She didn't flinch externally from his voice, but internally, there was a small one.

Her voice was soft, a little bit distant, only because she hadn't gone there in a while. "There weren't many places they didn't, sugar. A whore on the streets has no protection at all but her own strength. Once my reputation with the knife was better known, it was rarer. In the houses....it wasn't good form to leave marks that couldn't be easily healed."

Not that there weren't other ways to cause harm. And a whore in a house who used her knife on clients found herself on the streets again. She'd had to curb her temper.