Free Second Act by Marilyn Todd

his Jupiter-chasing-the-nymphs mode, managed to convey to the crowd that, no, he hadn’t actually forgotten that aspect of Erinna’s attire… In the background, Doris searched the script for something he’d missed. Jemima and Adah clung like virgins in a brothel, in case their own clothes came under assault. The audience were agog. Then, just when they thought it couldn’t get any better, Skyles whipped off his yellow woollen tunic to protect Erinna’s modesty, but in doing so, exposed his own form for inspection. Bulging muscles, rippling pecs, with just a tiny loincloth to cover the essentials. Claudia could see what attracted the ladies. (And one or two of the men, she couldn’t help noticing.) The crowd went wild.
    The priest had finished. With the longest face this side of the Tiber, he had flayed the sacrifice, passed its liver to the haruspex for inspection, and was now sprinkling the flesh with holy salt before roasting it in strips over the fire. Oh, Caspar, what magnificent timing your people have! No wonder you call them Spectaculars. And now it was her turn. Wrenching herself away from the sole mn ceremony, the young widow was mortified to discover that her house guests had been causing chaos alongside the basilica.
    ‘I am so sorry,’ she told the crowd. ‘This is all my fault. They were rehearsing for the show I’m putting on at my house—’
    She didn’t get a chance to finish. ‘When?’ ‘Where?’ ‘How much?’ ‘Can we get seats?’ bellowed from every direction. Oh, yes. And this was only the start. Tomorrow, to celebrate the Festival of the Seven Hills, there was chariot racing in the Circus Maximus. Word would have spread, there’d be even more spectators at tomorrow afternoon’s performance.
    A total of fifty thousand potential sales.
    *
    ‘That went well,’ Ion said to Doris, wiping the sweat from his face beneath his mask.
    ‘Fat jokes always do,’ Doris retorted, comically mopping the outside of his tragedy mask. ‘They unite both sexes and bridge every generation. Well. Them, and Gaulish virgin jokes. Did you hear about the one who sat in the chair right through her wedding night?’
    ‘Go on, tell me,’ Ion groaned.
    ‘Her mother told her it would be the best night of her life, so she stayed up so as not to miss it.’
    *
    ‘That went well,’ Skyles told Erinna, belting up his spare tunic.
    It was the first time he had seen Erinna at such close quarters, and he’d rather liked the view. Unblemished olive skin, full firm breasts, hips that he could grip when he… If he…
    He cleared his throat. ‘Don’t you think?’ he finished hoarsely.
    *
    ‘That went well.’ Leaning against a pillar in the portico, Adah adjusted the strap of her sandal, which had come loose.
    ‘Bleeding did an’ all.’ Jemima combed her red hair with her fingers, replaced her veil and shook out the hem of her tunic. ‘Got meself another admirer out of it.’
    ‘Don’t tell me. You’re meeting him down the side of an alley?’
    ‘Behind the temple, if you must know. But that’s one more gold piece to put away for me old age, Adah, which is one more than you’ll have.’
    *
    ‘That went well,’ said Claudia, relieving Caspar of the takings.
    ‘And with extreme rapidity,’ Caspar commented dryly, watching them disappear into the depths of her cloak. ‘But you were quite right, dear lady. A better advertisement for the Halcyons I could not have envisaged, and should you wish to reconsider my proposal of marriage, you will find my betrothal ring on your pillow within the hour.’
    ‘Sorry to disappoint you, Caspar, but if my future husband can’t respond faster than that, then he’s of no interest.’ The bejewelled turban was still bobbing with merriment as it led its little masked snake home to continue work on the genuine Spectaculars.
    *
    ‘That went well,’ a baritone murmured in Claudia’s ear. She caught the faint hint of sandalwood before she turned.
    There it was