Free Danger in the Wind by Jane Finnis Page B

been a—well, an accident here. Terentius is dead. It happened sometime in the night. His servant has run away. I’m sorry to have to give you such bad news. If you’re a friend of his….”
    “Dead? Oh, I see.” His reaction surprised me. I could have expected him to be sad, or angry, and certainly to have asked how Terentius met his end. But his next question was, “What has happened to his possessions?”
    “We have them here. We’ll be sending them to Eburacum with his body tomorrow.”
    He looked relieved. “Ah, that’s all right then. If you’ll just give me his box? He was supposed to hand it over to me when we met.”
    I decided to move from playing cautious to playing ignorant. “Box? I don’t know anything about a box.”
    “But you must! I know he was travelling with it, and I presume he gave it to you for safekeeping. It contains something of mine, something I need urgently. That’s why we’d arranged to meet here, so I could take charge of it.” He was leaning forward eagerly and staring into my eyes. “Just a small box, but very valuable, vitally important. Are you sure he didn’t give it to you to lock away overnight?”
    “I’m quite sure, yes.”
    “May I take you into my confidence?” Portius looked down, as if embarrassed, then glanced up again. ”The fact is, he owes—I mean owed—me quite a bit of money, and I badly need some cash at present. And it’s all in the box.”
    Oh really? And I’m the Queen of Brigantia. I’d been right to refuse him any information. Either he truly didn’t know what was in Terentius’ box, or maybe he knew only too well but was assuming I did not. “I wish I could help,” I said. “I wasn’t there when Terentius first arrived, so I didn’t even notice him carrying anything. And his room’s been thoroughly cleared out since he died.”
    “This is a disaster. Gods, what am I going to do? I must have that box, I must! ” He put his head in his hands and repeated, “What am I going to do?” in a kind of moan.
    Again there was no curiosity about Terentius’ death. I could only think of one reason for that: he knew about it already. If he was the murderer, or if he’d told the servant to kill Terentius for the box and failed to get it, he didn’t need to ask me for the details.
    Suddenly I felt scared. Terentius had died for that box, and this Portius was responsible. Would he kill for it again? I must get him out of the mansio as quickly as I could. I stood up. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you any more. I’m really sorry about your friend’s death. As I said, his body is being sent to the garrison at Eburacum, because he said he was on his way there. Was he serving with the Ninth Legion?”
    “No, with one of the Batavian units at Isurium. He’d been away though, seconded to Londinium, a special job for the Governor. He was on his way back to base.” He sighed heavily. “Well, thank you for your time. If you haven’t got the box, I won’t hold you up any longer.” He moved towards the door. Secundus opened it for him, and he marched away without a backward look.
    I relaxed when the door closed. “I’m glad he’s gone. And I’m glad you were here, Secundus. What made you think something was amiss?”
    “Hawk sent me. He’s just outside under the oak tree, and he wants to see you.” He fell into step beside me as I walked out onto the forecourt. “Moon-cloud was just an excuse, the first thing that came into me head.”
    Hawk was standing in the shadow of the giant oak. He smiled when he saw us. “I’m relieved you’re in one piece, Aurelia.”
    “I’m all right, though that man who just left gave me a fright.”
    He nodded. “I’ve been following his tracks, and there’s no doubt he killed the slave-boy in the woods. Whether he also killed the soldier, or ordered the boy to do it, I can’t say. I was worried for you when I realised he was paying you a visit. His trail was hard to follow, winding round and about,