“Put down the fucking chair,” he says. Amara does not reply. He takes a step closer, gesturing with the blade. “If you put it down, I won’t hold this against you. I know you are upset.” Felix has never spoken to her like this, placatory, almost as if he is afraid of her. She does not let go. He takes another step toward her, his eyes on hers, speaking quietly. “If you put it down, Amara, I promise to forgive you for what you’ve just done.”

It is his offer of forgiveness that tips her over the edge. She throws the chair at him, so that he ducks. When he straightens up, she spits in his face. “I would see you dead first,” she says. “You son of a whore.”

Felix wipes his cheek, hand shaking with anger. “If you leave me now, I swear by all the gods I will destroy you.”

Amara does not reply. She turns her back on him and walks to where Philos is standing, appalled, in the doorway.

33

“How soft is violence?”

—Herculaneum graffiti

Rage carries Amara on her walk back from the brothel. It is not until she sees the door of her own house, half ajar to the street, that she feels the first stirring of fear. Felix, who runs a protection racket and thinks nothing of murder, has just vowed to bring down her household. Her sense of misgiving grows as she walks into the atrium and hears the sound of Victoria singing, the high pitch of the girls’ flute playing. It is not just her own life that she has put in danger.

“Lock the door,” she says to Juventus who nods and hurries to do as she has asked. Amara looks up at Philos. “I have to tell Victoria.”

In the garden, the afternoon sunshine falls on the fresco of Dido, and the sight of her immortalized at her most beautiful only makes it worse to think of what Felix did to her body. In her guise as the huntress Diana, Dido is twice as tall as the women singing beneath her, and for the first time, Amara feels guilty at caring less for her living friend than the dead one. She should have paid Victoria more attention.

Victoria sees her watching and smiles, but she does not stop her singing. Amara waits until they have finished. “Egnatius will be thrilled,” she says. “You get better all the time.”

Victoria looks pleased by the compliment. “Let’s hope the guests are all in the mood to tip.”

Amara joins the three of them by the bench and takes Victoria’s hand. “I have something to tell you,” she says. “It’s about Felix.”

Victoria looks terrified. “What’s happened? What has he said to you?”