Eugenia's Embrace

by Cassie Edwards

  "Where do you think she'll go?"

  "I gave her train fare. Maybe she'll leave the state. I don't know."

  "Frederick, I just have to ask," Eugenia mumbled. "How many girls… ?"

  "Two," Frederick said quietly. "Two before you. I would have never suspected foul play. The girls before you were flighty, uncontrollable, unpredictable, even after my hard work with them. You? You were different. Are different. You could have been a protegee I could have been proud of. Only a few more voice lessons and you could have been presented on the stage."

  "Did you know that people in this town gossip about you? Say that you hold girls in your house for your own evil purposes?"

  "Yes. I know that there are some who say this," Frederick said, covering his mouth with the back of his hand, coughing. "That's why it is so important to me to be successful with my training of you. I wanted to show you off, show these people how wrong they have been about me. You would have been the proof."

  "I'm sorry, Frederick," Eugenia said, knowing that she was quite sincere. She did feel sorry for him. He was one to be pitied. With his large twenty-six room house and no one to fill it with laughter or love. Yes, he was one to be pitied.

  "It's not too late," Frederick said, going to Eugenia, laying a hand on her shoulder. Again, as usual, she could feel the clammy wetness. She cringed inside and wondered if he noticed. "You could return to my house. You shouldn't waste your life away in such a place as this. Come along home with me. I could give you many jewels, if it took that to make you happy."

  "Did Clarissa tell you of my one night with Drew Jamieson in the tower room?" she asked cautiously. She could see his eyes darken, even sink more deeply into his face. Normally they were so bulged…

  "Yes. She told me of that man taking advantage of mein haus."

  "And knowing this, you'd still want me?"

  "The man is gone. And shall never return to Cripple Creek if he knows what's best for him," Frederick slurred. "And, yes. I want you back. Any way I can get you."

  Eugenia rose and went back to the window and looked outward. If she did go back with him her life would be much easier, less complicated. A life of leisure and no responsibilities. The door leading into the dining room swung open. Alison burst into the room.

  "Eugenia. I've been looking all over for you," she blurted, panting noticeably. "Dawn has been asking for you. I'm afraid… she's dying. Please come."

  "Oh, my God," Eugenia said, rushing across the room.

  "But, Eugenia?" Frederick said, stopping her with a hand on her wrist.

  "I can't go with you, Frederick," she answered quickly. "My life is here now. With my girls. They depend on me." It had taken Alison's timely appearance to awaken Eugenia. She knew that she could never go back to The Towers. She had never truly been happy there. And now, too many memories would get in the way. And… Dawn depended on her.

  "You can't mean that," Frederick said thickly.

  "Yes. I do mean it. And now I must leave you."

  Frederick stood in her way once again, and with trembling fingers he pinned the diamond brooch atop Eugenia's right breast. "Please think of me whenever you wear this, my sweet one," he said, then rushed on ahead of Eugenia and out of the house.

  "My God," she said. "What will happen next?" She then rushed up the stairs, taking them two at a time, remembering Dawn, and how ill she was. Oh, please God, she prayed to herself, don't let it end for her tonight. Not on Christmas Eve.

  "Alison, go and call the doctor. Fast," she said aloud, hurrying.

  The length of the hallway leading to Dawn's room seemed extra long this day as Eugenia made her way down it. When she reached the room, she placed her hand on the doorknob, then hesitated for a moment to take a deep breath. She had to be prepared for anything. She couldn't let Dawn see the fear in her eyes. She had to act as though everything was going to be all right. She opened the door and stepped inside. One fast look toward the bed showed a mere shadow of what was once a vital, beautiful young woman. Eugenia choked back a sob and inched her way across the room until she was at the bedside, looking downward. Her heart ached when she gazed upon the face of grayness, a face that had sunken in to reveal the sharp cheekbones beneath. And how her eyes had darkened around them. Eugenia bent down and touched Dawn's brow. It was so hot. She was burning up with a fever, but she was so pale. "Dawn?" she whispered.

  Dawn's eyes opened, but Eugenia could see the glassiness, knowing that Alison had administered a heavier dose of morphine for the increased pain radiating from both Dawn's lungs.

