Tremble in the Dark: A Gwen Farris Novel (38 page)

"Yeah,
I have a shipment of natural rubber coming in as well. I need it for the soles
on the new shoes. It would be cheaper to have it all sent by boat, but we want
the spices for the party. The Marduk and I both apparently like them." She
winked and tried to seem normal, and not like she was craving the sweet, sweet
sensation of pure pleasure.

The
man nodded, his face flat. Probably because that wink was a bit flirtatious and
Gwen was in his daughter's body. He didn't comment on it at least.

"I
was wondering what the draw was. Still, you can have the herbs and spices
packaged and sell them, in small amounts. They're exotic after all. Most don't
bring them in, but there is a small potential market. You understand, to
restaurants and such?"

She
returned the business like nod and tried to look considering.

"That
would be good. I ended up paying more for all of it than I'd expected. It would
be good if I can make enough on it all so that the crew of the Peregrine gets a
decent ship's portion." She tilted her head. "That reminds me, I'm
planning to work a rotation with them, in Engineering? I worked it out with
Gloria. In about three weeks or so." Looking down the table she realized
that Clara was still there. She'd been around, but not really there, just kind
of hanging in the background. Trying not to be noticed.

Trying
not to be sent away, back to the whore house. Or possibly just grateful for the
time spent in opulence? The house was about as nice as anywhere in the world,
Gwen figured. Maybe nicer than some of the royal palaces. Probably not, but it
wouldn't shock her if it was close. On the good side, Clara wasn't really
Gwen's responsibility. She was, while slow, also an adult and responsible for
herself. Still, it was a good idea to get her moving in the world, in one
direction or another.

Though
not at the table.

The
Vernor's both seemed pleased enough that she was planning on staying busy, and
the Westmorlands at the table, all three of them looked just a little blank.
She didn't get it for a while, until Beth spoke, her voice sounding a little
lost.

"Are
you going to be gone long? I might need to get another assistant if that's the
case. You're up to date on your rotation as for Special Service. I don't know
what I'll be doing next however."

She
shrugged.

"Well,
they don't really
need
me on the Peregrine. If we have to work, then
I'll be doing that with you, of course. Otherwise, well, you can probably get
on as a relief pilot. I mean, if you don't have another duty at the time. I was
just thinking that it would be nice to travel around a little." She said
it without thinking and Ethyl covered her mouth, as if to hide the smile that
blossomed there.

"You
can
simply travel, dear. You don't have to fill every moment with work.
That seems to be part of you, doesn't it? Always filling your time with
something. Not that it's a poor trait, but don't your people ever relax?"
Then, because she was a nice woman, she blushed a bit. That, Gwen knew, would
be about the fact that her daughter had, in a very real way, killed her. As in
caused the physical death of her body.

Gwen
decided to go with being brutally honest, but didn't let herself seem shy about
it. She wasn't looking for the others to prop her up, just to explain herself.

"I
keep feeling like I have to earn my keep and make my own way. One day you're
all going to wake up and realize that I'm a monster and not someone you want
around, and I need to have the skills to survive in this place." She held
up her right hand and smiled a bit. "I know, I'm not that at all, and you
won't forget me, but..."

Bethany
sighed, it was enough that everyone at the table except Peter, looked at her.
For his part, well, if she was the kid, Gwen would have been working furiously
to try and figure out how to win the next fight, so that she could get her fix.

Her
Westmorland buddy just paid attention to her, however.

"It's
the way you were treated, where you came from, isn't it? You feel that you have
to do everything yourself, because you had to, for so long. A life of learning
that no one was there for you, when you really needed them. It's sad."

Except
of course, that it had just been her life, and while she was sometimes
depressed, she'd mainly gotten used to it. Those things had shaped her though.

So
she nodded.

"So
now I work and try to keep myself ready for anything. Still, Ethyl isn't wrong.
My whole world is a lot faster and more driven than this place is. So that part
is there too."

Then,
thankfully, the discussion turned to the party, which was in two days. She
really needed to get a second call in to her fiancé. Before the fight the next
day. If she ended up in the hospital, she didn't want him to be worried about
her, after all.

There
was other stuff to check on too. She'd been distracted, she realized, because
of her desire to get to the new pleasure device.

Shaking
her head, almost imperceptibly, she listened to Ethyl go on about things. She
had a whole team of people, some eighty strong, coming in to work on the thing,
starting the next day. That meant there would be a whole lot of new faces
around. The idea made her feel very uneasy, but no one else seemed to be all
that worried. It wasn't very specific, but when she focused, she realized that
it was prescient. Just a feeling of unease however.

That
meant...

Really,
if she had it right, from what she'd read, that's what happened when you either
didn't want to face a situation, but had to know about it, or when it was just
something that was bad, but not known to you. Like how she'd heard of people
that had been anxious on September tenth, before the attacks on New York and
Washington D.C. She'd always written those off as people just misremembering
things, but here that was a thing that could work, so she needed to pay
attention. It felt vaguely as if it had to do with Christophe however.

That
probably meant he was going to break up with her again, or, really, she didn't
know what it would mean, did she? That was the point. It wasn't a normal fight
or attack, since she'd understand that, wouldn't she? Maybe it was that he'd do
or say the wrong thing? Insult the Marduk or something? She doubted that
however. From what she'd seen if that happened, the Marduk would just suck it
up like a big boy and pretend it hadn't happened, getting that Chris wouldn't
have meant it. When she'd last seen the man he'd been going around and using
first aid on injured people, so that the rest of them could close the gate.

