Kiyomasu laughed loudly. "Yes, Miss Genia. From here on out, I'll tell everyone my name is Key."
"And another thing," Eugenia said further. "Will you please drop that miss before my name? I don't mind you calling me Genia, but please don't call me miss."
"Sure thing Miss… I mean Genia."
Eugenia lifted her skirt into her arms and made her ascent up the stairs and knocked on the door, remembering that first day that she had done so. But she had to push those thoughts from her mind. She could hear loud laughter surfacing from inside the house and an occasional peal of music. It sounded cheerful enough. She looked toward the windows. From behind the lacy white curtains she could see outlines of men and women against the lighted windows of the room. She had never known how these places worked, but she knew that she was going to be finding out, and soon.
The door opened, and Eugenia found herself face to face with the young girl who had walked in on her bath that one morning before she had been drugged by Madam Valerie. Eugenia continued to stare in silence, but realized the girl didn't recognize her. She was glad for this. She didn't want to be associated with the past doings in this house.
"Is Dawn… I mean Madam Dawn here?" Eugenia asked softly. She could see this girl's eyes studying first herself then Key standing next to her. She knew that they had to make quite a pair.
"Sure. Come on in," the girl said frivolously.
When Eugenia walked into the bright lighting of the foyer, she smiled to herself knowingly at the attire of this girl, and the way her face was made up so boldly. Yes, she was back in the other part of Cripple Creek. She hadn't seen anyone look like this since she had left Myers Avenue those many months ago. On Bennett Avenue only the refined ladies made themselves known, by the scarcity of makeup on their faces, and less revealing dresses. This dress on the girl standing before her held nothing to the imagination. A dress of red, to match the surrounding rooms. Rooms with red velveteen draperies, carpeting, and furniture, making everything seem brighter, more noticeable. The chandelier hanging down overhead—itself more beautiful than any girl in the room—sparkled and twinkled back at Eugenia.
"Come with me," the girl said, heading toward the staircase that Eugenia also remembered well.
She followed the girl, looking back to make sure Key was following her. She smiled when she saw his perplexed expression. But she knew that she would make his presence here a happy one. Dawn had said that Eugenia would take charge, that Dawn herself was too ill to handle much of the business side of the parlor any longer. She waited breathlessly as the girl tapped lightly on a closed door. Then her heart began to melt when she heard the softness of the voice from the other side of the door.
"Who is it?" the voice asked.
"It's Alison," the girl said, also softly. "You have two strange looking visitors to see you."
Eugenia's eyebrows tilted at that remark, but she set her lips firmly and waited.
"Who are they?" Dawn asked, not opening the door.
"What's your names?" Alison asked impatiently, eyeing the staircase, obviously wanting to mingle downstairs with the rest of the women and men. Eugenia hadn't looked closely around her when she had passed the entrance to the main lobby. She had only been concerned about seeing Dawn, and what she had to say about her sudden appearance.
"Just say Eugenia," Eugenia said. "That will suffice. I'm sure of it."
Alison gave her a look of disgust, then spoke Eugenia's name. Only a moment went by before the door swung open, revealing Dawn, even more lovely than Eugenia could remember. But in the dim lighting of Dawn's room, Eugenia knew that all traces of her illness had to be well hidden.
"Eugenia? Is it really you?" Dawn said in a weak voice, tears appearing in the corners of her eyes.
Eugenia wanted to take Dawn in her arms and hug her, but she remembered what Dawn had said about possibly catching her illness. "Does your offer still stand? Can I live here with you?" she asked.
"God, yes!" Dawn said, pulling Eugenia into her private room.
Eugenia looked toward Key, still standing in the hallway. "I have a friend with me, Dawn," she said, motioning for Key to come on into the room. Key bent his shoulders and scooted on into the room.
"Key, this is Madam Dawn," Eugenia said proudly. "And Dawn, my very good friend and confidant, Key."
Dawn held out a hand in front of her. "Glad to meet you, Key. Any friend of Eugenia's is a friend of mine." Then she pulled a handkerchief from a pocket, turned her head, and began to cough violently. Eugenia could see the heaving of Dawn's chest as Dawn turned back in Eugenia's direction.
