I really want to go next summer, to catch the Olympic Games. I glanced at Helena, implying she had refused permission

Oh bad luck! Our Tracks and Temples tour is there at the

moment.' For the first time I wondered why, if the Games were not until next year. Still, Olympia has an age-old religious sanctuary, its statue of Zeus one of the Seven Wonders of the World.. Funnily enough,' Polystratus confided,. I had a letter back about that group only today; they are having a wonderful time. Absolutely thrilled with it, all of them.' That would be all except the late Valeria Ventidia, and possibly her bridegroom. He could have no idea we knew about the murder.

So how do your arrangements work?' Helena enquired.. Do you have someone who escorts people, to find good accommodation and organise the transport?'

Exactly! For our Greek adventures, that's Phineus. Our best guide. A legend in the trade, ask anyone. He does all the legwork, while you are out enjoying yourselves.' And if a client disappeared, I knew from Caesius, this Phineus legged it back to Rome.

Helena was frowning nervously.. So if anything went badly wrong.

Not on our trips!' snapped Polystratus.

What if there was a terrible accident and someone died on the journey?'

Polystratus slurped through his missing teeth. I wondered just how many bar-room brawls a man had to partake in to wreak such dental havoc.. It can happen.' Changing his tactics, he lowered his voice.. In the rare eventuality of a tragic accident, we do have expertise in repatriation, both for the living and the not so fortunate.'

So consoling! You hear such stories,' Helena murmured meekly.

Believe me,' Polystratus confirmed,. I know of companies who behave quite shamefully. Some old gent swallows a grape pip and chokes, then the sobbing widow finds herself abandoned with no money and no donkey, hundreds of miles from anywhere – I can't even tell you the appalling things that happen – but we,' he pronounced,. have been organising happy travel for two decades. Why, the Emperor Nero wanted to see Greece on one of our journeys, but unluckily for him, it was booked out. We always say that when he slit his throat with a razor it was out of disappointment that we had no room for him.