A/N: FYI, next review will be the 100th review of Discovery. No pressure.
Hammy: Haha...sorry. Already have a plot...but loving your predictions :)
TheRanger'sDaughter: Yeah...keep waiting.
Raider: Exciting for me :) You really need to read the Testing. You'll love it. Look up the book trailer on YouTube :)
AER: You feel terrible...about?
Disclaimer: I'm not John Flanagan.
A week passed. They still had no sign of Maggie, but they narrowed down their watch to three houses. Men fitting the description of the kidnapper lived in each, and furthermore each hid a child Maggie's age. Once they had Maggie back the Hibernian agents Russ checked in with every day at noon planned to investigate the other two for abuse. After all, there weren't many good reasons to keep a child tucked away from the rest of such a small village.
Robin lay on her pallet. It was mid-morning, which in a brothel was actually the middle of the night. She lay on her stomach munching on a pear as she carefully examined the book before her. This record book hadn't been easy to get. She'd finally resorted to spiking the mistress' wine with a solution Reese made, something he learned when he studied under Caitlyn at the Academy many years ago. The solution had been meant to make the mistress fall into a deep sleep an hour after drinking. He must have mixed up a couple of ingredients, because instead it emptied the contents of her stomach within twenty minutes and kept her in bed three days after that. Robin, being both pretty and unwilling to work the bedrooms, volunteered to keep up the book in her absence.
Robin would have to return the book eventually, but she'd taken to copying its pages daily while the others slept. She folded the pages into paper animals, something Jin taught her when they first met, and placed the animals along the railing in the back for Russ to collect. Robin paid special attention to young girls brought through, sometimes under hoods to be examined by the mistress for potential employment. She carefully copied their descriptions, though none were Maggie. Yet.
Then, out of mere curiosity, Robin flipped back through the names. The record book went back fifty years or more. Its binding was arranged so the mistress could take out and add pages as necessary. Each girl had her own tab. A short write up of her description accompanied her name, then neat columns of clients and fees was listed after that. Robin had finally gotten to know a few of the girls well enough to question why they'd choose such a life. She was in fact shocked to see how many indeed chose this profession. It wasn't necessarily hard work, but Robin could never see herself submitting to such acts for gold. Despite her own apprenticeship, her father especially had taught her how to survive without it. He warned all his children a day may come they had nothing but the clothes on their backs. They could make their own basic weapons and cook just about any kind of game for that reason.
For a shady business, this place sure kept clean records. The brothel's books were organized in a way that could rival Aunt Lucy's ledgers. Robin flipped to Tabitha, a girl who had come just two months ago. She hadn't met her quota yet. According to the mistress, she'd have one more month to get her numbers up or she'd be let go. Perhaps she could come work for the company. Robin liked the girl and knew she'd come to the brothel to get away from her mental family. Perhaps she could work in a stockroom or…something.
Next was Taka. It seemed like she had worked there for six years before she fell under quota three concurrent months. That was two years ago. Robin wondered where they were now. Aunt Lucy nixed underperforming employees if they failed to meet their quotas over three months too, but that came only after demotions and cuts in pay. And she made allowances on a case-by-case basis, such as when a clerk's daughter fell terribly ill. This place had no such compassion.
Robin turned the page. The next woman had been there just two months, despite meeting her quota both times. There was no reason for dismissal, as there was for other girls who were asked to leave. Perhaps this one left for a better life on her own, or perhaps she passed away. Her records were twenty-seven years old, meaning her two month stint happened over a quarter century ago. Robin wondered what happened to her. Why did she come for just two months? The age listed wasn't exactly a young woman. She wasn't old, but not old either.
Robin skimmed to the top of the page. She frowned and bit down hard on her tongue. She slammed the book shut and pulled her boots on. She tucked it under her arm and marched out of the pantry, up the stairs, out the door, and across the street to the inn. She went up the steps and into the boys' room.
"Russ," she said, shutting the door behind her.
Russ looked back at her from his perch from the window. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?"
Robin held up the record book.
"Robin…what's that?"
"The book of record for that brothel across the street."
"Yes. You're supposed to be copying it, not brining it over here."
Robin set the book on one of the beds. Russ joined her, leaning over her shoulder.
"What is it?" he asked.
Robin pointed to the woman who spent two months there twenty-seven years ago. Russ peered down over her shoulder. He went stiff the moment he saw her name.
"Talia," he whispered. "As in…Grandmother Talia?"
"As in your birthmother," Robin answered.
Russ shrugged. "We know she did things like this to complete her missions. I mean, not pleasant to look at, but…"
"Seriously, Russ? Look at the dates."
Russ looked back down. "Twenty…seven years ago?"
Robin rolled her eyes. "How old are you, Russ?"
"Twenty-six…oh."
"Oh," Robin repeated. "Right. Oh. And you're the Ranger."
"Why did you bring this, Robin?" Russ whispered as he sat, pulling the book into his lap. Robin sat next to him.
"The names are on it."
"My father's Iberion."
"We don't know that. I don't think Dad even knows that."
Russ looked back down at Talia's ledger. He took out a scrap of paper and began copying down the information. "We don't bring this to anyone until we've found Maggie. Understood?"
Robin nodded. That was fair. "You alright, Russ?"
"I'm fine," he assured her.