"Do you think you could use another cook, Dawn?" she asked, not liking to see the redness of Dawn's face after her coughing bout but knowing that she was going to have to get used to it. It apparently went along with Dawn's disease.
"We'll make room for another," Dawn whispered, rasping.
"I'd like for him to be our own private cook, if possible," Eugenia said further. "He's special. Believe me."
"That's fine with me," Dawn said, then went to the hallway. She brought Alison back into the room with her. "Alison, I want you to meet your new madam."
Eugenia's eyes widened in disbelief, and her heart skipped many beats. Had she heard right?
"My… new… madam?" Alison spoke weakly.
Dawn went to Eugenia and clung to a hand. "Yes. This is Madam Eugenia. She and I will be working together. Please tell the other girls. Tomorrow we will arrange for you all to meet her. With a special tea. Just you girls and us. Will you please pass this news around to the girls for me?"
"Anything you say, Madam Dawn," the girl said, shock still present on her face—a face that was as red with rouge as her hair that stood in a high pompadour on top of her head.
"Be off with you then," Dawn said, motioning with her hand.
Alison stood her ground, staring in the direction of Key. "And what are you going to do about… him?" she asked snappishly.
"Please show him to the kitchen," Dawn answered. "The other cooks will show him his living quarters."
"Yes, ma'am," Alison said, then began to walk away with her nose tilted up into the air. "Come with me," she said to Key, not even looking his way.
Key eyed Eugenia questionably.
"Goon, Key," Eugenia said. "It will be all right. You'll see."
Key nodded then hurriedly left the room.
Eugenia turned to face Dawn. Dawn's dark curls cascaded around her shoulders, settling on white lace trimming of a black velveteen dress that obviously hung too loosely from her body. Eugenia knew that Dawn had lost more pounds than she had previously been aware of, and she wondered just how bad the illness was. But she now had to ask another question. "Dawn, I can't believe what I just heard. Do you mean I'm already going to be given the title of madam so fast, just like that?"
Dawn went to a chair and slouched down into it, taking a long-stemmed wine glass between her fingers, turning it round and round, watching the lights reflecting onto it like jewels sparkling on a woman's finger. "Yes. You are now Madam Eugenia. Doesn't it sound pretty?" Her eyes shone when she looked upward at Eugenia. "I'm just so glad you came." She sighed deeply. "Please sit and have a glass of wine with me and tell me what happened to change your mind."
Eugenia threw her cape from around her shoulders and sat down opposite Dawn. She accepted the long-stemmed glass filled with cherry red liquid, then settled back against the deeply upholstered chair, knowing that she was now "home."
"You won't believe it when I tell you." She sighed, taking a sip of the wine, liking the feel of it as it moved from her throat down into her stomach. "You just won't believe it," she repeated, then began to tell all, still thinking of her newly given title. Madam Eugenia. Yes, she liked it… very much.
* * *
Chapter Thirteen
Eugenia awakened with a start, at first not remembering where she was. Then one fast look around her told her the answer. The room was one of loveliness. She could even smell
the freshness of the wallpaper that Dawn said had just been hung. Its small specks of rosebuds shone back to Eugenia in soft reds, to match the red brocade draperies closed at her one bedroom window. The slight flickering of a gaslight on the wall beside her bed lighted the room enough for her to compare it with what she had left behind the day before. It wasn't as magnificent, and the colors were much bolder than the lilac that she had grown accustomed to, but the dark red wine of the mahogany bedstead, bureau, and bedside table was what she would have least expected to find in the room that Dawn would furnish her with.
Feeling a chill, Eugenia climbed from the bed. Clutching her arms around her, she went to the small coal stove at the far end of the room. She opened its front door and threw in a few coals, then draped a gown around her shoulders. Her thoughts went to Drew and how fast he had disappeared from her life once again. And Frederick? What had he done when he had found her gone? She had to wonder if he would come searching, but she knew that surely he wouldn't guess where she had gone. Unless Clarissa described Dawn to him, then he would go from there. A light tap on her door drew her attention. "Yes?" she asked, waiting.
