A Proper Young Thief: Chapter 3: It's Called Desperation

A Proper Young Thief

M.K.Barry

Chapter 3: It's Called Desperation

“I don't understand. You get me?”

Lawson let out a deep sigh, casting a sympathetic gaze upon Lissa. “You really haven't been told?”

“What do you mean you 'get' me” Lissa asked again, her voice shaking slightly. She took several steps backwards until she was in the middle of the room.

“Exactly what I said.” Lawson said, “You were there at dinner. Lord Mintas wants his son to marry my daughter. You're essentially the dowery. Mine.”

Lissa stood in silence for a moment before softly saying, “He can't do that.”
 Lawson shrugged, “He can. You could refuse, I suppose, but where does that leave you? From what I've been told, you and your mother are essentially his slaves-”
 “We are no such things!” Lissa hissed, standing up straight as she did, “We do honest work for Lord Mintas.”

“For what? You're not paid.”

“For food, for a place to live.”


Lawson shook his head slowly, “I am sorry...”

Lissa took a deep breath, calming herself. “I have been asked to bring you your wine. I have done that.” She curtseyed before Lawson, “I shall take my leave, sir.”
 “... No no, you misunderstand.” Lawson said, taking a step towards her. “I”m sorry that you were not informed.” he sighed again, turned, and poured himself a goblet of wine, “Lord Mintas said that he would speak to you, and that you would be told all the details before being sent up to me.”

“I was told you wanted wine.”

“Well... I did.” He shrugged and turned back to Lissa, taking a large drink of wine before leaning back against the window frame, “You were told nothing other than that?”

“No.” Lissa said, but as she said it, she remembered her mother trying to tell her something before she left the servant's room.”

“Do you know who I am, Lissa?”

“I do not. I know you are a man from Rawlins named 'Lawson'.”

“A young lady such as yourself should know nothing more than that. Perferably less.” He took another sip of wine, “Young lady, I run a brothel.”

“But.. but you're-”

“I am a very wealthy, respectable man who runs a successful brothel. We attract a lot of nobles who pay handsomely for an evening with my women. I'm well known, and well respected, and very wealthy.”

“and... me?”


“You're a servant. Lord Mintas told me that were it not for his charity-”

“We do not take-”

“-Were it not for his charity, you and your mother would be living on the edges of town, starving and isolated. He took you into his house, and now he's going to make a profit.”

Lissa wanted to say something, anything to dispute his words, but she couldn't find her voice. Lawson took a few steps towards her, and set his hand on her shoulder. “You're to be my personal servant now, you will-”

Lissa slapped his hand away and stepped away from him, pressing herself against the door. She realized at that moment that despite the vitality he showed, the power in his speech, he was still an old man. An old man with sore hands. He bent over slightly, clutching one hand in the other, rubbing his fingers. After a moment he looked up at Lissa.

“I will blame that on the circumstances.” he hissed. “Go, talk to Lord Mintas. He'll tell you it's all true... Talk to your mother, Lord Mintas said she would agree to it.”

Lissa turned, swung open the door and ran back downstairs, not even thinking to check at Luc's door. She slipped halfway down the stairs, and slid down the rest of the way, bruising her leg badly. She ignored the noise she made, stood up and ran into the kitchen. She had expected it to be empty, but to her surprise, her mother was there. She was looking out the window which looked out into the darkened back garden . She turned around as Lissa entered the room.

“Mom... “ Lissa whimpered. She closed the door, leaned against it and slipped to the floor, slowly starting to sob. Her mother was at her side in an instant. Her arms wrapped around Lissa's shoulders, comforting her.

“It's ok.” She whispered.

“It's not!” Lissa sobbed, “You don't know what he said. What he wanted-” She cut herself off with sobbing.

“It's ok.” her mother said, rubbing her back slowly. “Lawson isn't the nicest man, I've been told, but he'll take care of you. You'll be safe and provided for, and-”

Lissa slowly pushed her mother away from her. Between sobs, she took deep breaths to calm herself. “...What?”

“...Lissa.”

“You knew?”

“Of course I knew.” she said, “Lord Mintas told me to tell you but...”

“You agreed with it?!”

“Of course I did.” She said, raising herself up a little, taking her hands from Lissa's shoulders. “Do you think I've not seen how you've been treated here?”

“How I'm treated here? I'm a servant in a respectable house! That's worse than being some man's whore?”

“You're tormented every day. No one respects you... No one respects me here, but you at least have this chance to leave. You can go to Rawlins with Lawson, and-”

“And be his whore.”

“...would you rather be a whore to the men around here?”

“What's wrong with being a servant?”

Lissa's mother stood up, brushed her dress off, and started to walk away from her, towards their room, “Sooner or later... you'll be expected to be someone's mistress. If you're working for a man, and he wants you, there's little else we can do.” She said. “Us?... We're lucky we have what we do.”

“We are lucky! That's why I can stay here! I don't' have to run off and be Lawson's little servant. I can stay here, and take care of the house, like you! You're not anyone's whore!”

There was a moment of silence that Lissa didn't expect, a moment where her words suddenly seemed very far away, as though, in her mind, she had spoken them years ago, and now they still echoed in her head.

“You're not...are you?”

“...I, like every woman, do what I have to do.”

“You... I can't believe...” sudden shock turned to rage. “You... and Lord Mintas?!”

