The thing I like the least is finding you have killed the man I was going to hang tomorrow. I don’t know what your cause with Tannerson was, child, but I needed him for a public hanging.” Glancing at the other men, who now leaned against the walls of the cell, he said, “We need someone to hang.”
Jadow said, “If we dress her up a bit in a man’s clothing, and cut her hair, maybe.”
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reaction. She merely glared at the men, one at a time, as if silently marking their features for some future revenge. Finally she said, “He killed my sister.”
“Who was your sister?” asked de Loungville.
“She was a bar girl . . . a whore over at the Seven Flowers. Her name was Betsy.”
Roo blushed. Suddenly he could see the resemblance, though this girl was far prettier than her sister had been. But Roo had been intimate with Betsy and his reaction to this revelation was surprising. He felt embarrassed and didn’t want to let this girl know he had been the man her sister had been with when she had been killed.
“What’s your name?” de Loungville asked again.
“Katherine,” said a voice behind them, and Roo turned to see Lord James standing in the door to the cell. “Pickpocket.” He walked around de Loungville and studied the girl’s face. “They call you Kitty, don’t they?”
The girl nodded. She had been frightened by the others, for they were hard men, but they were commonly dressed. This man, however, was dressed like a noble and spoke as if he expected to be obeyed. He studied her face, then said, “I knew your grandmother.”
Kitty looked confused for a minute, then her eyes widened and she turned pale. “Gods and demons, you’re the bleeding Duke, ain’t you?”
James nodded and said to de Loungville, “How did you catch this little fish?”
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past him,” he finished. He stood and indicated the duke should take the stool.
James sat and calmly said, “You’d best tell me exactly what happened, girl.”
She told of discovering that Tannerson and his bashers had killed her sister, and of how she had arranged to lure him to a room. She had turned down the lamp and rested on the bed, and when Tannerson had entered he saw a pretty young girl and it wasn’t until he leaned over her and found her dagger entering his throat he suspected anything.
She had ducked out from under him as he had fallen on the bed, and she had tried to get as much blood off her body and hands as possible before she fled out the window.
Roo interrupted and said, “Did you take any gold from him?”
“He didn’t have a purse,” she said. “At least, I don’t think so; I didn’t stop to look.”
Roo swore. “Someone heard you leave, looked in, saw the blood, and took the gold.”
“What about the locked door?” asked de Loungville.
It was Duke James who said, “It’s a common thing to find that those latches aren’t as secure as you think if you know where to find the hidden trip.
Probably one of the employees at the inn has your gold, Roo. They knew how to set the latch so it fell into place when they closed the door. If you’d been there five minutes earlier, you might have caught the thief in the act. Now we could tie the thief to a spit and roast him slowly, and we won’t find the gold.”
Roo swore again.
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Kitty. I had reached an accommodation with the Sagacious Man over the disposition of Tannerson and his companions, and you’ve managed to completely foul that up.” He rubbed his chin. “Well, your career with the Mockers is at an end.”
“What are you going to do?” she asked, her voice made faint by fear.
“Give you a job,” he said, rising. To de Loungville he said. “We need female agents, Bobby. But keep her on a short leash for a while. If she proves untrustworthy, we can always kill her.”
He left the room and de Loungville motioned for the others to follow him. Coming up to Kitty, he reached out and took her chin in his hand. “You’re pretty enough under all that grime,” he said.
“Looking for some sport, then, are you?” she asked, a glint of defiance in her eyes.
“What if I am?” he responded, his voice harsh and low. He pulled her face forward and gave her a quick kiss, but his eyes remained open and he watched her face carefully.
She pushed herself away. “Well, you wouldn’t be the first rough man to put hands on me,” she said without emotion. “I was taken young and it’s all the same to me. Getting poked by one man is much like getting poked by another.” She stepped back and removed her vest. Then she unbuttoned her tunic and removed it along with her boots and trousers.
De Loungville turned to the door where Erik and Roo waited and motioned for them to move away. He studied the girl a moment. She had a lithe body, small breasts, and slender hips, but there was a nice balance to her. She had a long neck and large eyes, and he said, “Yes, you’re pretty enough.” Turning prince.qxd 9/4/02 10:37 AM Page 149
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away, he told her, “Now, get dressed and I’ll have some food sent to you. Rest awhile and we’ll talk some more later in the day. And think on this: you now work for me, and if I need to, I’ll as happily cut your throat as take you to my bed.”
He didn’t look back as he left the cell, closed the door behind him, and locked it. He then moved to where the others were waiting for him. To Erik and Jadow he said, “Go back to your quarters and get some sleep. I’ll need you alert in a couple of hours. With the Sagacious Man fleeing and this Tannerson murdered, we may find things getting lively in the city soon.”