  "Eugenia?" Dawn said in a rasp, then took a deep, long breath, making a noise like a rattle emerge from the depths of her lungs. "How… are… the… girls making it?"

  It pained Eugenia hearing the words coming so hard for Dawn to speak. She couldn't believe that Dawn had worsened so fast. Right before her eyes. But here she was, so thin, so frail. For some strange reason, Eugenia was now seeing her sister Elizabeth lying there looking upward, pleading. Eugenia shut her eyes and shook her head to clear the thought from her mind. Elizabeth was home and very much alive.

  "The girls are having fun, Dawn," Eugenia said, smoothing Dawn's hair back away from her forehead. Then she sat down and took one of Dawn's hands in hers. It was also hot. Eugenia only wished the doctor would hurry. But how would she handle it with Dawn? How could she make Dawn agree to let him into the room? But no matter. She would take it upon herself to have him go against Dawn's wishes. It was only for Dawn's best interest.

  "They've decorated the parlor beautifully," Eugenia added, forcing a laugh. "And do you know? They act like a bunch of school girls. It's hard to realize they entertain men in such a fashion."

  "Take care of my girls," Dawn said, coughing hard, turning her head away from Eugenia.

  "You know I will," Eugenia said, having to keep the tears from surfacing.

  "I'm sure I only have a short time," Dawn whispered, breathing deeply once again, moaning softly as the pain took over. The morphine was not even helping now. Eugenia knew that it probably was because Dawn had taken it for so long. It just wouldn't kill the pain as effectively any longer. Not the way that she wanted it to.

  "Dawn, I have to tell you something," Eugenia said firmly.

  "What… is… it?"

  "I've told Alison to call a doctor for you."

  Dawn tried to rise, but fell back down into a heap on the bed, gasping for air. "Eugenia… you… know…"

  Eugenia covered Dawn's mouth lightly with her hand. "Shhh," she said softly. "It's going to be all right. The doctor will only help, not hurt. I should have forced the issue much sooner than this."

  "You… know… I___"

  "Yes, my dear," Eugenia soothed. "I know. But please trust me. You know I love you as my own sister, don't you? Don't you know I would do the same for my sister?" Oh, how her heart ached, wanting to do so much more for her, even knowing that she would be willing to trade places with her. She had never seen anyone she loved so near to death before. She wasn't sure if she could stand the inner torment of it. She swung her head around when she heard the door opening. She sighed with relief when she saw Alison direct the doctor into the room. Eugenia squeezed Dawn's hand and looked warmly at her.

  "It will be all right," she whispered. "You'll see."

  "I love… you… Eugenia," Dawn said as tears began to roll down her cheeks. "Please, always remember that."

  "I will," Eugenia said, choking back her own tears. She rose, turned, and faced the doctor, then hurried with Alison from the room.

  "Have I done the right thing, Alison?" she worried aloud, pacing back and forth in the hallway, wringing her hands. It was ironic hearing the merriment of the girls down below her. They did not realize that their madam was about to die. Was it fair to them? It was what Dawn had requested. Surely she had to honor one of Dawn's last requests. She had surely not honored Dawn's request about a doctor.

  Alison went to Eugenia and placed her arm around her waist. "Eugenia, I know you
've never liked me very much," she said quietly. "But please believe me when I say I know you've done the right thing by Dawn. In every way. And I respect you so for it. Friends?"

  Eugenia's eyes blurred with tears as she looked toward Alison, seeing a different person standing at her side. The hardness had been erased from her eyes, and only a deep sadness could be seen. Yes, Alison was being sincere. And Eugenia now knew that she had read her wrong. Even from the beginning. Alison had only done as any other girl would have done for the person she loved. It hadn't been an unclean love. Alison had loved Dawn as a sister. She had even given her daily injections of morphine, had been there when Dawn had needed her. Yes, Eugenia had been wrong about her.

  "Friends, Alison," she whispered, hugging Alison to her. Together they began to let their pent-up emotions out, wetting each other's shoulders with torrents of tears. It was a relief for Eugenia to be able to cry, to have someone to fall back on. But then the door to Dawn's room opened, making Eugenia and Alison stand to attention. Eugenia wiped the tears from her eyes and studied the expression on the doctor's face. "Well?" she asked.

