Soiled Dove (2 page)

However, if everything the fifteen-year-old had told Loretta was true, she had no family to return to.

A tap on the bathroom door interrupted Loretta’s thoughts. “What is it now?” she asked wearily.

“It’s Lydia. Ya got a minute?”

No, I don’t.
“Sure. Come on in. Nobody here but us girls.”

Lydia, a twenty-five-year-old woman with mousey brown hair who considered herself the whore in charge of the other girls, stuck her head in the door. It wasn’t that she had been rode hard and put up wet, it was more a case of never having been put up, wet or otherwise. Loretta admired her stamina though. It was pretty well known that while Lydia wasn’t the best looking of the girls, she would do just about anything a customer requested.

“What are we gonna do about Amelia, Retta?”

Lydia asked as she made herself comfortable on the toilet seat across from the tub.

“We?” Loretta asked. “I’d say she was Jack’s problem. She sure as hell ain’t mine.”

“If she keeps actin’ the way she is with the gentlemen callers she’s gonna give us all a bad name,”

Lydia huffed. Her hands seemed to flutter around the room as she spoke.

Loretta didn’t want to laugh at the woman, but the statement was so ridiculous she couldn’t help herself.

She unpinned her hair, letting it fall loosely around her shoulders as she submerged herself in the bath water. She stayed there for a few moments before popping back up, using both hands to sweep hair back, away from her face. She laughed bitterly as she blinked away the water. “I can’t believe you’re worried about our reputations, Lydia. We’re
whores
, for God’s sake, and it don’t get much lower than that.”

“This is just a temporary situation. One of my regular, and most faithful, gentlemen has promised to take me away from all this and set me up real respectable like.”

Loretta reached over the edge of the tub to pick up a container of shampoo and poured a generous amount into her hand, working it into her hair after she returned the container to the floor. She closed one eye to avoid the sting of the soapy substance and looked at Lydia out of the other. “And would that be before or after he leaves his wife and four kids.”

“Why after, of course!” Lydia said indignantly.

“Wouldn’t be right otherwise.”

Loretta re-submerged to get the shampoo out of her hair and smiled as she came back up. “You’re living in a dream, Lydia. Ain’t no man gonna take any of us out of here. None of us is ever gonna get out. So just accept it for a fact. Men only want one thing from any of us and they’ll say whatever it takes to get it.”

Lydia leaned her chin on her fist and looked sadly at Loretta. “Don’t you ever wish you could start over somewhere though, Retta?”

“Of course I do, honey. But what’s done is done.

It’s a tad too late to be thinking about respectability.”

“But if I moved somewhere else, I might could start over. Ain’t like I got a big old H stamped on my forehead or somethin’.”

Loretta was touched by the sadness in Lydia’s voice. She was becoming an old woman before her time and despite her obvious lack of education, she could be pretty smart about some things. “Well, save up what you can. Who knows, maybe I’m just full of shit and we’ll all meet the man of our dreams.”

“That’s the spirit!” Lydia said cheerfully as she stood to leave. “Oh, yeah, I’m supposed to tell you that Jack will be up as soon as he finishes countin’

what we made tonight.”

“Thanks, Lydia. Get some sleep. The wharf rats get paid tomorrow.”

“Oh, shit! Not them again,” Lydia moaned as she opened the door and left Loretta blessedly alone…at least for a little while longer.

LORETTA HAD BEEN brushing her hair for nearly three quarters of an hour and it was almost dry. It had a natural wave to it and, as long as she took the time to brush it two or three hundred strokes each night, it remained thick and shiny. She thought her hair was her best asset even though few of her customers ever noticed anything above her neck. Her breasts were well developed and supple. Under the right hands they were more responsive than she believed possible. The flare in her hips added to her delicate feminine figure, making her irresistibly alluring. Four years earlier she had been nothing more than another starving hayseed looking for a better life. Too bad her money ran out by the time she arrived in St. Joseph.

She hadn’t been able to stand the drunken pawing of her stepfather another day. She gathered up what she could carry and the few dollars she had hidden away. She chose her sixteenth birthday to escape from her home in Ohio and thought she was fortunate when she met another traveler who got her all the way to St. Joe before attacking her and taking the last of her money. She was scavenging through discarded food bins behind a nice looking restaurant when Jack Coulter found her. She tried to run away from him, but he caught her and seemed nice, offering her a job and a place to stay. It wasn’t until she serviced her first paying customer two or three weeks later that she discovered the man Jack really was.

Jack’s house was clean and well-appointed. His clientele came from some of the best families in town, along with an assortment of local politicians and police officers willing to exchange one favor for another. He spared no expense to decorate his establishment with the best furnishings and the rooms were all comfortable. Loretta later grew to hate the smell that seemed to permeate the walls of the rooms.

