A Brother's Price Part 26

"You're the one who's been verified by the Queens themselves."

The padlock clicked open and Jerin unlatched the door.

Cira eyed the lock with surprise. "So that's how you got free from that bed. An interesting talent for a prince consort."

Jerin limped inside to collapse onto the fresh hay. Cira led in her roan and tied it outside reach of the hay, so it couldn't eat itself to death, and then found grain and water for it.

"Three daily packets stop in town," Cira said as she returned Jerin's pistol to him. "I think the first packet comes through town before noon. I'll get tickets so we can board at the last moment and go straight to a cabin. Once we're on the river, we'll be safe until we hit Mayfair."

Somehow sharing a cabin with Cira didn't seem like a "safe" option. Nor did Jerin like the idea of waiting here, trusting Cira while she could be selling him to the highest bidder.

"And your plan is for me to sit here quietly until you come back?"

"Sweetie, I'll just be more river trash, but you're a man, one that the entire Queensland is looking for. If the Queens Justice is in town, they might have drawings of you." Cira took his hand and clasped it tight. "And I know you have no reason to trust me, but just because they're soldiers doesn't make them infallible."

As his own family history would attest to.

He sighed and pulled his hand free. "I'll "I'll wait here. Can you bring me something to eat? My stomach is still queasy." wait here. Can you bring me something to eat? My stomach is still queasy."

She gave him a slight smile, pulled her Stetson down low to throw a shadow across her scarred face, and left. He waited as the bells of the nearby town rang five o'clock. Once he was fairly sure she was gone, Jerin unbuckled her saddlebag and carried it to the hay mound to look through it.

On top was a silver flask. He unscrewed its lid, sniffed its contents. Brandy-and fairly expensive if he judged it correctly. He had expected to find corn whiskey, the standard smuggler drink.

He put the flask aside and continued unloading the saddlebag. A turtle sh.e.l.l comb. A bottle of black liquid he couldn't identify. A small book tied shut with a piece of ribbon.

Untying the ribbon, he found the book was a journal written in code. He worried at his bottom lip. While his grandmothers had taught him code breaking, nevertheless, it could take him hours to crack it and translate the book. He didn't have hours. He flipped through the pages, checking if anything had not been written in code. Between the back pages, he discovered three newspaper clippings. The first was headlined forty dead in weapon shop fire. The second story looked like it had been torn out instead of clipped; while it was missing the headline, he recognized it as the Herald's Herald's story about the attack on Odelia. In the same handwriting as the journal were names and numbers written in the margin. " story about the attack on Odelia. In the same handwriting as the journal were names and numbers written in the margin. "Osprey 6/4 Dusk. 6/4 Dusk. Frontier Frontier 6/5 Dawn. 6/5 Dawn. Enterprise Enterprise 6/4 Midnight.'" Ship names and times, he realized. Where had she gone? The " 6/4 Midnight.'" Ship names and times, he realized. Where had she gone? The "Osprey" had been underlined, seeming to indicate a need for speed. had been underlined, seeming to indicate a need for speed.

The third story had been carefully clipped, neatly folded and refolded, and was well-worn from being handled.

QUEENS SPONSOR PRINCE ALANNON'S GRANDSON.

After decades of mystery, the fate of the vanished Prince Alannon has been finally revealed. A report issued from the palace today stated that the prince married Queensland knights Sirs Whistler and retired to their up-country land grant. In an amazing twist of fate, Master Jerin Whistler, the grandson of Prince Alannon, has been named as Princess Ode-lia's recent savior. As a reward for his selfless bravery, the Queens will be sponsoring Master Whistler for the upcoming Season. Sources close to the crown state that the young man has been installed at the palace and bears a striking resemblance to the beautiful missing prince...

The story would have appeared after he met her on the Mayfair landing-after she kissed him. He supposed it was understandable she would want a keepsake of such an event. Kissing was something only husbands and wives were allowed to do. His sister Summer would keep a newspaper story of a boy she kissed. That Cira was like his sister helped calm his nerves.

He could glean nothing more from the journal. He returned the clippings, closed the book, and tied it shut. He dug deeper into the saddlebag. A can opener. A tin pan with a screw-on handle that could be stored inside the pan. He marveled at the ingeniousness of the pan and then started to set it aside. It struck him then, the quality of the items Cira owned. The journal had not been showy, but was well bound with a stamped leather cover. The tin pan was cunningly made. The saddlebag itself was a st.u.r.dy and handsome item. The fine roan horse she rode. Even the brandy in the flask had been quality.

Cira was a rich woman, though she did not show it. It was, in fact, as if she was trying to hide the fact.

The other women at the shack, though, seemed to be river trash. The shack. The two or three of them he saw. The language that the others used. Dirt-poor and willing-no, needing-to steal to survive.

Cira hadn't been one of them. Considering the newspaper clipping, it even seemed likely that she had been there only to rescue him. Still, he could not afford to trust her. Trust had led to betrayal too often, too recently.

