Friends and Enemies (Gwen Farris Book 5) (11 page)

The staff wasn't going to leave her hungry for too long, she didn't think. It wasn't so much that they were speedy however. It was more to the point that Gwen wasn't going to get herself together inside forty minutes. She had to shower, dress and slap on some makeup. That all took time, especially the last bit. She wasn't very good at it, and tended to skimp, but it
had
to be done. Each day, too. Going down earlier without anything on would pretty much be her admitting that she was sick. Too worn down to care about life. So if she didn't do at least a bit, Gwen would probably end up in the hospital, to rest.

That was what she was doing then, when she heard the screaming start. The sound was incredibly out of place, given that no one was supposed to be undergoing any Westmorland training that she knew of, that day.

Running, her skirt getting in the way, she headed toward the noise. It probably wasn't sane, but she didn't even consider that most people would have frozen in place. The voice was male, she thought. Not Winslow, or Peter. She would have recognized it if it were one of them. Besides, Pete was in the hall with her, carrying a crin, before she was halfway to the stairs.

Heather was behind them, having started her shower after they had, it seemed, given that her hair was down and all wet. She had on a loose shirt, which was damp too, which hugged her fit body, and held a PC in her left hand as she padded down the hallway barefoot.

Not knowing what they were going to run into, Gwen started to call out suggestions.

"Pete, stay back... and cover me. Heather, get about ten feet back, and stay to the left. I'll try to deal with this alone first. If the attacker is armed, I'll duck."

It turned out to be a moot point.

When they all got out front, they found that it was Winslow that was helping a strange man make the noise. He had the fellow, who was thin, and in a nice suit of shiny cotton, by the arm. It was gold and copper colored stripes, which made the slightly older guy on the ground look a bit like a tacky sofa.

Winslow was using a move that she'd taught him, an arm bar with a wrist lock added for the pain of it. That part was totally working.

Gwen stopped in place and held up her right hand.

"Um... Charles? Are we just torturing newsies today? Not that I can't get behind that, but Will here isn't exactly the
worst
of them. I have a list, up in my room, if you're looking for something to do?"

There was a grunt, from the butler. That was strange enough that Gwen nearly didn't get it at first.

"This is... A private matter, Miss Farris. I'm sorry that we disturbed you."

"Oh? All right. Um, maybe you should let him go now though? Unless..." She floundered for a moment, since she couldn't imagine how in the world the whole thing could be a
personal
thing. That didn't seem right.

Selling information came to mind, if Winslow was trying to do that. The man not meeting the right price, might make that happen, but that didn't seem like something Charles would do.

No one else seemed to know what to do either, but they kept coming into the front of the house. Finally, with half the staff standing there, Beth and Ethyl in the back of the group, Will Werner explained.

It had already gotten his arm broken, by the sound of it, but the newsie went on.

"I was just...
Agh
! Just asking if he knew about his sister and Katherine Vernors twisted relationship.
Ah
! It came up, earlier, at work, and might help me out of a jam there."

There was a twisting motion then, meant to silence the man. It was pretty clear the Winslow did know all about what Kate and his sister had gotten up to, once upon a time.

Gwen shrugged.

"What about it? They dated. That wasn't
me
, but even if it was, I don't see the issue here. Certainly not one that deserves
this
kind of treatment, Charles. I know that Deborah is your sister, but this is a bit much, isn't it? She's more out than anyone else I've ever met here." Gwen was trying to seem sensible about the whole thing, but knew that it might end up being a real problem for them all, given that Will could press charges. It was technically considered wrong to suppress the news there, if you used violence for it. Even if the Vernors used their clout to cover the whole thing up, the man could just turn around and go on the air with it all.

It was, most likely, why most newsies were still alive. It couldn't be how well loved they were.

Will looked at her and made a face. It was much different than she would have expected. Annoyed, but not angry. Gwen would have been pissed, if it had been her favorite arm.

