Josie woke up. Something smelled good. She sniffed the air. Someone was cooking. She hoped it wasn’t Jack.

She stretched and looked around. He wasn’t asleep in the room. He might be cooking after all.

She followed her nose downstairs to where the dungeons were. She still had to sort out the girls. Some of them were bound to want to go home.

She hoped they knew enough not to talk about what happened. The authorities, even the straight ones, were not likely to be happy with their vigilantism. And she had killed a watch captain in his quarters.

She found the bottom floor of the building had been changed out. She wondered how that had happened. The hardbitten girl stood there supervising as the other girls went about cleaning and putting things in place to turn the dungeon cells into real rooms. Windows had been poked through the walls to let in light. She nodded at the girls as she followed the smell to a room down toward where the door had been replaced by a sheet of metal with a lockbar in place.

A kitchen and pantry had been set up in that extra room. An older woman and two of the girls were cooking stew over a hearth.

“Hello, miss,” said one of the girls. “Jack said to let you sleep in.”

“The food?,” asked Josie.

“We raided a vendor in the market,” said the older woman. “Elaine Numera.”

“Josie Fox,” said Josie. She frowned at the woman. “I know you. You work at the Bell Tower.”

“The Bell Tower burned down last night while things were going on,” said Elaine. “Could you excuse us, girls? Mistress Fox and I need to talk for a moment.”

“All right,” said the older girl. She tugged the younger girl’s arm. “Let’s step

outside.”

Josie watched the girls leave. She went to the doorway to make sure they kept going. She turned to the new arrival.

“Jack hired me to help him collect information,” said Elaine. “He said you will be campaigning in the North soon enough. As soon as lunch is ready, I plan to find maps of the area as well as anything on this princess and Dark Rider you’re supposed to find. Until then, he said to give you this list of names and tell you they are involved with the Montrose bounty system.”

She handed over a list on a folded piece of paper.

“Bounty system?,” said Josie. She opened the paper up and read the names.

“Montrose use spotters for women they want to abduct,” said Elaine. “Apparently they give points to the spotters for services. The one person we found was using his to keep his daughter mobile because she had been poisoned.”

“Poisoned by alchemy?,” said Josie.

“Yes,” said Elaine. “Jack did some work on the walls for us and set this up but he wanted to talk to the alchemist on the list, Argraver. Then he was heading back up to Lake Myra to look around again.”

“I need to find out about this bog hound,” said Josie. “Especially how to tame it. Can you add that to your search?”

“Yes,” said Elaine. She pulled out a notebook and made a note about bog hounds. “Another quest?”

“Yes,” said Josie. “It’s near some town named Kernly. I have to find it and calm it down somehow.”

“All right,” said Elaine. “I’ll bring back what I can find.”

“Do you need anything, Elaine?,” said Josie. She put the list of names in her jeans pocket.

“I need to keep busy until I figure out what I want to do with my life,” said Elaine. “Things are a shambles for me now.”

“All right,” said Josie. “So Jack went to talk to this alchemist. That might hurt

Montrose more than I thought. I wonder how many alchemists were supplying the love potion to them.”

“There’s no way of telling except by looking at them in their shops,” said Elaine. “Whatever you two did has marked people all over the city. Anyone selling Montrose things would be marked.”

“Good point,” said Josie. “We need the help since we don’t know anything about the players involved.”

“At some point, I expect the Watch to get involved,” said Elaine. “The Bell Tower burned down when some mercenaries saw some of the customers changing. I think they knew each other.”

“I expect we’ll see some more vigilante actions taking place,” said Josie. “Some people are going to want their relatives back.”

“The girls?,” said Elaine.

“Chattel to be converted and sent away until I talked to the people here,” said Josie. “I’m giving them a chance to get back on their feet.”

“I understand,” said Elaine. “When you go north, will you need me?”

“I don’t know,” said Josie. “I don’t know what we’re facing.”

“What will happen to me?,” said Elaine.

