The Prisoner's Release and Other Stories (25 page)

Jonas glanced at the bartender again and then looked at the mouse. “I don’t really know any of the...houses in this area...”

“
Oh, sir, we can’t go to a house, not with my boy. They won’t take us. I had to leave one when he was born.”

“
That doesn’t seem...” He paused. “The father was a client?”

She nodded, head down.

“
I see.”

“
Please, I just want to know if I can go somewhere the guards have already checked, or beyond their reach. I don’t know the city. I thought if you were successful, you must have been other places that maybe might want me...”

Jonas tapped the table, claws extended. He couldn’t think of anything to tell her, but he couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling that he was responsible for her situation. It was possible that the sudden interest in unlicensed prostitutes was not related to his visit to Dixan. Not likely, though.

She started to edge her way off the bench, glancing nervously at his claws. “If you don’t know of anywhere...”

“
Wait.” He retracted his claws. “Follow me.”

It was crazy, he told himself all the way home. His license didn’t cover anyone but him; he’d seen that on the paper. And where would she sleep? Could she bring in enough money to support herself in a more expensive place? He turned these questions over and over in his mind on the way back, and in the end he knew it didn’t matter. He couldn’t find it in himself to turn her out onto the street. He saw immediately when he introduced her to Hazel that the skunk felt the same.

“
What’s your name, child?” she asked the mouse, a question Jonas was shocked at himself for having neglected.

“
Selia,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper. “Thank you, ma’am.”

“
Well, Selia, you go bring your son here, and tell your friend at the bar to send your clients here in about a week. You hear?”

Selia’s eyes grew so wide that Jonas thought they might drop out of her head. “R-really, ma’am?”

“
Really. And stop that ‘ma’am’ nonsense. I’m Hazel. Understand?”

“
Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am!” Selia turned to Jonas. “And thank you, sir!”

“
You’re welcome,” Jonas said, but the mouse was already out the door. He watched her go and turned to Hazel with a grin. “I didn’t know you wanted to run a brothel.”

Hazel poked his shoulder. “I saw the same thing you did: a poor young thing in trouble. And just like you, I helped her.” She shrugged. “You’re good business. I’ll take a chance on repeating good business.”

“
You going to try her out, like you did me?”

Hazel grinned at him. “Jealous? Don’t worry, if she’s been on her own for a year and survived, she can’t be bad.”

“
I’m not jealous.” He flicked his tail, hesitated, then decided to tease her. “Just seems like you’ve got a thing for tall, handsome cougars.”

She stared at him, and for a brief moment he thought
I’ve gone too far, I’ve presumed on our acquaintance
. Then she threw back her head and laughed, and he relaxed. “A skinny boy like you? I like my men with more meat on their bones. Though you do have plenty of meat on one bone...”

Once he would have been embarrassed by such a comment, and he still felt his fur prickle slightly. But he just smiled back at her and said, “That’s what keeps them coming back.”

Selia settled in quickly. Mikka wasn’t thrilled about taking on another “employee,” but he allowed Jonas and Hazel to talk him into altering the license. Jonas had enough spare money to pay for the change and for Doctor Hewill's inspection, and Selia promised to pay a share of her money equal to Jonas’s. Mikka’s last resistance was broken down when Selia’s son toddled over to him and rested his head on the fox’s knee.

Jonas had half-thought that Selia might have made up her son for sympathy, but he was real and a definite charmer. Hazel took to him immediately, and once he got used to the smell, he took to her as well, following her around everywhere and playing with her black-and-white mop of a tail. His name was Selish, and he was not yet talking, but he was clearly aware of what was going on around him and would have things to say once he learned how. His bright dark eyes followed them everywhere, and he clapped happily whenever they played with him. He had just started to walk upright in the last month, Selia told them, and she’d had to move all her things to higher shelves.

“
I’ve raised three of my own,” Hazel said, “and what they didn’t break can’t be broke.” She was delighted to keep the kit in her quarters, away from Jonas’s clients, and for the first week Selia stayed there too. They arranged that she and Selish would stay in Jonas’s work-bed while he slept out in the foyer as he usually did. Selia obviously preferred the privacy of the inner room, though she never said so out loud, and she said over and over again that she didn’t mind the smells on the bed. Selish had his own wicker cradle, which went downstairs during the day and back upstairs at night.

When Selia had been with them a week, Mikka came back with the approved license change. “It was difficult,” he said with a glance at Jonas, “because I think someone is just trying to make trouble. I had to spend another ten silver bribing the officials to get the signatures notarized.”

“
Thank you so much, sir,” Selia said, clutching the paper and staring at it. Jonas thought she must be overjoyed to see her name on it, as she couldn’t tear her eyes from it.

“
I’ll go get your money,” Jonas said.

“
Oh, you don’t have to...” Mikka began, but Jonas ignored him.

“
I want to come too!” Selia scampered after him, still clutching the paper. When they got upstairs, Jonas opened his money box to get the silver out, and Selia laid the paper on the table and looked at it.

“
You’re pretty excited,” Jonas said.

Selia nodded, then looked up at him and back down at the paper. “Could you...show me which mark is my name? Is it that one?” She pointed to her name. “I remember the snake at the beginning.”

“
Yes.” Jonas smiled. “That’s your name. S-E-L-I-A.” He traced each letter as he said it.

Selia didn’t respond, just drew in a breath and shook her head. “It’s too wonderful.”

