

The burly man laughed. “The puppy barks,” he said. “Hand it over.”

The first punch came before I could reply, quickly followed by a second and a third. When I hit the ground one of the men grabbed the bag but I clung to it desperately, even as the other kicked me in the ribs. I couldn’t let them have my uncle’s writings or his ring. I just couldn’t!

Then a kick near my eye slammed my head against the stone floor. When I came to, the bag—and the men—were gone.

I didn’t know how long I had lain there, but the sun hadn’t moved much, so not long. It took some time to sit up and even longer to stand. When I finally did, the ground swayed and bucked underneath me but I knew it wasn’t another tremor. It was my own weak and injured body failing me. I closed my eyes until the feeling passed. Checking under my tunic belt, I noticed that my coin bag was gone too. The thugs took everything.

As I shuffled out of the shadows a woman squeaked at my sudden appearance. “Drunk idiot,” she murmured as she scuttled by.

People gave me a wide berth. A small crowd had gathered in the Forum. I spotted Pansa’s blond head towering over a group of adoring clients. He bent his head to speak to someone I could not see. I headed toward him, not caring about the sounds of disgust people made when I pushed past them.

Pansa laughed loudly. A thick, ridiculous fake laugh. “Yes, Senator. You are right. A very astute observation about Pompeii’s endless construction.”

Senator? I peered between the shoulders of some of the crowd and saw my uncle’s friend with the iron-colored hair and crooked shoulder—Senator Norbanus from Rome. What was he doing in Pompeii?

If the senator’s expression of hooded disdain was any indicator, he saw right through Pansa. The
aedile’s
hands were empty though. He had nothing to incriminate him; he was the sort who would leave that to underlings. So I looked around for my things and spotted one of the
aedile’s
men holding my bag as if it had always belonged to him.

“Senator,” I called, pushing my way into the inner circle. “How good it is to see you!”

Norbanus stared at me a moment, then his graying brows rose. “Young Caecilius, is that you?”

I smiled broadly which must have made me look even more gruesome—my teeth felt coated with something thick and metallic. “Indeed,” I said loudly, knowing what a sight I was.

“What in the name of all the gods happened to you, young man? Are you all right?”

“I’ve been robbed and beaten in your city,
Aedile
,” I said, turning to Pansa. The crowd gathering around us murmured and made clucking noises of disapproval.

“A young man of quality beaten in the streets,” the senator said, and turned to Pansa with deceptive mildness. “The citizens of Pompeii who voted you into office,
Aedile
, deserve better control over your domain from you.”

Pansa’s face flushed with anger.

“But where is your attendant?” Norbanus turned back to me. “A man of quality should not walk quarters like these unprotected.”

“I left him with my horses while I visited Julius Polybius,” I said.

When I swayed slightly, the senator took my arm, which made me wince a little. “You say your things were stolen?”

Pansa’s thug looked like he was about to run but the
aedile
put a warning hand on his man’s shoulder. “Oh! Yes,” Pansa said, pretending to be surprised. “My esteemed friend found this abandoned bag and reported it to me,” he said. “I was going to post a notice to help find the owner.”

“Well, it’s mine,” I said, grabbing it. The thug’s beefy arm tightened over the bag for just a moment but he let go as Pansa glared at him. “Oh, and look! This man has possession of my coin purse as well,” I said with mock surprise. “I’ll take that, too.” I put out my scraped and bloodied hand.

Pansa’s jaw worked as he gave his man a quick nod. The man reluctantly returned my money. The senator’s cool gaze made it clear he knew exactly what had happened.

“Our
aedile
is an honest man and has returned lost goods,” one of his followers cried. “The gods have chosen well in bringing our new magistrate to office.”

There were murmurs of confusion, as well as some sporadic clapping as Pansa’s entourage quickly spread the “story” that the
aedile
had recovered and returned stolen goods to a distinguished visitor.

The senator gave Pansa one last icy stare. Pansa bowed in response—managing to minutely quirk his head in such a way as to
hint
at disrespect—and took his leave without another word.

Senator Norbanus led me to his waiting litter. “Come, my boy,” he said. “There is a fine villa outside the Herculaneum gate, and I know the merchant slightly. He will not grudge lending his physician to look at you.”

“I’m fine,” I said, clutching my bag—as well as my coin purse—with both hands but I followed him into the litter anyway. Relief washed over me when I sat, followed by dizziness. And oblivion.