“It might be better if you leave the room now, Jake.”
“I will not.” He stood at the end of the bed glowering at both of them. “This is my place and don’t forget it. No woman is indispensable.”
“I need to take off her gown so I can examine her properly.”
“Sonofabitch, she’s a whore and used to flaunting her body in front of men. Besides, there’s not one inch of it I haven’t seen or touched. Hurry up, I’ve got an itch I need her to relieve.”
Scarlett sat up and let Ruby help her out of her gown. She felt too drained to care whether Jake was there or not. Ruby pressed her bare flesh with gentle fingers. She ran one finger from waist level down to just above her pubic area.
Ruby gave a sudden gasp, before easing her drawers back into position again. By the look on her normally impassive face, Scarlett knew the oriental woman had discovered something that shocked her.
“What is it?” Scarlett asked frantically, not wanting to die at sixteen.
“Goddammit,” Jake snarled. “Spit it out, what’s wrong with her?”
“She’s with child.”
“What!” Scarlett shrieked. “I can’t be.” Her heart nearly catapulted out of her chest.
“Sonofabitch. Get rid of it.”
“No. No,” Scarlett cried out. “It’s Liam’s baby.”
“I don’t care whose brat it is. Get rid of it or get out.”
Tears filled Scarlett’s eyes. She couldn’t destroy Liam’s baby, it was all she had left of him. Where would she go if Jake banished her from The Black Stetson? How could she look after a baby with nowhere to live?
“Please, Jake,” she beseeched him.
His eyes were almost black with fury, his expression stony.
“Go and get what you need, Ruby.”
Ruby stared at Scarlett, her eyes full of compassion. “It will be for the best.” She glided out of the room, leaving Scarlett in turmoil.
“Please, Jake, don’t do this to Liam’s baby.”
“You stupid whore letting yourself….”
“Liam was your friend. He told me he saved your life in the war. You owe him.”
Not one flicker of emotion passed over his face.
“Please, I’ll work for you for nothing except food and lodging,” she went on desperately. “I’ll do anything you say. Be your slave.”
Still he didn’t speak. The silence was ominous. His eyes were so cold she shivered.
“If this baby dies, there will be no-one of Liam’s blood left. I’m begging you, Jake. You owe him.”
“No man will pay to be serviced by a whore with a fat belly.”
“I wouldn’t show for another few months. You can take everything I earn. It would only be a couple of months that I wouldn’t be bringing any money in. Besides,” she played what she hoped was a trump card. “When I can’t service men I could find other girls for you. They would trust a woman who is heavy with child. O’Reilly’s hotel is close by and it’s a good place to find desperate young women.”
A spark of interest lit up his eyes. He stroked his chin speculatively. “All right. After the brat is born you dump it at an orphanage.”
Scarlett’s heart filled with hatred yet she tried not to let it show. Liam’s baby would not be going to an orphanage even if she had to sell herself in the street. She nodded her agreement. She’d had a small victory and for now it was enough.
****
For the next three months Scarlett worked hard. She serviced more than her usual quota of clients when she wasn’t in the saloon flirting outrageously with men, so they would spend more money on drinks and gambling, hoping this would be enough for Jake to say she didn’t have to go out and solicit other girls. The thought was repugnant to her, but to save Liam’s baby she would do anything no matter how low or despicable it was.
****
Dressed in a green gown which had a high, lace trimmed neckline and small shiny black buttons down the front, and wearing a matching coat, Scarlett set off heading toward O’Reilly’s hotel. A bitter wind swept the area, its freezing tentacles barely held at bay by her fine wool coat. Black clouds hung low overhead, ready to drop their watery load at any moment.
She came upon a young woman huddled in a laneway, her thin body shaking with cold. Her pinched face, white and scared looking, didn’t detract from her prettiness.