  "Pneumonia," he said darkly. "She may last the night. Or maybe until tomorrow. It's hard to tell. Even too late to take her to the hospital."

  "Oh, no," Alison moaned, bursting into fresh tears.

  Eugenia pulled Alison into her arms once again, brushing her hair, soothing her. "It's going to be all right, Alison," she crooned. "It's going to be all right. Please don't cry."

  "There's nothing more I can do here," the doctor said, walking away with his black bag swinging at his side.

  Eugenia rushed after him. "Nothing? Isn't there anything you can give her?"

  The doctor laughed a deep mocking laugh. "Young lady, I don't think I could give her anything more potent than what she's already got in her bloodstream."

  Eugenia gasped.

  "I don't know where you whores get the drugs," he said darkly, his heavy brows furrowing, almost hiding the brown of his eyes. "But I'd like to catch the ones giving it out so freely. There's too much of that going on here in Cripple Creek. Doesn't do a damn bit of good for a doctor to be around. Everybody just takes it on themselves to be their own doctor. Even if they are killing themselves while doing it. Yes, ma'am. If I had my choice about it, you whores would be run out of town. Right now."

  Eugenia could feel her knees almost buckling beneath her. She grabbed onto Alison, clinging. She had never been spoken to so rudely. By anyone, except by Clarissa. But, this? A respectable doctor? She cleared her throat nervously.

  "Get out of my establishment," she said firmly, holding her chin up in the air. She had dignity. She would show him.

  "Gladly," he spouted and hurried on down the steps.

  Eugenia flinched when she heard the slamming of the front door, then she stood in silence, remembering his words. She ran a clean establishment, how could anyone make her suddenly feel so degraded about it all? She looked at Alison, who was studying her, waiting.

  "What a terrible man," Eugenia said quietly, then flipped her skirts around as she headed back toward Dawn's room. She had only Dawn to think about now, and how to make her more comfortable in her last hours on this miserable earth.

  * * *

  Chapter Sixteen

  The Old Homestead Parlour had been closed now for three days, observing a few days of mourning for their Madam Dawn. When there was a knock on the front door it startled Eugenia. She looked up from where she was seated in front of the fireplace in the parlor. She waited to hear someone go to the door, but didn't hear the stirring of feet or the rustle of skirts. She sighed wearily, rose, and went to it herself. The last three days had been almost the hardest in her life. It had appeared to be the same with the rest of the girls. They only came from their rooms to eat in the dining room in silence. Dawn had managed to hang on to a thin string of life until two days after Christmas. And now? A new year to face? Eugenia swung the door open widely and felt hate rising inside herself as she stood face to face with Clarissa.

  "What the hell do you want here, Clarissa?" Eugenia snapped, her eyes assessing the small, defeated woman standing before her. Clarissa didn't even have a coat around her shoulders, even though it was a day of near-zero temperatures. She just stood there, clutching her arms around her body, hugging herself. The black dress that had usually hung so crisply against her body now hung in a limp dusty shroud.

  "Frederick has sent me away, Eugenia," she said softly, her dark eyes pleading upward at Eugenia. "I have nowhere else to go. Can you please help me?"

  "After what you did to me? I can't believe you would have the gall to even face me," Eugenia snapped, starting to close the door in Clarissa's face. But when she heard whimpers surfacing from behind the partially closed door, she opened it slowly and peered outward at a Clarissa that Eugenia had never seen before. Clarissa fell to her knees, clasping her hands before her, looking upward, begging. Something tugged at Eugenia's heart. Even though she hated this woman with a vengeance she just couldn't see anyone, even Clarissa, grovelling at her feet.

  "Get up, Clarissa," she said quickly, looking around her, outward to the street, to see if anyone had noticed. "Come on in the house and at least warm yourself before you go elsewhere. I can at least do that much for you. Come," Eugenia added, leaning down, tugging on Clarissa's arm.

  Clarissa rose and wiped her eyes with the back of her hands. "I will always be grateful, Eugenia," she whimpered.

  "It's now Madam Eugenia," Eugenia said proudly. "Only call me that when you address me."

