Signore. He tried so hard to place the accent and translate that word, but his education had holes in a mile long and he struggled sometimes with even just reading English let alone…Italian? Was that where she was from? 

Harlot or not, he’d come here for a job and was persistent upon it. 

“My father and I run Lockwood & Lockwood, the um, builders?” He glanced around the room at the fine furniture and didn’t see anything that came from their establishment…this was all way too nice. 

“So I work a great deal through the day and I’d like something to keep me busy through the night and on the weekends. My mother is a housekeeper for Captain McKenna’s estate and I have a few younger sisters.” He knew what a courtesan was by way of the stories they’d told in the schoolyard but those were of India and even further east. 

“I could fix anything too that broke. I don’t drink so you wouldn’t have to worry about that.”