Page 33 of A Treacherous Trade
Kya snorted, draping an arm around Morag. “She’s certainly from the West End if she’s never been bothered by the police.”
“They bother me plenty,” I said truthfully. Just not in the way in which they referred. My vocational complaints with the law differed in almost every respect to theirs, I imagined.
Not for the first time, I truly realized how little I understood about the plight of these women. How dangerous and incomprehensively inhumane their conditions were without willing police to protect them.
Though the profession wasn’t illegal, per se, neither was it sanctioned socially. After two deaths—possibly murders—they still came to work here. Still kept a very tightly woven fidelity to one another.
Like Croft, I found them brave. Unkind and unwelcoming, but brave.
Belle stretched her lithe form and stood, stalking toward me with a feline curve of her hips. “Tell me you’re not going to wear that lovely, expensive gown home once your customers have spurted their leavings all over it. My God, I can’t imagine.”
Isabelle wrinkled her nose. “You didn’t bringanythingelse to wear?” Suddenly, she covered her cheeks and addressed my tormentor. “Oh, Belle, what if that’s the only gown she’s got? Need to borrow something of mine, love?”
Stunned, I shook my head. Dear Lord, there was so much to this I hadn’t even imagined, let alone prepared for.
“No,” I said, then held both hands up in a protective gesture against both their misplaced pity and their malice. “No, I… I don’t generally keep the skirts on long enough to soil them. This is for the advertisement of services, not the application of them.”
“Listen to her.” Morag tossed a thumb at me. “The application, she says. I’ll try that on for the next time I’m feigning a come. Oh, yes, ye big lad,apply me, apply me!”
Their laughter set my skin aflame with wrath, and I did my best to rein it in. What a piss-poor time to realize that I’d spent very little time in the company of other women, especially in groups. Growing up with only a father and six brothers, I’d learned how to interact with the world through their tussles and torments.
I drew upon those lessons now. Throwing my shoulders back, I pulled a few pins from my hair and let it fall down past my shoulders until it tickled my elbows. The scent of my rosewater pervaded the atmosphere around me as I pulled off my spectacles and glared through the mask I’d nearly forgotten I wore. I hoped to capture some of the fearless wit of the man who’d put it there.
I found the eyes of every woman in the room and counted to three before moving on to the next. Four of my six brothers had been taller than me, and I’d had to learn to wither them down to my puny height with naught but a look. “My classof clientele appreciate a bit of erudition and conversation before the business. Mycompanycomes at every bit of a premium as mycunt. So, if youladiesdon’t mind, I’d like to see my room before I have to entertain my first appointment.”
There.That’d produced the desired effect of their silence. If my voice shook a bit, I hoped they assumed it was from anger and not anxiety.
I needed to escape. To retreat and regroup in peace so I might better prepare my next strategy. But I’d be goddamned before I backed down to this room full of vicious harpies.
This had been an absolute disaster, and I certainly wasn’t making any friends now.
“Never you mind,” I said to the frozen tableau in front of me. “I’ll find it myself.”
“All right, Viola. Put yer hackles down. I’ll show ye,” said Morag, her full lips pulled into not exactly a chastened line, but certainly a less caustic one. Both Belle and Izzy joined her, along with Penelope and Katherine, suddenly keen to make my acquaintance.
Well,I thought, letting out a relieved breath. Now we were getting somewhere.
I followed their frilly convoy through a short, wood-paneled hallway that could either be followed straight into the gallery room or branched left past Bea’s sitting room and up the back stairs.
We angled left, and I noted that the door to Bea’s sanctum had been left ajar, though the woman herself was nowhere to be found. I’d been told that Amelia would visit tonight in the wee hours to see how our scheme had fared.
It didn’t seem like I’d have much to report, I thought grimly. Only my staggering failure.
“Bea usually shows you about your business in the off hours before you start working.” Izzy’s sudden appearance behind me startled me out of my skin. “But she ain’t been the same since Alys has gone. Now with wot’s happened to Jane. She doesn’t seem well at all.”
“Yes, I noticed she’s afflicted with a terrible cough,” I remarked, turning away from the door and back toward the stairs. “Was she particularly close to Jane and Alys?”
As she considered the question, Izzy screwed up her face in such a little-girlish way, I felt a little squeeze of fondness in my chest. “Jane, maybe. They were thick as thieves, but I think Alys was too spirited for her tastes. Those two were both some of her best earners, next to Indira and Kya, if I can say so. Bea is well mad at what happened to them. And some of the girls been saying she’s had money troubles since—”
“Quiet, Izzy, ye daft cow,” Morag growled from the landing of the stairs above us. “Bea would cane yer hide for spilling her business to a stranger.”
Flushing as pink as her petticoats, Izzy cast me a chastened look and gestured with her chin toward the stairs, flanking me as I climbed.
“Don’t you fret, Viola,” she soothed. “Bea and the boys that protect us are never violent. She’s a firm madam—strict, some might say—but a kind one. She expects loyalty, but only because she gives it so easily. It’s why we all stay in this house, no matter what. She keeps us safe from the worst of it out there, and she never demands us to service her, like the pimps are wont to. Oh, and she doesn’t take too much for the house.”
“Her business practices are what drew me here,” I said, glad to have made Izzy’s garrulous acquaintance. I peeked down at her bodice, even more revealing than mine. The shimmer of a dress that, had it been more substantial, could have been a proper ball gown. “Is this not your costume?” I queried in confusion. “You wore this here as well.”
“Oh, this? Well, I had a bit of an appointment before I came here.” She tittered, gathering her skirts as we climbed. “Don’t tell Bea… she don’t like it. I’ve plenty costumes to change into before I’m due in the gallery.”
