I supposed they were blue, though I could not remember. His skin was pallid and swollen after drowning, but he had always been light-complexioned, with the gingery eyebrows and lashes that go with such colouring. Along his bare forearms fine hairs began to dry. He wore dark blue trousers, expensive boots, a belt with hole-punched patterns into which the plaid tunic was gathered in thick clumps. No weapon was present. Every time I saw him alive, he had worn a long British sword.

He had been always on the go. He dashed around; was full of vigour and crude humour; always accosted me in a loud voice; regularly leered at women. It seemed odd to find him quite so still.

I stooped, picking up the cloth on a sleeve to inspect a hand for finger-rings. One sturdy item in rope-twisted gold remained, perhaps too tight to drag off in a hurry. As I straightened, my gaze briefly caught that of Hilaris. Clearly he could see that I too knew the man's identity. Well, if he thought about it, I had just come up from Noviomagus Regnensis so I would.

'It is Verovolcus,' he told the centurion without drama. I kept quiet. 'I met him officially once or twice. He was a courtier, and possibly a relative, of the Great King – Togidubnus of the Atrebates tribe, down on the south coast.'

'Important?' demanded the centurion, with a half-eager sideways look. Hilaris did not answer. The soldier drew his own conclusions. He pulled a face, impressed.

King Togidubnus was a long-time friend and ally of Vespasian. He had been lavishly rewarded for years of support. In this province he could probably pull rank even on the governor. He could get Flavius Hilaris recalled to Rome and stripped of his hard-earned honours. He could have me knocked over the head and dumped in a ditch, with no questions asked.

'So what was Verovolcus doing in Londinium?' Hilaris mused. It seemed a general question, though I felt he aimed it at me.