You can do this. You have to for Liam’s baby. She stepped toward the woman. She’d be better off working for Jake than selling herself on the street or working in a low class brothel. Worse still, she could end up in some disgusting crib servicing thirty men a day. Although Jake was ruthless and devoid of compassion, he always made sure the women working in any of his establishments had good conditions in which to live and were treated decently by the men they serviced. He was honest, in that he gave them their fair share of all the money they earned.
“Are you all right?” She didn’t have to feign concern or sympathy because she felt both.
“Yes, um no.” Tears filled the woman’s eyes. Scarlett reached out and squeezed her hand. “I know what it’s like to be alone and desperate.”
“Do you?” The woman sniffed. “You look rich.”
“There’s a small diner around the corner. I’ll buy you a hot drink and food.”
The woman hesitated. Scarlett decided she had to be about nineteen or so. “My name is Scarlett, what’s yours?”
“Jane.”
They didn’t speak again as they hurried up the alleyway. It was a real wind tunnel with icy gusts blasting them. They turned the corner and the wind lessened.
At the diner, Scarlett pushed the door open and stepped back to let Jane enter first. “Two coffees with pancakes, thanks,” she told a waitress.
“You’re having a baby?” Jane stared at Scarlett’s stomach.
“Yes.”
“I had a baby.” Jane’s face crumpled and she sobbed. Scarlett squeezed her hand. Perhaps the girl wouldn’t be suitable, she seemed too weak and weepy.
The coffee and pancakes arrived and Jane gobbled hers down. “Thank you. I haven’t eaten since yesterday. My money ran out, food is expensive here.”
Scarlett picked up one pancake then offered Jane the rest. “Tell me what happened.” Scarlett patted her belly to calm her own nerves as well as Jane’s.
“The birth was difficult and my baby died.”
“I’m sorry.”
Jane wiped her eyes with the back of one hand. “It was such a difficult birth my insides were ruined. I can’t have any more children.”
“How awful.” She stared into Jane’s pain filled brown eyes.
“My husband is a rancher and an only son who needs heirs. Anyway, I overheard him and his parents plotting to have me put into the lunatic asylum so he could get rid of me.” She shuddered. “I ran. You die in those places, Scarlett.”
“I escaped from an orphanage because the hard work and lack of food would have killed me.”
“Is that why you’re helping me?”
“Yes. Would you like to come home with me?”
“That’s kind, especially as you don’t even know me.”
“Do you have anyone else to turn to? Relatives?”
“No, I was an only child and both my parents are dead. I don’t know of any other relatives. The only friends I had were my husband’s friends.”
Jane had nowhere to go, no money and no friends so I’m really saving her by taking her to Jake, Scarlett thought trying to salve her conscience. Left alone on the streets with no money Jane would probably end up getting raped or murdered. Better for her to be looked after at one of Jake’s establishments.
This task didn’t sit well with her, but she had no choice if she wanted to save Liam’s baby. How could you meet a man and fall instantly in love with him? She sighed, feeling much older than her seventeen years.
“Come back to where I live,” Scarlett invited. “You’ll be well cared for. Jake, my boss, will be able to give you a job.”
>
“Doing what?”
Scarlett shrugged. “You’d have to work that out with him, he owns quite a few, um, businesses.”
“Sounds too good to be true,” Jane said as she ate the last pancake.
This girl was obviously no fool. I’m bringing her to The Black Stetson, it’s up to Jake what happens from then on Scarlett thought. Jane had been married; it wasn’t as if she was young and innocent.
“All right, I’ll come. Thank you.”
“Thank me after you’ve seen Jake.”
****
They left the diner and walked the short distance to The Black Stetson. From the outside the place looked much the same as the neighboring properties, a large double-storey place with neat gardens. The entrance to The Black Stetson saloon and gambling tables were at the side of the house and took up almost the whole of the ground floor.
The front entrance led to a sitting room where men seeking the services of woman were catered for. A wide stairway led up to the boudoirs where the girls worked from. She took Jane in through the front way. As they entered Jane gasped.
“This is nice, Scarlett.”
