Chapter 09….
Placing a Bookmark
Kevin had a feeling that if he just parted ways with Julia like this, he wouldn’t be able to sleep well at night.
Divorced, cast out of her family home, with no place to live and no job—Julia would likely become a prostitute by tomorrow.
Kevin bore no responsibility for her situation, but the fact that he was the only one here, the only one who knew of Julia’s desperate state, made him feel that perhaps there was something he could do.
“…Come with me.”
“Eh…? Alright.”
For the moment, Kevin thought that the least he could do was give her a place to rest.
If she could calm down and think things through, there had to be other options besides becoming a prostitute.
He was sure she was intelligent. Perhaps she could teach others—academic subjects or etiquette.
As a noblewoman, she was probably skilled at embroidery; if so, she might find work at a dressmaker’s shop.
And if he reached out through his own connections, maybe there was some way to help her avoid that path altogether.
That’s what he thought.
“Come in.”
Kevin brought Julia to his own room.
Not a room in the Carmine estate, but one he rented in town.
When he wanted to be alone, he stayed there.
“This place…?”
“It’s a room I rent. You can stay here until you figure out what to do next.”
“Eh… but I was planning to become a prostitute—”
“Do you really think you could become one? Until you get regular clients, you’d have to sleep with multiple men in a single day. Are you prepared for that?”
Julia looked startled.
It seemed she didn’t know much about the realities of prostitution.
“Do you really think you could make men want to come back to you—to crave your touch, or to serve you? Do you have that kind of confidence?”
Oliver Kirkes had always kept a baron’s daughter as his mistress.
He probably never treated Julia gently.
He must have only used her body for his own pleasure—to plant his seed, nothing more.
Julia likely assumed that being a prostitute was just the same thing—enduring it until it was over.
But that wasn’t how prostitution worked.
“Take your time here and think about what you can do. For now, you don’t need to do anything… Well, maybe not nothing. You’ll have to eat and sleep, but even that requires effort on your part.
You probably can’t cook, right? Then you’ll have to buy food or eat out. You’ve never done laundry, have you? If you don’t wash your clothes, you’ll have to keep buying new ones forever, and that’s wasteful.
So first, learn how to live on your own—that’s what matters most.”
“Live… on my own…”
“Yeah. Later, I’ll show you the nearby diners and bakeries. You’ll need easy-to-wash clothes, and a few other small necessities. Or would it be faster if I asked a servant to teach you? I can bring someone if you prefer.”
“No, I couldn’t trouble you that much. I’ll try to manage on my own. But… are you really sure it’s alright for me to stay here?”
“Yes. It’s just my own self-indulgence. I simply couldn’t turn away knowing that a woman like you—someone so clearly unsuited to prostitution—would otherwise end up dead in an alley within a month.”
Julia gasped softly.
She finally understood just how naïve she had been to think becoming a prostitute would be simple.
