“Hmm.” Paulette looked her up and down then glanced at Miriam.

“This is a kind of what you see is what you get proposition, is it?”

“Yes,” Miriam said. “Oh, and her family wants her back. They might get violent if they find her, so she needs to be anonymous. All she’s got are the clothes on her back. And then there’s this.” She passed Paulette a piece of paper. Paulette glanced at it, then raised her other eyebrow and did a double take.

“This is valid?” She held up the check.

“No strings.” Miriam nodded. “At least, as long as Duke Angbard doesn’t cut off the line of credit he gave me. You’ve got the company paperwork together, ready to sign? Good. What we do is, we open a company bank account. I pay this into it and issue myself with shares to the tune of fifty grand. We write you up as an employee, you sign the contract, I issue you your first paycheck—eight thousand, covers your first month only—and a signing bonus of another ten thousand. You then write a check back to the company for that ten thousand, and I issue you the shares and make you company secretary. Got that?”

“You want me as a director?” Paulette watched her closely. “Are you sure about that?”

“I trust you,” Miriam said simply. “And I need someone on this side of the wall who’s got signing authority and can run things while I’m away. I wasn’t kidding when I told you to set this up, Paulie. It’s going to be big.”

Paulette stared at the banker’s draft for fifty thousand dollars dubiously. “Blood money.”

“Blood is thicker than water,” Brill commented. “Why don’t you want to take it?”

Paulette sighed. “Do I tell her?” she asked Miriam.

“Not yet.” Miriam looked thoughtful. “But I promised myself a few days back that anything I start up will be clean. That good enough for you?”

“Yeah.” Paulette turned toward the kitchen doorway, then paused.

“Brilliana? Is it okay if I call you Brill?”

“Surely!” The younger woman beamed at her.

“Oh. Well, uh, this is the kitchen. I was going to make some fresh coffee, but I figure if you’re staying here for a while I ought to start by showing you where things are and how not to—” She glanced at Miriam. “Do they have electricity?” she asked. Miriam shook her head minutely. “Oh sweet Jesus! Okay, Brill, the first thing you need to learn about the kitchen is how not to kill yourself. See, everything works by electricity. That’s kind of—”