"See Charlie? I
told
you she wouldn't be a problem about it. Why couldn't you see that
before
you broke my arm? Miss
Farris
is always so reasonable about this kind of thing. I have to give my boss something though, and it was this story specifically, or being fired for us being together. I rather need my job."

Gwen felt baffled for a moment, and shook her head several times before she worked it out.

"Wait... Charles, are you beating up your
boyfriend
?"

"Yes, Miss." His voice was tight, and angry still. Possibly slightly embarrassed.

"Oh. Well... Let him go. That's just
wrong
. I can't get behind domestic violence, even if he is a newsie. Come on everyone. Let's go inside and work this out. Peter, you're the resident healer here. I'm sure you can practice on Will." Then she walked inside, not even looking back.

People were weird, so she really shouldn't be surprised by them.

She almost always was though.

Chapter five

The thin boy, dark hair neatly combed, face washed to un-pimpled dewy perfection, and looking spiffy from his shower, if that was a thing, got to work right away. From what he was muttering it seemed that Will Werner, WGN Newsie in the seven o'clock time slot, had a
dislocated
arm, not a broken bone.

"Which is good,
and
bad." The kid didn't explain it quickly, his face closing into a focused and locked expression. One that indicated he was working on a deeper level at that moment than Gwen thought she could really match. That the kid was able to do something she couldn't wasn't exactly hard for her to imagine. Her entire life had been filled with other people being better than she was.

She was just about to ask why that was, a dislocation being both things at once, when he spoke, seeming annoyed. Like she'd already bothered him with the idea, or something.

"It takes longer to heal tendons, because the structure is more delicate. Bone is faster, since throwing raw force at it works, as long as there's enough of the proper building resources in the system. That requires more energy on the healer's part. Really, we
should
just stabilize him and send him off to hospital for a stay. That, or kill him, and hide the body, since he's trying to extort us. I get reward time for this, right? That's the important part. I could hide the body instead?" There was a slightly desperate feeling to the words, as if he were a junky, looking for his fix. One willing to do
anything
to get it. Which of course, he was. Peter Westmorland was hopelessly hooked on the pleasure device.

Thankfully the magical creation, a thing that she'd designed, or helped come up with anyway, wasn't a thing that was available on the street. If that ever happened, a lot of people would probably die. It was
way
too powerful. So much so that Gwen, who'd had a single ten second hit, one time, still wouldn't trust herself to have control over the thing. As it stood, she would have helped hide Will's body for the promise of a fix. That wasn't a good thing to know about yourself.

Pete had been hooked up to the thing for hours now, if you added the time up. Mainly as a reward for doing what his trainer asked of him. It didn't really matter if it was possible, either. Once hooked, a person on the pleasure unit would do
anything
to get more. Including beg. Wheedling wasn't out either, but so far the kid hadn't tried that with her, since it wouldn't work.

"Not for this, but if you can help me learn to make radiatives quickly without being tortured into it, or using the reward device, I'll make sure you get a full hour." She could back that up, she thought, but doubted that the kid would be able to figure out how to do it any time soon. If he could though, it might be worth it.

He just shrugged.

"
Two
hours reward time, and I'll have you up to speed in a week. You don't like sleep, do you?" He was being cute about it, she decided, but nodded back at him, which was pretty much ignored, the thin and slightly thin haired Will wincing in pain as the work took place.

"Not so much. Nightmares, ever since." It was a statement, and no one in the room asked what the event was that had started it. They knew.

Even the newsie had a good idea, she didn't doubt. Will took the chance to address her, through his gritted teeth, explaining what was going on. It was good of him, since she really wasn't up to speed on it all. No one else was saying much, which was a major problem in her life in this new world. Somehow, they all got it, or pretended to, and Gwen simply didn't. She was
expected
to follow all the rules, but they didn't just let you know what they were. You had to kind of absorb the information as a child, she guessed.

