A Breath of Snow and Ashes - Diana Gabaldon [358]
“May we come in?” I said, and did so, not waiting for an answer.
“I’m Mrs. Fraser, and this is my husband,” I said, gesturing toward Jamie, who was looking pink around the ears already.
“Oh?” Mrs. Sylvie said warily. “Well, it’ll be a pound extra, if it’s the two of you.”
“I beg your—oh!” Hot blood flooded my face as I belatedly grasped her meaning. Jamie had got it instantly, and was the color of beetroot.
“It’s quite all right,” she assured me. “Not the usual, to be sure, but Dottie wouldn’t mind a bit, she being summat partial to women, you see.”
Jamie made a low growling noise, indicating that this was my idea and it was up to me to be carrying it out.
“I’m afraid we didn’t make ourselves clear,” I said, as charmingly as possible. “We . . . er . . . we merely wish to interview your—” I stopped, groping for an appropriate word. Not “employees,” surely.
“Girls,” Jamie put in tersely.
“Um, yes. Girls.”
“Oh, you do.” Her small bright eyes darted back and forth between us. “Methody, are you? Or Bright Light Baptists? Well, that’ll be two pound, then. For the nuisance.”
Jamie laughed.
“Cheap at the price,” he observed. “Or is that per girl?”
Mrs. Sylvie’s mouth twitched a little.
“Oh, per girl, to be sure.”
“Two pound per soul? Aye, well, who would put a price on salvation?” He was openly teasing now, and she—having plainly made out that we were neither potential clients nor door-to-door missionaries—was amused, but taking care not to seem so.
“I would,” she replied dryly. “A whore knows the price of everything but the value of nothing—or so I’ve been told.”
Jamie nodded at this.
“Aye. What’s the price of one of your girls’ lives, then, Mrs. Sylvie?”
The look of amusement vanished from her eyes, leaving them just as bright, but fiercely wary.
“Do you threaten me, sir?” She drew herself up tall, and put her hand on a bell that stood on the table near the door. “I have protection, sir, I assure you. You would be well-advised to leave at once.”
“If I wished to damage ye, woman, I should scarcely bring my wife along to watch,” Jamie said mildly. “I’m no so much a pervert as all that.”
Her hand, tight on the bell’s handle, relaxed a bit.
“You’d be surprised,” she said. “Mind,” she said, pointing a finger at him, “I don’t deal in such things—never think it—but I’ve seen them.”
“So have I,” said Jamie, the teasing tone gone from his voice. “Tell me, have ye maybe heard of a Scotsman called Mac Dubh?”
Her face changed at that; clearly she had. I was bewildered, but had the sense to keep quiet.
“I have,” she said. Her gaze had sharpened. “That was you, was it?”
He bowed gravely.
Mrs. Sylvie’s mouth pursed briefly, then she seemed to notice me again.
“Did he tell you?” she asked.
“I doubt it,” I said, giving him an eye. He sedulously avoided my glance.
Mrs. Sylvie uttered a short laugh.
“One of my girls went with a man to the Toad”—naming a low sort of dive near the river, called the Toad and Spoon—“and he dealt badly with her. Then dragged her out to the taproom and offered her to the men there. She said she knew she was dead—you know it is possible to be raped to death?” This last was addressed to me, in a tone that mingled aloofness with challenge.
“I do,” I said, very shortly. A brief qualm ran through me and my palms began to sweat.
“A big Scotchman was there, though, and he took issue with the proposal, apparently. It was him alone, though, against a mob—”
“Your specialty,” I said to Jamie, under my breath, and he coughed.
“—but he suggested that they deal cards for the girl. Played a game of brag, and won.”
“Really?” I said politely. Cheating at cards was another of his specialties, but one I tried to discourage his using, convinced that it would get him killed one day. No wonder he hadn’t told me about this particular adventure.
“So he picked up Alice, wrapped her in his plaid, and brought her home—left her at the door.”
She looked at Jamie with grudging admiration.
“So. Have you come to claim a debt, then? You have my thanks, for what they may be worth.”
“A great deal, madam,