“Her mother turned back to Lissa in one quick movement, “Yes, me and Lord Mintas.” she snapped, “You want to know why I agreed to you going with Lawson? Because otherwise you would be here, with Lord Mintas, or Luc whenever Luc decided that he had the right to you.”

Lissa slowly pulled herself to her feet. Her mother came over to her, and in a much gentler manner held her shoulder. Lissa shrugged her off quickly, gaining a strange, surprised look from her mother, as though she had just done something so terrible that her mother was having a hard time deciding if it really happened.

“You're a whore.” Lissa muttered

The slap happened quickly, and Lissa felt one of her mothers fingernails scratch her cheek. She kept her head turned to the side. She didn't want to look at her mother.

“Fine. I'm a whore.” she said. “I did what I had to to keep a roof over our heads, to make sure we had food. To make sure that you didn't have to beg in the streets, and do who knows what for anyone offering you a slice of bread!”

“I wouldn't do such things.”

“You haven't been hungry. You might be too young to remember before we left home and came here, too young to remember me giving you the only loaf of bread we had, and you complaining because it was too dry. Too young to remember me going three days without any food, just so you could have crumbs. Me sleeping through cold winter nights without blankets so you could have that extra bit of comfort. You remember dull food and chilly nights. I remember starving, and half freezing to death so that you wouldn't.” She turned away from Lissa, walked back to the door, but before she left the room, she stopped, “You can call me a whore if you want. You see what happens to you when you're hungry and cold. If you don't want that to happen, then go with Lawson. Being his comfortable mistress is better than being a half-starved whore on the streets.”

“It's sick.”

“It's called desperation. I'd hate to see you face it.” She opened the door, slipped inside, and closed it firmly behind her. Lissa thought she heard the click of the latch, locking her out, but she couldn't be sure. She stood up, and made a tentative step towards the door to check, but stopped. She didn't know if she wanted to know if it was locked or not. She didn't even know if she wanted to be in the same room as her mother. She certainty didn't want to be in the same house as Lawson, and Lord Mintas. In a state that to her felt like she was still half asleep, she made her way to the servant's exit, and very quietly stepped out into the night.

On the other side of the village, just on the edge of the forest, was a small, abandoned shack. The shutters on the windows were rotting, and falling off their hinges while in a single window, the remains of a curtain fluttered in the wind. Grasses grew high around the house, coming up to Lissa's waist. Young trees struggled to grow tall and expand the forest in the surrounding area. What was once a garden was now a cluster of wild and untamed flowers, mixed with those few cultivated blooms that managed to hold their own against nature. The walls of the stone house were covered in moss and vines, decorated in large spider webs which glittered in the moonlight as the artists sat in wait of prey.

“Home.” Lissa muttered. She had not returned here since her mother had taken her away. She remembered hard times too, though not as bad as her mother had said they were. She remembered days eating nothing but bread. She remembered cold nights, and silent days where her mother alternated between sobbing and staring out the window. Lissa had had no desire to return, not until now. Not until she had found herself wandering the edge of the village, facing the chill of the night air alone, afraid to go home, afraid to wander into the village proper, for fear of seeing someone. She remembered the boy who's mother's called her mother a whore. She had not known the reason for her cruelty at the time, but now she did. Now she realized that it wasn't cruelty, it was her telling the truth.

She needed to go somewhere where she was out of the cold, away from people. She just wanted some solitude, some silence. Perhaps if she could have a few moments to just think in peace, things would make sense. Nothing made sense now.

She pulled the rotting door open, cringing as the hinges howled out. She let it hang halfway open before slipping in.

It was not as she had expected.

She had expected dirt and dust, the leaves of the Falls past littering the ground and rotting. She had expected bugs and rats. But instead, the inside seemed to have been kept at least semi-habitable. Dirt and dead leaves were swept off to a side. A rickety table was in the center, littered with old bottles. Several old mugs sat upside-down on the table. Curious, Lissa wandered over and lifted the cup. There was nothing underneath, but she could smell old wine off it. She set the cup back to it's place and went over to the fireplace. It too seemed to have been used recently. Fresh black ash was piled up, turning the already dark and cold fireplace into a deep black hole. She set her fingers into the fireplace, and brought them out. Her fingertips were black. She rubbed her thumb over the silken ashes, and spread them over her fingers.

'Whose been using this place.' She though, 'runaways? Homeless people?' she shot a glance at the bottles on the table, 'Drunks?'

She got up and went to what used to be her mothers room. She opened the door and quickly realized that whoever it was was only using the main room. Her mother's room was covered in dust and dirt and rotting leaves. Something scurried out of her vision, and from a hole in the rotten floor, the beginnings of a small tree were growing.

Before she had time to contemplate this, she heard the front door creak. She stifled a small gasp, and hid herself in the darkness of the room, pushing the room door closed, save for a small crack. She kneeled down in the dirt and tried to make out the figures moving in the darkness. Someone was thrown to the floor as someone else set something on the table with a soft thud. A moment passed, and a small, clay lantern on the table which was shaped like a small wolf glowed with light, illuminating the room, spilling light onto Ghant's face as he set down a tinderbox next to a small, clay lantern which was shaped like a small wolf. He turned around to the group that had been with him earlier, and smirked as they stood over Luc, who was bound at the wrists, laying still on the floor.

-M.K.Barry

Chapter 2: Trinkets ........ Chapter 4: Cornered