The Brothel: Background Materials for The Snowy-Haired Maiden

When entering a brothel, the woman signs a contract stating that she's the property of the brothel owner for a certain term of service (5 years, typically.) She receives no money until she leaves at the end of her contract, is fired, or the owner agrees to let her go early.

The house, of course, takes a cut of what customers pay, and puts the rest into an account for her. However, she immediately and continuously incurs debt to the house. Fees for her training, room, clothing, food, and any medical care she may need come out of her account. That guarantees her account is in the red for some time.

The nicer (and more expensive) rooms are given to the women who bring in the most money, which requires having lots of regular customers and standing appointments. They also get the lighter household duties. There's a lot of competition (and jealousy) over status.

The house runs fairly inexpensively. The women who can't work (due to periods, pregnancy, or STDs) cook, clean, etc. The more trusted ones may, in the company of guards, be allowed to go to the market or run other errands.

The higher class houses generally have strict rules against customers damaging the merchandise, because (most) other customers don't want a girl who's covered in bruises, and extra downtime is bad business.

Analore

Analore enters the brothel eager and willing to learn, after realizing she can have a much better life there than as an orphan and tavern wench. Due to her exceptional looks, striking white hair, and education level that’s at odds with her current life, she’s taken in by one of the higher-class establishments. (Unknown to the reader, she’s the bastard daughter of a nobleman and his cook. She was raised in his household and educated along with his children, despite very few people knowing he’s her father.) She genuinely enjoys making people happy, be it with food, drink, or sex, so she gets some satisfaction even from the encounters that are less than ideal.

She's a chameleon, and that serves her well. She can be a demure chambermaid for one man, a proper lady for another, and utterly wanton for a third.

She moves up quickly to a high status position. After three years, she's in second place because she has so many regulars. While she doesn't form deep attachments, she does care about her regulars.

Sir Gareth, a rather disreputable knight, visits her several times while he's in the area and seems to be rather enthralled with her.

During that same time, a man starts coming in who likes to get rough. After the first time he marks up a girl, he's told he can't return. However, for reasons the women never know, he's allowed back again. And again.

One day, he visits Analore and leaves her bruised and out of commission for several days, as well as mentally and emotionally shaken. She finds out he has another appointment with her and begs the owner not to let him come back, but he does. It's worse this time, and she misses a full week of work. Still, he's allowed to make another appointment with her. Just after she gets back to work, Gareth comes in. He sees some bruises that aren't quite healed and asks about them. She breaks down and tells him what's going on, and begs him to take her out of there when he goes. He tells her he just lost his cook and he'd be happy to have Analore take her place… especially if she'll keep his bed warm, too. Desperate, she agrees.