As they left, he turned to Duncan and Roo. “What about you two?”
Roo looked at Duncan, who shrugged. “I guess we also need to find jobs,” said Roo.
De Loungville said, “You can still work for me.”
“Thanks, but if I let this one setback stop me, what sort of merchant would I be?”
“True,” said Robert. “Well, you can find your own way out. If you want to, grab a bite at the commons before you do; have a hot meal on the Prince with my compliments.”
He walked away and as he left, he said, “But if you change your mind, you know where to find me.”
Duncan waited until de Loungville was out of earshot and said, “Just what are we going to do?”
Roo sighed, long and loud. “I have no idea.” He walked toward the soldiers’ commons. “But if we’re going to be out looking for work, we at least can do it on a full stomach.”
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Barret’s
Roo jumped.
The waiters coming out the door swerved expertly to avoid Roo as he came into the kitchen at Barret’s Coffee House, and Roo put down his tray as he called out his order. The chaos in the kitchen stood in direct contrast to the calm evidenced in the common room and the private areas on the second floor of Barret’s. The large oak double doors kept the sound away from those merchants and traders negotiating in hushed voices throughout the coffee house.
Roo had sought employment for almost a week before he thought of Barret’s. Several merchant concerns had looked upon the poorly dressed former soldier with little civility, and no one seemed interested in taking on even the most junior of partners without receiving a large sum of capital as an incentive. Promises of hard work, diligence, perspicacity, and loyalty were less impo
rtant than gold to these men.
Most merchants either had sons or apprentices, and any work available save as guards or menials.
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Roo felt close to defeat before he remembered the young waiter at Barret’s named Jason who had directed Erik and Roo to the horse trader by the city gate.
Roo had returned to Barret’s, found the man in charge of the waiters, mentioned Jason by name, and after a short consultation with Sebastian Lender, the manager of Barret’s—a man named Hoen—offered Roo a tryout as a waiter.
Roo quickly learned his way around the floor, with Jason acting as his tutor. Roo had come to like Jason, the youngest son of a merchant in another part of town. McKeller, the headwaiter, had told Jason to
“show the new boy the ropes.” Roo disliked being referred to as a “boy,” but given McKeller’s age, he supposed it was reasonable. Duke James would appear a boy next to McKeller.
Jason had proven an easygoing teacher, one who didn’t presume Roo was stupid because he didn’t know his way around the coffee house. Roo’s years of growing up around Erik’s family at the Inn of the Pintail helped, as he wasn’t completely ignorant of what went on in a kitchen or in a common room.
Still, there was much about Barret’s that was unusual to Roo. First of all, he had been required to swear an oath, on a relic from the temple of Sung, the Goddess of Purity, promising he would never reveal to anyone what he might overhear while waiting tables. He was next fitted for the standard uniform of tunic, trousers, apron, and boots—his own were considered too worn—and was informed the price of his clothing would be deducted from his pay. Then he was taken into the kitchen and introduced to the vast variety of coffees and teas, baked goods, and break-
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fast, lunch, and dinner items offered to the clientele of Barret’s.
A quick study, Roo memorized as much as he could, confident he would learn the rest as he needed. The organized chaos of the coffee house at its busiest reminded Roo of a battle in many respects.
The orders came in from each waiter, who was expected to remember everything a customer requested and who would also remember which table to return to and which gentleman or nobleman received which item. Mostly it was coffee, or an occasional sweet roll, but often it was a complete breaking of fast or a noontime meal. Rarely did anyone eat an evening meal at Barret’s, as most businessmen preferred to eat at home with their families, but sometimes the late afternoon business ran long, and waiters and cooks could be working until two or three hours after sunset before the last customer left and the doors were locked. That was the custom at Barret’s, that the doors remained open so long as one customer remained, and a few times over the years, at the height of financial crisis in the Kingdom, the coffee house had remained open around the clock, with the wait staff expected to remain alert, neatly dressed, and ready to answer the call of the frantic businessmen and nobles crowding the floor of the common room.
The conk said, “Your order’s ready.”
Roo grabbed his tray from off the counter, double-checked the order, and moved toward the door.
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had been told. Jason had told him the biggest problem was caused by customers, who occasionally would mistake the kitchen door as an entrance to the jakes or a back way out, and the resulting collision was usually both loud and messy.
Just before reaching the door, Roo turned and backed through, as if he had been doing this for years, and moved with a fluid grace into the commons. Only his battle-trained reflexes prevented a collision with a customer who turned and moved across the aisle down which Roo moved. “Excuse me, sir,” Roo intoned, when what he wanted to say was “Watch where you’re going, fish brain!” He forced a smile.
