11.
Jessamine hit the front door at a dead run and it was only by luck that her hands hit the metal push plate instead of the plate glass window beside it.  The door flew open and the hydraulic arm at the top caught it before it hit the wall, saving her from a face full of broken glass.
The bar was empty.  One of Samantha’s precious bottles of good whiskey was spilled on the floor and the mirror behind the bar was smudged with fingerprints.  That meant that at least she wouldn’t have to worry about Elizabeth, on top of everything else.  The old vixen was stubborn when she was drunk, and Jess wasn't in the mood for arguing.  Smoke poured down the stairs from the common rooms and she could hear the excited shouts of the girls, most of whom had just woken up, more clearly than she liked.  She hoped that they would have the sense to go down the back stairs like they were supposed to so she wouldn’t have to waste time trying to herd them out herself.
She was aware that the rabbit had followed her in.  She half turned to tell him to leave.  Visitors weren't allowed in the House after hours and the presence of an outsider could cause trouble.  But she had bigger things than him on her mind at the moment, and she couldn't imagine that he'd do much harm.  So when she reached the bottom of the stairs and his hand closed around her arm, she jumped and whirled on him, snarling.  He held up his hands and crouched a bit, but he didn't back away.
“Take it slow,” he said “Feel your way, and make sure you know what you’re stepping on.  Never run into a fire or you’re the one who’ll end up needing to be rescued.”
“Yes, I know,” she said.
When she turned back around to go up the stairs, he grabbed her tail.  It was embarrassment that stopped her more than the sudden pain.  She wanted to scream or bite him, but she knew that he was right and she wasn’t thinking properly.  She took a deep breath, heedless of the smoke in the air, and shook her head to clear it.
“This is my home.  I have to save it,” she said.
“ We'll do it togther.  I need you to find Heather, my niece.  I’ve never been further than the bar,” he said.
They went up the stairs a step at a time, pausing before each one so Jess could slide one foot over the top to check whether it was hot.  This was complicated by the fact that carpet was still warm from the fire that Samantha had built in the hearth downstairs.  But none of the steps were above body warmth, so she guessed they were okay.  The rabbit kept his hand on her back, just beneath her shoulder blades, to keep her steady.  If she fell, she knew he would catch her.  It felt strange to put that kind of trust in someone else, but it made her feel a little better.
They found Heather at the top of the stairs.  She was the same color as her uncle, which made her hard to miss in the red-carpeted hallway, in spite of all the smoke.  The girl was crouched down in the doorway of her room, and she looked paralyzed with fear, the way rabbits sometimes got.  She gazed off down the hall and her eyes were dull and filled with tears from the smoke.  Heather raised her head when they started down the hall towards her, but Jess couldn’t tell if she was seeing them or not.  The girl was mostly naked, wearing nothing but her panties and her black leather House collar. The first thing they taught you in a House was that you were safe, as long as you had your collar on.
Jess could all but feel the sharpness of the rabbit's anger as his fist clenched and his eyes filled with tears.  The sight of them woke Heather up and brought her to her feet in the kind of fluid movement that was probably the whole reason she’d ended up in a House at all.
“Oh, Jessie.  There you are.  And you brought Uncle Julius with you.  I didn’t think you knew him,” she said.
She took a step forward but her feet tangled on each other and she fell forward into Jess’s arms.  She was taller than Jess was by more than a foot, and quite a bit heaver heavier, and Jess thought she was going to fall down with her until Julius put his arms around both of them.
“I was just passing, and it’s a lucky thing for you that I was.  What on earth were you thinking, staying up here like this?  Why didn’t you run out with the rest of them?” he said.
“Because I had to stay here to make sure everyone was out, like Miss Samantha asked me to.  She went away because she said she had things to do, but I hadn’t seen Jessie yet,” Heather said.
“That was foolish.  You don’t ever have to risk your life like this for anyone, not ever.  Not even Lady Elizabeth can ask you to do that.  Not even me,” Jess said.
Jess helped the girl get her balance, then swung her gently over to the side so that her uncle could catch her and she could get free.  She made it two steps down the hall this time before she felt the tingle at the base of her spine that told her someone was going to pull her tail again.  She whipped it out of reach, wrapped it tight around her waist and put her back to the wall.  She was beginning to feel a little light-headed herself, and she didn't have any patience left for games.
“I had to.  She said I was to stay and tell you that you had to go upstairs and get your nutmeg.  I don't know what she meant.  I think she was drunk, but she made me promise I would,” Heather said.
