Marius' Mules VII: The Great Revolt Read Free Page A

truly exhausted - and deadly serious his friend was. He straightened, allowing all humour to drain from him once more. The rather battered and scarred figures of Furius and Fabius on the horses behind bore that same look, which made Fronto swallow noisily as the pair slid from their saddles and joined Priscus, one of them shutting the gate behind him and securing the courtyard.
    ‘What’s up?’ Fronto breathed.
    Priscus straightened, stretched, and nodded to the villa’s master. ‘This city still have Caesar’s courier office?’
    ‘Of course.’ Now Fronto was worried. ‘Why?’
    ‘Then let’s get down there. I have to write a letter to the general and I’ll need your authority to get it sent expedited.’
    ‘Tonight?’
    ‘Preferably yesterday, but tonight will have to do.’
    Fronto shook his head. ‘The courier service doesn’t operate during the hours of darkness by Massilian law, just like any other business. It’ll have to wait ‘til first light tomorrow. Besides, I’ve seen you write letters. It’s like watching an ape reading Plautus: slow and painful. It’ll take most of the night for you to write it!’
    Priscus sagged a little. ‘Fronto, this is urgent .’
    Fabius and Furius walked their horses forward - on his nicely tended lawn, noticed Fronto - and the latter clapped his hand on his commander’s shoulder. ‘It’s been weeks, Priscus. One night more will make no difference.’
    There was a long pause and finally Priscus nodded. Fronto was about to reply with a cutting remark concerning their hirsute barbarian appearance when Lucilia stepped to his side, her eyes wide. ‘Gnaeus?’
    Priscus gave an exhausted smile. ‘Lucilia.’
    The young woman, immaculate and dressed in an elegant pale green chiton with gold accessories, jabbed Fronto so hard in the ribs he wheeled on her, his eyes bright.
    ‘What was that for?’
    ‘Being a terrible host.’ She pushed open the front door, raised her voice and shouted inside. ‘Eudora? Send for the stable boy and tell him there are three horses here to groom, feed and then settle in. And tell the cook that we have impromptu dinner guests to add to our gathering. Three soldiers with, I suspect, very healthy appetites.’ As Fronto stood, flapping his lips wordlessly in the face of his wife’s stream of commands, her handmaid Eudora appeared. Lucilia went on without pause. ‘And make sure the furnace is stoked and the baths are clean. Make up three rooms in the south wing with fresh linen and water bowls, then send for Antinos and tell him there will be plenty of armour and weapons wanting cleaning and oiling.’
    Eudora nodded her understanding, clearly having somehow memorised a list of which Fronto had already forgotten all but the last two things, and scurried off.
    Fronto turned an embarrassed and faintly apologetic look on the guests and was about to speak when Lucilia hauled him inside.
    ‘Sorry for my boorish husband, Gnaeus… and you too, Lucius and Tullus. The Gods alone know how he manages with all the discipline and ritual of the legions, when he can’t even manage the simplest of courtesies at home.
    Fabius and Furius shared a look that Fronto caught and noted down for future reference when they pissed him off and he wanted an excuse. Priscus simply smiled.
    ‘I would dearly love to bathe and change clothes, I have to admit. I have not bathed since we passed through Narbo, and even that was a poor excuse for a bath. Sadly we are standing in all the clothes we own right now.’
    Lucilia shook her head. ‘Marcus has a small mountain of new tunics, boots, socks and so on that he never touches because they’re not ‘worn in and comfortable’. Apparently, ‘worn in and comfortable’ means shabby, dirty and almost past saving. Come in, you three, where it’s warm. The Ianuarius air is unusually temperate, but it still carries a chill. Since you’ve closed the gate, your horses can roam the lawn freely until they’re tended to.