Different Path

Many of the women were aghast at him forcing the wives to work in the whorehouse. Many of the less well to do men, however scrimped and saved until they could buy some time with the two wives. They thought it was a great thing to be able to fuck the women of those bastards that looked down on them for so long.

Jon caught one of the toughs that was involved several nights after the day he delivered his sentence to Paul and Tom. The man was in one of the local pub's drinking as usual. Jon walked up to him and informed him he needed to come with him to begin serving his sentence of restitution. The man was just liquored up enough to be belligerent and grabbed his knife before lunging at Jon.

When he saw the knife come out, Jon, out of habit or instinct, made the gesture and "spell", sending the man flying across the small room to smash against the stone fireplace. He fell to the hearth and lay in a spreading pool of blood while the others in the room murmured quietly and watched Jon fearfully.

Jon walked over to the man and searched him, taking his small amount of money and his knife. While he was searching the man he kept a careful watch on the room. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned rapidly, just catching a glimpse of the second man he was searching for as he darted out the door.

That was the last anyone saw of that man. Apparently he didn't even go home before taking off for locations unknown. His wife and children were left to their own devices. Three days later two bedraggled and very hungry women and five children showed up at Jon's door. They were the families of the two men.

A tall buxom redhead stepped to the front of the bedraggled group and addressed Jon, "Master Wizard, I am Jenny, this here's Penny, my sister. We be the women of Toby and Chester. These here be their kids. You done kilt my Toby and scared Chet off. Now we have no one to provide for us and the young un's are mighty hungry.

"No one in town will help us or give us work. You are our last hope. Have you any of the milk of human kindness in ya? Will you give us work and food, perhaps even a place to stay? Our landlord has turned us out, he says to keep from angering you farther."

"Crap," muttered Jon. He turned and gestured before entering the whore house. As he walked, he said, "Come on inside and we'll talk about it."

The women looked at each other for a moment and slowly started to follow Jon into the building. Each having her private thoughts but both thinking the same thing. They each decided being a whore would be better than them and their children starving, but only slightly.

After everyone was seated, Jon yelled, "Philomena, come in here a moment please."

When Philomena entered the waiting room from the rear of the house she said, "Yes Sire? How may I help?"

"These ladies and children say they are hungry. Can you make them a sandwich and bring something to drink when you bring the food back here please?"

"Certainly Sire," Philomena said as she turned and left the room.

After Philomena was gone, Jon leaned back and said, "Now, you come asking for my help. In a way, I suppose, some of your plight is my fault but the most of it is the fault of those men you married. I am not a charity but, perhaps, we can work something out. There is always something around that needs doing. There are some empty rooms here you can use and the children have to go to school while you are here. They will also have chores to do after they finish the school day. I demand they pay attention to their teacher and do their homework also."

Jenny, ever the spokesperson, gasped and said, "Thank you Sire. Please, I don't want my children to know. We've never been Whores and know nothing about your business. If that's what you demand we will do it to take care of our babies but, please Sire do not rub the children's noses in how far we've fallen."

Jon looked at the women then his face lightened. He said, "I think you misunderstood. Certainly, if you want, you may become one of my whores but I was not offering that position to you. I have cleaning, cooking and outside work that needs to be done. That was the position I offered. The rooms here are just that in your case. You will live in them but I expect you to be polite and respectful to everyone here as they will be to you. Is that satisfactory? Of course, should you want to serve me as a whore you may do so.

Both women smiled as they said, almost at the same time, "Yes Sire. We will work here and no, we don't want to be your whores."

Considering his education and prior occupation, it was almost a foregone conclusion that Jon would become well known as a healing Wizard. People began coming to him from great distances for healing. Many times he was able to completely heal the person with his "magic" which only consisted of him recreating medication from his prior life. It was amazing how well modern medicines worked on the infections from this time period.

He continued to study and learn more about his new job as a wizard. He became so busy and so well known that many people with the gift for magic sought him out for training. He agreed to do this but, like many fields of study, his training of the new magicians took years. Before he could begin to teach them chemistry and biology he had to teach many of them to read and do mathematics! Even those who could read and write somewhat didn't know anything but the simplest words. Soon the little village he moved to became a large (for the time) University City.

In addition to his "magic", Jon introduced many modern conveniences and improvements to the basic tools and machinery existent in his new world. He found himself also involved in teaching subjects other than those directly related to his "magic". While there were many areas of specialization for a Wizard, the term quickly became synonymous with what we would call a doctor of medicine.

Through the years Jon continued to gather up strays, usually women or orphans, that he moved into his home and gave shelter, work, food and clothing. They became rabidly protective of him and were extremely loyal. Many were the men and women who learned very quickly and painfully that you did not bad mouth or disrespect Jon or his adopted family within hearing of a member thereof.