“Yes, it is. Take a seat on one of those sofas while I get Jake.” She scurried off like a rat leaving a sinking ship. You’ve got no choice. For your baby’s sake you have to do this.
She hurried to Jake’s study. If he wasn’t prowling around the saloon keeping a check on what was happening, he would be here going through the paperwork from his various ventures, counting how much money was coming in. Wealth had become an obsession with him, and he didn’t care what he had to do to get it.
She tapped on the door, before pushing it open. He sat in his chair, feet up on the desk, a drink in one hand, a cheroot in the other. He glanced up but didn’t move when she walked in.
“I’ve brought a girl here who might be suitable.” Briefly she told him Jane’s story.
“Send her in, then go upstairs, Mr. P. is waiting in your sitting room.”
“What! You said I wasn’t to….”
“Yeah, well he insisted. He doesn’t mind a fat belly so give him what he wants. He’s already paid so make sure he gets his money’s worth.”
Scarlett didn’t want to give her body to a man now, even someone as nice as Mr. P. She was protective of her baby. Once she had found out she was expecting, she had asked Ruby about taking extra precautions to ensure she stayed healthy. Pearl, the cook, always served her extra vegetables, in fact she hovered over her like a mother hen to make sure she ate every morsel of food on her plate.
In her sitting room Mr. P. rose to his feet on seeing her.
“Scarlett, my dear, how are you?” His gaze went straight to her belly and lingered there.
“I’m good thank you.” She gnawed her bottom lip. “Jake shouldn’t have….”
“I insisted on coming up. I wouldn’t do anything to hurt your baby. I read how women can pleasure men with their mouths and I thought….” His normally ruddy cheeks turned even redder.
“All right, I’ll do that as a special service for you,” she lied. Kneeling between his legs she unfastened his pants then closed her mouth around his erection. Even as she worked him, she thought this manoeuvre wouldn’t hurt the baby and it would give her extra money. Jake was obsessed with money out of greed, hers was a necessity if she wanted a decent life for her child.
A very satisfied Mr. P. left with a promise to come at least twice a week for repeat performances. After he left the room she placed the extra twenty dollars he had left her in a leather pouch, which she hung inside a wall cavity at the back of her wardrobe. Every couple of months or so she would remove some of the money, and take it to the bank with her earnings.
****
A few days after delivering Jane to Jake, he sauntered into her sitting room. It was barely big enough to accommodate the liquor cupboard, a small table and two velvet covered armchairs where she was encouraged to get the men to buy a few overpriced drinks before taking them to bed.
Jake grinned. “Jane is off to Lawson with a few other doves. She was a quick learner our little prairie hen.”
“I hope you didn’t force her.” Scarlett often wondered why Jake let her get away with back chatting him, although she never did it in front of the other women.
“No, she was quite eager, surprised me, actually. I enjoyed breaking her in and so did she. I need you to get me a couple more.”
“I don’t know whether I can.”
“Oh, you’ll think of a way.” He stared at her stomach. “You’ll be out on the street otherwise.”
“Please, Jake, I’m still bringing in money.”
“The few dollars you make now isn’t enough.”
“How can you be so callous? We’re talking about Liam’s baby, your friend. The man who saved your life.”
“It was years ago,” he snapped.
“You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.”
“You’ll push me too far one of these days, Scarlett, and so help me….”
He was sitting in the armchair, legs splayed. Desperate times called for desperate measures. She bit back on a hysterical laugh as she knelt between his legs, unfastened his pants and took his hardening manhood into her mouth.
“Sonofabitch.” He gasped and groaned as she worked him until with a feral growl he reached his climax all within a couple of minutes. His shocked expression, as he adjusted himself, would have been comical at any other time.
He got to his feet, thrusting his fingers through his black hair. “I still need those women.” The harshness had left his voice though, the threatening undertones also. Without another word he strode out of the room.
