The Governor's Man by Jacquie Rogers (best beach reads TXT) 📕

‘I see the Londoner has got his fist round your beer, Gwenn. That was quick work.’  Tiro heard — surely? — a note of warmth under the sarcasm. Jupiter Best and Greatest, but that woman is a sight to cure any eye sickness.

‘Mistress Britta,’ he managed. She flicked a smile at him, before hugging her sister-in-law.

‘But where is that little monkey, Narina?’

‘Here, Auntie!’

The door swung open again, and his little friend hurled herself in, followed by a tall elegant figure. Julia Aureliana. Jupiter! Tiro wasn’t sure whether he was now better or worse off without his boss. Either way, trouble beckoned.

‘Auntie Britta! We’ve been having such adventures! This is Tiro — the man who talks funny. Ooh, I nearly forgot— we followed Domina Claudia’s nephew here, that Lucius. He’s been down Chilton Polden—‘

Julia pounced on that. ‘Lucius! Here?’

Tiro found his tongue at last, although it felt oddly too big for his mouth.

‘Yes, Lady Julia. I tracked him from Vebriacum and we believe he is involved in a conspiracy…’ How much should I reveal? Yes, she knew about Tertius and Catus, but then there was Velvinna’s death. Quintus suspects — actually, what did Quintus Valerius suspect? Not for the first time Tiro cursed his superior. Fact was, Tiro had no idea what he could safely share with Lady Julia.

Julia frowned, cutting through his beer-damped doubts. She took Narina’s hand again, and crouched down beside the little girl.

‘So you and Tiro followed Master Lucius Claudius from Chilton Polden to Bo Gwelt, just now?’

‘Yes, my lady! Isn’t it exciting?’

Julia said nothing, turning on her toes. The door banged closed behind her. She was gone so quickly that Tiro wondered whether she’d actually been there at all. Just a draught and the flickering light of the oil lamps marked her departure. Britta glared at Tiro, and turned to follow Julia. He grabbed her arm as she was leaving.

‘I must talk to you, outside, Britta - it’s urgent!’

‘Mistress Britta to you.’ But she didn’t pull away as they left the roundhouse. Tiro had no idea how to open the thorny subject. So he just let it spill out.

‘It’s about the old lady in Aquae Sulis. Velvinna.’

‘How do you know her?’

‘She was found dead in her house. Meant to look like natural causes. Me and the boss went to investigate, with Commander Crispus. We think it may not be accidental. Your mistress might be in the frame, as she’d been giving  Velvinna a medicine that could have killed her.’

Britta turned pale, and would have fallen had Tiro not caught her. He steadied her and led her to a bench, saying guiltily ‘Here, sit down a moment. Sorry to give you such a shock.’  Fool you are, Tiro, letting it out like that. Now she’ll hate you, and you’ll never have a chance.

But Britta rallied.

‘What do you know so far?’

Tiro could never work out how he came to trust Britta so quickly. He just did. He explained about the powdered foxglove; their questioning of the household staff; Quintus’s request for a medical examination. He didn’t mention Quintus’s instructions to take Julia in for questioning. Irrelevant now the boss and Lady Julia had both headed to Bo Gwelt at the same time. Quintus could do the questioning himself when he arrived.

‘Of course, it could be a natural death — old dear, bad ticker …’ he said hopefully. Britta shook her head, looking upset. ‘ ’Fraid not. Tiro, can I trust you?’

He moved closer to her, and felt a momentary yielding towards him, he thought. Her eyes were a warm hazel, but her face was paler than usual, drawn with shock. He hoped she wouldn’t ask anything he couldn’t answer.

‘That poor old lady! Velvinna warned us the night before she died that there was trouble brewing. Druid trouble, she said, if you can believe it. She told Lady Julia she’d heard that a White One was coming to stir up the tribe at a meeting to be held in Lindinis tonight.’

Her lips trembled, and Tiro put his arm back round her shoulders and squeezed gently. Britta seemed not to notice. ‘That’s why we left Aquae Sulis so quickly. Julia sent a message to Velvinna, but we never heard back. We couldn’t wait any longer. My lady needed to talk to  Magistrate Aurelianus, and decide what’s to be done about the meeting tonight. And sort out the mess with Miss Aurelia too.’

The reference to Aurelia was too obscure for Tiro; he elbowed the comment aside. So Velvinna had known about the tribal unease? That seemed good grounds for murder but not, he was relieved to think, by Julia.

Britta smoothed out her tunica as she stood. She was shivering in the cold evening breeze, but looked more composed.

‘Tiro,’ she said, ‘best you stay here with Morcant for now. No point risking more trouble in the house with that Lucius if he’s with Domina Claudia. I’ll see what’s what, and tell my lady about Velvinna before she goes off to that wasp’s nest of trouble at Lindinis.’

Tiro caught her arm. ‘Britta, she mustn’t go alone.  The frumentarius will be here soon. He’s the right person to get to the bottom of all this. There may be a connection between the silver theft and the Druid uprising, although the Gods know what.’

He threw caution to the wind. ‘We do know that Lucius Claudius has been involved in plundering silver from the Vebriacum mines. Let my master accompany Lady Julia tonight, perhaps even go in her place. I can go too.’

Britta looked him full in the face now. ‘You really have no idea who you’re dealing with, do you? You folks up there in the big smoke must be daft in the head. This is Lady Julia