“Do you think there’s any chance of learning anything just sitting here?” Lilly asked.
“Who knows? I’ll make a trip to the necessary in a few moments and see if I can strike up a conversation. It’s my experience that a man in his cups will spill his guts if properly approached.”
“And you would know,” Erin quipped, wearing an innocent expression.
Cade’s blue eyes darkened to a stormy steel, but he only offered a tight smile and made a tsking sound. “No sense being unpleasant, Erin.”
“You’re right. Sorry. Oh! Don’t be obvious, but I think I see the illustrious lady in the portrait standing near the bar talking to some man.”
“No surprise there,” Cade said, sipping at his drink once more. “She’ll be keeping an eye on things.”
“She’s looking right at us.”
“Talking about us, too, I’ll wager.”
Lilly sneaked a peek. A tall man with his back to them stood nearby. Rosalie Padgett looked very much like her portrait. Tall and shapely, she projected an air of cool confidence that bordered on coldness. Her honey-hued hair was waved back at the sides and tortured into a mound of coils atop her head. The shorter front was curled and fell across her forehead in artful abandon.
As Lilly tried to assess the woman without bringing attention to herself, the madam placed her hand on her companion’s arm, and he turned to get a glimpse of the newcomers. Lilly drew in a sharp breath, and the man turned away at once, as if he were afraid of being seen. Why?
“My, my, my,” Erin cooed, smiling at her brother as if they were talking about something pleasant. “If it isn’t Marshal Davies with Miss Rosalie.”
“Davies?” Cade echoed, sneaking a peek for himself.
“Yes. And from the way she’s cozying up to him, it doesn’t look as if he’s here to arrest her.”
Cade took another swallow of his drink. “I’m guessing he’s telling her everything he learned about us.”
“I imagine you’re right. Knowing how things work here, I didn’t expect him to keep the news to himself,” Lilly said. “Did you?”
“Not really.”
“He’ll probably make the rounds of all the madams to let them know there’s a possibility of new competition coming to town. If they’re paying him off to stay in business, he owes them that much,” Cade said.
“Good point.”
As they sat, pretending to enjoy their carbonated drinks, Lilly saw another man approach the couple. Tall, well built, and dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt, he swaggered, rather than walked. Like Rosalie, he oozed confidence. For those who liked a rugged man with a rough beard and a high opinion of himself, he might be considered attractive. Judging by his clothing, Lilly pegged him as a cowboy or a rancher. She immediately wondered what he could have to discuss with the madam. Rosalie listened to what he had to say without comment.
“I wonder who that is?”
Erin looked up and frowned. “I couldn’t say. Brother, I think it’s time you took yourself to the toilet.”
“I believe it is.” He scooted back his chair and stood. “You ladies keep an eye on things, and I’ll see what I can find out.”
Lilly and Erin conversed in a desultory manner for a few minutes. Finally, Erin said, “When Cade gets back, I’m ready to move on to Velvet’s. Isn’t that where your new friend works?”
“Yes. I’m thinking she’ll be a good source of information if we can figure out how to get her talking.”
“I’ll leave that to you,” Erin told her with a careless wave of her hand. “I’m here as your cover, not as a detective. All I’m concerned with is trying to decide if I want to make the most of my lover’s gift. There’s no reason I’d be interested in anything except the potential to make money.” She smiled a saucy smile. “Of course, one never knows when—or how—I’ll pick up a little nugget of information.”
Lilly hadn’t thought of it that way, but Erin was right. Her role as a potential new madam was their cover. Knowing the business as she did was what gave credibility to their presence. On the other hand, since Lilly was playing a former working girl, it was only natural that she’d be curious about her contemporaries. . . who or what had brought them here and why they’d turned to this way of life.
As a peacekeeper, Cade could question the bouncers, bartenders, and clientele about the girls, the troublemakers, and get a little deeper into how the “wanna play, gotta pay” scheme worked.
“Uh-oh!” Erin said under her breath, “the newcomer is coming over.”
