Dear Diary,

I've said it before, I trust the collective Heroes Lancaster way less far than I could throw them. They feel like they scheme like breathing.

Then again, after what I saw today? Not really thrilled with Lachlan and Larry, either.

That's not really fair, I guess. Larry hasn't been in a position to do fuck all about that bullshit, and Lachlan... The better I get to know him, the more I realize he's, like, the Forrest Gump of the Lancaster family. He'd make a hell of a football player, soldier, or, I dunno, mascot or some shit like that, but when everybody else got in line for brains, he went back for seconds on the himbo stats.

So last night was pretty sweet. The three of us with a whole suite to ourselves. Marie even found a bathtub in the dressing room with, get this, running water. Not running hot water, unfortunately, but every room except our entryway living room had its own fireplace, and the fireplace in the dressing room had some kettles and places to hang them to heat the water up. Overall? Ten out of ten, would frolic and romp and engage in shenanigans again.

Little bit tired and sore when the three of us woke up in the morning, but it was that good kind of sore where everything that went 'ow' reminded me of exactly how I'd got that 'ow', and absolutely all of them were good memories. The tired? Nothing great about being tired, but again, it's not the having, it's the getting, right?

The two of them left before breakfast, because Marie had to get back to the menace, and Saffron had a full day of Imperatoring to do. So I made my way down to the dining room to find the rest of my Cadets already down there, as well as Lachlan and the Heroes Lancaster. While the Cadets all sat relatively straight, if not quite as ramrod as Larry, who sat at the head of the table with Lachlan at his right, the Ken squad were apparently engaged in a slouch-off to see which of them was the least concerned with what the others thought of them. When I walked into the room, Larry waved me over to the seat to the left of him. Wonder of wonders, I didn't miss the significance of his putting me at his left hand, nor Lachlan at his right.

Charlie Lancaster, who sat two seats down from Lachlan, with Alistair between them, nodded to me. "Commander. I'd been meaning to thank you for returning Lachlan to us."

I shifted one shoulder in a lazy half shrug. "Larry and Lachlan are friends, and you don't leave friends hanging when you can help out."

At the mention of the word 'friend', half of the Heroes Lancaster got that kumquat look. I half wondered if they trained one another how to do it, or if it was a genetic condition or something. The other half, with the exception of Charlie, got real tense, like they wanted to do the kumquat look but had been warned not to. At a guess, by Charlie.

Before our conversation could go any further, a bunch of guys in suits came into the room through concealed doors to either side of the fireplace, carrying simple plate-sized domed trays. Each of us got a plate placed in front of us, the covers whipped off relatively simultaneously to reveal a breakfast as disappointing as it was bland-smelling. Unsweetened oatmeal, unsalted poached eggs, and some biscuits that reminded me of fast food biscuits both from their texture and ability to dry my mouth out. On the other hand, the next wave of servers brought out big steins full of something frothy and yellowish brown. I'd never really been a big beer fan back in Camden, but frankly I needed something to choke the biscuits down, and most of the flavor in the meal came from the beer.

The rest of the Cadets tore into breakfast like we'd do back at the Academy while the Heroes Lancaster stared. Lachlan and Larry both tucked in, if not quite as voraciously as the rest of us. Charlie turned to me and said, "I suppose you've been in the field long enough to need to get meals done as quickly as possible, then?"

I shrugged, swallowed, and said, "there's work to be done, and you can't get work done without fueling up first."

That got a weird kind of shudder out of all of the Heroes Lancaster. Larry took a moment to say, "I'm afraid my cousins aren't familiar with, let alone fans of the concept of 'work'. Gentlemen, you can imagine it to be rather like Marshall duBois' Practice Yard classes."

That got another shudder out of all of them, although Charlie managed to mostly cover his with a laugh. "Well, I suppose we deserve that. We'll be headed out to scout to the southeast once we're done here."

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Larry looked at me and asked, "Commander, since we'll be clearing the Ladies' Quarters today, I wondered if perhaps our men could accompany my cousins today? Perhaps learn some scouting techniques from them?"

That caught me a little by surprise, but after the past week or so of working with him, Larry hadn't done anything to make me suspicious of him, unlike his cousins, who left me wanting a shower. "Sounds good to me, Larry." I looked across the table at Charlie and said, "if you guys don't mind them tagging along?"

Funny. I doubt I've ever seen someone quite radiating 'yes I mind' energy while saying, "of course, Commander," before. Okay, 'of course, Commander' isn't something I hear on the daily, but you know what I mean.

