Irina

Russia, Early 19th Century

She stifled a sigh as well as the urge to hit away the hand that was groping at her rear; instead she turned, smiled, winked at the offending ogre with the meaty fingers and made her way back to the area behind the bar, putting the empty tankards of ale on the counter. The barkeep started to fill them again without a word. The things were filthy, but it's not like anyone really cared. The barkeep didn't, the patrons didn't, and she certainly didn't either.

Right now her chief worry was which of the men was going to offer her the best amount of coin for a tumble up in the small room she rented from the tavern owner. Sometimes, when she didn't have enough to pay the rent he accepted a night between the sheets as compensation. She truly hoped that wouldn't be the case this month. His sweaty, large body against hers really did nothing for her, and pretending to enjoy his advances nauseated her at times.

Pretending to enjoy all their advances was wearing thin on her. This wasn't the life she had planned for herself.

When she ran off with the handsome boy that her father had taken in to help with the chores she'd expected things to be much different. Instead, she'd woken up alone in the room where she'd given him her virginity with no way to repay the innkeeper.

She'd been a fool.

She knew that there was no going back home and she'd tried everything she could to survive. She'd sold her long, golden locks of hair to a wig maker, but that money had only been enough to pay for the room and a meal. It was then that the innkeeper, behind his wife's back, had suggested a solution.

He had let her stay a few more nights, but he had visited her every night in her room after the laudanum that his wife was addicted to took effect.

Strangely enough, she remembered him as being a good lover. He was much more experienced in the art of pleasure than the boy she had run away with and he elicited responses from her that she had never imagined. It was in his arms that she realized that there could actually be pleasure in the act.

Then his wife had become suspicious as the other tenants at the inn began whispering and so she'd been set out with no money and nothing of value…except her body and her wits.

She'd used both to get a position at the tavern not far from the inn. It wasn't the type of establishment she'd ever dreamed of going into, much less working in, but she noticed how the workers from the nearby mine always seemed to flock there with their pockets full on payday and leave with their pockets empty later in the evening.

If that was where the money was, she wanted, no needed a cut.

She'd entered the tavern and without a word she'd started talking up the patrons. None of them had given it a second thought when she'd retrieved their empty tankards of ale and dirty, grimy glasses that they were served vodka in and had offered to get their refills for them at the bar.

The barkeep had certainly noticed though. He'd grabbed her roughly when she'd gotten to the counter and she'd gasped as she'd felt his large hand digging into her forearm.

As he spoke his rough, deep voice made her heart pound in fear even as his putrid breath made her slightly dizzy. "What ya doing? Who are ya? What you want?"

She'd taken a moment to answer, but when she did, she gave him a smile and let her clear blue eyes meet his beady black ones. "Come now, just helping."

He'd frowned and shook her a bit, setting her teeth rattling. "Who says I needed any help?"

She'd only smiled and reached up to adjust the laces to her dress, causing the barkeep's eyes to drift down to the pale mounds of her breasts peeking above the square neckline. "Way I see it this is an arrangement that could benefit both of us. The patrons won't be waiting to get up and their own drinks which means that they'll be drinking more and spending more."

His brows drew together as his mind slowly tried to work this out, the man was obviously not a thinker. Finally after he seemed to realize that what she said was true he had scowled at her. "I can't pay you."

She'd responded with an impish grin. "I'll work for what I can get from the men…and a place to stay."

He'd half chuckled, half-sneered at her words, "And, I have an idea of what you'll be doing to get coins from the men." He'd looked her up and down, as if he could see through the coarse cloth that made up her dress.

"Yes, I'll expect that you'll do quite nicely. Should grow out your hair though. Chop it off because ya had to sell it or because ya had lice." He didn't wait for her to answer. "No matter. Get on with ya then. We'll be finalizing the arrangements later. I'll be getting good work out of ya," he leered at her again, "one way or another."

She'd stifled a shudder at that and had hoped that she'd never had to find out, though she doubted she could avoid it.

As the barkeep finished filling the tankards she'd brought over to him he'd interrupted her brooding with a pinch to her rear. "Not tonight, Olaf, I'll have your rent for you in the morning one way or another."

She returned the scowl he gave her with a smile and she'd taken the tankards of ale and moved to deliver them to the table she'd retrieved them from.

From the look of things she'd end up with Aleksei in her bed tonight. He was holding back on the drinks and saving his coins and she knew what that meant. It was almost a relief. At least Aleksei, a regular visitor to her room, did his best to please her when they were together. There was a lot of passion between them and she actually enjoyed her evening with him unlike with some of the others.

He was even somewhat handsome and sweet. Yes, a night with Aleksei wouldn't be too bad at all. She was actually looking forward to it when he'd whispered in her ear that he'd like to stay. It made her smile somewhat genuine.