28
	Thomas' camp was deep in the forest, and rather than being set up in one large clearing it was set up in three.  There was a long central tent which, he had explained, served as a hospital and a meeting place for what leaders they had.  Jess bit her tongue at that, to keep herself from laughing and embarassing him.  The rest were set up in a sort of lopsided triangle around it, and none of the spots were visible from any of the others.  He took them to the western point of the triangle, which was the part of the camp deepest inside the trees, and after a brief tour he left them to wait in a spare tent.
	The tent was spacious, by the standards of housing in Jaspertree, with enough room for two narrow cots separated by the central support pole.  It was warmed by a small kerosene stove which was set up on a tripod so it wouldn't burn through the heavy canvas of the tent.  There was no hope of any privacy, but since Sebastian had already seen as much of her as he could have hoped for that wasn't much of a concern.
	“If you knew these people, why didn't you say so from the beginning?  It would have made things much easier,” Sebastian said.
	“Because I don't know them.  I only met Captain Thomas once, and then only briefly.  But he's a friend of Elizabeth's, so I suppose he's okay,” she said.
	“Elizabeth?” Sebastian said.
	“My House Mother.  She was a slave like the rest of us, but she was more or less in charge.  I think she was the one in charge of that first riot that got me out of the city,” Jess said.
	The light in the tent was pleasantly dim with the flap closed and the fire in the stove banked low.  She lay down on the cot furthest away from the entrance and curled up into a ball with her arms around her middle, and she did her best to ignore the hollow pain in the pit of her stomach.  She was hungry all the time now, and sometimes she though she could feel movement inside her, though she knew it was too early for that yet.  It was of little comfort to her to know that, even if she'd had time to look for Elizabeth, she wouldn't have found her.  The first trick any House girl picked up was how to dissapear when trouble was around.
	Sebastian sat down on the other cot with his hands folded in his lap and his long ears drooping.  He was a handsome buck, in an awkward sort of way, and when he had touched her he had been soft and kind in a way that had caught her off guard.  It was a pity he was far too young for her.
	“What are you going to do?” he said.
	“I'm going to get you to the city.  Then I'm going to find Megan and take her to Viridis like we planned.  I'm not going to get mixed up in some revolution that doesn't have a chance of working,” she said.
	If she had gone on to Viridis, she might have been able to get rid of the child.  There were doctors in Blackpool who were supposed to be good at that sort of thing and the church had no influence over the island.  There was no point in mourning the impossible, though.  If she had gone without Megan she never could have lived with herself.
	“You don't know that.  It could work,” Sebastian said.
	“Sure, it could.  It might rain peach wine tomorrow, too.  You don't think this is the only time people have ever tried this, do you?” Jess said.
	“So that's an excuse to give up?  To roll over and let Marcus do what he wants?  He's a monster,” Sebastian said.
	She shut her eyes against a stab of pain in her belly and wished she had kept her mouth shut.  On the trip from the clearing to the camp she had filled him in on as much of the recent events of her life as she'd thought he needed to know.  The legal system at home was a strange and mostly useless mess of paperwork, but it was likely she would be in trouble as soon as she set foot back in Jaspertree.
	“Go see your sister first.  She needs help, too, and she doesn't have an army to back her up,” she said.
	The tent flap opened and Thomas came in, carrying a tray that held a loaf of bread and what looked like a couple of pieces of dried fish.  He had a bottle of wine held under one arm and he grinned at her, like he thought she should be happy to see him.
	“Your boy has spirit.  That must be the wolf in him showing through,” Thomas said.
	“You think so?  It sounds more like empty male bravado to me,” Jess said.
	Sebastian's ears colored when Thomas laughed and he got up to tend to the stove, which was sputtering from a lack of fuel.  Thomas produced a trio of tin cups from one of his pockets and poured a generous amount of wine into each.
	“That's more than can be said for half of my soldiers here.  You, my cynical little flower, would fit in well with most of them,” he said.
	“Why are they here at all?  Back home, people hate the army as much as they do Marcus.  You aren't going to get any thanks,” Jess said.
	“That's why,” said Thomas.
	He drained his cup in three swallows, and one sniff of her share told her why.  The wine was cheap and watery, the kind of stuff you drank to get drunk, not to taste.  She wouldn't have drunk it anyway, but this gave her a convenient excuse.  It was slightly disconcerting, then, when she put the cup back down without tasting it, to look up and see him looking at her with a satisfied expression.
	“I have a surprise for you.  It's a bit too late, I guess, but I think you'll like it anyway,” Thomas said.
	He raised his head and yowled, a stuttering three-syllable sound that would have been soothing, except for the sparking of ancient instincts that made the fur rise on the back of her neck.  The call was answered by an irritated snort from just outside the flap, and Elizabeth came in, her nose wrinking at the smell of the wine.  The old vixen was dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and long pants, held up with a narrow belt.  Jess hadn't seen her wear anything but her old-fashioned dresses before and would never have imagined her in anything else.  The effect was so strange that she couldn't find her voice to speak, but she got up at once to give Elizabeth her place on the cot, and held her hand while she sat down.
	“Here you are, Jessie.  It took you a little longer than I thought it would to get back,” Elizabeth said.
	“I was halfway to Viridis when I heard.  I had to get them to let me off at Stone's Point, and catch a ship back,” Jess said.
	That had taken all the money she'd had, too, except for what she'd lost in Shelby's Ford.  Captain Gowan hadn't wanted to carry her because he knew what kind of trouble she was in.  That he had asked for money instead of something else had come as such a relief she'd paid what he asked without argument.