A short time after the town bells rang six, Cira reappeared.

"There's no sign of Fen and her women," she told him as she sat down on the hay beside him. She had two small loaves of fresh bread. "This was all that could be had this early in the morning. I would have brought you ginger if the apothecary was open. Most likely it's the drugs that Fen gave you that upset your stomach, but it might be because you haven't eaten for a full day."

He ate the bread cautiously; it seemed to help settle his queasy stomach.

"The first packet is at nine." Cira lore her loaf of bread in two and gave him the larger piece. "And the Queens Justice is in town. If I'd had the coin. I'd have bought fresh horses. I don't like this sitting and waiting, but we don't have much of a choice."

She started to unload her pockets, producing a small ceramic crock, rhinestone hair combs, a bright red silk scarf, and a white-feathered boa. "I thought that one way to slip you past the Queens Justice is to hide you in the open."

"What do you mean?" Jerin opened the crock, hoping for something to eat. It contained a bright red cream. "What is this?"

"That's lip paint," Cira said, dipping one finger into red. "Purse your lips and hold still."

"Makeup?"

Cira blushed, a first for her. "It's a disguise. Everyone is looking for a man; they might not look twice at a wh.o.r.e."

He knew some women pleasured others for money, but his mothers and sisters kept him innocent of the details. "Wh.o.r.es are women, aren't they?"

"In body, but not always in appearance. Many dress as men, the manlier, the better." Cira glided her fingertip over his lips in a way that was at once intimate and erotic.

Jerin scrambled to take his mind away from her fingers. "Don't they lack certain vital equipment?"

"There are artificial devices." Cira dipped her finger into the crock again, and rouged his cheeks, her breath on his face as she blended color out. "They call them bones because they're made out of ivory. They strap on. Wh.o.r.es carry them sheathed to their leg, here, to look more manly."

She put her hand on him, and found him excited. She smiled, stroking him gently, her eyes full of l.u.s.t.

"Wh-wh-why red on the lips?" he asked.

"To advertise they know how to use their mouth." She ran the tip of her tongue over her lips, moistening them, drawing a slight gasp from him. "It feels very, very good."

He understood then what she was referring to-his wives claimed he was very good at it. He couldn't believe he had anything in common with a wh.o.r.e. Maybe she was just repeating a rumor. "You-have you ever-you know-been with a wh.o.r.e?"

"I had a lover, a beautiful young officer, whose mother had been a wh.o.r.e." Her voice turned bitter as she draped the scarf about his neck, trying to cover his man's apple. "She should have been a wh.o.r.e herself. She was well suited for it: ambitious, heartless, and very talented. She could make you feel like you were about to turn inside out."

"What happened to her?"

She caught his hand and pressed it to her scar. "This happened to her. After I was scarred she couldn't bear to touch me, look me in the face."

"Why?" He traced the scar on her face. "'It's like an exotic piece of jewelry. It becomes you."

In a sudden angry move, she pulled her shirt off and turned her back to him, revealing a ma.s.s of puckered skin and silvery scars. At some point she had been badly burned. "Look at me! I'm repulsive!"

He ran a hand over the wounded skin. His fingertips reported only warm flesh and solid muscle, the ugliness of the burn invisible to the touch. "No. You're not repulsive."

She turned-her eyes luminescent with unshed tears-and kissed him. Apples flavored her mouth. He retreated. She advanced. They ended sprawled in the hay, no more room for him to retreat, and she on top of him, her groin pressed against him instead of her hand, rocking suggestively. They fitted together as if molded from one flesh, only her trousers and his walking robe and underclothes between their bare skin.

"Show me," she whispered against his mouth. "Show me how beautiful I am."

"No!" He pushed at her shoulders. "You're taking me back to my wives. You promised. I won't be unfaithful to them."

She laughed, seemed about to say something, and then shook her head. "I won't push you, my love. This will all be over soon, and you'll see that you can trust me."

He snorted as she retreated then, drawing her shirt back on.

"We'll pad the front of your shirt a little, to make it look like you're hiding b.r.e.a.s.t.s." Cira glanced at him and laughed. "And we'll have to put the lip paint back on again too."

Three hours later, they started into the town of Sarahs Bend. Cira would have liked to wait until they heard the steam whistle of the packet docking at the landing, but was afraid they might miss the boat. A weak sun had burned off part of the fog, revealing the edge of town within rifle shot; Cira still insisted that he ride the big roan while she led it.

Sarahs Bend was much larger than his hometown of Heron Landing. There were several blocks of paved streets flanked with tall, narrow but deep, brick buildings. The first floors were storefronts, while the upper floors were obviously residences of the store owners. Some of the buildings were four stories tall, casting shadows onto the cobblestones. The edges of their roofs sparkled oddly in the sunlight.

"City people hang laundry on their roofs," Cira explained when Jerin asked about it. "People embed broken bottles into the roof parapets, to discourage husband raids."

He noticed then that the storefronts also had cast-iron gates that could be padlocked shut at night.

