Free Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear

to do, and I imagine Connie needs the help. You’ll get wages as a domestic, though. You understand that.”
    “Room and board, too?” Merry asked, eyes bright.
    “And room and board,” Madame agreed, a wry smile twisting her mouth.
    Priya nodded. She crossed the room to me in quick, small steps, then stopped. She turned back toward Madame and wrung her hands in the knit of her giant cardigan. “Madame—”
    Her voice broke in a way I didn’t understand. Hadn’t Madame just given her permission to stay? Even if she didn’t want to take in alterations? Me, I’d rather whore than scrub floors; it’s easier work and the money’s better. But I could see how after Bantle you might not want any man’s rooster making up to your birdie, so to speak. What more could she be wanting?
    “Speak up, child,” Madame said. Not cruelly, she continued, “I can’t fucking abide fucking mealymouthed women.”
    Priya’s back straightened. I laid a hand on her elbow, realizing too late that I should of asked her first, but she seemed to stand up straighter at the touch, so that was all right, probably. Her throat rippled with a swallow. Nobody was ever braver than Priya.
    “I have a sister,” she said. “I don’t know if she’s still with Bantle, or if he sold her on. She’s two years younger. Her name is Aashini.”
    That wrinkle of a smile on Madame turned into the furrow of a frown. She said, “I’m sorry.”
    “I want to get her out.”
    “I’m sure you do,” said Madame. She glanced at Merry. “But there’s not much I can do about it, child. None of those cribhouse pimps would sell her to me, not with the way things now stand between us. And it’s one thing to shelter an escaped whore. It’s another to go steal one.” She paused, brows beetling. “Do you even know if she’s alive?”
    Priya looked at her feet.
    Madame nodded. It wasn’t a kind nod, but it weren’t cruel nor satisfied, neither. It was a tired, just-what-you’d-expect-then nod. Her eyes didn’t look as bright as I was used to. “Well then,” she said. “I’ll take on Peter Bantle if he comes to my house, never fear. But going after him in his den might stretch my resources, young lady. And without more to go on … Still. Maybe we can find out something about young … Aashini. But I wouldn’t hold my breath about it, and doing more may take money.”
    Money Priya wasn’t going to earn as a domestic. That much went without saying.
    “I understand,” Priya said.
    I knowed from the set of Madame’s jaw that she was considering ordering Priya not to go looking on her own, neither—and realizing that it would be useless. My da would of said that a good master keeps his authority in part by not asking for the impossible except when he really has to. If he does that, then his horse won’t realize it’s impossible when he asks for it.
    “Go on then,” Madame said. “Get on with you.”
    Priya gave a glance to Merry Lee. Merry Lee nodded wearily. “Go rest,” she said in a cracked voice. “I think you’ll know where to find me.”
    It’s God’s truth that she didn’t look like she was getting far, anyway.
    I led Priya out the door, shutting it carefully, and showed her where the back stair was. What would of been the servants’ stair in most houses, but we used it for getting around without the tricks getting in our way, when the house was working. We rattled down. I should of been eager to get to the parlor before the other girls got all the sober men, and the ones with good breath—there’s nothing duller than trying to charm up a snake that won’t rise due to whiskey. I like to do my work and get it over with. But Priya seemed to move in a warm glow of comfort, like a good fire on a cold day, and walking along beside her made my heart lift.
    We hadn’t made the second landing when I thought of something. And as I tend to, I said what I thought before I thought about it enough. If you know what I mean. “A lot of