Sinful Promises
Disclaimer: I own none of the stuff that Merecedes Lackey owns. But I do own Maire and Madame Louisa and the girls and the tavern... and other things that are to come later but would spoil the plotline!
Chapter 1
Her room was a flurry of arms and legs, heavy breathing and lusty sighs. Strange to think that it was only the one man with her that night, and yet it felt like more.
" Oh, Maire." Leo sighed, stroking her hair softly as he slid off her, wrapping his other arm around her waist and pulling her close. " You're wonderful."
Maire patted his shoulder, unaccustomed to such closeness. It wasn't what he paid her for, was it? " Ye say that every time ye visit me, Leo me boy." She said, sitting up and pushing back her now tangled hair. " But 'tis time you left. Me shift is over. Ye were the last one tonight."
" You never let me spend the night, Maire." Leo sighed, but complied and started finding his clothes. " Sometimes makes me wonder what it is you feel for me."
Maire kept herself quiet until after he left, and then she resigned herself, turning the marker outside her room from the red side to the blue, signalling that she was done for the night. She closed her door and settled herself back into bed. Leo was the kind of man that confused what she did for him for love. He'd offered her the world, if she would only come away with him, and she could tell that he was serious, but she was still contracted to Madame Louisa for another year, at least. It was going to take that long to get her debts taken care of, that she knew.
" Such a world for a bairn so young." She whispered to herself, echoing the words that had come out of the mouth of one of her very first men, after she had told him how old she was.
That had been a year ago, when she had freshly turned sixteen. Madame Louisa had her cleaning rooms and bussing tables downstairs in the common room, but as soon as she had turned sixteen, it was upstairs with the men for her. It paid much better, true, and she got to chose her men as the rest of the girls did, but it lacked in a certain area. At least bussing the tables and flirting to whet the mens appetites had some kind of respectable aura around it. Here, she was just another girl for them to moan and pant over. She was a common whore.
" I know that look." Said a cheerful voice off to her right, and she saw Darcie's head poking out of the door that joined their rooms. " You're thinking bad thoughts again, my poppet."
Maire smiled smally and made room on her bed for Darcie to sit down on, covering herself with the blankets. Darcie was a strange girl, eccentric to say the least. She only took tall, dark haired, blue eyed men. Which meant she had more free time than any of the girls and it showed. She was a tiny, delicate looking blond thing, with blue eyes that took up most of her face and thin lips that smiled more often than not; even when there was nothing to smile at.
" Been thinkin' bad thoughts all day long, Darcie." Maire said, trying to tame her black mass of hair into something resembling a braid. " 'Tis how it is when Leo comes to me in such a black mood."
Darcie tutted, a condescending look on her face. " I don't think it's very safe for you to keep taking his money, poppet. He's got more issues about love than he does fingers."
Maire nodded. " Aye, you've got me there, that you do." She sighed. " He's me best customer, though, and I'm afeared of what he would do if I stopped seeing him."
" Would it truly matter?" Darcie asked, looking at her sideways. " I mean, really Maire, would it matter if he did something drastic because you turned his money away?"
Maire had to think about that for a moment. " Ye know, I dinna think that it would, not at all." She smiled. " Thank ye, Darcie-love." She leaned over and hugged Darcie, laying her head on Darcie's shoulder. " So, did the handsome one stop by again?"
The handsome one, as Darcie referred to him, fit Darcie's bill perfectly. Tall, thin like a bird but apparently as strong as a bull, sky blue eyes and night black hair, that he was. Maire had seen him a few times, coming and leaving, and she had agreed with the rest of the girls that she wouldn't mind if he frequented her room a few nights. But he was considered one of Darcie's regulars, and no one touched those. Not if they wanted to keep their place in the house. Darcie was Madame Louisa's neice.
Darcie giggled. " Oh aye, he did." She put her hand over her mouth and her blue eyes lit up. " Made me squeal a fair bit, certainly turned the tables on me this time." She leaned in close, though there was no one else around to hear. " I was on bottom, Maire!"
Maire giggled as well, sucking in breath to keep her voice down. " Must have been a surprise for ye, Darcie!" Darcie may have looked small and innocent, but in her room she was anything but. She only let the best of her men take over the bedroom activities.
" Rolled me like a Fair hog, that one did!" Darcie fell over onto her side, her fingers stuffed in her mouth to keep from laughing too hard. " I can't wait 'til he comes back again."
" Why isn't he coming back tomorrow night?"
" He's got to go on a circuit, or so he says. Won't be back for a month at least." Darcie pouted, her teeth nibbling at the edges of her nails. " I'll miss him dearly."
Maire stopped for a moment. She'd heard of these circuit things when she had bussed downstairs. She gripped Darcie's hands, staring widely.
" Darcie, ye've got a Herald on yer hands!" Maire said, hushed.
Darcie stared at her, a distant look in her eyes. " Really? Oooh! No wonder his legs are so strong!" She got up from the bed and kissed Maire on the forehead, pushing her back down to the bed and tucking the covers around her naked body. " You get a good night's sleep, poppet. And when Leo comes back tomorrow night, you know what to do."
" Aye, I do." Maire turned onto her side as Darcie blew out her lantern, leaving her room in darkness and leaving to her own.
Maire knew better to think Darcie addled. She was just strange, the addled front a way of keeping her emotionless in the face of all the would-be lovers and husbands. Maire did it, Darcie did it, all the girls did it, to keep their jobs. The most dangerous thing you could do was fall in love with one of you men. Maire had managed to keep herself from that fate so far, but damned be Leo and his offers of the stars and the moon!
She brushed all thoughts from her head, of Leo and the things she had to do tomorrow, and fell into inky dark sleep.
A/N: Yes, this is set from before Kris died, because I hate writing fics that don't have him in them. He's just so awesome. And there won't be much Heraldic involvement until the fourth chapter, but don't worry, there'll be much chagrin and other inticing things to read until then!