“You mean the new girl?  Why, what’s happened to her?” Jess said.
She was aware of her lips trying to curl back into a snarl again and that the rabbits were retreating towards the stairs now because of her.  She held up her hands the way Julius had done, and tried to soften her expression into a smile.
“Get her away from here.  Take her downstairs and get out of the city.  Nobody will know who she is if you take the collar off and keep your heads down, and they say that if you can get south of Shelby's Ford, you’re safe,” Jess said.
“What about you?  What are you going to do?” Heather said.
“That's my problem.  Go on,” Jess said.
She left the rabbits at the top of the stairs and ran to the other end of the hall.  There were stairs there that went up to the white room though they were hardly ever used anymore, and the door at the top had been painted shut several times.  The smoke was thicker on this end of the House and it stung her eyes and filled her nose.  She pulled the collar of her shirt up over her muzzle to try to filter some of it out, but that wouldn’t work for long.
She had just enough self control left to walk up the stairs instead of running, but she didn’t trust her balance anymore, and with no one to support her she had to climb normally and hope that nothing collapsed under her.
She was winded by the time she reached the top of the stairs and her vision was so badly blurred with tears that she couldn’t see more than vague shapes in front of her.  She was sure that the door was stuck because of all the paint slathered over it, but when she leaned on it to catch her breath it swung open and tumbled her backwards onto the thick carpet of the white room.  
It was cooler on the other side.  Someone had broken the windows, to judge from the feel of the cold wind that seemed sharper now than it had outside.  She rolled over onto her stomach and crawled towards where she knew the bed was, afraid that she would faint if she stopped.  She sniffed, trying to find Megan by smell, but her nose was still too clogged with the stink of the smoke.
“Megan, if you’re awake, if you can hear me, we need to go.  Right now,” she said.
She didn’t get an answer and she hadn’t expected one.  She hoped it was because the girl had been smart enough to climb out a window.  When she was halfway across the room, someone grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up onto the bed.  They swiped at her eyes with a rough cloth and sighed in her ear.
“Good morning, Miss Bryar.  You know, you’re the last person on earth I wanted to see today.  It's going to be all I can do to get your little girlfriend out of here, so tell me I’m not going to have to carry you too,” Sarah said.
Jess did her best to jerk away but Sarah still had an arm around her, which was just as well.  It was going to be a minute before her vision cleared.
“I think we may have gotten lucky this time.  There’s lots of smoke, but the fire itself doesn’t seem to be moving very fast.  Maybe someone just wants to scare you, or remind you of your place in the world.  Not that I suspect you'll let this stop you.  You'll be glad to know all the girls got out in time,” Sarah said.
“That must be disappointing for you,” Jess said.
She shoved at Sarah again, and this time the girl let her go.  Jess's knees wobbled, and she almost fell, but she forced herself to stay up.
“Are we going to go through this every time we meet?  Because we really don’t have time for this right now,” Sarah said.
The girl waved a hand at the nearest window.  Now that her vision was coming back to her, Jess could see the top of the rope ladder that had been hooked to the windowsill.
“That’s convenient, isn’t it?  And the rest of the time, you just wear it like a belt, right?” she said.
“I know it looks bad, but we are on your side here, I promise,” Sarah said.
Sarah pushed Jess towards the window and Jess went along with it enough to get a leg swung out over the sill, and a foot fitted onto the top rung.  While Sarah was leaning over the check that the ladder was safe, Jess grabbed the collar of her shirt.
“If you mean that, tell me where Megan is,” she said.
Sarah patted her hand in what Jess thought was an insulting manner and smiled.
“She’s outside, with Catherine.  She’s safe and waiting for you.  Now go on,” Sarah said.
Jess let go of her and climbed down quickly, in case the skunk got it in her head to try something.  The rope swayed dangerously under her and it banged into the side of the House twice, pinching her fingers and scraping her knuckles, but she made it down safely, and by the time her feet were on the bottom rung she was nearly back to normal.
As promised, Megan was at the bottom of the ladder, so close to the House that Jess nearly stepped on her when she dismounted.  The girl sat on top of the bag that held all of Jess’s clothes and blew on her hands to keep them warm.  She gave Jess a little wave with three fingers and scooted over to make room on the bag.
“I’ll give you this, Miss Mousey.  It's impossible to be bored around you,” Megan said.
“Have they hurt you?” Jess said.
