Rufio simply nodded when Spurius had finished relating his story – maybe not all of it, considering a public tavern was hardly the place for potentially incriminating revelations, but enough that he understood exactly what the situation was – and rubbed the small crease between his eyes that appeared when he was concentrating hard. Unexcitable by nature, he didn’t waste his breath in exclaiming and wringing his hands over his cousin’s predicament, but just as he always done when extracting the young Spurius from some mischief on the Etrurian estate, he matter-of-factly accepted there was a problem and something had to be done about it.

“So some things don’t change at all – you’re still busy landing yourself in trouble,” he observed with a wry grin, “This is a good one, even by your standards! However, Valerius Felix seems like a good man to have on your case, especially if you’ve got a friend working with him.”

He glanced over at the table where the group of army officers were noisily making something of a nuisance of themselves with the serving girls and wine jugs. “Come on, let’s get out of here and find someplace a bit quieter before they take it into their heads to start hassling decent citizens like us,” he suggested with a wry grin, and got to his feet. Keeping his body between Spurius and the line of sight of the officers, he tossed an extra coin to the girl who’d served them and moved towards the door.

“Where are we going?” asked Spurius, automatically falling into step as the freedman headed off decisively up the street.

“You’ve got some unfinished business you need to attend to, remember?” Rufio reminded him with a playful grin.

“I do?” Spurius looked momentarily baffled, then as Rufio’s meaning dawned on him he chuckled and gave his friend a sly, knowing glance. “But you said you’d just left from seeing Hylas.”

“So I did,” agreed Rufio readily, “But even if he complains about seeing me twice in one day, that’s not to say I don’t find another look at his kittens a more attractive prospect than rescuing you single-handedly from over-zealous soldiers. Besides, I’ve got a more selfish reason for not wanting to see you locked up.”

As they walked leisurely back to the Insula Arriana Polliana, Rufio told his cousin about his intention to rent Cordius Lepidus’s villa rustica to set up a stud farm for racehorses. “I’ve taken a look at the place, but I’d appreciate a second opinion,” he told Spurius, and grinned at him sidelong as they briefly separated to dodge round a stately matrona who was determined not to relinquish her command of the pavement and step into the gutter, “Maybe you and Eirik would like to take a ride out with me? It’s out of town on the Nuceria Alfaterna road, so it should be safe enough if you two have got tired of being holed up yet.”

Unless Spurius had changed a great deal from the boy he used to know, always restless if he wasn’t doing something and taking whatever opportunity he could to escape the school room or the dull confinements of his uncle’s villa to ‘run wild’ (as Albina had used to call it with a disapproving sniff), he reckoned his friend would jump at the chance offered. The eagerness with which Spurius agreed it sounded safe enough proved to Rufio’s satisfaction that he really hadn’t changed a great deal at all.

Spurius’s story had also answered one of Rufio’s private questions – if his tastes were still more for his own sex – and the freedman was curious to see what kind of man had managed to capture his cousin’s affections. He would have to be something special, he reckoned. There was also a small, and purely selfish, sense of relief involved since knowing Hylas as he did, he had wondered at first if Spurius’s intended visit to the kittens had been an excuse to see the pretty young Greek. Any lasting fears he might have had about that though, were dispelled when they were greeted at Felix’s apartment and immediately dragged upstairs to Hylas’s room to view the happy feline family. Hylas had greeted Spurius with delighted exclamations and a warm kiss, but it was Rufio’s lips he lingered on the longest.