Before Lilly could reply, her companion’s lips curved into an enticing smile. “Hello there, handsome.”
Lilly looked up and saw the good-looking man who’d been talking to Davies and Rosalie standing next to her. His thumbs were hooked into the pockets of his jeans, and he was smiling down at her with a devilish grin. He was even better looking up close, and she decided his scruffy beard wasn’t so bad after all.
If it hadn’t been for the expression in his eyes, he might have won her over. His mouth smiled. His night-black eyes didn’t. His tone was jovial. His eyes held secrets. Coldness. The same coldness she’d sensed in Rosalie Padgett.
He looked from her to Erin. “Mind if I join you, ladies?”
“Not at all,” Erin assured him, patting the place next to her with a well-manicured hand.
The stranger pulled out a chair and sat down. “I hear you’re looking to open up Dusty’s old place.”
Listen and learn, Lilly, she told herself, picking up her mug and taking another swallow of her drink.
“I’m considering it,” Erin said. “I need to think on it long and hard.” She extended her hand. “Erin O’Toole. This is my friend, Lilly Long.”
He took Erin’s hand. “Elijah Wilkins.”
Lilly choked on her drink and went into a fit of coughing. As she searched in her reticule for a handkerchief, her mind whirled with disbelief. Elijah Wilkins. The man who’d lured Nora into a trap by promising her the things she’d always wanted. Then, when she was away from safety and security, with no one to call on for help, he’d sold her like a slab of meat from the market.
Either Erin hadn’t made the connection, or she was as good of an actress as her brother was an actor. Lilly had never imagined locating Wilkins would be so easy. She prayed her horror wasn’t written on her face.
“Are you all right?” Erin asked as Lilly gained control of her coughing.
“Yes,” she wheezed, dabbing at her mouth with the frilly square. “I just swallowed wrong.”
Before she could regain her dignity, Elijah Wilkins extended his work-roughened hand, leaving her no choice but to take it. Somehow, she managed a smile. “Mr. Wilkins.”
“I’m glad you’re all right, Lilly.”
She bristled. He dared to call her by her given name? Never mind that they had just met. To him, she was nothing but a tart, and, as a man, he was her superior. “I know you’re not working, but I came over to see if you’d like to take a walk around town with me. I’ve always had a thing for redheads.”
Lilly’s startled gaze flew to Erin, who raised her eyebrows and smiled as if to say, “You said you could take care of yourself, so how are you going to get out of this one?”
How would a lady of the evening respond to such a request? “I’m sorry, Mr. Wilkins, but I’m afraid—”
Before she could finish, she felt a heavy hand on her shoulder.
“She’s afraid I wouldn’t like that very much.”
Lilly looked up toward the familiar voice and felt all the tension ease from her body. McShane. Thank goodness he’d come back when he had!
Wilkins studied Cade from head to toe, taking in the scar, the breadth of his shoulders, and his beat-up hands. “I’m sorry. I thought you were just the ladies’ protection. I didn’t know your relationship was a more personal one.”
“Well, now you do.” Playing his role to the hilt, Cade offered his hand. “Cadence McShane.”
“Elijah Wi
lkins.” Trying to make light of the tense moment, Wilkins looked at Erin and said, “Maybe you’d like to take a walk with me, Erin. I can introduce you to some people and explain how things work around here.”
Erin’s expression was colder than a grave on a winter night. “I’m not the kind of woman who likes being second choice, Mr. Wilkins,” she informed him in a haughty tone.
Then, while he tried to find a way to get out of the hole he’d dug for himself, she offered him a bright smile. “But then, I have a thing for men with beards, and I need all the information I can get.”
She stood, and Wilkins followed suit. “I’ll see the two of you back at Dusty’s in an hour or so,” she told Cade and Lilly. Without another word, she tucked her hand in the crook of the pretender’s elbow and let him lead her out the door and into the night.
CHAPTER 10
“Will she be all right?” Lilly asked as Erin and Elijah Wilkins left the building. “I don’t trust him.”