Jason had impressed upon him that while his salary from Barret’s was modest by any measure, the true source of income for the waiters was the gratuity. Quick, efficient, polite, and cheerful service could earn a waiter a week’s wages in a day if business was particularly good. Occasionally a single table would provide enough income for a waiter to invest in one of the common undertakings.
For which reason, Roo, as the newest member of the staff, had the poorest section of the common room. He glanced longingly up to the galleries where the business associations, brokers, and partnerships gathered. Among their number were several bright young men who had begun their business lives as waiters at Barret’s. It might not be as quick a rise as seeking treasure in far lands, but it could be as dramatic as that in results.
Roo placed his order expertly in front of each businessman, as he had been instructed, and they all but ignored him as they continued their discussion.
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He heard enough to realize they were discussing the extramarital adventures of an associate’s wife rather than matters of business, and he ignored them. A single copper piece more than the price of the coffee and rolls was placed upon his tray and Roo nodded once and backed away.
He moved through his area, inquiring politely if anyone needed anything, and when he had made his way around his area and had received no new orders, he stationed himself quietly in plain sight, ready to answer the call of any customer who needed him.
For a few minutes he had time to himself and he again looked around the room, memorizing faces and names, certain that someday such information might be useful. From across the room a figure waved at him. Roo recognized him as another waiter, Kurt, a tall, nasty-tempered bully who had most of the younger waiters cowed. He was also a suck-up and had both Hoen and McKeller convinced he was a competent and pleasant waiter, while he was neither. He managed to get the younger waiters to do as much dirty work as possible while avoiding work at every turn. Roo wondered how such a lout had come to such a senior position at Barret’s.
Roo ignored the wave, and at last Kurt came across the room toward him. As he approached, Kurt forced a smile for the benefit of the patrons. He would have been a handsome young man, Roo judged, had he not had such a mean turn to his smile and such narrow eyes.
“I was signaling you,” he hissed between clenched teeth.
“I noticed,” Roo answered without looking at him. He kept his eyes on the customers in his section.
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“Why didn’t you come?” asked Kurt in what he must have assumed was a threatening tone of voice.
“Last time I looked, you weren’t paying my salary,” answered Roo, moving to the elbow of the customer who had just tipped him a single copper coin. He nimbly filled the man’s half-empty cup without being asked and the two businessmen at the table barely noticed him doing his job.
Kurt put his hand on Roo’s arm as he turned. Roo glanced at the hand and said, “I would advise you not to touch me again.”
Kurt almost snarled as he quietly said, “And what if I do?”
“You don’t want to find out,” Roo answered calmly.
Kurt said, “I’ve eaten bigger men than you for breakfast.”
Roo said, “I have no doubt. But I’m not interested in your love life.” He dropped his voice. “Now get your hand off my arm.
Kurt withdrew it and said, “You’re not worth a scene at work. But don’t think I’ve forgotten you.”
“I’ll be here every day to remind you in case you do,” said Roo. “Now, what did you want me to come over for in the first place?”
“Shift chang
e. You’re on the door.”
Roo glanced at the large fancy timepiece that was hanging from the ceiling. A water clock fashioned in Kesh, it displayed the hour and the minute by a rising column of blue water that dripped into a trans-parent tube marked with the hours at a controlled rate. One of his jobs, as juniormost waiter, was to be in the common room at dawn to quickly flip the valve that caused the strange device to pump water prince.qxd 9/4/02 10:37 AM Page 156
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back to the tank above, while the second tank began dripping, so that the time was always accurate. Roo had been uncertain why it was so critical for these businessmen always to know what time it was, but he was fascinated by the device and the fact that he could see what time of day it was with a glance to the center of the room.
“Why the change?” he asked as he headed for the kitchen, Kurt a step behind him. “We’re not due for a shift change for another hour.”
“It’s raining,” answered Kurt with a smug grin as he brushed his black hair away from his forehead and took up his own tray. “New boy always gets to wipe up the mud.”
Roo said, “Fair enough, I guess.” He didn’t think it was fair at all, but he was damned if he was going to give Kurt the satisfaction of seeing him distressed by the news. He left his own tray and cleaning cloth on a shelf designated as his, and moved quickly through the large kitchen door and crossed the commons to the front door.
Jason was waiting for him, and Roo looked out to see that a tropical storm up from Kesh had swept across the Bitter Sea and was now dumping massive amounts of warm rain on the Prince’s City.
Already a pile of damp rags were tossed into the corner and Jason said, “We try to keep the floor as clean as possible before the rail so we don’t have to mop down the floor completely throughout the coffee house.”
Roo nodded. Jason tossed him a rag and knelt and began to clean up the mud that was splashing in from the force of the rain, along the edge of the doorway on his side. Roo duplicated his actions at his own prince.qxd 9/4/02 10:37 AM Page 157
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