Chapter 12

The next several days found Rolly taking stock of his situation. Old Rot was happy to tend bar, and a young acquaintance asked him for a job saying it was better than drinking away his hard dug gold all winter. The boy was slightly shorter than Rolly and looked to be about eighteen or nineteen.

Dannir, was from Glen MacTynnen. He had lost his mother three years before and his father the past winter, both to the fever. They were serfs of a manor lord and tied to the land, but rather than try to keep the farm going on his own, he ran away. If he could stay away from the arm of the law for a year he would legally be a freeman.

Dannir sold off what he could and snuck up the trail, trying to get to Safe Harbor. On the way he came upon the gold fields. He recognized Rotrington and was in awe of the old warrior. The baron's swordmaster had been well respected by everyone, but the old baron was now dead and his wayward nephew had inherited the title.

When he saw that Rotrington had befriended the new man, and was even being friendly while working the bar, Dannir screwed up his courage and approached the man about a job. Rolly was happy to have someone new on the payroll. It would be easier to trust such a man.

When Rolly explained the situation to Saleen, namely that they were stuck there for the winter and might as well run the saloon and make some money, she took it better than he expected. On Cassandra she was a professional entertainer. She told him that owning her own club had always been a possible future for her, and staying on Chaos in relative safety would give her stories for the talk show circuit. That would help build her celebrity back home. The more they talked the more enthusiastic they got about the business.

Saleen started sleeping in Rolly's bed the third night after her rescue. The first night everything happened so quickly that she didn't think about it, the second day Rolly was too busy consolidating his new holdings, but on the third day he decided that a business man should look a little better so he trimmed his beard and got a haircut.

She had been looking at Rolly for two days and wondering what he would be like in bed, but he was busy and didn't look much different than the rest of the men in camp so her ardor was not ignited so much that she couldn't control it -- until he came into the saloon cleaned up.

Rolly noticed the change in Saleen right away. She became more friendly and intimate towards him during their interactions. He also knew that if he played it wrong she could fall in love with him. He didn't think that they were going to get home any time soon and he didn't want her to get hurt.

"One day I'm going to put a baby in your belly, and then you'll never see me again; remember that. Right now I'm a pimp, and I have to play that part in public. What we do in private is another matter. We can't risk getting you pregnant here, but I can do other things to take the edge off between now and whenever we get out of here. I'll leave it up to you."

That night, Saleen was waiting for Rolly in Meargen's old room, and she poured him a drink when he arrived. He had ordered the whores and bar crew to change the sheets and move all of Meargen's things to another room. It was one of the nicest rooms in the camp so Rolly was quick to move in.

"I didn't think that I would ever want to come into this room." she told him.

"I did what I could to make it look different at short notice, but I'm open to suggestions." he said as he took the drink from her hand.

"Just someone other than him being in here helps."

"Are you going to stay the night?"

"I don't know yet."

"Do you want me to help make up your mind?"

"It wouldn't hurt."

Rolly put the glass down, walked behind her and pulled the pin from her hair. He then teased it out with his fingers so that it cascaded down her back, and ran his fingers down her neck, moving the hair to the side.

He kissed her neck, "Does this help?"

"It doesn't hurt." she said as she leaned her head back to give him access.

He then reached under her arms and cupped her breasts.

"Ahhhh," she moaned lightly.

"I think you better stay."

"I'm not supposed to -- you're not supposed to -- until we get back."

"I've done this before. You just can't get pregnant here."

"Can you control yourself so that doesn't happen?"

Rolly turned her around and started undoing buttons. "Yes."

"You don't seem to be controlling yourself."

"Now is not the time for self-control. I want to see what is under this dress." Rolly uncovered her breasts and began kissing each nipple in turn.

She pressed his head tight to her bosom and moaned, "Oh God that feels good."

Rolly pulled back and lent his hand to help her step out of the pile of clothes that had fallen around her feet, and then he led her to the bed.

After undressing and lying down with her he kissed her deeply on the mouth and slid his hand down to her curls. His middle finger slid in easily and he added his ring finger. She arched her back and he moved down to service her nipples with his lips and tongue while his thumb went to work on her button.

He was sure that everyone in that building, and the next, heard her climax.

"Now you have to help me. I've been watching you sing up on that stage and thinking about this night for months." He moved her hand onto his cock and began moving it up and down.