“We’ll leave you enough of a chest to start over doing whatever you want,” said Josie. “You might even be able to start a school for orphans so they can be better people when they grow up.”

“I don’t think I will do well with children,” said Elaine.

“I sure don’t,” said Josie. “Lunch smells good. Thanks for cooking.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“It’s nothing but stew,” said Elaine. “We were able to clear out one of the stalls at the market for nothing.”

“Hey, sleepy head,” said Jack from the door. He had a wooden screen in his arms. “It’s about time you woke up. We’ve been cracking along since the sun came up.”

“We did a lot of the work while everyone was asleep,” said Elaine. “And then he put in the windows before he went and got whatever that is.”

“It’s a conspiracy board,” said Jack. “I don’t know how long we’ll be here but I

figured that we needed some way to keep track of things.”

“Where do you want to put it?,” asked Josie.

“I thought it should go upstairs in the office,” said Jack. “That’s where Elaine will be doing most of her doings, and it’ll give us a chance to connect everything up as we go.”

“How long do you think we’ll be here?,” asked Josie.

“How many more enemies are you going to pick up?,” asked Jack. He walked off with the screen.

“Are you courting?,” asked Elaine.

“No,” said Josie. “Have you had a friend all your life who treats you like family even though you’re not?”

“Not really,” said Elaine.

“That’s about where Jack and I are so if you want to ask him out, go ahead,” said Josie.

“I don’t think that would be good if he isn’t going to stay,” said Elaine. “If I were to seek a husband, he would have to be here.”

“I understand,” said Josie.

“Are you guys talking about me?,” asked Jack, appearing in the door. “Smells good. I have to go back up to Accordly and look at the place again. The only thing I got is lights float in the sky at night.”

“Do you mind if I go up with you?,” asked Josie.

“The more the merrier,” said Jack. “Nope. Is your room big enough, Elaine?”

“It’s bigger than what I’m used to having,” said Elaine. “Thank you.”

“What did you do?,” asked Josie.

“Let me give you the tour,” said Jack. “This used to be some kind of closet. I put in a fireplace to cook food, a table to chop vegetables, and a pantry for storage. We have a water pump for clean water. I raided the Market for vegetables and meat.”

Jack left the kitchen, gesturing for Josie to follow. He pointed out Elaine’s bedroom next to the kitchen. There wasn’t any furniture in the room yet.

He had punched windows and installed glass and shutters in what used to be the dungeon cells. He had pulled out the manacles and applied thin plaster to make the rooms more cheerful. The connecting walls of two of the cells had been knocked out to make one big room for the younger girls.

They were still cleaning the floor with mops.

“How many of you are staying?,” asked Josie.

“All of us, missus,” said the hardbitten girl. “Most of us don’t have anywhere else to go. The rest don’t want to go back home.”

“Names,” said Josie. She looked at the six girls she had rescued. “I don’t know any of you.”

The girls tried to introduce themselves all at once. Josie whistled a high enough note to make all of them wince and cover their ears.

“Oldest to youngest, one at a time,” said Josie.

“Beatrice,” said the hardbitten girl. Josie nodded, repeating the name back.

They went down the line with the introductions. Laura, Alicia, Angelica, Melanie, and the youngest Matilda.

“I want you girls to think about what you want out of your futures,” said Josie. “I don’t know how long we’ll be here, but whatever I can do before I leave, I will.”

“How many of you can read and write?,” asked Jack.

“I can, milord,” said Matilda. She ran her hand through her hair.

The others looked away.

“All right,” said Jack. “You want to stay, you are going to have to work on that as well as help us with things we need to do. Finish cleaning up your rooms so we can eat. Then you’re going to have to help Elaine with the supply run. Chop chop.”

He clapped his hands to hurry them back to work.

“Supply run?,” said Josie.

“We need a ton of maps and information,” said Jack. “And the girls need some clothes. Apparently Montrose grabbed them with what they had on, and nothing else.”

“My spare clothes,” said Josie. “They’re at the Tower.”