Cade leaned over and reached for his mug, cutting her a sideways glance. “I don’t like it, either, but leaving with strange men is what she does, remember?” He lifted the mug. “Ma used to say ‘if I let myself I’d worry myself to death over that.’ Well, that’s how I feel about Erin. I’ve done all the worrying I intend to do for her.”
Lilly heard the disgust in his voice and understood what he meant. She’d gotten to know him better over the past few months, and she knew he didn’t mean it. Like her, he was cautious about letting himself care too much for anyone. Caring about someone increased your chances of getting hurt, tenfold.
He downed the remains of his beverage, placed some money on the table, and said, “Let’s get out of here. I’d like to go to another place or two before we go home.”
She nodded. “Velvet’s?”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
Outside the bawdy house, Lilly tucked her hand into the crook of his arm, and they strolled down the dimly lit street toward Velvet’s. The sounds of coarse laughter, blistering curses, and the music of “Oh, Dem Golden Slippers” being pounded out on a tinny-sounding pianoforte mingled with the shuffle of horses’ hooves, the yelling of spectators at a cockfight on the next block, and the low keening of a woman somewhere in the shadows.
The sounds reminded Lilly of the night she’d searched the streets of Chicago for her thieving husband. Only he wasn’t her husband, thank the good Lord. It was almost worth losing every penny to know she’d never been bound to the cheating liar.
“I gather that was the no-account who persuaded your friend to come out here as a bride,” Cade said, breaking the silence stretching between them.
“It was,” she acknowledged with a nod. “When he told Erin his name, I almost choked on my sarsaparilla.”
Though she could barely make it out in the dimness, she saw the hint of a smile. “I noticed from across the room.”
“Did you learn anything while you were gone?”
“The bouncer said that Davies and Rosalie are thick as thieves, which is why we saw them talking together.”
Lilly turned to look at him. “Thick, as in he thinks there’s something more between them than her paying for protection?”
“He seems to think so.”
“Hm. That can’t be proper, can it?”
“Have you seen much of anything proper since we’ve been here?”
“Now that you mention it, no. It’s just that I can’t imagine people choosing to live this way.”
“I’m sure that some, like your Nora, didn’t choose it, and others, like your new friend, Bonnie, had little choice.”
He was right. Since becoming a Pinkerton, she was learning some hard truths. Circumstance often handed out limited options.
“When we get there, you try to talk to Bonnie, if you can. I’ll check with the bouncer, just like I did at the Silver Slipper.”
“Fine.” They walked a few more steps, but Lilly was not ready to give up on the conversation just yet. One question begged to be answered. “Is that why you’re so angry with Erin? She had other choices?”
“Did anyone ever tell you that you ask too many questions?” he asked, reiterating his standard reply when he thought she was delving too deeply into his past, or his feelings.
“You do, on a regular basis. I keep hoping to wear you down.”
“Doubtful.”
He stopped and held out a hand to help her step from the wooden sidewalk onto the dirt street. Velvet’s was directly across from them. Like Dusty’s place, it was a two-story building. The lights on the second floor were muted by the drawn blinds that spent more time down than up. A large black sign edged with a fancy scroll border hung over the roof of the porch. VELVET’S was emblazoned across it in white, flowing script. Lights blazed from behind the double swinging doors, and the sounds of “Camptown Races” drifted into the night.
Lilly found the rollicking song contrary to her taste. She longed for violins and horns warming up in the orchestra pit before a performance. Hell’s Half Acre with its dancing girls singing naughty songs on stage was a far cry from Shakespeare.
She missed it. The theater. The performances. Pierce and Rose. She missed it all, just as Pierce had predicted she would. Still, she would not go back. Even though she hadn’t been a detective long, it was long enough for her to know that the work she did made a difference.
A short time later, Cade was holding one of the swinging saloon doors for her, and she stepped into another of those once-alien establishments that were fast becoming commonplace.