It surprised him how many types of stores there were. Besides two mercantiles, there were stores for apothecaries, books, dry goods, shoes, tailors, watchmakers, and more. Each carried the name of the family that ran it and then symbolic signage for the illiterate; he recognized all but one.

"What do they sell there?" Jerin pointed to a gas lamp with three blue gla.s.s globes. The stone building lacked the gla.s.s front of the rest; while the front door stood open, heavily armed women guarded the entrance. Customers came and went, but they carried items neither in nor out. "Is it a bank?"

"Hush, don't point," Cira murmured, and then clucked the roan to speed them past the store.

"What is it?" Jerin whispered.

"Pay it no mind."

He'd heard that tone enough in his life to realize it was a crib. He looked back to study the fortresslike building. He never thought such a thing would be on a Main Street corner, its gas lamp bright in the overcast morning so it couldn't be missed. How many men were inside? A dozen narrow windows cut into the thick stone of the first story. One window per man? Iron bars covered the larger windows of the second story. A short railing lined the roof with sharpened iron points. He knew that they were there to keep out women, but they would work to keep men in. The trickle of women in and out of the building was constant-each representing a forced coupling.

His breakfast churned in his stomach. "Cira, I think I'm going to be sick."

"Now?" Whatever she saw on his face convinced her. She guided the roan into a narrow alley.

His breakfast came up while Cira kept his hair and clothes out of the way.

"That's where I'm going to end up." He moaned. "In a place just like that. Locked in and drugged."

"That is not going to happen to you. You're getting home and it will be just like nothing happened."

"Ren won't be able to take me back. No one is ever going to believe that nothing happened to me."

More bread came up, and then his stomach was empty, but his body continued to heave.

Cira rubbed his back soothingly, patiently waiting for him to recover. "Ren will believe you. If she loves you, she will trust you and believe what you tell her to be the truth, even if you were gone for years."

He shook his head. "Her mothers wouldn't let her offer for me for weeks-they might force her to give me back to my sisters."

"Jerin." Cira straightened him up and wiped his face. "I swear to you, you will never be in a crib. I can guarantee that you're clean. I might seem like a river trash, but I come from a powerful, old family. The Queens will take my word."

He thought of all the fine belongings in her saddlebag, everything that indicated that she was much more than what she seemed. "Really?"

"And I am not poor either. If need be, I have the money to pay your brother's price and marry you."

"All by yourself?"

"We can start a new trend. One wife per husband."

He laughed at the ridiculousness of her plan.

The loud roar of the packet's whistle came from the river.

"Come on. Dry your tears and put on a smile. We're almost home free. Just a little more, and we'll be safe on the river."

It was odd to be among people and not be the center of attention. He and Cira moved through the crowd waiting on the landing without anyone noticing them. Amazingly, the flimsy disguise was working. Women would glance his direction, see the bright boa that Cira had him wave lazily about, gather in the lack of veil and the painted face, and lose interest in him.

They almost made it.

A few feet from the gangplank, Cira took a sudden deep breath, and hands caught Jerin tight from behind.

"Not a word!" growled a familiar voice. "A single noise, missy, and we'll pop you where you stand."

"Ya should pop her anyhow, stealing 'im away like that!" Dossy whined.

He swung about. They had a revolver tight to Cira's spine. "Don't you dare hurt her!"

"Or what, little boy?" Bert sneered. "Ya cry?"

"I'll tell your bosses that you raped me. Oh, it was awful! You dirty, infected crib sleaze took me again and again. They're paying for clean and untouched. I'll be sure to convince them you're pulling a double cross. Selling used goods!"

"Shut ya mouth!" Bert jerked her gun back, swinging the b.u.t.t around to strike him with it.

"Bert!" Fen snapped, catching her hand. "Don't you dare, s.h.i.thead! Unharmed and untouched, they said!"

"So what do we do?" Bert asked.

"Give them both to the bosses. Let them work it out," Fen said.

Jerin glanced around them. The other women on the landing looked on but made no move to interfere. Guns were already in the mix. From their faces, he realized that they still saw him as a wh.o.r.e having trouble with river trash. If he appealed to them as a man, once they rescued him, would they try to keep him?

"Come quietly," Fen said. "Or we will will pop Miss High-and-mighty here and now." pop Miss High-and-mighty here and now."

He let himself be dragged to an alley where horses waited. Since none of his counteroffers had worked, he tried a new ploy. The Porters had left no witnesses behind them-surely they wouldn't allow Fen and her women to live, knowing their darkest secrets.

"The Hats are a n.o.ble family planning to marry me to claim the throne," he told them. "You'll know as soon as the marriage is announced which n.o.ble family is the Hats. You're the only ones that can testify they're one and the same. They've-"

Fen c.o.c.ked her hand in warning. "Hush your mouth, or I'll knock you silly enough you can't talk, and blame it on Miss High-and-mighty."

He wanted to stay conscious, so he kept his suspicions to himself.