Doctor Who_ The Stone Rose - Jacqueline Rayner [11]
‘I didn’t not like her,’ said the Doctor.
‘There you go, then. Judge of character and all that. If there’s a bad guy here, it’s that Ursus, I’m sure of it.’
‘Just be careful,’ the Doctor told her.
She’d found Vanessa in the main house with Marcia. Marcia had a piece of needlework on her knee, but was ignoring it in favour of telling Vanessa the entire life history of Optatus.
‘And then in his fifth summer he fell from a peach tree and hurt his arm…’ She paused expectantly.
Vanessa said, ‘Ah, the, er, typical adventurousness of the Capricorn, coming under the… hostile influence of… Jupiter.’
‘Of course, of course,’ Marcia agreed. ‘Come on in, my dear, and sit down,’ she said to Rose. She waved a hand at a slave, who went off and returned seconds later with a cup of wine for Rose. ‘My dear, I have to tell you how much I love your hair,’ she continued. ‘Blonde is so fashionable!’
‘Er, thanks,’ said Rose. ‘Well, you know what they say, blondes have more fun…’
‘Was it a slave’s?’
‘No,’ said Rose, confused, ‘it’s mine.’
‘Oh, you’ve had it dyed,’ said Marcia, nodding knowledgeably. ‘Well, it really suits you.’
Rose decided it would be sensible to leave the topic of ancient hairdressing before she tripped herself up. She turned to Vanessa. ‘So, picked up any clues yet?’
The young girl gave a nervous smile. ‘I feel that Optatus is favoured by the gods,’ she said. ‘The stars at his birth were… auspicious. I am sure that he is safe.’
‘Great,’ said Rose, sitting down.
‘Y s, my mind is greatly relieved!’ said Marcia, smiling.
‘Well, while Vanessa’s, er, considering his astrological destiny, we’re trying to figure out who saw him last. Tell me, Marcia, what do you know about this Ursus bloke?’
Marcia’s eyes widened. ‘You think Ursus may be connected with my son’s disappearance? I shall have my husband evict him from the estate at once!’
Rose hastened to calm her down. ‘No, look, I’m just asking. Gracilis said he was a local boy, right? So you must know him. And even if he is connected – I’m not saying he is,’ she added quickly, as Marcia’s mouth flew open, ‘we don’t want him getting the wind up or anything. Keep them where you can see them, that’s the thing.’
Marcia nodded reluctantly. She thought for a moment and then said, ‘I don’t really know much about him. He was rather a clumsy, unpleasant child, as I recall. I remember being surprised to hear he was planning to take up art.’
It was the sort of story that never changed, Rose thought. An unpopular child, teased and ridiculed but determined to fulfil his ambitions and prove his tormentors wrong. But the ending happened less frequently: boy makes good against all the odds. Because, as she’d seen for herself, that’s what had happened. After years of humiliation, the boy – now a man – had suddenly found the success he had been seeking, perhaps more than he’d ever dreamed of.
‘It was – oh, I’m not sure how long ago,’ Marcia told her. ‘Suddenly we began to hear his name everywhere. His statues appeared in the temples and shrines of Rome itself, and they were so admired. W thought they must be by some other artist of the same name, but no, it was the Ursus we knew. My husband pursued him for some time before he would agree to take on our commission.’ She sighed. ‘And how thankful I am. It comforts me to know I can still gaze on the face of my child, even in this time of darkness.’
Ross didn’t say anything, didn’t suggest to Marcia that if they hadn’t persuaded Ursus to produce his sculpture of Optatus, the whole ‘time of darkness’ thing might have been avoided altogether.
Suddenly Marcia thumped a fist on her knee. ‘Of course!’ she said. ‘We first saw a statue by Ursus when we were in Rome – I remember now. It was the festival of Fortuna. That means it is almost ten months ago.’
Vanessa started.
‘You all right?’ Rose said.
The girl nodded, but was staring into the distance. ‘Almost ten months,’ she said under her breath. ‘We believed Fortuna had smiled on us when he agreed to craft our son,’ said Marcia sadly. ‘Now I believe we may have offended her.’
The