He’s passing through, and wants help ‘behaving’

The man grunts and mumbles something inaudible. Then he shakes his head defensively and walks closer so he may speak in a low voice. “I’d like your help with... A private matter.” He says.

This was common for Magnolia’s customers. Sex and love were often embarrassing things for regular people to talk about. She felt it was her duty to make them feel more open, but the first step towards that was to let them open up on their terms.

“Of course.” She says reassuringly. “Shall we close the door then, for a consultation?”

The man nods, and walks over to close the door himself. Then he walks back to Magnolia’s work bench, but he doesn’t take a seat. Instead he stands with some distance, and a little awkwardly, as he tries not to look directly her.

“Could you start by telling me your name, sir? And then we can surely work out what you need.” She says.

“Name’s Matthew Riley.” He says sharply. “I’ve got a problem I’m told you might help with.”

Magnolia had her suspicions already, but didn’t want to make any assumptions. “I’ll do my best.” She replied simply.

Matthew sighed. “As you can see I’m a soldier. Just passing through this town. On my way back to the Palace actually, with a small convoy...” he paused, glancing a quick look at her before folding his arms and looking away again. “It’s only a week’s travel. And normally that’s fine but recently the higher ups have been cracking down on certain... passtimes. Too many soldiers have been caught fooling around with town whores, and this new King reckons it’s a bad look. Doesn’t want us doing that kind of thing while we’re at work carrying the banner, as if he’d know what this type of travel is like.” He scoffed loudly at the last part. “Anyway, the issue is that obviously we want to be on our good behaviour. But we’ve already been on the road two weeks. I’m—WE are getting restless. I was hoping you’d have something we could use to help us for the last week.”