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‘Yes, though I may be several hours.’

‘I’m sure I can find a way to entertain myself,’ he said.

He looked out at the villa, at the figures who hung out between columns, calling out to those who passed by and offering their services.

Climbing out of the chariot and making sure her palla was still in place, Claudia took a deep breath and approached the villa, trying not to meet the gaze of any of the men on guard. Though she sensed several lingering looks, they were more of curiosity than desire. They didn’t whistle or call out coarse words, as men tended to do. She got the sense that they too were members of Pappa’s covert same-sex club.

The house was full of the noise of merriment and intoxication: singing, laughter, and an uproarious cry as someone shattered a vase, with people whistling and applauding.

Claudia dared to peek out at the small crowd gathered on the portico outside, smoking pungent-smelling herbs in makeshift pipes. She glimpsed two men with their faces painted like women, wearing wigs like the actor who’d played her in The Three Coins.

At the doorway, a burly man stepped in her path, giving her a questioning look.

‘I don’t know you. What’s your name?’

The first thing that came to Claudia’s mind was the all-woman party she’d attended back in Pompeii, thrown by the senator’s wife her brother had killed.

‘Julia.’

‘You sure you belong here, Julia?’ he said, inspecting her.

‘I am certain. My mistress is within.’

‘You look like the empress, you know. You ever hear that?’

‘Once or twice,’ she said, dying inside. ‘I’m not flattered.’

He smirked. ‘Go on, then.’

Claudia glided on. The next room was so full she could hardly move through it, which was oddly a blessing, as no one paid much attention to her. She was just another body in the throng of robes, all weaving and knotting together as they danced to the band.

Claudia spotted Pappa himself, conducting from his seat. Ruddy and bearded, he was humming along to a song without words. He was clearly having a good time, flanked on either side by two bare-chested, younger men who fed him wine and grapes.

She wasn’t sure how she was going to find Gia in among so many people but she pushed on stubbornly, pressing her hands together to form a point and carving her way through the crowd like a knife, ducking under one sweaty armpit and bursting between two amorous lovers.

Within the space of several minutes, Claudia had seen everything it was possible to see in a single villa at once, including a drinking competition, a man being walked like a dog, two senators splashing each other playfully in the pool, soldiers slow-dancing in a silent, empty room, brothel girls kissing each other in a small Temple of Venus and tall, glamorous women dressed in strange fashions from overseas.

But there were also plenty of ordinary-looking people here – people she wouldn’t have picked out. Athletes and physicians, politicians and slaves, artists and courtesans, all mingling together merrily.

She felt like a traveller, a tourist, arriving to see the otherworldly sights of a world much different to her own – one in which people kissed busts of dead philosophers and played games that forfeited their clothes.

They were all so happy, she noticed. Smiling broadly. Dancing free. They seemed unafraid and unashamed.

As she moved out towards the atrium, she glimpsed someone familiar on the other side of the crowd – not Gia, but Celadus.

Celadus the Handsome, and he was arm in arm with another gladiator. Claudia caught his eye, their faces mirrored with surprise and a strange kind of reaffirmation.

This was how he knew Dido and Livia.

This was why he told her they were not right for each other.

This was why she’d been drawn to him, because they were akin.

First Darius, and now Celadus: Claudia certainly had a habit of gravitating towards men-loving men.

He raised his hand in greeting and she raised hers in return, but then they both moved on in some mutual agreement of privacy, like passing ships on the queerest of seas.

Claudia also made note of several other people she recognized, including several senators.