Page 84 of Charlotte's Reckoning
Coming up beside her, Patsy whispered urgently, “He has more men upstairs searching your room and Fenton’s.”
She saw red and exploded, “Get out. All of you. You have no right to be here.”
“As much right as you do for now,” he quipped then tossed back a shot of whiskey.
“Judge or not, you certainly don’t have the right to be in my room, going through my things!”
“Didn’t you hear the attorney? He saidallthe contents. Your room is in the Red Eye, so it’s mine.”
“Not yet, it isn’t. That’s for the judge to decide.”
“Keep on dreaming. Soon, that’s all you’ll have left.” He threw his head back and roared with drunken laughter, which his men echoed.
She stormed up the stairs, their ridicule fueling her anger even more, if that was possible. Her room was a disaster when she arrived; clothes scattered everywhere, the bed undone, her linens and pillows beneath the mattress in a heap on the floor.
Two men, both tall, one burly, the other lanky, rifled through her things with grimy hands.
“Get out!” she shouted, the sound echoing through the halls. “Or I’m sending for the sheriff.”
“Oo, stop. You’re scaring us,” tall and scrawny taunted. “Ain’t she, Cleve?”
The big one paused, looked at her then at his fellow pillager, and shrugged. “We’re finished here, anyway. Come on, Silas.”
When the tall, skinny one passed, she yanked her jewelry box out from under his arm. It was mainly paste, but it belonged to her.
Patsy, Violet, Molly, and several of the others, even Serena, crowded into her room when they left.
“Where are Morgan and the two other guards?” Charlotte asked them.
“Sneed’s henchmen ran them off,” Patsy answered. “They were outnumbered six to three. Seven, including Sneed.”
“That pathetic little worm doesn’t count for nothing,” Violet asserted, not withholding her disgust.
“I’m not cooking for them,” Molly insisted.
“And I’m not staying if that disgusting Quentin is taking over,” Anna Sue, who’d been with her for three years, declared.
“You’re all fools,” Serena exclaimed. “The other houses only pay half of what we earn here. And what if they’re not hiring? Where will you go? The bathhouse? Or dance for a dime? How does one eat or pay rent on dimes?” she asked, throwing up her hands. “I’m staying.”
Violet, who always had her back, stepped forward and confronted her. “That’s because if Quentin’s in, Charlotte’s out, and you think you’ll become the Red Eye’s new madam!”
“It’s time she retired and made way for someone younger,” she sniffed haughtily, but backed toward the door. When she bumped into it with no room to retreat, she spun and rushed out. Vi could be intimidating.
“I never liked that one,” she muttered, slamming the door with a bang. “Best of luck to her. If she can’t earn the respect of her ladies or get up the nerve to stand up to them, she won’t last a day.”
Patsy gently squeezed her arm. “You’re not old, hon. And you’re twice as beautiful as that witch.”
Although the jab about being past her prime at thirty-two had stung, Charlotte brushed it off. She had more pressing concerns to attend to.
Violet chimed in from her other side. “You’re the reason we’ve all stayed. If you leave the Red Eye, we’ll go too.”
Charlotte acknowledged the support but insisted, “I appreciate all of you, but you must look out for yourselves. Quentin seems like the type to hold agrudge. I can’t pay you, and if the judge doesn’t decide in my favor, you’ll need to work.”
“You mean like offering you a job working on your back again after you slapped him?” Violet asked, still steaming over his insult.
“That bounder! He’s pond scum,” Patsy exclaimed.
“Agreed, but he’s not the priority now. Having a roof over your head and food in your belly is.”
