he'd had in mind. He pointed. 'Come on into the courtyard, so I can have a look at this stuff in the sunlight.' He led Sostratos through the main reception room, where the girls sat around waiting for customers. Some of them wore linen tunics, as the flutegirls had the night before. Others were altogether naked. As they sat, most of them spun wool into thread - if they weren't making money for Lamakhos one way, they'd do it another. 'Hail, little brother!' one of them called to Sostratos, and fluttered her eyelashes at him. Her bare breasts jiggled, too. 'Shut up, Aphrodisia,' Lamakhos said. 'He's not here for a piece. He's here to try and sell me some silk.' Telling that to the whores proved a mistake. By their excited squeals, they all wanted to wear the filmy, exotic fabric. Sostratos displayed the bolt. The women reached for it. Lamakhos looked sour, but took Sostratos into the courtyard, as he'd said he would. Sostratos displayed it again. 'Oh, look!' one of the girls said. 'You can see right through it. What the men wouldn't pay if we went to a symposion dressed like that!' The other whores loudly agreed. Lamakhos looked harassed. Even though the women were slaves, they could make his life miserable. 'Well, what do you want for it?' he growled at Sostratos. 'Fifteen drakhmai for each bolt,' Sostratos answered. 'Plenty of silk in each one for a chiton, and your girls will make the price back inside a few months.' The women put up a clamor that hamstrung Lamakhos' tries at dickering. They made such a racket, they woke up the flutegirls and dancers who'd been at Gylippos' symposion the night before. The fluteplayer who'd given Menedemos the name of her master and the redheaded dancer with whom Sostratos had enjoyed himself both waved to him. They and the other girls joined in the outcry for silk. Despite that outcry, Lamakhos did his best, but he couldn't get Sostratos down below thirteen drakhmai a bolt for twenty bolts. 'You've seduced my girls, that's what it is,' he said unhappily. 'You'll make money in the long run,' Sostratos said again. Since the brothelkeeper seemed prepared to pay and didn't argue, he concluded Lamakhos held the same opinion. And then inspiration struck. 'If you'll do something for me, I'll knock five drakhmai off the total.' 'What's that?' Lamakhos asked. Sostratos pointed to the Keltic girl. 'Let me come by and have Maibia' - the name she'd given him didn't fit well in a Hellene's mouth - 'whenever I like for as long as I'm in Taras this year.' Lamakhos pursed his lips, considering. 'I ought to say no. I'd get more than five drakhmai out of you that way.' 'You might,' Sostratos replied. 'On the other hand, you might not. You should know that I am not one who spends wildly on women.' That made Lamakhos look unhappy again. 'You haven't got the look, I have to say. You'd probably stay away just to spite me, too, wouldn't you?' Sostratos only smiled. Lamakhos drummed his fingers on the side of his thigh. 'All right - a
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