Page 132

Gia looked to the door again.

‘Don’t worry. Cassius is still there, isn’t he?’ said Dom. ‘He’ll look out for her.’

‘I don’t know about that,’ said Gia.

‘He doesn’t like her,’ whispered Livia, her eyes popping as she delivered this gossip. ‘He doesn’t approve.’

‘Oh,’ said Dom, looking to Gia. ‘Do you want to talk about it?’

‘Not even a little bit,’ said Gia, draining her glass again.

‘We should take Gia to the place,’ said Dido. ‘Cheer her up.’

‘Where?’ asked Gia.

‘You mean, the secret place,’ said Livia.

‘Are you a sphinx with these riddles?’ said Gia. ‘What place?’

‘A place where no one cares what you do or who you do it with, if you catch my drift,’ said Livia. ‘Where a lover of the female form might find another, under cover of night.’

Gia gaped at her. ‘There’s such a place?’ she said.

‘There is every such place, here in Rome. This one just so happens to be a certain senator’s house. He’s been having these parties for years, and all of the people there are… you know.’

Gia looked as if she’d just been slapped.

Livia wiggled her eyebrows.

‘So, do you want to go?’ said Livia.

‘I can’t,’ said Dom.

‘Why not?’

‘Don’t want to. Not really my scene.’

‘What is your scene?’ Livia asked.

‘Staying home and studying.’

‘Bo-ring.’

‘What about you, Gia?’

Dido drummed on the table, goading her to agree.

Gia looked conflicted but she eventually rolled her eyes and held out her glass, nodding at Livia to refill it.

‘You’d better pour me another one, then,’ she said.

‘Yes!’

Claudia could see no more, letting go of the shield as if burned. The image faded and she couldn’t bring herself to look again.

She knew what would happen next.

It was obvious.