Page 30 of The House of the Red Balconies

The bouncer shrugged. “It’s a shitshow. Guests have been leaving without waiting for an explanation, people think we’re closed or got plague in the house or something. We’re short-staffed in the kitchen, and the girls have had to run back and forth for food all evening. Nah, it’s a disaster.”

“Gods. I’m sorry. At least the winter doesn’t last long.”

“Yeah, we might pull through.”

The walls of the house were thick, and Hylas couldn’t hear much from Zo’s room, just the occasional extra-loud burst of laughter. He couldn’t guess how many guests Zo might be entertaining, and he tried not to spend too much time thinking about it. He had known this was an aspect of Zo taking a patron that might cause disruption to his routine, but he had no right at all to complain about it.

He tapped very tentatively at Zo’s garden door the following morning. It was cold enough now that the screens were supplemented by solid sliding shutters. He could hear sounds from inside, so he knew Zo was up, but had no idea whether he was alone or not.

“Come in,” said Zo’s voice, with an unhappy edge to it.

Hylas slid open the shutter and then the lattice inside it. Zo was standing on a chair, half-dressed, at the wall where he hung his clothes and jewellery. Everything was piled on the floor, and he was tugging at one of the hooks in the wall. He stopped and looked down at Hylas.

“What are you doing?” Hylas asked, trying not to sound alarmed. He set down his tray on the end of Zo’s unmade bed.

“I have to change the room,” said Zo, gesturing expansively and wobbling on the chair. “I have to take these down. Timon said it looked like a storeroom and I ‘deserve better.’”

“You brought him to your room.” Hylas hoped he didn’t sound like a disapproving parent. He took a step closer to the chair, ready to catch Zo if he fell.

“I had to— Mistress told us we had to entertain in our rooms, because the sitting rooms aren’t ready and the courtyard is too cold. I had a half dozen guests last night, and I had to bring them all back here. It was awful. There was nowhere sensible for them to sit, and they went on about what a bad room it is and how hard-done-by I am. Timon said, This is where they keep you? They don’t value you highly enough.’ I’m afraid he’ll say something to Mistress about it, and she’ll move me to a different room. I’d lose my garden.”

“Stop,” said Hylas firmly. “You won’t lose your garden. As long as I’m in my rooms, you can get to it any time you want. But let’s make sure it doesn’t come to that. Don’t take those out of the wall, though. You won’t be able to get them back in—you’re making the hole bigger—and it’s going to look messy. We’ll put up curtains and cover all this.”

“That’s … a good idea.” Zo frowned, as if he had expected to be able to find fault with Hylas’s suggestion but couldn’t.

He climbed down from the chair and sat on it. He was wearing the trousers that he wore to work in the garden, and a short jacket open at the front with no tunic or shirt under it. Hylas tried not to look at his bare chest.

Hylas went on: “I’ll take down the curtains in my room and bring them over. I may need to run out and buy some hooks to hang them, but I should be able to have them up for you by this evening.”

“Hylas! You can’t just give me your curtains.”

He started, ready to be mortified. Surely there wasn’t some taboo about curtains? “Can I not?”

Zo groaned. “I don’t mean you can’t—I mean how can I accept them? You just bought them for yourself.”

It was Hylas’s turn to frown. “If you would prefer to give me money to go to the market and buy curtains for you, I can tell you how much mine cost.”

“I don’t have money for curtains.”

“I know you don’t.”

Hylas’s own curtains had been an extravagant expense, all those yards of fabric, even though they were only dyed a modest shade of cheerful yellow. If he’d realized sooner that he wasn’t getting a salary, he would not have bought them. But now he was glad he had.

“I don’t want you to be turned out of your room, Zo. Please accept my curtains and let me hang them for you.”

Zo nodded. “Of course. Thank you, Hylas.”

“It’s all right. We’ll solve this together. Was there anything else wrong with the room?”

“Uh … it’s dark? Which is because I broke my lamp and haven’t replaced it. I don’t know how much lamps cost … ”

That was an odd thing not to know, but perhaps they used candles or something where Zo was from. “They’re cheap. Much cheaper than curtains. I’ll buy you one when I go to get the hooks.”

“She wants me to entertain in here … I don’t have any of the right furniture.”

“Right. No, you don’t. You need cushions for seating, a table, maybe a, er, screen or something in front of your bed. Is there extra furniture elsewhere in the house that you could borrow?”

Zo drew in a deep breath and got to his feet. He swayed and caught the back of the chair to stay upright.