by Dyan Chick
She looked over at Ethan then lowered her eyes and dropped into a clumsy curtsy while still gripping the bed sheet. "I'm sorry, your grace. I didn't realize we had diplomats in attendance this evening. No one told me. They usually tell us."
I looked over at Ethan, confused. Then, I realized the clothing he was wearing must have identified him to her as one of Tristan's entourage.
The wheels began to spin my head as I put it all together. Hallway full of small, private rooms. A terrified girl, an Orc angry about being kicked out after paying for a full night, an apology for not recognizing a high-ranking guest.
I turned to Ethan. "This is a brothel." I'd never been in a brothel before, but one of the interesting things about being female where I grew up, was that you often went unnoticed in public places. I'd heard enough stories from men over the years to know these kinds of places existed. I just never thought I’d find myself in one.
"You must be new here," the female said to me. "We don't often see males who travel with their own companion."
I glanced from her to Ethan putting her words together. She thought I was his personal courtesan. I shook my head. I had now been referred to as Cormac's lady, Dane's mate, and now Ethan's courtesan.
"She was raised in the Autumn Court," Ethan said. "So she's unused to our ways."
My mouth dropped open and I stared at Ethan in disbelief. "Excuse me?"
"It's alright, Cassia," Ethan said.
His words seemed to confirm the female's suspicions. I had half a mind to yell at him right there and set her straight. But something inside me seemed to be telling me to keep quiet. I could almost believe it was Ethan's voice in my head, urging me for just this once, to keep my mouth shut.
Carefully, I fixed a smile on my face and lowered my eyes, trying to mimic the way the female in front of me behaved around Ethan.
"It's not often that we get girls from other Courts." The girl offered her hand to me. "Would you like me to show you around? I can find you something suitable to wear since your master has left you nothing but a robe." She winked at Ethan, seeming to find it silly.
I looked at Ethan, shocked that he would consider letting me go off with a strange courtesan that neither of us knew. I waited, expecting him to turn her down and decline the invitation for me, but he didn't. "I'm not sure we have time right now."
"Of course we do," Ethan said. "I have some things to work on with the Winter Prince. See that she's back to me in time for supper. I'm staying in the crescent moon suite."
It felt like my entire body went numb as I watched Ethan casually turn away from me and wave nonchalantly as he walked away. Why would Ethan leave me with her? Especially when someone had just tried to kill me?
The girl in front of me tugged on my hand and I looked down, having forgotten that I had taken it. Her green eyes sparkled, clearly thrilled for the distraction or very interested in showing someone new around.
"I'm Lainey. You're Cassia?" she asked as she dragged me down the hallway.
"Yes, Cassia. Nice to meet you, Lainey." I stepped over the fallen arm of the dead orc and carefully kept against the wall to avoid stepping on any other part of him. Lainey didn't seem to even notice or care that there were two dead bodies in the hallway. "Is this normal here?"
She shrugged. "About once a month or so one of the clients gets a little too rough and the guards take care of them for us." She stopped in front of the door that she'd run from and turned the handle, opening it.
She let go of my hand and swept her arm toward the room. "It's part of why girls find their way here, even from other courts. It's the only house of its kind. The only place we're treated with respect and we have a choice in our clients and the right to tell them no. If the client doesn't listen, he or she faces the consequences."
I thought back to the type of men that I'd heard discussing their visits to brothels. I couldn't imagine any of them being someone's choice; I also couldn't imagine an orc being someone's choice. "An orc?"
"I shouldn't have agreed. My intuition was telling me there was something off about him." She shook her head. "But we charge so much more for non Fae guests. I send my money back home to my family, and they needed a little extra this month, so I agreed. I'm sure you know how it is. Though, I must say, you got very lucky. Most girls would kill to be the personal consort of a Fae as attractive as yours."
She settled onto a pile of cushions in one corner of the floor and patted a space next to her on the ground. I followed her, my bare feet sinking into the plush carpet of the room.
As I walked over I glanced around the small, private room. It had a large bed that took up most of the space, which was probably why she had cushions on the floor and against the wall. It was her only non-bed seating. Up against the opposite wall was a small dressing table with a stool tucked below the cluttered surface. I could see brushes and powders and various other forms of makeup scattered across the top.
On the remaining free wall was a curtain that was half drawn. Beyond the opening, I could see gowns and lacy clothes. The room was small, but every inch of it screamed luxury.
Lainey stood. "It's freezing today isn't it?" She walked over to the curtain acting as a cover to her closet. "Some days I don't even bother with clothes. It just makes it so much more inconvenient to take them off later, you know what I mean?" She pushed the curtain to the side. "What does your master prefer? Formal? Informal? Kinky?"
I blinked a few times, trying to let her words sink in. "Usually I just wear trousers and a tunic."
"Peasant girl? I wouldn't have guessed he was the type. But they all have their things, don't they? I've learned that often, the more well off they seem on the outside, the dirtier they are in the inside." She handed me a simple blue dress. "I don't usually wear trousers, this is the closest I've got."