“Oh, no.  They scared the life out of me when they came through the window and I bit Catherine on the leg when I woke up.  But I think they think they’re helping us,” said Megan.
“Do you?  What if they’re the ones who set the fire?  The skunk said everyone got out, but I’m not going to take her word for it,” Jess said.
“They couldn’t have done it.  They were upstairs before any of us smelled smoke.  They just came to steal me,” Megan said.
“Well, that makes everything okay, doesn’t it.  They couldn’t have possibly set the fire to cover it up, now could they?” Jess said.
“We didn’t.  I know you’re used to thinking the worst of people because you’re so often right, but Megan smelled the smoke before we did, and she told us about it.  As for stealing her, isn’t that what you’re trying to do, too?” Catherine said.
The chunky red wolf came out of the shadows by the wall of the House and put a hand on Jessamine's shoulder.  There were streaks of soot in her fur and she stank of more smoke, though some of that had to do with the cigarette that dangled from the corner of her mouth.  She held the pack up in mute offering, and Jess took one.
“She’s my student.  That makes it a little bit different,” Jess said.
“Yes, it does.  It means you’ll spend the rest of your life as a House girl because they'll set your price so high only God could pay it,” said Catherine.
“I already will,” said Jess.

There was a fire brigade in Jaspertree, because too many rich merchants had their storehouses in old wooden buildings, but it had suffered budget problems from the start because those same merchants were loathe to spend money on anything that might help other people too.  Things had gotten to bad that now the brigade was made up of a single pump wagon and the dozen or so volunteers who knew how to run it.  By the time they arrived, with two of the volunteers standing on top of the wagon with bells to clear the crowd, it was too late for them to do much good.  The fire had spread through the entire bottom floor of the House and the heat was so intense that Jess thought it would singe her fur from all the way across the street.  She stood on the sidewalk where Catherine had left her, unable to force herself to leave.  Megan stood next nearby with the small bag that held everything the two of them owned slung over her shoulder and one hand on Jess’s arm.
“I wish I could be sorry, because I know it was your home,” Megan said.
“No you don't.  I'm not,” Jess said, but the lie sounded weak even to her.
The fire team tried anyway, if only for the sake of the buildings around the House.  They positioned their wagon, very optimistically Jess thought, across from the front door and strung a hose out to a covered well that had been dug for that purpose.  Two of the volunteers opened a wooden box at the back of the wagon passed out a supply of  leather buckets to recruits picked at random from the crowd around them.  The bucket carriers ran for the docks on Gold Street to fetch water.  Jess wondered how many of them would bother to come back.
It took them a long minute to work up enough pressure with the pump.  The engine, which was used infrequently, kept malfunctioning and the only repair any of its operators seemed to know was to hit it with something until it started working again.  In that time part of the upstairs floor split and collapsed into the front room.  The plate glass window, already cracked from the heat, burst outward and showered sparks and broken glass across the street.  The firefighters scattered, some ducking under the  engine, and the crowd fell back.
Jess still couldn’t bring herself to move, but Megan solved that problem for her.  The girl pulled her backward without her help, swinging her around so they were facing the other way.  Megan hunched over her, and Jess heard the girl hiss in pain when the shower of glass hit them.  The shards hit the ground and the wall of the building in front of them, and Jess let out a sob before she could bite it back.
“You’re crying?  I would have thought you’d be glad to see the place go up in flames,” Megan said.
“I knew how to live there,” Jess said.
She took the bag from Megan’s shoulder and knelt on the sidewalk to paw through it.  The bag, and the clothes that were in it, still smelled of the perfume and dust of the Silver Street House.  Most of things they'd saved were whatever rags Megan had grabbed before she fled, but Megan had remembered to take the new brown dress.  Jess pulled the dress on over the shirt she was already wearing and moved what she could from the bag to her pockets.
“As long as I had Silver Street, I had somewhere I was grounded.  I knew what to do and where to go next.  Now, all of that's gone and I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said.
“You could run away,” Megan said.
	This time she didn’t flinch under Jess’s glare.
“It won’t work.  I keep trying to tell you that,” Jess said.
“Have you ever actually tried?  Of course that’s what they’re going to tell you, and then they’re only going to mention the girls who get caught.  As if they’re the only ones who ran away.  That's how they control you.  Do you really think they can keep track of every girl in every House that well?” Megan said.
	“As much as all of us are worth?  Marcus is where he is today because he’s not an idiot,” Jess said.
