[In retrospect, it does make a great deal more sense. Richie shoots Byerly a curious look.]
Bits and pieces. I grew up in a democracy, remember? Most history classes didn't dwell on it.
[Why would a man so sharp and privileged choose to work at a brothel? He'd wondered about it. It was hardly as if there was nowhere else to get hired as a refugee, plenty of them got signed on to respectable things. But Byerly called it a ticket out of starvation.
Richie's gaze flicks to the younger boy. He's not sallow, or waifish. Starving...
It must have come after. There had to be worse than this. Ill wills and misfortunes to give him that edge and that scramble, sharpened the blade that served as his tongue, honed that calculating wit.
Richie leans against a stack and watches the duet. His frown is slight.]
no subject
Bits and pieces. I grew up in a democracy, remember? Most history classes didn't dwell on it.
[Why would a man so sharp and privileged choose to work at a brothel? He'd wondered about it. It was hardly as if there was nowhere else to get hired as a refugee, plenty of them got signed on to respectable things. But Byerly called it a ticket out of starvation.
Richie's gaze flicks to the younger boy. He's not sallow, or waifish. Starving...
It must have come after. There had to be worse than this. Ill wills and misfortunes to give him that edge and that scramble, sharpened the blade that served as his tongue, honed that calculating wit.
Richie leans against a stack and watches the duet. His frown is slight.]
What happened to the family fortune, then?