"Eugenia, it's me," Dawn said, sounding more raspy this morning than she had sounded the night before. Then there was that cough. Eugenia cringed inside when she heard Dawn laboring for breath as she opened the door, facing her with a frown.
"Are you even worse this morning?" Eugenia asked, taking Dawn's hand in hers, guiding her in by the now roaring fire. "Here. Take off the chill. Sit down and let's talk."
"I've let you sleep later than the girls," Dawn said, covering her mouth with a lace-trimmed, white handkerchief, coughing once again. She sat down and placed her feet up next to the stove. "But the girls are now downstairs waiting to have tea with us."
"I'm afraid they'll resent me," Eugenia said, sitting opposite Dawn. "Especially Alison. She seemed so surprised by the announcement last night. Had she possibly been expecting to be made madam? Remember how you had worked under Madam Valerie with such hopes?"
Dawn laughed hoarsely, but again covered her mouth. Only the emptiness of her blue eyes peeked above the handkerchief. "Yes. Possibly," she answered. "But she'll just have to be a madam elsewhere, if being madam is really what she wants. She's a bit too sullen for a madam in my establishment. One must be sparkling at all times. Full of vitality. The lust for life. That's where I'm failing now. That's why I came to you. Because none of my other girls could fill my shoes either. We'll just have to ignore anything they might say against you."
"All right." Eugenia sighed. "Anything you say. I'll try. That's all I can promise right now."
"You'll do just fine, Eugenia. Now hurry and step into something comfortable for our tea. None of the girls are yet properly dressed for gentlemen callers. I just told them to wear something light and easy. To relax, while they can."
"But, Dawn. I left all my clothes behind. I don't have anything but the dress that I arrived in."
"Take another look in the closet." Dawn laughed.
"What?"
"Surely this morning you heard the maid bring in the dresses."
"No. Nothing," Eugenia said, going to the closet. She swung the door aside and gasped openly. The dresses she was now touching were even more beautifully breathtaking than any she had ever worn while living with Frederick.
"Why, they're beautiful," she sighed. She hated to let her fingers leave the touch of softness. She had grown used to such attire, but yet never tired of marveling over it. She had gone for so many years without such things. On her parents' homestead, she had felt lucky to have a new dress once a year. Even then it would probably be made from cloth from flour sacks.
She pulled one from a hanger and wrapped it around herself, and went to the mirror. Its flared skirt of silk crinkled as she ran her fingers over it, and the lace that draped the skirt and bodice was a soft beige against the dark brown of the fabric.
"It'll match your hair beautifully," Dawn whispered.
Eugenia swung around and faced Dawn, her eyes full of wonder. "But they do look my size. How did you know?"
A laugh followed a cough as Dawn arose. "I knew you'd come. Sooner or later. I knew you'd have to get away from Frederick Heinmarch. My seamstress only had to take a few tucks here and there, and they were you, perfectly."
"But they are all so beautiful."
"They ought to be. They're from Paris, my dear," Dawn laughed. "I hated to have to alter them in the slightest, but you have lost a bit of your previous weight."
"But if you ordered these for me when I was heavier then you must have done so long ago. When we first met."
Dawn went to Eugenia and ran a finger over Eugenia's full, pouting lips. "I only hoped for your return. That's all," she said, then moved toward the door, lifting her own silk skirt up into her arms. "Coming soon?" she asked, as she turned and smiled warmly in Eugenia's direction.
"Shortly," Eugenia answered, then watched in silent awe as the door shut, leaving her with her confused thoughts. Dawn had known. All along Dawn had known that she would return. But how? Had it been because she knew the ways of Cripple Creek so well? The way it treated the unmarried, lonely women? The way it led most of them to Myers Avenue? But Eugenia shrugged. No. Surely not all women met with such foul play as she had on her first day in the town. Surely it had just been fate that had led her to the position that she now held… madam. But no matter. She was going to make a good life for herself now. And she was going to treat her girls good.
