The Secrets of Vesuvius scroll I:: The Roman Mysteries

The Secrets of Vesuvius
Scroll I

Suddenly a furry wet creature hurled itself at Jonathan, barking enthusiastically.

'Scuto!' laughed Jonathan. He fell off Lupus as the dog covered his face with hot kisses. Two wet puppies scrambled after the bigger dog.

Scuto waited until the four friends had gathered around him. Then he shook himself vigorously. The puppies followed suit, shaking their small bodies from head to tail.

'En!' said Nubia. 'Behold! My new tunic is bespattered.'

Jonathan laughed. 'I think we've been reading you too much Latin poetry.'

Flavia looked down at her own tunic, which was also spotted with salt water. 'Oh well, only one thing to do...'

She ran squealing into the water, tunic and all. The other three yelled and followed her.

For several minutes they splashed and dunked each other. Then Lupus gave the older children their daily swimming lesson. He showed them how to move through the water by pulling with their arms and making their legs move like a frog's. Nubia, who had grown up in the African desert, where water was rare and precious, had been shy of the sea at first. Now she loved swimming. Jonathan was making good progress, too. But Flavia couldn't get her arms and legs to work together.

At last they all emerged from the sea and fell in a row onto the soft, warm dunes. Breathing hard, the four of them closed their eyes and let the hot August sun dry them. The sea breeze was deliciously cool against their wet bodies. Scuto and the puppies, Nipur and Tigris, lay panting on the sand.

When she'd caught her breath, Flavia lifted herself on one elbow and squinted up the beach. Sextus, one of her father's sailors, lay dozing under a papyrus parasol meant for the two girls.

Having their own private bodyguard was more than a luxury. Only a few weeks earlier, Flavia and her friends had narrowly escaped capture by Venalicius the slave-dealer. If he had caught them, he could have taken them anywhere in the Mediterranean and sold them as slaves, never to be found again. But Sextus was nearby, and for the moment they were safe.

Flavia lay back on the warm sand and gazed up at a seagull drifting in the pure blue expanse of the sky. She could taste the salt on her lips and hear the whisper of waves on the wet sand. Her friends lay beside her and the dogs dozed at her feet.

Flavia Gemina closed her eyes and sighed. She wished every day could be like this. But her father had decided that Ostia was not a safe place for them to spend the rest of the summer. In two days they would sail south to her uncle's farm near Pompeii.

That was a pity. The farm was safe. But dull.

Flavia sighed again.

She had enjoyed her first taste of detective work, when she and her friends had discovered and trapped Ostia's dog-killer. She wanted more mysteries to solve. And there were plenty here in Ostia. A nine year old girl named Sapphira had gone missing a few months earlier. Alma's favourite baker had been robbed three times. And there were always mysterious strangers lurking near the harbour, hoping to catch a fast boat away from Italia. Living in a busy seaport like Ostia, you needed to use all your senses and be constantly on the alert.

'What is it, Jonathan?' said Flavia. 'Why do you keep poking me?'

'You were snoring,' he said. 'And I think someone's in trouble.'

Flavia sat up and shaded her eyes with her hand.

Far out on the vast expanse of glittering blue water, she could just make out the curve of an upturned rowing boat. And clinging to it was a tiny figure frantically waving for help!

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