Grateful, I took the dress from her. "Thank you." I turned, glancing around for any place I could get a moment's privacy to change. The room was completely exposed, there was nowhere you could walk to, to dress without someone else seeing you.
"How's your male? Does he treat you as well in the bedroom as he did today? I mean, he must like you an awful lot to be willing to kill for you."
I turned back to Lainey, still clutching the dress in my hands. How did I explain how I felt about Ethan to a stranger? "We've been through a lot together."
"You're very lucky, you know that?" she asked.
"I know," I said.
Lainey dropped the sheet she'd been holding and started to dig through her closet. Startled, I looked down at my feet to give her some privacy. All the princes had told me that things were different in Faerie, that sex wasn't demonized the way it was in the human realm. I glanced back up at Lainey. She didn't seem to mind that she was naked in front of a total stranger.
It seemed, that even when it came to someone they were not going to tumble in bed with, the Fae were not shy about their bodies. At least Lainey wasn't. And she had no reason to be. Her skin was smooth and flawless. And like the male Fae princes it had that same slightly iridescent sheen to it. She was about my height, with a similar slender build, though her hips and breasts had a bit more of a curve to them than mine ever had.
Lainey stopped digging through the closet and turned to glance at me. "Like what you see? It's all right, lots of the girls here like both males and females. Sometimes, you just need to be with someone who's soft and sweet and understands where we like to be touched." She winked at me then turned her attention back to the closet and selected a dress.
Face heating, I turned away from her. I was sure getting an education in the ways of Fae sexuality today. Hesitantly, I dropped the robe I had been clinging to and slipped the blue dress over my head as quickly as possible.
When I turned back around, Lainey was watching me. "I can see why he chose you. You're just as beautiful as he is."
"Thank you," I said, "And thank you for the dress."
She smiled, then walked back over to the cushions and plopped down
on the floor. I joined her, settling in nearby.
"Sometimes I think it would be nice to find a male to keep me as his personal courtesan, but I do enjoy meeting new guests. I worry I'd get bored if I stayed with one. Does he ever share you?" she asked.
My mind flashed back to my tumble with Dane this morning. "I guess so."
"That's kind of him. I imagine it makes it more fun," she said. "I have a few regulars, but sometimes you need a change, you know?"
"What about love?" I asked. "Don't you ever wonder about it?"
"You mean mating?" She shrugged. "I heard a story once, of a working girl at a place like this who grew so close to one of her clients, she thought it might be a mating bond. So she went to visit him in town only to discover he was already married. He agreed it was likely they shared the bond, but he wasn't interested in having more than one wife. She was so heartbroken that she jumped into the lake and never swam back to shore."
"That's a terrible story," I said.
"I know," Lainey said. "Some of the girls here didn't have the resources, you know?"
I nodded, feeling like I was starting to understand Lainey and the other girls who worked here. "How long have you been here?"
"Here in the House of the Moon? Or here in the business?" she asked, lifting an eyebrow.
"Both," I said.
"Seven years at the House of the Moon, twenty-two years in the business," she smiled, "I figure five or ten more and I can retire. Maybe I'll find that mate. You never know."
Immortality really changed things. Where I came from, the girls who worked in the pleasure houses often didn't live long enough to see life outside them. I wondered if given the opportunity, if I'd have chosen a life like this over being married to the Baron. The thought never crossed my mind. I wasn't sure I was strong enough to ever do what Lainey did.
A dragging sound from outside the door made me turn away from Lainey. Instantly on alert I jumped to my feet ready to run or fight if someone was trying to attack again.
"Sounds like the guards are here to move the bodies," Lainey said. "You're safe."
I watched the door for a few more seconds to make sure it didn't open. Once I was satisfied the sounds in the hallway were staying in the hallway, I sat back down.
"Why are there royal guards here? Why do they seem to work for Tristan?" I asked.
Lainey’s eyebrows rose and she stared at me as if in disbelief. "Tristan? Do you mean the Prince? I've never heard anyone use his first name before. So is that who you really belong to? Are you sneaking off with one of his men? Oh, Cassia, that's dangerous. Please tell me you're not going behind his back."
"No, no. I don't belong to Prince Tristan, I mean, His Grace. I don't belong to anybody," I said.
"Of course not, neither do I," she said. "But you have a master, same as me. And I get it if you don't want to admit it, but please, be smart."
"I'm not his," I said. "He's helping me with something."
Lainey narrowed her eyes. "The Winter Prince isn't the helping type. Be careful with him. I've heard enough stories to know he's not someone you want to cross."
"Like what?" I asked.
She shook her head. "I can't. It's not allowed."
"I understand." I didn't want her to get in trouble, so I didn't press. But I had to admit, I wanted to know more about the things she knew.
"But to answer your question, the Royal Guard is stationed here because this used to be one of the grand palaces of the Winter Court. The King converted it into his own personal brothel a few hundred years ago, and stationed his own personal guards to keep all of his women safe. Eventually, he let some of his friends visit from time to time and it became a place for dignitaries and high rollers from all over Faerie.
