Free Catilina's Riddle by Steven Saylor

them. Privately."
    Aratus narrowed his eyes and withdrew. A few moments later Congrio and the kitchen slaves entered. I put aside my tablet and stylus and gestured for them to shut the door.
    "Well, Congrio, how did things go with the Claudii?"
    "Quite well, Master. I'm sure you'll receive no complaints about our service. Claudia gave me this note to give to you." He handed me a rolled scrap of parchment sealed with wax on which Claudia had impressed her ring. Her seal, I noticed, was an abbreviation of her name, with the letter C enclosing a smaller A. It was clearly her own seal, neither inherited from her father nor taken from a husband, but invented by herself. This was unusual for a Roman matron, but Claudia was an unusually independent woman. I broke the seal and unrolled the letter.
    To Gordianus:
    Greetings, neighbor, and my gratitude for the loan of your slaves. They have comported themselves admirably, most especially your chief of the kitchen, Congrio, who has lost none of his skill since the days when he served my cousin Lucius. I am doubly grateful because my own head cook fell ill in the midst of preparations, whereupon Congrio proved to be not merely a great help but utterly essential; I should have been distraught and desperate without him. I will remember this when calculating the favor I owe you.
    On a different subject, and confidentially, I want you to know that I did my best to put in a good word for you in the family council. We Claudii are a stubborn and opinionated bunch, and I cannot say that I immediately swayed anyone toward a more moderate view, but I think I made a start.
    Anyway, I did what I could. It was a beginning.
    Thank you again for the generous loan. Consider this your promissory note, and call upon me someday to repay it.
    I remain your grateful neighbor,
    Claudia
    I rolled the letter and tied it with a ribbon, then saw that Congrio was watching me with his head quizzically cocked. "She was quite impressed with you," I said, at which Congrio let out a pent-up breath and smiled sweetly.
    - 44 -

    "A good woman," he said. "A demanding mistress, but she genuinely appreciates a man's skills."
    "You obeyed my orders regarding your own discretion?"
    "We were discreet, Master. I regret that I can't say the same for other men's slaves."
    "What do you mean?"
    "The visiting Claudii brought along their own slaves, and the most natural place for slaves to congregate is the kitchen. I did my best to shoo them out whenever the place became too crowded, but there was always a throng, and the orgy of gossip never stopped. I took no part in it, of course, but above the clanging of pots and pans I kept my ears open, as you instructed."
    "What did you hear?"
    "Most of it was of no interest at all—which slaves had risen or fallen in their master's favor . . . fabricated stories about amorous adventures when journeying with their masters to Rome . . . obscene tales about illicit unions between field slaves and serving girls behind the wine press . . . rude comments about one another's anatomy—just the sort of trivial filth that you'd expect, and with which I would never consider polluting my master's ears."
    "Was there anything at all of interest?"
    "Perhaps. There were some rude insults aimed in my own general direction. Slaves often take on the colors of their masters, as you no doubt have noticed, and when there is hostility between masters it may be echoed between their slaves. Quite a few of the slaves, knowing I served Lucius Claudius long and faithfully, took crude jabs at me; these
    . took the nature of bemoaning what they called my sad decline in the world, having now to serve a master—pardon me, Master, these are their exact words and it pains me to repeat them—having now to serve a master 'so far below' the last. I answered them with stony silence, of course, which they merely seemed to find amusing. The point is that such phrases could hardly have originated from the lips of slaves;