Tremble in the Dark: A Gwen Farris Novel (26 page)

The
man leaned in, his head nodding as if encouraging her to go on. Beth however,
patted his knee lightly.

"Go
on? You have news? It's flabbergasting?" She took her hand away, but the
man glanced down at the spot anyway. After all, that was probably the same as
her giving him a handjob in public practically. Of course he'd noticed.

"Right.
Well, I truly figured that there would be a strong backlash against myself and
Miss Farris, for having told people about what has been going on, how wrong we
were. I mean, it's still hard for me to accept that the Westmorlands aren't the
dangerous evil that I thought all these years. I have you right here to correct
me too, Bethany, so I thought that most others would be at least as troubled.
Some are, but even those are mainly letting go of their overt hate, in light of
what the
King
said on the Telesar last night." He smiled, and then
stopped talking, trying to force them to ask what had been said.

Bethany
chuckled.

"Oh,
I bet that made Adam happy. He's our leader, but has a particular love for
Gwen." She winked and stopped there, letting the words just sit in the
air.

Gwen
sighed, "yep. He loves me so much that he'd set me on fire with his mind,
if I wasn't so squirmy, and kept fidgeting out of the way. What did Ferdinand
say?"

Martin
looked around the train car, but raised his voice, instead of softening it.
Making an announcement of the thing.

"King
Ferdinand told the Kingdom last night, on an all stations address, that what
you said about the Westmorlands was indeed factual, and that you and he were
working to remedy the great tragedy that had been going on there. Then he offered
to abdicate the throne, if the Westmorlands requested it, as a sign of his
shame. That's a token, naturally, since we already know that they won't be able
to even think about that, but it was nice of him to make the offer, don't you
think?" This got addressed to Bethany, who'd gone wide eyed.

"That...Yes,
rather." Then she trailed off. After a bit she rallied however. "And
people are actually, I don't know, I suppose that kindness is too much to
request for my fellows, but,"

Martin
coughed, his hand going over his mouth. "Hot and cold. People are still
afraid of you and your kind. Now they simply begin to understand that
you
aren't to blame for it. That won't sit well with everyone. Some are hearing
that this was done in their name, and seeking to have you all freed. Others
hear it and try to blame someone else. Mainly the King." He looked at Gwen
and flipped a single palm over, letting it rest on his right thigh. "You
and I are catching part of that, naturally. Myself more than you. You're the
hero that saved the world and now is rubbing our collective noses in our shame.
I'm the fool that helped a good deal of that shame to be piled up. I gather
that several people have been calling for either my resignation, imprisonment,
or death."

Bethany
looked at him and nodded.

"That
sounds fair. After all, I'm nearly certain you, personally, have called for all
those things for me and my family. Many times. It's a bit harder to hear when
it's directed at you, isn't it?" She managed to seem almost sweet about it
all, as if she were playing and not really taking him to task for it.

"It
is. I owe you an apology. All of your people. I suppose I should go and see to
that, over the Telesar? That should about end my career as a protector of the
common man, shouldn't it? Well, I guess I can always go into the family
business, if father will still have me." He looked down at his feet, which
seemed a lot more humble than the Martin Cordell she was used to. Then he
wiggled his feet, to get her attention. "Shoe making. I did these."

They
were nice, she realized. Then she blinked and smiled.

"I
have need of a shoe maker, for something that might be pretty big here. Running
shoes with textured soles. If you're looking to actually change jobs, I mean.
I'll bankroll the whole thing. It's a real project however, so don't work in if
you don't mean it." She
really
wanted something that she could run
in. Boots didn't really cover it.

Cordell
laughed. "Well, I'd be pleased to look at the idea, if you wish, but I may
have to do it from a prison cell. Someone has to be punished for this, and it's
been my voice speaking to everyone, being so wrong. I still can't believe
it." He turned to Beth. "Are you sure you aren't at least a
little
evil? Just a bit?" There was a tiny hopeful look that went with it, and
Beth shook her head.

"Not
at all. It wasn't allowed."

That
got the conversation to sober.

Gwen
took a deep breath and sighed, then shook her head again.

"Shoes,
and rebranding for you. We'll need to have you apologize to all the
Westmorlands, grovel a bit. Go through some of the conditioning they have, live
on the TS, that kind of thing. We have a lot of work left to do on this one,
but that's only part of the problem. We still need to get better jobs for the
low-magic users. If we do it carefully we can start with manufacturing. I don't
want to destroy your world, but there are ways to make jobs and increase cash
flow to the lower economic sectors. It won't give them more power really, but
starting with true equality in the minds of others won't work anyway. You
already have their ears, so we can stick you back out front. When you aren't
designing shoes, I mean." She had a wicked idea then, but didn't know if
she should mention it yet.

Then
she did anyway, since she was being more than a bit of a meddling witch
already, wasn't she?

"Why
don't you and Bethany get engaged? Or at least go steady for a bit? That will
show that you're really throwing in on the side of right, and might keep you
out of a cell. Though if we do anything like that, you should do grounds
keeping at Central or something. That probably won't really happen, since it's
still a secret military operation, more or less." She was just talking,
but Eugene Hadley stood up and started to clap.

Then
Carter Palmer did the same and Sally ran over.

"Oh!
An engagement! We should have a party and see to announcements. That's how
that's done, isn't it? I can't say that I know the proper ways of doing things,
what do we do?" She looked at first Beth and then Gwen, ignoring a rather
red faced Martin all together.

Bethany
seemed calm about the whole thing, considering that getting married had just
been mentioned and most Westmorlands didn't bother doing it, since they
couldn't have children and people would normally have made that very hard on
them and their partner.

