Each day, after breakfast, she joins Julia and Livia in the private bath suite, to have her body pummeled and plucked by silent attendants, every knot of tension released by the luxuriant heat of the steam. Her afternoons are spent in the gardens or sitting on the terrace. Pliny has continued his habit of lending her scrolls, and she reclines for hours in the shade, poring over them. Demetrius often joins her, ostensibly to ask what she is reading or discuss the texts with her. The older man’s interest both flatters Amara and makes her nervous. It is hard to know how to respond. He seems especially amused by her nightly reading to Pliny. Since her arrival at his villa, the admiral has dispensed with his other secretaries, declaring that Amara’s voice has exactly the right cadence for particular writers.

“You are only encouraging Pliny’s tyranny by doting on him,” Demetrius remarks one afternoon, on the second week of her visit. “The man burns through books and will wear out your voice in the process.”

They are sitting alone together on the terrace, Julia and Livia having found some excuse to leave soon after Demetrius arrived. Amara has noticed that the pair increasingly make themselves scarce when Demetrius joins them, almost as if by request. “Reading to the man who freed me hardly begins to repay the debt I owe him,” she says. “And besides, I enjoy it very much.”

Demetrius raises his eyebrows. “Either you are sincere in your dedication or a supremely talented actress. I’m not sure which is a more desirable quality in a woman.” He leans forward to adjust the shawl that has slipped from her shoulder, as if protecting her from the sea breeze. It is a fleeting gesture, but an uncomfortably proprietorial one. Amara has noticed that Demetrius increasingly finds excuses to touch her.

“In this case sincere,” she says, and he smiles, understanding she has left open the possibility of possessing both talents. They contemplate one another, until his obvious desire makes her feel uncomfortable. “Perhaps I can convince you, by granting you the same favor? If it would please you to be read to.”

“It would please me.”