  Clarissa's head bobbed up and down hurriedly, her eyes wide. It embarrassed Eugenia to see the look of piety on Clarissa's face as she followed Eugenia into the foyer of the house.

  "In here. By the fire," Eugenia said, guiding Clarissa into the parlor. She could see Clarissa's eyes take it all in. But yet it was nothing like what she had been used to at The Towers.

  "I was just having tea," Eugenia said, sitting down in front of the fire. "Please be seated and have a cup with me. It will help with the chill you obviously have." The light tan of Clarissa's skin seemed to have blemishes to it this day. Eugenia had to wonder where she had been these past days, since Frederick had been known to have dismissed her from his house.

  "Thank you, Madam Eugenia," Clarissa said, sitting, then accepted the steaming cup of tea. She put the cup to her lips and sipped at it thirstily. Then she placed the cup in its saucer and studied Eugenia.

  "Frederick has made it impossible for me to find work in Cripple Creek," she began slowly. "He's told many lies about me. I'm even sure he's told you many lies, Madam Eugenia."

  "Lies?" Eugenia said, her eyes widening, wondering what lies she would now hear from Clarissa herself. "What sort of lies?"

  "About the girls that I had chained up in the tower room," Clarissa said quietly, still watching Eugenia, waiting for a hasty reaction, remembering having put Eugenia in the tower room because she had loved Frederick and had wanted him to herself. Yes, she knew that she would have had her own fun with Eugenia before setting her free. She had been without a sexual partner for too long. Even a woman's kiss and touch had been accepted as a willing substitute. But Frederick, he had been all that she had ever wanted.

  "What about the girls you chained up? Remember Clarissa. You also chained me up. I am living proof of that."

  Clarissa looked away and swallowed hard, remembering. Then she swung her head around once again to face Eugenia. "But I never harmed you did I?" she asked quickly.

  Eugenia laughed hoarsely. "Thanks to Key, you didn't," she said.

  "Thanks… to Key?" Clarissa mumbled. "Who's Key?"

  "Kiyomasu. The prized cook of Frederick's? Remember? And also remember his leaving the very same night as I?"

  "Yes?"

  "He's now with me. Here in this house. He's the one who helped with my escape."

  Clarissa's eyes beamed. "He did that? I thought maybe it had been one of the girls coming back to get back at me for what I had
done to them."

  "Girls? What girls?" Eugenia said, leaning forward, almost toppling her teacup from her lap.

  "I never did away with those two other girls," Clarissa said sternly. "I kept them locked up for a few days to clear their minds from the kind of life that Frederick had forced on them, then I set them free. They are both on their own now. Each of them has a crib of her own. Only down the road from here."

  "All of this is lies, Clarissa," Eugenia said, rising, going to the fire to stand before it, eyeing it, wondering how any one woman could be so full of lies.

  Clarissa rose and went to Eugenia's side. "No. None of it is lies," she said. "Now, I must say, one of the girls took a big disliking to me. I was kind of rough on her. I thought maybe she had been the one who had come and set you free."

  "How should she have known I was even there?"

  "I was dumb enough to brag to her about it," Clarissa said, walking away from Eugenia, going to a window, staring outward.

  "Why would you have been talking to her, at her crib?" Eugenia said, following behind her. Eugenia remembered the cribs, and the type of women who lived in them.

  "I had tried to patch things up with her," Clarissa said softly. "I had enjoyed our time together while in the tower room. This girl taught me much about my body that I had forgotten. But, I guess only because I had forced myself upon her. I had thought maybe she had possibly enjoyed it also. She acted as though she did. I have gone, many times, to try and persuade her to let me share a small portion of her life with me."

  Eugenia could feel her pulse racing, envisioning Clarissa with another woman, still remembering Clarissa's touches to her own body. "You're disgusting. You know that, don't you?" she snapped, going back to sit down in front of the fire.

  "But… you see?" Clarissa said, going and settling herself on the floor in front of Eugenia, peering upward, pleading once again. "I didn't murder any of those girls. In the end, I set them free. They had hated their existence while with Frederick, had never liked what he had tried to make of them. They had been too wild. Too wicked. They had already tasted a side of life that they had enjoyed."