Harem System novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Fifteen Signatures

The Registry inspector came at first light, a full day early.

He was a dry, narrow man with a clipboard and a gray coat, and two women in green-and-black coats walked behind him.

They were the same two who had laughed at the Center.

"Surprise inspection," he said. "The notice was a courtesy."

Liriel stood in the Ward doorway with her arms crossed.

"The notice said three days."

"The Registry reserves the right to come sooner."

"Whose idea was sooner?"

"The Registry's."

One of the green coats smiled at the ceiling.

The inspector walked down the long room with his clipboard and counted beds.

"Thirty beds, twenty-seven occupied. The charter requires one registered nurse for every five beds. That is six."

"We have four," Liriel said.

"Then you are short two."

"We've been short two for six years."

"The Registry has been lenient for six years." He looked at his clipboard. "It has stopped."

"You can't close a Ward over two nurses."

"I can close it over a staffing failure with patients at risk." He wrote something down. "The grounds are in the charter. Read it yourself."

The second green coat stepped forward.

She looked pleased.

"The Mourne Guild would be glad to take the patients," she said. "Every bed. Under guild care, with guild nurses, at no cost to the city."

"At no cost," Liriel said, "to anyone but the women."

"Healer, you'll want to be reasonable."

Liriel opened her mouth.

Nils stepped past her.

"Registered nurse," he said to the inspector. "Does it mean someone with a license, or someone who is on the roll?"

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