“Ill?”
“I suspect he was poisoned. He had indigestion one night before dinner. I fed him the celery and leek soup you taught me to make, with the pepper and honey, but he did not improve.”
“Who attended him besides you?”
“I never saw him. He only let his body-slave, Silius, attend to him. If I didn’t know better, I would thank the gods. It means I can’t be a suspect.” He handed me the cup. I smiled when I saw it was empty.
“Did they question the body-slave?”
“They can’t. He’s missing.”
“Missing?”
“Aye, since last night. No one knows where he is.”
I set the empty glass down on the bench beside me, wishing I had brought a flask of wine with me when I left the kitchen.
“It’s odd, though,” Rúan mused, looking out into the dark garden. I thought I heard an owl hooting in the distance.
“What is?”
He sniffed. “No one seems to care about the missing slave. Livia wanted a further inquiry but the doctor proclaimed there was no foul play. Sejanus told Livia he wasn’t going to waste men looking into a murder that wasn’t there. That is that.”
That was that, indeed.
? ? ?
A few weeks later, I was going through a list of client requests with Apicius when a slave burst through the door of the library without knocking. Apicius and I looked up to see Sotas had snatched the boy up by the back of his tunic.
The boy squeaked, “Caesar is here! Caesar is at the door!”
We sat there, stunned. Caesar at our house?
Apicius sprang into action. “Don’t stand there! Let him in! We’ll be there straightaway!”
Sotas let the boy go and he scampered down the hallway.
Apicius looked me up and down. “Thank the gods we both look respectable. Come now, we can’t keep him waiting.”
“Why is he here?” I asked as we walked swiftly through the house.
He didn’t answer. My heart was pounding so hard I wondered if Apicius could hear it beating.
How could he be calm? I was terrified. Publius Octavius was dead and Livia suspected foul play. What if somehow the trail led back to Apicius? I wouldn’t put it past Sejanus to frame him; it would be an easy way to get Apicius out of his hair, and the gods knew Livia hated him as well.
In the atrium, Tiberius sat on a plush chaise the slaves had brought to accommodate him. He was accompanied by several Praetorian Guard, including Sejanus, who sat on a chair next to him.
Sotas left us at the door, taking a spot at the side of the atrium. Apicius strode across the room, stopped before Caesar, and reached out a hand in greeting. I waited behind.
“To what do we owe the pleasure of this visit to my humble abode?” he asked as Tiberius shook his hand.
Sejanus guffawed, the skin around his eyes wrinkling with amusement. “Humble? Your villa is more extravagant than Divine Augustus’s was!”
Apicius still smiled. My heart pounded. Please, Apicius, I willed him, don’t say anything stupid.
Tiberius didn’t give him the chance. “But that is precisely why I am here. You understand how to entertain dignitaries, princeps, and kings. No doubt you have heard I am in need of a new gastronomic adviser.”
“I heard.”
Tiberius motioned for Apicius and me to sit in the chairs the slaves had brought for us. “Sejanus tells me you are the best man for the job. Livia tells me it will anger her to no end to bring you into our service. Two good reasons for you to take on this role for me.”
Tiberius handed Apicius a scroll and watched as he opened it and scanned the contents. “Are you interested?”
Apicius looked up from the scroll. He looked as he did after tasting a successful new recipe. Euphoric. “I am!”
Tiberius’s gaze landed on me. “And you, cook. I applaud your performance at the market a few months ago. A good man knows when the price is too high. Better to have your dignity and your purse intact at the end of the day.”
“Thank you.” I swelled with pride. I looked at Apicius but he was scanning the scroll again.
“You’ll need a salary too, I suppose. I’ll see to it.”
Tiberius stood and we rose with him. “I’ll expect you to do much of my entertaining. I am not interested in pandering to those who desire a pound of my flesh. Still, it can’t be helped, so you’ll do it for me.”
“I’m your man,” Apicius asserted.
“Perfect. I’ll send an escort to you tomorrow to be brought to the villa.”
He left, his guards following behind. Sejanus lingered.
“I have fulfilled my part of the bargain, father-in-law,” he said to Apicius, barely loud enough for me to hear. “Now it is your turn.”
“Yes, as we agreed.” Apicius made a small motion to Sotas, and the big man deftly, but politely, maneuvered Sejanus out the door.
Then I understood. Oh, the irony! After all these years, the tables had turned and it was Sejanus who became the paid assassin after all.
Apicius had just been handed everything he had ever wanted. It had come at the expense of a man’s life and required debt to the very man Apicius hated above all others. I thought back to the prediction of the haruspex and shuddered. For every success, greater failures will cluster to the sides.
Apicius was giddy. “Come, Thrasius! Let us tell Aelia the news. Tonight we celebrate!” He rushed off down the corridor, not bothering to wait for us to follow.
I stood there, jaw open wide, at a loss for words.
Sotas clapped me on the back. “Close your mouth, you might catch a fly.”
I stared down the empty corridor, confusion and anger coiled in the pit of my stomach. “Did . . . ?”
“Did Apicius just sell his soul to Sejanus?” Sotas asked, then finished for me. “Why, yes, he did.”
I shook my head. “What am I doing here, Sotas? Why do I stand by and watch him play these games? I am not beholden to him.”
“Aren’t you?” He gave me a crooked smile and turned down the hallway himself.
I thought about Passia and my little Junius and hated how right my friend was.
? ? ?
The next morning Apicius increased Apicata’s stipend by another eight thousand sestertii a month—the other half of the money promised to Sejanus.
? ? ?
We were finishing a bleary-eyed salutatio when the man Tiberius sent arrived. It turned out to be Rúan. After losing him to Octavius, Apicius had been caustic toward his former slave, convinced that he was a spy for his rival. This time he greeted Rúan like an old friend.