She
let it go, and just ate the rest of the food, trying to watch people
attentively enough and speak when spoken to, saying the right things. It worked
well enough and, she realized, it was close to what everyone else was doing to.
It seemed engaged and interesting, but the meal passed without anything of note
being said at all.

It
was
interesting. Boring too. She had to hide a smile when she thought
that, since, really, it was a good thing when the world was a bit slow and
drab. No bombs were going off, no one had tried to kill her in days, and her
new fight training program was working well enough that it might make a
difference in how her friends were trained in the future.

Heck,
she lived in a place where she, personally, could both fly and teleport, or
would be able to, as soon as she finished healing. That was awesome. After all,
she was pretty much a superhero now, wasn't she? For that matter she was even famous
for it, really.

She
could
whine about being bored, but only if she wanted to admit to being
a mindless twit at the same time. Since Gwen didn't want to do any such thing,
she just focused on what was coming. A fight with a little kid, who, she was nearly
certain, would be kicking her ass, and then a party with a major chunk of the
most powerful and famous people on this world.

So,
yeah, boring.

Smiling,
she looked at Clara and signaled both her, Ethyl and Beth over as soon as the
meal ended and everyone was released to go and do whatever it was they needed
to before bed. She waved everyone into a sitting room, and the other women all
looked at her intently, as if she had something truly special to announce to
them all. Really, she didn't.

She
looked happy though, knowing that she was respected here, if nothing else.

"I
was thinking that we should plan out a strategy for Clara? I don't know what
you want to do, but after a few months of rest here, I'm sure you'll be pulling
your hair out, trying to find something to do." She was teasing, lightly,
saying a few months, which was due to the fact that Ethyl had proclaimed Gwen
too much of a doer.

Apparently
that was about the time span that the slightly older woman had in mind however,
since she nodded and instantly pushed that out.

"Well,
perhaps
in a few months. You are of course welcome to stay here as long
as you need to dear. After an ordeal like what you went through, with those
awful people planning to take your life, well, I can imagine that one might
never fully recover." She really seemed to mean it too, but the ex-whore
had a very different idea about things like that, having lived through things
worse than that, several times.

"Oh,
thank you Mrs. Vernor. I couldn't impose however." Then, the woman just
stopped and looked away. It was pretty clear that she really felt uneasy, but
just didn't know what it was she wanted to do.

Gwen
shrugged. "Then don't. If I were you though, I'd use this opportunity to
figure out what you wanted to do and impose a little. Ethyl means what she
says, but you could use her help to get a new life going, if you wanted. Beth
and her people too. If it were me, I'd try doing everything I could, to see
what I wanted to do, and use this time to build contacts. Gain some new skills
and all that. See about getting on as a loader for one of the airships or
something, try that out. Or, I don't know, you can cook? They always need women
willing to do that on the ships, I hear. Plus, I don't know, you could do so
many things that I haven't even thought of, I'm sure. I tend to pick the hard
way, for this place. Ethyl? Do you have any ideas?"

It
turned out that the woman did, many of which involved skills that Clara already
had. Including the ones from her days as a prostitute.

"You
could teach young ladies that sort of thing, after all. Or, I imagine, boys.
It's a rather niche business, but it's the way that most get their experience
before marriage."

Gwen
blinked. First because it was incredibly
blunt
, and coming from Ethyl's
mouth. Second, because, while it made sense to simply take classes or have a
tutor, she hadn't figured that people here would actually do that sort of
thing. It turned out that most didn't, but the rich and powerful sometimes
hired such people, and a certain Mrs. Vernor had the right contacts to put the
word around about it, if Clara wanted.

Gwen
wondered if shaking and chanting about cognitive dissonance would make sense to
anyone there at all? It wouldn't, she knew, so she nodded, and pretended not to
be shocked.

"There
you go, I wouldn't have thought of that at all. You should try out whatever
catches your attention, or fancy. Right now you have food, a warm bed and a
nice enough roof over your head. With that and a bit of will you can own the
world, if you want. Or find a nice husband."

Bethany
hadn't spoken much before that, but she nodded then.

"That's
a very good point. We might have to manufacture a past for you, if you want a
truly fine man, but that can be done. Between Gwen and I, we could pretty much
make you into anyone you wanted, on paper."

Clara
shook her head, but smiled a little. She didn't speak for a long time, but
seemed pleased and a little shy, which wasn't like her at all.

"I
could be a charger, Gwen said? That Peter of yours, he said that he'd help me
learn it, proper I mean, before you started to teach him how to fight. Could I
learn that, and maybe meet some of your people Beth? I don't know as any would
want to work with me, being how I was, but the ones I've met have just been
people. I didn't know that before. I thought you'd all be scary. Mean.
And..." She looked at Ethyl and smiled, knowingly. "I could teach
boys and girls what to do in bed. It isn't hard, with a bit of practice. Do you
really think anyone would pay for that though? I mean for the act in the
moment, sure, but for the skills?"

Mrs.
Vernor, looking as if she were speaking about high tea, or the color scheme of
a party smiled regally and looked the whore right in the eye.

"I
do. Especially if you do more than one thing, so that it will seem a special
favor, when you deign to give your instruction. Yes, that all sounds very
reasonable to me. Beth?"

The
detective looked happy suddenly and nodded.

"We
have people coming in tomorrow, so I think you'll have a chance to see that
we're all just people. We're always trying to find helpers for people in field
positions. I know you can do it."

So
did Gwen. A trained monkey could do it, as long as they knew a few simple
commands. That and how to get basic food around, and clean. Clara could clean
pretty well, and cook, so it seemed like she might just fit in there. It didn't
pay very well, but it was enough to live on, plus a bit.