 That was a thing she just couldn't match, not having been a kid for thirty-odd years now. Not that young of one.

Will was a slightly gray man at the best of times, and had never struck her as particularly gay. Then again Winslow was actually manly, in a slightly distinguished fashion. An abusive asshole, too, it seemed, given how he'd just been torturing his boyfriend. Probably
ex-boyfriend
, now. That was sad, since it had to be hard to get together that way when there was such a small pool of like minded people in the area.

What the newsie did well however was
talk
. He did it then, so clearly attempting to save his own butt it wasn't even funny.

"My boss, Mr. Clements, found out about my...
Lifestyle
, and decided to fire me over it. If that happens I'll never work in the industry ever again, being a pervert like I am. I managed to get him to back away from that with a promise of having a story that was so big no one would pass it up. The thing there is that I really don't have anything, do I? I remembered Charles mentioning his sister and you had a thing once, a few years ago, and thought that might do the trick, so I mentioned it to Clements, if-" He was punched in the face then.

Rather, Winslow had moved in to do that, with a speed that should have connected solidly, only to have Peter block it instantly. He was working and his job was to heal Will. Letting him be hurt more would make that harder. He might not have been the larger man, but Peter was several times the fighter that Winslow was. Given that Charles was ex-Special Forces, or this world's version of it.

Gwen waved Charles back, before he pushed it too much and got hurt.

"Easy there. We have a problem, that's all. I'm sure there's some kind of a way around this."

Everyone in the room looked upset, including Will, but he wasn't even glancing at Charles, almost like he'd missed the idea of what had just happened. Given that Winslow wasn't an evil abuser as far as she knew, the whole thing had to be bigger than she thought, didn't it?

'I'll say it is. If this becomes known, about Deborah and I, then it will harm my parents a lot. The bit about Winslow and Werner would as well. They aren't doing too well socially at the moment, and having a hired man that likes other men is basically an admission that father enjoys a bit of the boys at times. It isn't true, but that's what will be said. If you come forward and toss me under the lorrie, then.'
She came to a dead stop in Gwen's mind, then carried on, her tone a bit more thoughtful than was normal.
'You know, we may as well. People know about Erin and I. Deborah is a rather noted and hated tribast, so no one will be harmed on that side of things. It will still damage my parents, but not nearly as much. No one will make claims of father being a pervert, just a poor parent. More of the same is better than a new and false charge.'

Gwen had to make some guesses then. Tribast
probably
meant lesbian, for instance. That was just a language difference that was the kind of thing she tried to pay attention to.

The other shot in the dark she took was a bigger one, and didn't have a psychic connection as far as she could tell. There was no sense of pressure in her head to give that away, but the whole thing was just timed a bit too closely for it to be random, wasn't it?

Gwen looked at Beth and then Ethyl.

"So, no matter what's done here, Ethyl and Robert will look bad? Almost like this is actually an attack on them?
That
sounds familiar, doesn't it?"

A bit of a backing up, away from murder for hire to trying to make someone look bad, but there was a thread to it that might be followed. Bethany tilted her head anyway, thinking about it all, then seeming to agree.

"I can see it as possible. It might pay to find who informed this Mr. Clements of the facts in this case. We don't have enough facts however. There is also an immediate problem here. If we allow Will and Charles to be made public, then the wash will fall in the laps of the Vernors immediately. If you step forward, it will slosh over toward them, their daughter being made into an object of scorn once again. Worse, it infects you either way, by association." Her saying it got everyone to seem sad, for some reason. Gwen snorted.

She was copying Kate, but did a great job of it.

"This
isn't
that big of an issue. We'll just go and chat with this Mr. Clements. I'm sure he can be bought off, if we throw enough mets his way. If that doesn't work, well, then I'll call in some favors. I think Ferdinand will help out, if I ask him. Chris might, too." One was the King, the other a Duke, and on top of that, they both liked her for some reason. "I'm sure that the three of us can take this guy, if we put our minds to it."