Second Act by Marilyn Todd Read Free Book Online Page B

schedule. ‘Just tell me, yes or no, will the show be ready for the eighteenth?’
    That was the day after Saturnalia, traditionally a day of anticlimax following the exchanging of gifts, the Great Sacrifice outside the temple in the Forum, the games and feasting throughout the day before. It would not impress jaded merchants much if the play wasn’t ready.
    ‘If you can trust the great lord’s propaganda, I’ll be in Miser’s costume by this afternoon,’ Doris said. ‘I play First Lead, which means I’m the cuckold of the title, wouldn’t you believe. Listen, are you sure you aren’t even a tinksy bit curious about what twenty strangers will be doing in your house? It’s more than putting on just the one play, you know.’ Eyelashes like a giraffe, Claudia thought. Thin, feminine hands. And, of course, those fine chiselled cheekbones.
    Doris took her silence as a cue. ‘The Spectaculars open with Felix doing his dance solo. This time he’s enacting the Judgement of Paris accompanied, as usual, by Periander our castrato and the delectable Renata on the flute.’
    The likelihood of one bleached blond miming Paris, two goddesses plus Helen of Troy without Claudia’s atrium walls ending up splattered with fruit was a slim one. She could only pray that Periander had a voice like an angel or that Renata fluted so loudly it distracted the audience from everything else.
    ‘Then Skyles and I perform this wicked little domestic scene between the Emperor and his lady wife—in which yours truly naturally plays Livia.’
    ‘Skyles?’ Claudia queried, selecting a date.
    ‘Big butch bitch who shaves his head, but put a wig on him and, dear me, that boy’s a ringer for Augustus.’ Claudia remembered Skyles now. The Buffoon with his monkey walk, who tripped over invisible obstacles and who, this morning, had chased the kitchen maids with a feather duster. But acting, acting, all the time acting. She wondered whether Leonides wasn’t wise to send for padlocks for the silver.
    ‘If I wasn’t the very soul of discretion,’ Doris said, ‘I could name you twenty aristocratic wives who have not so much surrendered their virtue to that boy as lobbed it at him.’
    ‘I hope Skyles is gentleman enough to refuse?’
    ‘Charity begins at home,’ Chiselled Cheekbones trilled, rattling the bangles round his wrist. ‘Just look at the little knick-knacks my admirers have given me. As I said. The name means bountiful.’
    ‘Don’t confuse admirers with groupies, Doris. Tell me what you know about Skyles.’
    He assumed a pose of mock indignation. ‘Honestly, do I look like someone who dishes dirt like an ostler dishes oats? Don’t answer that. Anyway, after Skyles and I have finished, the girls launch into their song-and-dance routines and then—ta-da! One “splendiferous” musical farce as the great lord would call it.’
    ‘With nudity.’
    Doris hopped down from the chest. ‘When it comes to the exposure of female flesh, kiddo, the audience likes their arena filled.’
    Well, they’d certainly get that with Caspar’s girls. If not overflowing.
    ‘Me,’ Doris said, pulling a gold pendant out from his tunic. ‘I go for subtlety. Get the jewels in first, I say. Then show ’em what you’ve got.’
    *
    The swearing in of tribunes was a solemn business. These, remember, were the justices elected by the people to defend their rights. A heavy weight of responsibility hung on them. These men now held the power of veto over elections, laws, edicts by the Senate, hell, they could even overrule the decisions of the all-powerful magistrates if they felt so inclined. Charged with the protection of the lives and property of the working classes, and with their own legislative body, the newly elected tribunes were today accorded privileges akin to senators and cuirasses special to legates in honour of their role.
    Orbilio stifled his yawn.
    Too much toga posturing for him. Subtly, he shifted his weight and tried to ignore the