The "master's lodge" wasn't really a lodge of any kind. It was a market and was housed in a warehouse on the west side. There one could procure and sell just about anything. It was mostly frequented by the normal populace while and servants of the upper class. Roddy wandered to the apothecary's stall.

"Holly?"

A red head got up from her chair in the back and loped to the front of the stall. "Roddy, it's a pleasure to see you here."

"Rosalie?" Roddy furrowed his brows. "Where're Holly?"

"I let her run the shop today. I wanted to get in touch with my roots." She chuckled at her pun. Roddy knew that Rosalie's family had started shop in the master's lodge long before starting a shop in the square.

"Have anything to sell?" Rosalie cultivated many of her plants but a few were only found wild. The fact of the matter was to have it imported or scavenged. Roddy's nose was one of the best on them. His only rival was the apothecary's shop girl, Holly.

"I have this." He held out the rare weed. It was used in the creation of a few medicines, the best kind. Rosalie gasped at the sight of violet leaves and a stem covered in thorns.

"You found this? But the only place it the air strip." Roddy didn't answer. Her face contorted into shock and awe. "You were there during the memorial!" For the death of soldiers on the front, the army had set off canons. Twenty-one cannon balls shot down the strip tearing apart anything that was in the way.

"You said that a girl needed them?" Rosalie nodded mutely. Roddy knew that girl from one of Nick's cases. She worked in the sewing shop making ladies' dresses. Her fever had stopped her from work and set their family back.

Rosalie took his gloved hand and clasped a few bills in it. "Sally's father will be so happy."

Roddy didn't look at the amount and stuffed it in a pocket. "Thank you, Rosalie."

She gave him a loving smile. "Try to stay safe."

Roddy didn't' reply. Instead he vanished into the crowd, making his way to the rat-catcher's stall. It was his father's, the family business.

"Hey, Roddy, what have you been up to?" The old man gave him a heartfelt smile. A six month stint in prison had done wonders to his personality.

"Not much. Dealt with a toff yesterday. Good on the eyes but still annoying."

His father poked an empty trap. "Well, Sarah put you in a bad place." Roddy reached into his pocket.

His father stared at his gloved hand. "That's too much."

"No, you're behind again." The last thing Roddy wanted was his father, who finally bothered to renovate their house, to get behind on payments and resort to the things that got him in prison in the first place. Not that Roddy ever went back. He lived in the room in the back of Monroe's shop like any good shop assistant. "Rosalie paid me for some herbs. No big deal." His father gave him a nervous smile, proud and wary, unwilling to take it.

Roddy shoved the bills into this hand and walked away.

"And he is just as annoying as anything." Roddy should have had more friends. Really, he should have. But he seemed to be very happy with the ones he had. Sally, Holly, Gracie, and Hanson were all sitting on the floor of Monroe's house chatting.

They had been brought together by Nick, a person who got them where they were today. Nick seemed to have many people who owed him favors. That was how all of them got the jobs they did. Despite their differing upbringings, they got along famously, enjoying every day that they spent in each other's company. Friday evenings were often the best days of the week. There was just one more day until Sunday, when all shops closed. Gracie was especially happy since her brother worked at the bakery. He left early to bake the bread and came home late dusted in flour. Her work as an apprentice to the jeweler was more flexible and offered rooms for both.

"You two should get married the way you go on." Holly hugged a pillow across the floor from him.

Roddy's favorite was Holly. Since her rehabilitation and assimilation, she turned out to be the wittiest of all. Her cynicism was just a rival to his. The others closer to his lifestyle were Gracie and Hanson. They were street rats like him. Sally was younger than most and seemed a little sweet on him.

"So the toff is talking to you?" Sally's face was a little pink. Her fever had gone down dramatically.

"No, he just left, the bugger." Sally sighed, she had been of a similar upper middle class. Though, Barry seemed out of her league even.

Holly faked a faint. "Oh, our little rat's fallen for a bear! What are we to do?" Hanson followed her lead putting a hand on Roddy's shoulder and giving his straightest face.

"You see son, when two men love each other very much…" They erupted into laughter.

"Don't call Nick!" Gracie received another round of their laughter. There was no guilt pointing out the dangers of it. Yes, there were repercussions. And every one of them knew it.

"So, honey, should we let this big bad bear near our baby?" Holly leaned on Hanson in laughter.

Tears were in his eyes as he went on, "Of, course not, precious kitten."

Roddy smacked both of them with a pillow and they went on like old house wives on whether or not the maid on Maple Street was going to made an honest woman and whether Juliette was enjoying her marriage to that count.

Holly and Hanson went one calling each other sweet nothings. If anyone was to be married, it was those two. Gracie had given them her blessing and Sally promised the nicest gown in Portland history.

"And you Roddy?"

Roddy shrugged. "How about I give you guys a clock?"

Holly prodded him with a violin bow. "That's not until the first anniversary."

It was a wonder how she knew that.

WALL IS UP.