Velvet’s was a cross between Dusty’s place and MacGregor’s. As in the others, there was a bar. The mirror behind it was newer than the one in MacGregor’s had been, and it was framed in gold leaf. The parlor-type setting had circular, tufted seating, upholstered in black velvet. Round tables, made just to fit the center, held statues of cavorting cherubs with bows and arrows.
Cupid? Really? Did Velvet Hook actually believe love was connected to her tawdry business in any way? As in MacGregor’s, there were women working the floor . . . pausing at tables to smile and flirt and laugh at whatever the men said. And as in MacGregor’s they wore far too much powder and paint. But instead of bloomers, chemises, and corsets, these women had on mesh hose and black satin costumes with ruffled petticoats beneath full, knee-length skirts.
Though their low-cut bodices exposed generous portions of their chests and shoulders, they were far from indecent. In fact, many fashionable storefronts displayed respectable ball gowns with a similar cut, yet those gowns were considered quite stylish and not at all improper. Colorful ostrich feathers were attached to the women’s upswept hair and bounced with every move they made.
The stage curtain was drawn, and an ornate easel sitting in front held a sign that stated that the Dancing Quartet would be performing the French-inspired cancan at nine. Lilly scrutinized each woman carefully. She didn’t see Nora or Bonnie anywhere. Now what? she wondered as her sense of futility deepened.
She followed Cade to a table near the bar, and, once again, he ordered two carbonated beverages. Once again, he received a strange look from everyone around him. Lilly watched him shrug and smile and pick up the foam-topped mugs. He was still smiling when he reached the table.
“What’s so funny?”
“Everyone is shocked that I don’t order a shot of whiskey, or at least a beer.”
“What do you say to them?”
“That I have to keep my wits about me to protect the lady.”
“That makes sense, but I doubt you’ll be needing to protect me from anyone.”
“You never know, lass, you never know,” he said, setting one of the mugs in front of her. “Some men don’t mind a sharp tongue as long as the lady’s face is pretty enough. And,” he told her, “Elijah Wilkins was quite taken with you.”
Lilly glared at him and reached for her mug. “Don’t remind me.” She looked around. “I don’t see Bonnie anywhere.”
“Is she one of th
e dancers?” Cade asked.
Lilly frowned. “No.” She shook her head. “I don’t know. I guess I just thought that Velvet would use the girls however she could.”
“I suppose it’s possible, but I imagine in a place like this that Velvet has dancers and working girls.”
Lilly was thinking about that when she caught a movement from the corner of her eye. Her gaze moved upward. A man was exiting one of the rooms. As he started toward the staircase, he grasped the edges of his striped gray vest and gave it a little tug to settle it over his paunch.
Her troubled gaze met Cade’s. “Do you think she’s . . . upstairs then?”
He shrugged. The expression in his eyes looked almost apologetic. “Possible. Even probable.”
The image that rose in Lilly’s mind was not pleasant.
“Are you all right?”
She brought her gaze to his. “I’m fine,” she lied. “Why?”
“You just turned a rather sickly white.”
“It’s just that I can’t comprehend . . . this life.”
He allowed his gaze to move around the room, taking in the people, no doubt gauging which of them, if any, was a threat. “Neither can I.”
One of the dancers headed in their direction, her gaze fixed on McShane, but she caught Lilly’s eye and stopped, turned, and walked the other way.
“What was that all about?”
“What?” she asked, all innocence.
“The glare you gave that pretty little thing.”
Lilly placed her elbow on the table and propped her chin in her palm. “It meant, ‘stay away from my man.’ We’re supposed to be lovers, remember?”
“How can I forget, when you’re such delightful company?” He straightened suddenly. “Hullo! There’s a lass coming down the stairs. Is that your friend?”
Thinking it might be Nora, Lilly turned to see Bonnie coming down the flight of stairs, running her hand along the polished bannister as she made her slow descent. Her face was devoid of expression, and Lilly knew that if she were close enough to see, her new friend’s eyes would be bleak. Empty. As empty as her own heart had been when she’d discovered Tim’s betrayal.
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