Laughing at herself for thinking of the girls as "her girls," Eugenia pulled the dress over her head, stopping once to admire its beauty, how its swooping neckline revealed the magnificence of her bosom. She sucked in her breath and held her back straighter, proud still of her newly acquired figure. But what good had it done her with Drew? He had just left her behind once more. She wasn't sure if she could ever trust another man's touch. She wasn't even going to think about the way such a touch could make her feel, so lost from her own body, so warm. She could not think about it. From here on out, she would make this new job of madam her way of life. She would try and make Dawn comfortable through her illness, and learn the ways of being a madam so she could be known as the best madam in Cripple Creek. She wanted only the best clients to visit her establishment. She wanted it to be one of good taste.
She brushed her hair until it shone. She pulled it back, then placed her Papa's combs on each side. She didn't want to open the drawer of the bureau to see the watch once more. The less she looked at it, the less she would think of him.
She just pushed the thoughts of Drew aside and hurried down the steep staircase. It was quite evident to Eugenia that jealousy was thick in the air when she entered the parlor. She didn't know what to look at first. The girls who were sitting proper, almost like school children, around the room. Or should she wonder more at the furnishings, the large fireplace roaring with a blaze on the wall opposite the windows, or once again at the chandelier twinkling back at her in blues, golds, and purples? She chose the first. She couldn't help it. She felt all eyes on her, assessing her worth to have been chosen above each one of them as the madam of this house. And Eugenia couldn't help but feel a blush rise, and hated herself for it.
"Come. Sit beside me," Dawn said, suddenly seeming to sparkle, with even the blue of her eyes deeper in the brightness of the morning's light. Eugenia's eyes took a fast sweep of the red velveteen drapes on each side of the curtains, wondering if they were ever pulled close, maybe to not reveal to the public what truly went on inside this house.
Sitting down, Eugenia smiled sheepishly toward Dawn, then let her gaze move slowly around the room, trying to keep her composure, with her bosom thrust out, and her back straight. The eyes of the girls were the hardest to look at. They all seemed to be snapping back at her. Maybe even wanting her to feel the coldness they were radiating. But she wouldn't let herself be moved by this. She had to show that she was going to reign supreme. She was going to be their madam, whether they like
d it or not. They would come around. She would see to it. They would be made to like her.
"Girls, our new madam, Madam Eugenia," Dawn said, gesturing with one hand, then covering her mouth suddenly with a white handkerchief, coughing violently.
Eugenia could see out of the corner of her eye how the girls were reacting to Madam Dawn's illness. When their looks had switched to Dawn, only a soft, unhappy uneasiness was present on each of their faces. They knew, as Eugenia now did, that Dawn was more than likely dying. If only Eugenia could talk Dawn into letting a doctor see her. But Dawn had told her that her stepfather had introduced her to the Christian Science faith, which had taught her to never seek out the services of a doctor, even if it meant death. She had even seemed to reconcile herself to the fact that if it was time for her to die no man could help her from it.
Once the coughing bout was silenced, the sounds from the street filtered in through the windows, another reminder to Eugenia of which street she was now living on—Myers Avenue, not Bennett Avenue. Even so early in the morning she could hear the loudness of the talk and music coming from the dance halls and saloons that lined each side of the street, and the usual sound of horses neighing as one would pass by. The street sounds were still muffled by the snow, but not enough so, as far as Eugenia was concerned. She would see to it that as soon as she was settled in and accepted as the madam, she would have music played in this parlour day and night. Soft music. Soft, romantic music to enhance the atmosphere. She would make this like a fairy tale atmosphere, not a place of sordidness, as most women from Bennett Avenue would most surely think of this particular establishment.
"Eugenia, I would like to introduce each girl to you now," Dawn said, growing silent for a moment when a maid entered, carrying a tray of small square cakes, and sweet rolls. When a second maid entered, carrying a tray of teacups and a teapot, Dawn continued speaking, nodding a thanks as she was handed a cup of tea.
"I believe you know Alison already," Dawn said, laughing softly.
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