choice of the girls before assuring them that the Aphrodisia House would never
close its doors.
‘Madame?’
Ambutta peered around the doorway .when the flow of gentlemen had abated
slightly.
‘The kitchen says that we have enough food for ten days, but less of ordinary
wine and the like.’
Myrtis touched the feather of her pen against her temple.
‘Ten days? Someone has grown lax. Our storerooms can hold enough for many
months. But ten days is all we will have, and it will have to be enough. Tell
the kitchen to place no orders with the tradesmen tomorrow or the next day, and
send word to the other backdoors. – .
‘And, Ambutta, Irda will carry my messages in the future. It is time that you
were taught more important and useful things.’
A steady stream of merchants and tradesmen made their way through the Aphrodisia
House to Myrtis’s parlour late the next morning as the effects of her orders
began to be felt in the town.
‘But Madame Myrtis, the tax isn’t due yet, and surely the Aphrodisia House has
the resources …’ The puffy-faced gentleman who sent meat to half the houses on
the Street was alternately irate and wheedling. .
‘In such unsettled times as these, good Mikkun, I cannot look to luxuries like
expensive meats. I sincerely wish that this were not true. The taste of salted
meat has always reminded me of poverty. But the governor’s palace does not care
about the poverty of those who live outside its walls, though it sends its
forces to tax us,’ Myrtis said in feigned helplessness.
In deference to the sad occasion she had not put on one of the brightly