“The place developed a reputation and eventually the King lost interest, but the high-end clientele continued to come. After the war, I suppose they had to get less picky with who they took as clients since they couldn't open it up to all the Courts. It must've been glorious in its heyday, only the most elite Fae from every Court. They come here from far and wide just to spend an evening with one of the girls at the House of the Moon. Now, we still have protection from the Royal Guard, but we'll take almost anyone who can pay and has a decent reputation. Clearly, someone made a mistake letting in that Orc."
"What about the Winter Prince? Does he visit often?" I held my breath as I waited for her answer, unsure if she'd consider this too risky to discuss.
She leaned in, moving her face closer to mine. Her green eyes seemed to be looking internally, trying to read me. I fought the urge to blink and stared back at her not wanting to give anything away. She leaned back, a hint of a smirk playing on her lips. "No. You don't need to be jealous. He hasn't visited since his wife died."
"Do you think he loved her?" I asked.
"It was an arranged marriage, but I think they were meant to be. I hate that the other girls talk about her sometimes. She visited with him, apparently they shared everything. But none of the other participants fully felt like they were included in activities. They said they could hardly ever get in between the two of them because despite the large group, he only had eyes for her. As far as a brothel love story goes, it's probably one of the most romantic ones I've ever heard."
"He still doesn't seem like he's over her," I said without really thinking.
"Have you told him how you feel?" she asked. "I mean, at first I thought you might belong to him and that maybe you were sneaking around behind his back. But now, I think you belong to the one I met in the hall, but you don't want to."
I turned and looked at her and tried to mask my shocked expression with a laugh. "I don't have feelings for him. That's ridiculous. I never could. And I'm perfectly happy with Ethan."
"Of course you are. Of course you don't have feelings for anyone else," Lainey said. "Don't worry, I won't tell your master." She reached out and grabbed my hands closing hers around mine. "You might not be one of the girls who works here, but you're one of us. We're a sisterhood. What we say privately to each other, never reaches any others’ ears but our own."
"I'm not exactly the same," I said. Ethan seemed to want me to pretend I was his courtesan, but Lainey was so sweet and so open that I felt bad lying to her.
"That's not important. Titles aren't important between us. What is important is how we treat each other and how we stand together when we know one of us is in pain. I don't know you, I can tell you’ve been through a lot. And I can tell you still have a long way to go before you feel at peace."
Laney's words rang of truth and they stung to hear. She was right, I had a long way to go, even if I had no idea what was ahead of me. I squeezed her hands back. "Thank you. Hopefully one day I can return the favor."
Dropping my hands, Lainey stood. "No need. Sometimes we meet the right Fae at the right time. I'm glad if I could be of some help. Now let's get you back before supper. We wouldn't want your master to think I stole you away."
Chapter Twelve
This time, when I walked down the hall and past the blood stains on the ground, I heard whispers and giggles behind the closed doors. I wondered how many girls worked and lived there and how man clients they each saw. Lainey's life seemed so interesting and terrifying at the same time.
She led me down a set of stairs and down another hall lined with closed doors. None of the doors in either hall had been marked but I saw an occasional note or scroll stuck in the seam, waiting for someone to open the door and find the message.
At the end of the second hall, we reached another stairwell. This one was dark and the walls were black rock. We were heading into a basement. "Down here, really?"
She nodded. "The suites for dignitaries were added later. Most of our visitors stay with one of the girls when they stay the night. But over the years, I guess there were enough long term stays to warrant the addition of some private suites. They're nice. I've done a few private parties in them for some of the high rollers."
I wondered
if that was what Tristan and his wife did when they came here. A flash of skin on skin passed before my vision and even though the moment was over nearly as quick as it arrived, I knew it had been of Tristan with me. The scent of him lingered around me as if he'd been standing right next to me. A shudder through my core went right down between my legs and I clenched my thighs against the unexpected arousal. I needed to stop thinking about Tristan like that.
By the time we stopped in front of a black door with a painting of a crescent moon on the front of it, the sensitive area between my legs was tingling. It seemed all this discussion of sex had woken the part of me that longed to be touched and no amount of inner chiding was sending the sensation away.
"You know, we're always looking for new girls of quality," Lainey said, fist floating above the door, ready to knock. "Just in case you ever want a change of scenery. I'm sure a recommendation from His Grace would be enough to get you one of the best rooms in the house."
"Thank you, that's exceptionally sweet," I said.
"I get it," Lainey said. "I don't think I could walk away from an exclusive contract, either. Even if I was in love with someone else."
"I'm not," I said, denying her words again. "I might even be in love with Ethan for all I know."
Of course, that was when the door opened. Ethan stared at me, one eyebrow raised. Lainey stood frozen, her fist still hanging in midair. She dropped her hand and curtseyed while stifling a giggle.
I felt my face heat and I knew I was bright red. There was nothing I would be able to say or do to get out of this one.
Lainey leaned closer to me and pressed her lips against my ear. "Sounds like things are complicated. If you need a friend, you know where to find me."
"Thank you," I said, quietly.
She took a step away from me and inclined her head before turning to walk away, leaving me alone with Ethan.
"So," Ethan said, moving to the side so I could enter the room.
I took a deep breath, still feeling the burn of my cheeks, and walked into the room.