	“I remember when your mother came to Silver Street.  She was a sweet little doe, but she was the most foolish person I have ever met.  Until today.  Jessie, all that effort we went to, to get you away, and you came back?” Elizabeth said.
	“You told me to look after Megan, and that's what I intend to do.  I've never abandoned anyone in my life,” Jess said.
	She tore off a hunk of the bread, folded a piece of fish in it, and stuffed it in her mouth in an effort to avoid further conversation.  It didn't work.  All they did was watch her while she chewed, which made her nervous.
	“Where were you, after the riot?” she said, rounding on Elizabeth “I needed your help.”
	“I knew you could survive on your own for a while.  Some of the other girls couldn't,” Elizabeth said.
	“You scared me the life out of me.  For two months I thought you might be dead, and I had to hope that you were, rather than suffering because of me.  You couldn't have left a note?” Jess said.
	“No, I couldn't.  Not if I wanted there to be a future for us in the city.  If you'd think for a moment, you'd understand why,” Elizabeth said.
	“The House?” Jess said.
	Elizabeth nodded and picked up the cup of wine she had discarded.  She made a face at the smell, but drank it anyway and poured herself more from the bottle when Thomas pushed it over to her.
	“It was badly damaged, but not as much as it might have been.  A lot of the main structure is still solid, and I think it can be rebuilt.  I'd like to make it into a shelter house for all those girls who don't have anywhere else to go,” Elizabeth said.
	“But we have to get rid of Marcus, if we're going to do that.  And you're going to have to help us, if you want to find Megan again, too.  We think he has her,” Thomas said.
	Jess felt a sudden dizziness wash over her and her vision blurred.  When it cleared again, she stood over Thomas who was flat on his back with a hand over his muzzle.  Blood dripped between his fingers and she became aware of someone holding her arms pinned against her sides.  The fingers of her left hand hurt, like she had banged them into something, and she could feel Sebastian's breath on the back of her neck.
	“What do you mean he has her?  You should have told me that right away,” she said.
	“So you could hit me and go running off the get yourself in trouble again?  What do you think you can do, all by yourself?” Thomas said.
	“Maybe more than all of you sitting out here, doing nothing but hiding.  Do you have a plan at all?  A real one, not just getting a bunch of people together in the hopes that shouting loudly enough will make up for your lack of weapons?” Jess said.
	“I was trying to keep people from getting killed.  Most of them weren't soldiers, just decent people who had had enough,” Thomas said.
	“Well that certainly worked, didn't it?” Jess said.
	She shook Sebastian's hands away and grabbed for the bottle of wine.  Elizabeth lifted it out of Jess's reach and tucked it behind her after she had refilled her cup.
	“Use tact, I said.  You never listen to me, Thomas, and that's why you got hit.  How did you think the poor girl was going to react?” Elizabeth said.
	Thomas got up and dabbed at his muzzle with the tail of his shirt.  He winced and whined a little with the pain, but the cloth came away with only a few drops of blood.  Jess's claws were still blunt from years of habit, and the bleeding had already all but stopped.
	“I did use tact.  If I'm supposed to dance around the subject for an hour before I ever get to the point, we'll never get anything done,” Thomas said.
	“How do you know they have her?  Have you seen her?  Is she okay?” Jess said.
	“We don't know for certain.  The Scylla sank fast, taking most people on board down with it.  But a few of them got off, and some of them made it back to the city a few days ago.  They all say that the lifeboat with Captain Coburn and a tall, red-furred wolf was picked up by the ship that attacked them,” Thomas said.
	A stab of pain in her stomach made Jess groan, and she imagined she could feel something moving, twisting inside her.  Every bit of common sense she had told her that the only wise thing to do was run away.  There was no way she could stand up to Marcus, and if she tried both she and her unborn daughter would die.  It was time to think about the people she still could save.  Except that she knew Megan would come to find her without hesitation.
	“Even if I do agree to help you, and I haven't said yes yet, what can I do?  They don't teach whores how to fight back,” she said.
	“But nobody notices you, do they?” Thomas said.
	“Only when they want something from you,” Jess said.
	“I want to help,” Sebastian said.
	Elizabeth made a doubtful noise at the back of her throat, but Thomas grinned at the boy like he had just solved all of their problems.
	“Of course you do.  You're Robert Coburn's son, there's no doubt of that,” he said.
	“You say that like there aren't drawbacks to that fact,” Elizabeth said.
	Thomas ignored her and pushed Jess out of the way so he could paw at Sebastian, like the boy was a horse in the marketplace.  He grinned and patted Sebastian on the shoulder so much it made Jess wince.
	“You'd better think carefully about this, before you get into something you're not ready for,” she said.
	“I have thought about it.  If he has this girl, he might have my father too.  That makes it as much my business as anyone else's,” Sebastian said.
	“I don't like the idea of sending children to fight,” Elizabeth said.
	When Sebastian opened his mouth to protest, they both slapped a hand over his muzzle to stop him.  This made Elizabeth laugh, and she waved them away as she got up and limped over to look at Sebastian more closely.  He backed away from her as she approached, likely feeling that he had been prodded enough.  Jess stopped him by putting her hand on the small of his back, because there were some habits that were just too hard to break.
	“I'm not a child.  And I'll fight anyone you want,” he said.
	“To me you are, all of you are still children.  But I'm not going to ask you to fight anybody.  I'm going to ask you to do something much worse,” Elizabeth said.
	“We need someone who knows about ships, like your sister.  If you can find her, bring her back here.  Once we explain things to her, I'm sure she will be eager to help,”  Thomas said.