After about five minutes her arm grew tired. "I knew heroes were supposed to last a long time, but this is ridiculous." she said.

"I could try sliding it between your breasts, or you could try using your mouth."

"I don't know about using my mouth, let's try my breasts."

Rolly straddled her chest with his knees and slid his rod between her ample breasts.

"These are beautiful; I can't wait to see them in the daylight. You know, my caretaker's favorite way is to use her mouth, and I promise to return the favor."

Saleen was enjoying the feeling of Rolly's cock sliding between her tits, and started to get worked up again. The thought of Rolly's tongue on her clit was appealing, and as an entertainer and minor celebrity she felt more than a little competitive where caretakers were concerned.

After a tentative lick the next few times that the end of Rolly's cock came her way, she decided that it was not so bad.

Rolly moved up a little so that she could get the end in her mouth, and he held it there while her tongue played against the tip.

"I'm about ready to shoot. Here, you can use my handkerchief to catch it. I certainly would appreciate it if you would get me there with some deep sucking."

She nodded her head and Rolly rolled off so that she could get at his cock better.

He was good to his word and warned her just before he started to spurt so she could wrap his handkerchief over the end of his cock.

"Does she do that every time? The handkerchief I mean."

Rolly's brain was disconnected and he had a hard time remembering who "she" was.

"Susan? No she doesn't use a handkerchief. She prefers to swallow."

"Well, maybe next time."

A few minutes later Rolly could tell that Saleen was horny again by the way she was unable to relax.

"I promised something, didn't I?"

"Yes, but I didn't visit the bathhouse today."

"How about I do what I did before?"

"I'd like that..."

The next morning in bed they discussed the direction of the business. Saleen wanted to sing songs from her old repertoire in addition to the local folksongs she had been singing. Rolly wanted to try some things he was familiar with on Earth that made money, namely blackjack, craps, and poker. The cards that were used for the local game could easily be modified into a standard deck. He wasn't sure what to do about the whores, so later that day he had a sit-down with them.

Of the seven whores that worked at the Songbird, two were forced into it and wanted some other type of work, but the other five saw themselves as career whores. They didn't know anything different. Rolly really didn't want to run whores into the ground the way Meargen and everybody else did so he negotiated what he though was a fair cut, with full knowledge that they would probably steal even more. He didn't care if they thought he was a stupid pimp as long as they thought he was a pimp.

Until he had spent time in The Songbird the closest Rolly had ever gotten to prostitution was from visiting strip joints with his Army buddies. That gave him an idea.

Saleen, being from Cassandra, knew about being seductive, so why couldn't they turn these whores into exotic dancers, he wondered. They were whores, so the 'no touch' rule didn't apply. Saleen could come up with appropriate music. She could sing while the girls did the bump and grind. They could give hand jobs and blow jobs as a part of a lap dance for a larger fee.

The Songbird closed down for a week while they trained blackjack dealers, cleaned up the whores, and rehearsed the new act. Rolly tried to show the girls what he wanted for lap dances, and once Saleen got the idea she helped even more. The central supporting posts of the building were sanded smooth and the girls were shown how to use them as dancing poles. Medieval musicians were hard to come by in the isolated mining camp, but drums were easy enough to make and they found some men that played flute-pipes and a man that had a lute. The players were happy to have a job for the winter. A good dancer could look sexy even when accompanied by a musician knocking two wooden blocks together, if the musician was skilled enough.

Rolly described the old Gypsy Rose Lee type striptease and fan dance to Saleen. If beautiful Saleen could do something like that on stage while the other girls were actually touching the customers he would have a real moneymaker. Saleen also knew some bawdy songs that she could sing along with her up-tempo modern numbers.

It was decided that they would not compete with the two other saloons in order to keep the peace. They would only have the new games of chance, and the whores would not be working on their backs on show nights. There would also be a cover charge for the show.

Invitations went out for the first shakedown night. The girls listed their favorite customers and the employees invited their friends. 'Virgin' lap dances were free and blackjack had a low table limit. Weapons were left at the door.

The miners were a bit confused at first and didn't know how to act, but as soon as the liquor soaked in they got the hang of it. The girls smoothed out by the end of the night and liked the fact that they were the ones controlling the men for the first time in their lives.

Official opening night was two days later, first come - first served, until all of the seats were taken. After that night the cover charge went into effect and the prices for "services" went up.