For a moment, Jonas thought this was what Sasha might’ve looked like when he was younger. Selia’s eyes were bright and she was smiling the sort of smile that she normally reserved for Selish. He felt protective, and so he tried to pass on something Sasha had said. “It’s not a pretty business.”

“
Oh, I know that, sir. I mean, Jonas. But a week ago, when the guards came, I was so scared. I thought my kit and I would die on the street, I really did. And I don’t hold much for church, but I prayed to Mouse that whole morning. I just wanted Selish to be healthy. And Mouse answered! I think I should start going to church again.”

“
We go every Gaiaday,” Jonas said. “There’s a small church down the block and a big cathedral where the nobles go.”

“
I’ll go with you then,” Selia said. “If I may...”

“
Of course.”

She spied his paper records as he was closing the money box. “I suppose if we’ll be doing business together, we should keep our records together.” But her tone was doubtful.

“
Okay.” Jonas was wondering how he would keep track of someone else’s income when he could barely keep track of his own. “Who keeps yours? Elgyn?”

“
I do.”

“
You? But you can’t...” He glanced at the license she hadn’t been able to read.

She padded back into the bedroom and came out with a small book. “Just here.” She seemed almost ashamed to show it to him.

“
Oh, it can’t be worse than mine.” He took it from her and flipped through it, looking at the rows of neat little vertical marks. The left hand side seemed to be simple tallies; on the right were marks he found less comprehensible.

“
See, this is the number of customers, broken up by each week. And on this side is a running total of my money. It’s not very much.” Her voice dropped to a whisper.

Jonas shook his head. “How does this tell you how much money you have?”

Her nimble little fingers scurried across the page. “This column is coppers and this one is silvers, and here is the amount I had to give to Elgyn, and here’s my rent and the amount I paid for food, and for the nanny to watch Selish while I was working...” She noticed his expression and her ears drooped. “I didn’t have any training, sir. It’s the best I could do.”

Jonas laughed and closed the book and handed it to her. “And with all my upbringing in a merchant family, I couldn’t do that, or anything close to it. Would you keep the books for both of us?”

“
Oh, sir, Jonas, I...”

“
Please? I’m...I’m hopeless at it, I really am. Mikka and Hazel could be taking twice what they’re owed. Or half. I’d have no idea.”

“
But you can read!”

“
And not much more. Tell you what. If you keep the books, I’ll teach you to read.”

“
Oh!” Her paw flew to her muzzle. “I couldn’t...”

“
You’d like to, though.”

She nodded, slowly, and Jonas smiled. “Really, it’s no trouble.”

“
If you’re sure, sir.”

“
Jonas,” he said firmly. “I’m sure.”

She took to it quickly, spending all that night with him while he read his records to her, helping her complete his records from memory when the written records weren’t complete. She scratched some notes in her book, asked him about his rent and about the agreements he’d made with Mikka and Hazel, and somehow, after two nights, she was able to tell him how much money he had in his box, to within ten coppers.

“
That could just be some tips you forgot, or lunches at the pub,” she said, but she was clearly pleased to have gotten so close.

“
That’s amazing.”

“
It’s easy, really.” She smiled.

“
Not to me.” He marveled that she could be possessed of such a hidden talent and think so little of it.

She took her first client in the new location the following day. Jonas didn’t ask her specifically about it, but it seemed to go well. He and Hazel sat down to manage the schedule so that they had no overlapping clients, and as the final step towards making Selia a part of their household, Jonas took her to see Doctor Hewill.

The raccoon examined them both, and spent a good deal of time grooming Selia. When they were finished, Jonas asked if he could have a voucher of good health.

“
Oh, yes,” Hewill said. “The guards did come by. I thought you had one, but I guess I was wrong.” He brought out a piece of paper and scrawled his name on it, then wrote a short statement about Jonas’s health. “For the mouse, too?”

“
Please.”

He brought out another paper and wrote the same thing with Selia’s name, then signed and dated them both. “There you go. She’s a good one, by the way. Fairly young and in good health. You’ve got a good house there.”

“
We don’t really have a house,” Jonas said, but as he said it he wondered. Wasn’t Mikka financing them, Hazel running the house, and he and Selia now providing the service? But there was no “madam,” like Tally, to tell him who to sleep with and when to get up. And when he came to the doctor, he decided how to be groomed.

“
Well, post that in your room, then, where people can see it. If the guards were asking, chances are someone else will be.”

Hewill’s words were prophetic. The certification hadn’t been posted for two days before Jonas noticed one of his clients examining it. He happened to be downstairs talking to Hazel when the red fox walked in. Cherko was one of Jonas’s favorite new clients, a cheery fox who reminded him of the good times with Alexan, but not too much, as he was closer to Benton’s size. Normally, he greeted Jonas with a wave and Hazel with a bow, but today he looked preoccupied. He spotted the paper where Jonas had put it on the wall by the stairs, and spent a moment reading it.

“
That’s a relief.” His ears had come up and his tail perked up considerably.

“
What’s that?” Jonas glanced at the paper, and Hazel drifted over to listen.

“
Oh, I was going to ask you about some rumor I heard. Xaric came by to mention that he heard you had some disease or another. I said that was silly, and how could you get it from a muzzle anyway, but he was still worried.”

“
Where’d he hear it?” Hazel had her arms folded, and looked formidable enough that Cherko took a step back.