Page 15 of Charlotte's Reckoning
The biting fingers released her, but only to deliver a stinging slap across her face. It wasn’t damaging like Emmett’s knuckles connecting with hercheekbone, but it hurt. Instinct made her open her eyes to see where the next blow would come from.
“That’s right. Youlookat your mistress when she’s speaking,”she declared, leaning over her. “You can forget about the dreams you had yesterday. Today, your purpose is to make me lots of money. If I tell you to wrap your lips around a patron’s cock and suck, you’ll suck. If he wants you to ride him like Annie fucking Oakley, you’ll whoop and holler and mount up as if you’ve wanted nothing more in your life. Then, you’ll use that little cunny to milk him dry. And by that, I mean relieving him of every cent he has. Your job is to get him so enamored with your charms that he’ll come back for more. Repeat business is where the real money comes from.”
Her anger faded as she sat back and smoothed down her dress.
“Myspecialclients are creative. They won’t settle for a blowjob or a quick dip of their willie.Butyou’ll be eagerevenif he wants to bend you over and go through the back door because that’s an upcharge. Better if he brings a friend so they can both have a go at you at once, which is double.”She waved a hand, setting her massive breasts to jiggling. “Butyou don’t have to dicker about price; I negotiate. All you need toknowisthatI’m the one you must please,evenmore so than your customers. Disobey me, and the cost is steep. Comply, and you’ll find I’m not such a heartless bitch, after all. Isthatunderstood?”
“No,”she whispered despite being terrified of her and everything she had said, some of which she didn’t comprehend and never wanted to. “You can’tjustbuy me and force me into servitude. We fought a bloody war overthat. Carson and Iwereheading west to start a new life.ButEmmett stopped our train and snatched me off it. Itrulydon’t belong here.”
Laughter burst out of her, high-pitched and jarring. “Thereare three thousand prostitutes in this city,”she stated, motioning toward the window. “Do you think any of them imagined a life with strangers sweating and coming all over them night after night? Each one has a hard-luck story to share. ‘My husband beats me,’”she mimicked in a whiny voice. “‘My partner ran off with another woman, leaving me and our kids homeless and broke. I can’t find a decent-paying job.’”
Heloise tended to gesture while speaking, and she did so now, extending both arms to the sides. Rowie expected her to burst a seam and spill out of her dress at any moment. By some miracle, the stitching held up under the strain.
She went on, “‘Scrubbing clothes until my hands are cracked and bleeding is hard.’And the most common complaint of all, ‘I’m hungry.’”Without an ounce of sympathy, she concluded, “Your dead husband excuse isn’t unique.”
Music and laughter drifted through the floorboards as the madam stared at her coolly. “Where are you from?”
“Virginia,”Rowie answered, failing to see its relevance.
“A rebel,”she concluded, appearing disappointed. “Were you burned out or driven off by the Yankees, like everyone else?”
“I left for other reasons.”
“What reasons?”
“I got married, for one.”
“Hm…Buthe’s dead, as you say. Do you have other family? Does he? Someonewho’dcompensate meconsiderablyfor my trouble?”
“Like a ransom?”Rowie asked.
Jael would laugh at such a request and take joy in the prospect of her much-despised stepdaughter working in a brothel. Rowie tried to think of someone who might have the funds to help, but she couldn’t; she had no one.
The madam grunted. “I thought not. With your husband dead and no kinfolk to go to, what did you plan to do when you arrived in St. Louis? Forge on to the untamed frontier by yourself?”
“They took me so fast, I didn’t have time to consider.”
“The bit about finding a job wasn’t a lie. Decent work for good pay is a rarity in this town. You sound like quality, but you can scratch governessing off your list without references.”
“I play piano; I could teach.”
“Not off the street,”she scoffed. “Ifyou leave here, you’ll be starving and sick within a week.Ifyou make itthatlong without being raped or murdered.”
Images of her sucking and riding and bending over for countless men to make the madam lots of money prompted her to ask, “How is working for you so different?”
“Here, yougetprotection, a place to sleep, bathe, and three hot meals daily. I’veevengot a doctor who comes aroundregularlyto handle any problemsthatshould arise from the trade.”
She frowned, not understanding.
“By the saints,”Madam Heloise exclaimed as she tossed up her hands. “I’m talking about pregnancy.Surely, a farmgirlknowshow babies are made.Ordid you grow up on one of those fancy plantations?”
“We grew corn and tobacco, butmostlywe raised horses.”
“Horses, cows, people,there’sreallyno difference.Whenthe male gets randy, his baser instincts take hold until he finds a female to slake his needs.Oncesatisfied, and most times after a nap”—she added with a disdainful twist of her lips—“he moves on, leaving her to deal with any residual effects.”
“Please, I don’t want to do this. Can’t you let me go? I’ll pay you back.”
“How?When? I’m not a bank to have stacks of cash lying around. I have bills and can’t wait on the return of my $1000 investment without guarantees I’llgetit back.”