By the second week some of the girls wanted to try dancing on stage because it looked like fun, and so Rolly planted men up front to tip the girls for close ups while they danced. It wasn't quite as good as dollar bills in the G-string, but it made the girls money.

There wasn't enough currency to go around, and gold dust was difficult to use, so Rolly had the blacksmith make up some intricate branding irons to mark a bunch of small wooden plaques, which he then exchanged for gold when the customers came in.

All in all, the girls made much more money soft whoring than they had hard whoring, and after three weeks Rolly told them that they could do full service after the show but to raise their rates to what he called 'escort prices for a private dance.'

Because of the burning, Rolly couldn't have sexual intercourse with Chaosian women, but he could certainly get hand jobs and blow jobs, so he took it upon himself to show them what made for a good private dance. Surprisingly, Saleen was glad to help coach as well. Rolly had worked out any inhibitions she had; at least as far as his favorite things went.

That led to the third escalation, 'Girls Night', when the prices went even higher. Chaosian men had not been exposed to girl on girl sex before so they really got a show seeing two dancers rub their semi naked bodies together on stage. A two-on-one lap dance, table dance, or private dance cost three times the regular rate.

The other saloon owners were happy with what Rolly was doing because the horny men who couldn't afford his prices came to them ready to spend money. The camp was full of horny men, often times they would pay the cover charge at the Songbird, have a drink or two and then go to the cheaper establishments and take advantage of the lower priced whores there.

There were a few men who went a little crazy over Saleen, but after they forfeited their lives the problem was weeded out of the population, and Rolly got some more gold claims. Rolly still sent a guard with her wherever she went; if nothing else, it increased her drawing power.

By the time spring came around Rolly had quite a lot of the miners' money, and he made certain that the girls had saved up a nest egg, even if he had to go 'pimp daddy' on them to do it. One girl was an opium addict and he had to put her into his own version of rehab to clean her up. He also taught the girls how to read, write, and do numbers to keep them out of trouble during the day.

A few of the miners gambled away their savings and Rolly got their mining claims, but he never let those men go hungry. Quite a few men relied on his welfare by the time it warmed up enough for them to get back to work. He eventually put the men back to work on their old claims and took a percentage of what they found. They stole quite a bit, but he didn't really care, he got it back at the blackjack tables. After he taught the camp how to play poker, he won a quarter stake in the sawmill, and he held markers from more than one blacksmith.

Discussion of the political situation in Glen MacTynnen was a common point of discussion over the long winter. The most recent arrivals from there, that being midsummer of the previous year, said that there was talk of taxing the gold field.

That didn't surprise Rotrington, who felt that Baron Nevin of Sachs-Tyndell, nephew of the old baron, had always been an amoral greedy little prick.

As soon as Nevin was of age, he moved away to spend his family's money living the fast life in the larger cities of the east. Now that he was back, it was certain that he would not run the barony in the same bucolic way that his uncle had. Rotrington had seen it coming so he resigned his position, cut all ties to the barony, and left for the gold strike as soon as the old baron was dead.

The gold strike was a state secret in the barony. The old baron knew that there would be pandemonium with both the serfs and the manor lords if word got out. The serfs would try to leave the land en mass, and the manor lords would resist that with violence. The old man was too weak to do much, so he had Rotrington send men up the trail in secret and come back down to spread the rumor that it was a hoax perpetrated by Safe Harbor to lure settlers and trade from the east. The baron then shut down the trail head to keep out "spies" from Safe Harbor. In actuality it was a barony spy coming from Safe Harbor that brought the news about the gold in the first place.

Rotrington suspected that as soon Baron Nevin found out about the gold he would want to declare the gold fields as part of the land fee of Sachs-Tyndell.

The accepted boundary of the barony was the top of the ridgelines surrounding Glen MacTynnen, and anything past that was considered free land. Few knew that there was no fee defining the barony, nor was there an overlord that the baron swore homage too.

Rolly felt that Nevin was a real threat and that the camp should prepare, but Nevin couldn't possibly equip and start an army, even a small one, moving and get there before mid-June. That gave them five or six months. Rolly expected that the nobles would be on horseback and have peasant footmen with them. If Nevin was a stupid greedy bastard he would draft the peasants before they could finish their spring planting, but Rotrington told him that was not likely.