A firm tug on the hem of my coat pulled me off the plinth, and I turned to find myself looking into the scowl of a burly spectator. I had been blocking his view. Abram had been treated similarly. I apologized profusely and slipped back through the throng to where I no longer had a view of proceedings. The singing had died away so the procession must have reached the saint’s shrine. A hush spread across the crowd and then came the strong, clear voice of a priest summoning the faithful. The service had begun.
*
‘The Nomenculator looked very drab compared to some others in the procession,’ I commented to Abram some hours later as we made our way back towards our lodgings in the Colosseum. We were walking from the basilica downhill towards the river through an area of recently built wooden houses. Many of them were inns and hospices catering for the needs of pilgrims visiting the city.
‘Appearances are deceptive,’ he said. ‘Those closest to the pope wield the most power. The two dignitaries you saw leading him by the hand are both his relatives. One is the Primicerius Notariorum, the other the Secundarius – the head of chancery and his deputy. Adrian wants one of them to succeed him, to keep it in the family.’
‘You’re very well informed,’ I said.
He shrugged. ‘I keep my ears open. All the gossip indicates that there’s going to be trouble when Adrian finally passes on.’
‘There are rivals?’
‘Several.’
‘Alcuin warned me about this sort of thing. Thankfully it doesn’t concern us,’ I said.
The dragoman wrapped his cloak tighter around himself. A chill wind had got up and there was a smell of rain in the air. Soon it would be dark. ‘It might concern us,’ he said carefully. ‘Adrian and King Carolus are known to be close allies. Carolus even refers to Adrian as his “father”.’
‘How do you know that?’ I asked, perhaps a little too sharply, but I was stung that the dragoman was more knowledgeable about these matters than me.
Again he shrugged. ‘It is common knowledge. Adrian may already have obtained an undertaking from Carolus to support a member of Adrian’s family as the next pope.’
‘That’s pure supposition,’ I objected.
‘People in Rome have vivid imaginations, particularly when they are hatching plots.’
‘But I still don’t see how that affects our embassy,’ I said.
Abram halted and turned towards me, his dark eyes searching my face. ‘What if someone wants to send a warning to Carolus, to encourage him to stay clear of Roman politics? What would be a good way to do that?’
I felt a faint shiver of apprehension as I saw his meaning. ‘Harm his embassy.’
‘Exactly.’
‘Abram, you’re becoming as devious and mistrustful as those Roman conspirators you just spoke of,’ I said, keeping my voice light though I remained uneasy. ‘We can’t look for enemies lurking down every alleyway.’
We continued our walk in silence as I thought over what the dragoman had told me. Despite myself, I looked around. It was dusk and the light was rapidly fading. What was it that Paul had said about not walking the streets unescorted after dark? I quickened my pace, glad to note that we were in a street lined with inns. A party of men was coming towards us, and they turned into the doorway just ahead of us. By their dress they appeared to be foreign pilgrims. They had been drinking and were talking loudly, laughing and joking with one another. With a sudden jolt I recognized their speech. They were talking together in my mother tongue: Anglo-Saxon.
I waited until we were well out of earshot before I said, ‘Those men back there. They were from England.’
‘That was a boarding house for English pilgrims. They pay a very low rent to stay there, thanks to a donation from one of their kings some years ago.’ There was enough light for me to see Abram’s expression change as he realized what lay behind my comment. His eyes narrowed. ‘Is this something to do with that coin you showed us the other evening? The one from King Offa?’ he asked.
‘I hadn’t realized that some of his people would be here in Rome.’
It was Abram’s turn to reassure me. ‘Now you’re the one who imagines plots and conspiracies round every corner! Dozens of your countrymen make the pilgrimage to Rome, especially to witness the Christmas celebrations.’
We walked on but I was unable to shake off the unwelcome idea that even in Rome I was within Offa’s reach. The prospect of spending three more months in Rome had lost its appeal. The sooner we were on our way to Baghdad, the happier I would be.
*
The months dragged by. January and February were cold and dreary with slate-grey skies. A week of incessant rain caused the river to overflow and flood the low-lying parts of the city. The water rose above head height, obliging the residents to move to the upper floors as the Nomenculator had described. The Colosseum escaped the worst of the inundation, though there were days when several inches of standing water in the arena meant that the animals could not be exercised. They stayed in their stalls and were well looked after. Walo’s feeding the ice bears with vegetables along with meat and fish, as Paul had researched, was a success. Modi and Madi thrived, and of course were very happy in the winter cold. The gyrfalcons also stayed in good condition and one morning Walo came to me, grinning with delight, to report that one of the dogs had given birth to a litter of four puppies. Two of them were pure white so we had more than we had started out with from Kaupang. The remaining pair had black and brown markings and, after they had been weaned, Walo made a present of them to the stable-hands who had the unpleasant job of cleaning out the aurochs’ stable. That creature remained as bad tempered as ever.