Where could she find two suitable girls in such a short time? She snapped her fingers. The orphanage. A few of the older girls they couldn’t sell off, or those who had returned, often with child, were given work there. They would birth their babies then stay until Matron decided they had paid off their debt by working for her or Gerda. It was all she could think of. Any kind of life at one of Jake’s establishments would have to be better than the drudgery and abuse there.
Scarlett hated what she had become – a procurer of whores, but was so desperate she had no choice.
Chapter Six
Jake was away on one of his trips when Scarlett gave birth to a little girl. It had been a long, arduous labor and neither of them would have survived had it not been for Ruby and Pearl’s help.
As Scarlett sat up in bed a few hours after giving birth she was surprised by the other doves coming to see her and baby Katie. They oohed and aahed as they held the baby, and Scarlett suddenly saw the wives and mothers they might have been had fate not led them to Jake.
****
Over the next couple of weeks, Scarlett became adept at feeding and caring for Katie. She spent a lot of time in the kitchen with Pearl who had no children of her own, but had helped her mother raise several younger relatives.
Pearl Wilson was a generous hearted woman in her fifties, and unlikely to ever have children. She was a plain looking woman who wore her brown hair in a tight plait which was fastened into a bun at the nape of her neck. Her husband, Seth, was a slightly stooped man a few years younger than her. He did gardening and odd jobs around the place even though he only had one arm. Pearl had once mentioned him losing his arm during the war.
“What are you going to do about Katie when Jake gets back?” Pearl asked this one afternoon as they were sharing a coffee in the kitchen.
“I don’t know.” Scarlett gnawed her lower lip. She had thought of practically nothing else since the baby’s birth. “I can’t put her in an orphanage. I won’t.” Tears filled her eyes. “I’d rather give her some of Ruby’s medicine and put her to sleep forever.”
Pearl gasped in shock.
At least it would be a peaceful way to go. Of course, she would follow her baby to the grave. The infant started crying and Pearl bent over the crib to pick her up. She handed her over with obvious reluctance. Scarlett p
ut Katie to her breast and the little one suckled strongly.
“Seth and I could take her.”
“What!”
“You know I love her. I’d tend to her as if she were my own flesh and blood.”
“No!” Scarlett cried out in anguish. “She’s my baby, I can’t let her go. She’s all I’ve got.”
“Shush child.” Pearl patted her shoulder. “I know how much she means to you, but you can’t keep a baby in a brothel, even if Jake agreed, which he wouldn’t.”
“I know. I know.” Scarlett couldn’t hide the anguish in her voice. “Maybe I could get another job.”
Once the baby finished suckling on the first side Scarlett eased the tiny rosebud mouth from her nipple, laid her against one shoulder and patted her back.
“I don’t want to take your baby, Scarlett much and all as I’d love to have her. Just remember, the offer is always open. I’ve spoken to Seth and he’s agreeable.”
“Thank you, Pearl. I shouldn’t have spoken to you in such a nasty way, I know your offer came from the heart.”
****
Jake returned when Katie was nine weeks old. He strode into the kitchen and skidded to a halt on seeing Scarlett nursing the baby.
“Sonofabitch. What’s that, doing here?”
“This is my daughter, Katie.”
“I told you to birth it then get rid of it.”
“Liam’s daughter is not an it.”
“Like a coffee, Jake?” Pearl said.
“No thanks. Where’s Seth?”
“Um.” Pearl glanced at Scarlett then Jake. “He’s having a lie down, he hasn’t been too well over the last couple of days. His stump has been giving him a lot of pain. Ruby gave him a special powder to rub into it, and it’s improving praise the Lord.”
Nellie, one of the other doves, sashaying into the kitchen must have caught the tail end of the conversation.
“I don’t know why you keep that crippled freak here, Jake.”
Jake sprang across the room and grabbed Nellie by the throat. “You will never.” He shook her savagely. “Sneer at a wounded soldier ever again. If you don’t like seeing Seth around the place. Get out.”
He let her go so suddenly Nellie slumped against the table for support. Angry red raced into her cheeks. She didn’t answer him back, just scurried out of the kitchen.
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