	“While at the same time he seems to be perfectly content to watch you get burned up in a fire.  Or do you really think that a city that’s rich enough to burn gas lamps all night is too poor to buy a fire engine that actually works?” Megan said.
	Megan waved a hand in the direction of the pump wagon just as the engine stopped again and threw up a cloud of smoke of its own.  Its operators abandoned it and the recruits who had come back with their buckets full of water tossed their burdens in through the broken window and ran after the firefighters.
	“If you go right now, who will know?  We could throw your collar into the fire as we go.  Miss Mousie would be dead and you could go anywhere you wanted,” Megan said.
	Jess’s hand went involuntarily to her throat and her fingers closed around the leather collar she’d worn since she was thirteen.  It was the first thing she put on every morning and the only thing she'd ever been sure belonged to her.  She couldn’t imagine ever being without it.
	“Your friends can take care of themselves.  This might be the only opportunity you get,” Megan said.
	“It’s a nice dream, but even if I had anywhere to go I don’t have any way to get there.  If I just walk out the front gate, someone will see me,” Jess said.
	“That's where Sarah and her friend come in.  They've got a ship for us,” Megan said.
	There was another crash from the House as the rest of the roof fell in and Jess snarled with disgust.
	“I’m sick of people poking their noses in where they aren’t needed.  I don’t want to see either of those girls again,” she said.
	“Then now would not be a good time to turn around,” Megan said.
	Jess did anyway, because she couldn’t help herself.  Catherine and Sarah were behind her, both of them streaked with soot and so tired they had to hold on to each other to stay upright.  Sarah had her arms around Catherine’s waist and she looked too cheerful for someone who had been up all night.  Catherine’s right hand was wrapped in strips of bloodstained gauze, with just her fingers left free.
	“You've got a damn good friend there, Miss Bryar,” Sarah said.
	“She got stubborn and refused to climb out the window until we agreed to find you, too,” Catherine said.
	“It isn’t that often that you hear of someone who’s willing to think of other people before themselves, and I doubt there’s a female in the city who hasn’t seen herself winding up in a House at some point.  I've had nightmares about it since I was nine years old,” Sarah said.
	“I hate ships.  I hate running away.  I’ve never run from anything in my life,” Jess said.
	“Then this will be a new experience for you.  It was President Keppler who started this fire, you know that,” Catherine said.
	“But what about Elizabeth?  She’s too old to survive out on the street, and there isn’t anywhere for her to go.  I’m not going to leave her to starve,” Jess said.
	“She's tougher than you think, and she's not going to be alone.  You aren't the only friend she has,” Catherine said.
Megan put her hands on Jess’s shoulders and slid them up to the back of her neck.  The girl's hands twisted, and Jess shivered at the sudden chill on her neck as her collar slipped away.  She spun around and made a grab for it, but Megan raised her arms over Jess’s head and threw it over to Catherine.  The wolf caught it and stepped behind Sarah while Megan put her arms around Jess.  Sarah hooked Jess’s bag of clothes with her foot and kicked it over to Catherine, who dropped the collar inside.
“You give that back.  I’m not going anywhere and you have no right to take my collar away,” Jess said.
“Your friends are smart.  They know what kind of trouble you’re in and I don’t think they would want you to stay, either.  Anyone else would be grateful,” Catherine said.
She picked up the bag and walked into the middle of the street.  The whole House was an inferno now, and the outside walls were leaning dangerously inward in several places.  Jess twisted out of Megan's grip and lunged for Catherine, who raised the bag up over her head.  Then Sarah was there, and the skunk grabbed Jess around her waist as she passed.  Sarah stood up, a little awkwardly because Jess squirmed in her arms and bit the first thing her mouth could reach, which turned out to be Megan’s wrist, but she couldn’t fight both of them.  Megan yanked her arm free but managed to grab Jess before she could wiggle free and she wound up with her legs draped over Sarah’s shoulders and the rest of her over Megan’s.
“Not my collar.  Don’t let her burn that.  Let me keep that one thing,” Jess said “I need something I can hold on to.”
“We can’t.  Not if we’re going to keep you hidden,” Sarah said.
With her chest pressed painfully into Megan’s shoulder, and her eyes still dazzled from the light of the fire, she couldn’t see where they were taking her.  But she could feel the cold coming back as they moved away from what was left of the Silver Street House, and she could feel wet flakes of snow settling in her fur.  Megan was petting her neck and muttering something in her ear, but she was too tired now to care.