The Temple of Fortuna by Elodie Harper

Author:Elodie Harper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Wolf Den Trilogy
ISBN: 9781838933647
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

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In the heat of the afternoon, the smell of cooked goat and spiced wine is overpowering. The small bar Amara sits in is completely open to the street, its shutters folded to the side, yet still, the stench lingers. She can feel her face growing damp with sweat. The seat she is perched on is at the same spot where she once sat with Cressa, her friend and fellow she-wolf, whose bones now lie in Pompeii’s harbour. There are times when every spot in this town feels haunted, yet Amara not only chose to return to this bar, she chose to buy it.

Philos is sitting beside her. She did not want him to come but knew it would have been irrational to refuse his company. He is the one who always deals with her tenant Marcella, and he knows far more about the business than she does. They have left Rufina at Julia’s in the care of Primigenia and Servius for the afternoon, their daughter still full of excitement about the clothes she had shown off to her doting ‘aunts’. Amara couldn’t help but notice how friendly Philos had been to Primigenia when they parted. She remembers when Philos smiled at her like that. It makes her doubt his protestation that there is nothing between them. Sexual jealousy is an unfamiliar emotion to Amara. She has never had cause to feel this way before – she hates the shameful fog of confusion it brings.

“There you go,” Marcella says, setting down two cups of spiced wine on the marble countertop, before leaning on it herself, settling in for a chat. Marcella has aged in the five years since Amara first met her, her bright red hair even more obviously dyed. Their relationship did not get off to a promising start. Marcella was the very first debtor Amara found for Felix, and she ended up extorting the woman’s family jewellery as repayment of the loan on her master’s behalf. It has, unsurprisingly, taken a long time for Marcella to trust her. At first, she scoffed at the idea that Amara’s proposal to buy the bar and pay her to keep running it was a means of making amends. It was only after seeing the contract drawn up by Philos, with its promise of keeping rent at a low level for ten years, that she grudgingly agreed. In return for the sale, Amara has invested in renovation and a better wine supplier. For the past two years, profits have steadily increased, though Felix is now making a small but unwelcome dent.

“What do you think?” Marcella asks them both, as Amara and Philos take a sip. “I added more honey.”

“It’s good,” Amara says, truthfully. “How have customers been liking it?”

“Seems to go down well with the theatre crowd,” Marcella replies. “And we should do good business during the festival of Mars. It’s always a busy time.”

“I suppose it’s not worth hiring a hawker before the festival?” Philos asks.

“No,” Marcella agrees. “Though I’m thinking of getting in a boy for a day’s trial, when the next performance is given.

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