Apparently the kitchens at Lancaster House aren't up to Academy standards in any way, because that one plate of food? That's it. No seconds, no second course, no elevenses, nada. I hid my disappointment and looked down the table to see the other Cadets pretty much done as well. "Carruthers, Driver, Rosen, Jonopolous, you're shadowing the Lancaster Heroes today. Aetos, MacConno, Obol, Rider, you're with me." I stood up, turning to Larry, who had just shoveled down the last of his oatmeal. "Lead the way, Larry."

He stood, nodded to his cousins with a simple, "gentlemen." Then turned to me and said, "if you'll follow me, Commander, ladies?"

The look on the Heroes Lancaster as we left them at the table, their own food barely touched, with four of our Cadets staring at them with the best, 'you gonna eat that?' looks I'd ever seen? Priceless.

Lancaster led us up to the fourth floor, then back to the rooms I guessed he still shared with Lachlan. We went straight back to his bedroom, only where in my suite, which mirrored his, the North wall was just a blank wall, his had a door. With the locks and such all on his side of it. He turned to me, sighed, and said, "after what you've seen elsewhere, I can only guess at what you're imagining." It wasn't my imagination that he glanced surreptitiously at Bonnie as he said that, either. "All I can say is that the last time I visited the Ladies' quarters was before I was weaned. Which doesn't make it any better, especially now that I'm nominally both in charge of and have access to them. Please don't take it out on them, or on my brother. I don't doubt he's partaken, but I also don't doubt he's clueless as to why it might not be," here he wound down, looking for words.

I took some pity on him and filled in, "kinda horrific? exploitative? systematic rape?"

He winced at the first two, and at the third followed the wince with, "I... I hope not quite that. But at the same time I can't say you're wrong, either." His wry grin held an absolute truckload of self-recrimination when he said, "though I'd guess that it might be if I'd gone in. I'm told Lachlan gets a bit fawned over."

I shrugged. "When the only contact you have with the outside world is your exploiter, you might fawn on him too."

With that he sighed, walked over to the door, and swung it open. "I've left it unlocked since we got here. For whatever that's worth."

"You can't change the world in a day, Larry. But the gesture is noted."

We filed into the Ladies' quarters, which were... way less horrific than I'd imagined. All the women we saw on entering looked twenty- or thirty-something, and if they were dressed way too scantily for the weather outside, they weren't actually barefoot and pregnant or any shit like that, and the room we entered had a roaring fire in the fireplace, warming the room to the point where they likely weren't cold, either. The room itself looked like a mirror of the 'gentlemen's club' outside, only with paisley instead of leather and fancy engraving instead of solid woods. A small percentage of the women in the room were dark haired and wore maid's outfits, but most of the women had that same blonde, blue eyed look I expected from the Barbie Brigade by now.

Larry cleared his throat, and all the women in the room turned, saw him, and stood. More than a little creepy, especially the way quite a few of them, including all the maids, looked at the floor in front of them, or at his feet, instead of at his face. "Ladies, pardon the intrusion, but the six of us will be checking everyone in the Ladies' Quarters to be sure none of you are infected with the disease that's taken a hideous toll on the lands around Lancaster House."

One of the maids gasped, almost looked up. Larry asked, "did you have something to say?" but she just shook her head and kept her eyes on the ground.

I walked over to her, put two fingers under her chin, and raised her gaze to mine. "What's your name?"

"Maddie, sir... ah, ma'am?"

"Okay, Maddie. You just got a general fear of the plague, or did you just think of something pertinent? Nobody's gonna punish you for speaking your mind." I raked my gaze across the gathered Barbies, then settled it on Larry. "Right?"

"Absolutely, Commander. So long as I'm in charge here at Lancaster House, I'd rather hear painful honesty than sweet lies."

I nodded at him, then turned back to Maddie. "Okay, Maddie, you had something to say?"

"The top and bottom floors, Ma'am. The senior ladies and the servants. Both have quite a few who have taken ill."

I sighed. "Okay. Larry, you take Angel and Bonnie and start from the attic, and I'll take Rowena and Raven and start from the basement?"

He opened his mouth, I think to argue, but thought better of it, shook his head and said, "yes, Ma'am."

I clapped my hands together, making everyone in the room but the Cadets jump just a little. "Let's get to it then." I waved Raven and Rowena toward me, turned to Maddie, and said, "lead on to the servants floor, Maddie."

It put a bug up my ass to admit it, but liberation could wait for tomorrow. Today we had to make sure everyone in the Ladies' Quarters lived to see it.