People
like Martin Cordell. In some cases, it would have probably actually been
him
making trouble over it. That decided Gwen, since there was a certain symmetry
to the idea.

She
spoke, looking directly at Sally.

"Oh,
well, the first thing we need to do is tell her people about it. Martin's too.
We can make an announcement at the party that the Vernors are having in a few
weeks. We should get in touch with them as soon as possible on it. Tomorrow I
guess? We need to get Ferdinand in on it too. This is pretty big after all. I
know, Beth, you should get Agatha Longbranch to help you put it together. She's
the best." Gwen started to smile, trying for wicked looking, but Bethany
ruined it all.

By
flipping her hands up and looking at Cordell.

"You
haven't asked yet. It isn't the worst idea ever. Oh, awkward and uncomfortable,
but alliance marriages
are
historically effective."

Then,
because life was much stranger here than back home, Gwen watched the man stand,
and instead of sensibly running away, perhaps to lock himself in the safety of
his little cabin, he got down on one knee and reached out, to take Beth's hand.

"Miss
Westmorland? I have no right to suppose that you would do me the honor of
marriage, but I beg you consider me for the position? I have prospects and need
to atone for the... wrongs that I've done you and yours. I know that this is
far from what you would want for yourself, and is a surprise, but if you would
consider it, I would be most pleased." His voice was smooth and
professional sounding, and he didn't even blush.

Gwen
would have. Christophe had when he'd asked the first time, and there hadn't
even been any awkward kneeling.

No
one said anything, and really, Gwen suspected that Beth would laugh, or at
least say that she'd think about it, and leave for a bit. She didn't.

"Yes.
We should do that. A long engagement however, so that we can get to know each
other? I'll need to find out if you snore, for instance."

There
was applause then, which probably showed how bored everyone was, really. Hadley
moved out of the train car, toward the front, only to come back about ten minutes
later. He didn't say anything, but everyone else was excitedly trying to figure
out what the best plan would be. Except Clara, who just looked sad. Gwen
noticed, and moved over to her, sitting down as everyone else made excited
noises.

"What's
up?"

Clara
didn't need that translated, slow or not.

"It's
just romantic. Like a story, isn't it?" She seemed nearly sweet for a bit,
her hatred of Bethany and her kind being forgotten already. It was like she'd
never really had been all that tied to her dislike to begin with. "Not
anything a whore will ever have. No man wants to put it in his wife, knowing
ten thousand have done it before, do they?"

Gwen
supposed not, but shrugged. "So,
lie
, and say you were always a
maid? It will take some practice, to learn all the right skills, but we can
fake up credentials for you. Of course you'll have to do it right, if you don't
want to give yourself away." She looked at the woman, who was decent
looking, but not brilliantly so. A nice six on a scale of one to ten? Good
enough really. Her teeth weren't perfect, but that wasn't a big deal here. They
had dentistry, she thought, but not orthodontia. Her hair was a little lank at
the moment, but pulled back. That could be fixed with a good washing and some
makeup. Not that she didn't have some on, but it was overdone. Whore face
paint, rather than the nearly invisible stuff a real maid would need.

Clara
sighed and shook her head.

"Once
a woman of easy virtue, always so. That's what they always say at least."

Gwen
snorted at her, which wasn't very ladylike. "They? You mean the people you
work for? Did it ever occur to you that they have a stake in you sticking
around, thinking that you're stuck doing what you have been? You can be
whatever you want, if you have the skills for it. If you want to become a maid,
you can. You'll have to stop trading whatever you've been doing for the men on
the train here to get my things pressed, but," She blushed, thinking about
it.

Clara
just wrinkled her nose.

"Charging
crystals? It's dead boring, but people need it done and will pay for it."

That
got Gwen to blink. She'd just assumed that Clara, being slow and making her
living by literally selling her behind, wasn't strong enough for things like
that. It hadn't even occurred to her that it would be otherwise at all.

"You
could go into doing that, if you're good at it. Charging crystals for a
living."

"Ah,
I tried once, but you have to be in the Union and that means knowing someone
that will get you a place. I'm good enough, but no one wanted to give me a
chance. It costs to buy in too, unless you're so good that they have to beg you
to do it. I'm not that great at it. I could have done it though. It didn't work,
so I ended up on the street instead. Then, well, a girl has to eat, and I'm not
the best looking doxy ever, so I sold what I had to, and learned to do whatever
men wanted. Then I spent the last ten years just going from place to place,
being bought and sold. Sally says that the new house she's working for isn't so
bad, and got me in." The sadness was back, as if she were truly trapped in
that life.

Once
a whore, always a whore?

Well,
everyone sold themselves, one way or another, didn't they? Most people at
least.

"I
have contacts in the Chargers Union. Actually, in a lot of places. What do you
want to do? Wait, first, let's deal with the situation at hand. You have a
contract with Sally? She paid for it?"

That
was a lot different than what Gwen had been thinking was going on there. Sally
was a prostitute, not a madam. Right? How did that work?

The
woman nodded a little dumbly, her bottom lip sticking out just a bit.

"She
did. Fifty-three mets to my old boss man. I could have said no, but she says
it's a good place and that I can make a lot, if I'm willing to do backdoor
work. That's..." She looked away, and then smiled a little. "I do
that. It pays more. Rough stuff too, but only a little. I don't truly like
being hurt."

Getting
up, Gwen worked her hand into her buttoned cargo pocket, on her leg, and worked
out a hundred mets. Then she waved to Sally, who moved over, still smiling
about the engagement stuff. Before she could do more than sit down by them, the
wad of bills was stuffed into her hand.