If
the constables return, as they will, all my men will come back. Osdarus
will manage to get me horses from the nearest change-station or somewhere
else, somehow. Once at an inn I can get fresh horses. I can buy a team at
Nuceria."
"Can you pay for a team?" I interrupted. "Have you the cash?"
"My gold and silver," she laughed, "are in the other secret compartment.
The outlaws did not get my coin any more than my jewelry. Why look!
Lydia's earrings are in my ears now and her necklace round my neck and her
bracelets on my wrists and her rings on my fingers. The rascals were so
sure of not being interfered with and so much at ease that they were
startled frantic by the galloping horsemen and scuttled off with
Bambilio's coin-chest, dragging him and poor Lydia and totally forgetting
me, thinking me the maid, not even noticing these little trinkets, which
are mostly silver and some of gold and so worth stealing.
"I have the cash to pay for two teams or three: I brought plenty for the
journey to Aquileia, because we could learn little of the state of the
roads beyond Bononia and I thought I might have to travel by Placentia or
even by Milan. I'll get back to Rome, as fast as I can. I don't want to be
married now, so I don't want to go on to Bononia, let alone all the way to
Aquileia.
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