The Silk Tree Read Online Free PDF

mate,’ the legionary rumbled. ‘The world being so fucked up.’
    The evening was drawing in, shadows deepening in the dingy room. Nicander found the oil lamp and brought flame to it.
    They both stared pensively into space until Marius broke the silence. ‘Seems to me a right shame.’
    ‘What’s that?’
    ‘Well, you and me. Now we understand each other, a pity we can’t work something out. Team up, come together on some venture.’
    ‘Such as?’
    ‘I don’t know! Get in the ferry business? I can pull an oar better than the pathetic weasels I’ve seen.’
    ‘Capital.’
    ‘What’s that you said?’
    ‘We’ve no coin. That’s the rub,’ Nicander said bitterly. ‘No capital, no investment; no business, no profit.’
    Marius glowered.
    ‘I’d willingly join you if I could think of a venture not requiring capital, I really would.’
    ‘Well, what are you doing with yourself now? You said something about fruit.’
    Nicander sighed and explained what faced him in the fruit supply business. ‘Without the pomegranate shipment I’m finished anyway,’ he concluded.
    Marius gave a tight smile. ‘Ah, now that’s something that can be left to me. Tell me about this Syrian.’
     
    Next day, as if by magic, the pomegranates had arrived. Disbelieving, Nicander set about arranging delivery.
    ‘He’s sorry for the inconvenience and will do better next time,’ Marius said with a wicked smirk. ‘What now?’
    Then it was the oranges. A private arrangement with a ship’s master to regularise. Again there was no trouble, once the legionary had seen to it.

CHAPTER FOUR
    ‘How’s our capital, now, Nico?’ Marius asked as the coins were carefully counted.
    ‘Improving.’
    ‘Can we—’
    ‘No. Capital is blood – we don’t shed it unless we have to. It’s our way out of this stinking hole, but we need to build up more.’
    ‘Damn it all, when will that be?’
    ‘At this rate … perhaps a year or so, then—’
    ‘I don’t
want
to wait that fucking long!’
    ‘This is what we have to do, Marius.’
    ‘Take a chance on it, man! Where’s your courage?’
    ‘No!’
    ‘I say, yes!’
    Nicander’s face tightened. ‘You’re entitled to half the assets, Marius. Do you want them now? Shall I put them in a bag?’
    ‘A plague on your money-grubbing ways, Greek.’
    ‘Patience is the hardest lesson in business.’
    ‘A pox on that, too.’
    Rage suddenly clamped in. ‘You stupid bastard, Marius! Can’t you see? Do you think I want it to be like this? Let me tell you, not so long backyou’d see me running my own incense business, seventy men taking my wages, a turnover of a hundred thousand solidi, a reputation in the city. Can you just try to think how it feels for me to be grubbing about in oranges and pomegranates at the beck and call of any pig with an obol or two? Can you?’
    Marius’s face went dull red. Then with a crash, his fist slammed down.
    ‘Now you listen to me, you … you poor pissed-upon bastard! How do you think I’m taking it? A first-class Roman legionary, service in Syria and Dalmatia, there’s enemy bones out there because I’m good with a blade – now all I’m told to do is put the frights on some witless idiot on a barrow stall!’
    He heaved a deep breath.
    Both men slumped back in their chairs.
    After a space Nicander said, ‘Look, I do appreciate what you’re doing. It’s hard on both of us …’
    He picked up his accounts and opened the ledger. ‘This Nabatean Grotius,’ he said wearily, ‘I advanced him an amount to cover his lemon shipment and now he’s crying poverty and won’t return it. If you could go and persuade him to his obligation … or it’ll leave me embarrassed in the matter of the currants deal.’
     
    Marius flung open the door. ‘M’friend, m’ friend!’
    He rubbed his hands in delight as he sank into a chair with a wide grin.
    ‘You have the coin, then?’ Nicander asked, surprised as the legionary had only been away an hour or