“They’re at the Tower ashes,” said Jack. “If they were delivered at all.”

“I suppose I can check on them,” said Josie. “I don’t like this at all.”

“When you get involved in a syndicate, that’s what happens,” said Jack. He shrugged.

He led the way up to the office. Josie noticed that the space had been changed around while she had slept. She blinked at the changes.

“Naturally, this is my room,” said Jack. He pushed open the door nearest the stairwell.

He walked down to the next door. He pushed open the door. Snidely’s desk and office things were in that room. Several wooden boards hung on rails to pin things to when they had the things.

“This is the war room,” said Jack. “Everything Elaine can find will go in here for us to use to do our quests.”

“The last room is mine,” said Josie. She glanced at the open door. She grimaced at the thought she hadn’t noticed anything when she had staggered out and tried to wake up.

“I put in a window so you can fly out any time you want,” said Jack.

“How did you do all of this?,” Josie asked.

“One of my heroes is an Eternal who can build things with his mind,” said Jack. He glanced around at the room. “It took me a while to put everything together because the watch kept running out, but it was worth it.”

“Too bad you didn’t put in a bathroom,” said Josie.

“I did,” said Jack. “Downstairs.”

“Why didn’t you show me that?,” asked Josie.

“I’m still working on it,” said Jack. “I got a shower, but no tub. I almost have a toilet ready to go.”

“All right,” said Josie. “I still would like to see it. I need to clean up and get clean clothes. And I think you do too.”

“I’ll work on it before I head up to Accordly,” said Jack. “I thought about a washing machine, but there’s nothing here that I can use for that.”

“We’ll have to wash our clothes the old fashioned way, and hang them up to dry,” said Josie. “Let me see this bathroom. I would like to wash up before dinner.”

“All right,” said Jack. He started down the stairs. “Most of this was pretty easy. A little molecule manipulation. Marvel is lousy with that type of thing, but they never use it for anything practical.”

“Really?,” said Josie. She smiled as she followed him downstairs. “I always said Reed Richards was useless.”

“I know, I know,” said Jack. He turned at the bottom of the stairs. “It’s not just him. It’s like every guy who can shape things with whatever is run by ego. The Molecule Man could have just made gold with his power and declared himself rich. He just needed to be able to exchange it for real money somewhere like we did.”

“Instead he’s fighting the Fantastic Four and Avengers and losing,” said Josie.

“Exactly,” said Jack. “At least he finally smartened up, hooked up with a babe, and got out of the life for a while.”

He paused in front of a door at the end of the girls’ room. He opened the door and stepped back. Josie stepped inside. This room looked a little rougher than the rest of the changes, but everything was there for a bathroom with a rough seat for a toilet next to the shower space.

“I need to use this right now,” said Josie. “Lock?”

“Right here,” said Jack. “Just remember you’re in a house with seven other women.”

“Most guys would love that,” said Josie.

“Most guys don’t have four sisters,” said Jack.

Josie went into the bathroom, glad that he had thought of a lamp for lighting. She disrobed and stepped into the shower space. She pulled the cord. Freezing water dropped down on her. She didn’t care. She waited in the space to dry before cleaning her clothes as Alchemy.

They needed to add towels to the shopping list.

“The water is cold, Jack,” Josie complained, as she walked into the kitchen.

“I can’t get parts for a furnace for another thirty years,” said Jack. He sniffed the stew. “This smells good.”

“I think we need a dining room,” said Elaine.

“I’ll put it on my list,” said Jack.

“Let’s eat,” said Josie. “Then we have to deal with our errands.”

“You’re probably going to have to buy clothes for the girls,” said Jack. “I think two sets apiece might be okay, one set for going out and one set of adventurer clothes for working.”

“We’ll handle things,” said Elaine. “I will rent a cart if necessary to bring everything back.”

“That reminds me that we need to put a better lock on things to keep people out,” said Jack. “I’ll do that after we eat so I can give you a key to get back in.”