She and the other women were well-clothed and healthy for the most part. Although she never used it, she knew Lydia and a few of the other girls smoked opium Jack supplied to them to make them more compliant for his customers. It helped them relax, he said.Loretta bent over at the waist and tossed her hair over her head, continually stroking the brush through it. There were times she wanted to cut it off so she wouldn’t have to spend half the night getting it dry.

She was counting the brush strokes to herself when she felt hands sliding into the opening of her robe to enclose her breasts. The scratchy feel of Jack’s moustache prickled her neck.

“Sorry, it took me so long, baby. Tonight was a very good night in spite of that little fiasco with Amelia. I put your money on the dresser,” he said.

“Thanks, Jack,” she said as she sat up and brushed her hair back. She saw Jack’s smiling face reflected behind her in the mirror.

“You look beautiful tonight,” he said huskily as his eyes met hers in their reflection.

“Thank you again,” she smiled, standing to face him. Jack was a charming man, but Loretta was very tired. If what she felt between her legs was any indication, it had been a very good night indeed.

“What did you do with Amelia’s client?” she asked as she walked to her dresser and picked up the money laying there and counted it.

“I reimbursed him, of course,” Jack shrugged.

Loretta looked at him and held up the bills in her hand. “What the hell is this, Jack?” she demanded. “I know damn well I earned more than this.”

“Well,” he started smugly as he stripped off his jacket and tie, “since you were part of the reason I had to reimburse that gentleman, I figured it was only fair that I took half from you and half from Amelia. You should have minded your own business, Retta.”

“That’s horse shit and you know it, Jack Coulter,”

she said, raising her voice a notch.

“I could have taken the whole thing from your pay. Maybe I should have.”

“How much did you have to give that asshole?”

she seethed.

“A hundred,” he said as he stepped closer.

Smiling, he added, “I didn’t know he wanted her to suck him off, Retta. If I had…”

“You would have charged him more,” she frowned.

“And sent him to a different girl. Our clients don’t always tell me what they want up front, you know.

Amelia wasn’t ready for that. Next time, I’ll ask for more specifics about what the client expects. Okay?”

He bent his knees slightly to lower his body and looked into Loretta’s eyes.

She couldn’t help but cast a half smile in his direction. He seemed to believe his explanation solved everything as he pulled her into his arms and drew her into a hungry kiss as his hands began pushing her robe away to allow him access to her body.

“Come on to bed now, darlin’,” he breathed huskily into her ear before he turned away.

Chapter Two

“I HAVE A very special customer for you tonight,” Jack said, watching Loretta brush her hair and twist it into a neat stack on top of her head, later the following afternoon. She pushed a dark tortoise shell comb that stood out against her light hair into the mass and examined her appearance in the mirror of her dressing table.

“How special?” she asked as she picked up a small brush and began applying dark pink rouge to her cheeks.

“The customer requested you. Wouldn’t settle for any of the other girls.”

Loretta smiled at her reflection. “That’s not new,”

she said somewhat arrogantly.

“The client will arrive around eight. Just passing through town and will be catching a train early tomorrow morning.” Jack squirmed slightly in his chair. “This will be something totally different for you, Retta. You were already booked this evening, but this client was willing to pay nearly five times the rate for your time and tender touches. This will be your only client tonight.”

Loretta looked over her shoulder at Jack and cast him a coy smile. “Then I suppose I’ll have to be extra nice to him.”

LORETTA PACED NERVOUSLY between her bed and the dressing table, stopping periodically to re-check her hair and make-up. She didn’t entertain many gentlemen all night, but she was familiar with what her regular customers wanted. With a complete stranger she felt wary and unsure what to expect. She was more accustomed to a few minutes of teasing and flirting before getting down to business. Certainly nothing that had taken more than an hour and usually followed by contented snoring before her client dressed and returned to his family.

She frowned into the mirror and was startled by light tapping at her bedroom door. She glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and took a deep breath. A quarter before the hour. Officially Jack’s establishment wouldn’t be open for another fifteen minutes. She took a final glance into the mirror and reached for the door knob. A tall, slender body, dressed in a suit, complete with a scarf tied into a large bow around the neck stood in the doorway. A wide-brimmed hat was pulled low, obscuring her client’s facial features. One gloved hand held a small bouquet of flowers and a bottle of what Loretta recognized as wine. In the other hand, her customer gripped the handle of a large valise.

“May I come in?” a husky voice asked.

“Certainly,” Loretta replied, stepping aside to allow the figure to enter.

“For you,” the client said softly, extending the hand holding the bouquet.

Loretta brought the flowers to her nose and breathed in the fragrance. “They’re lovely. Thank you.”

“Would you care for some wine?” he said, setting the valise next to Loretta’s dressing table.

“I don’t drink when I’m with a customer,” Loretta said.“Tonight can be an exception.” He skillfully removed the cork from the bottle and set it on the dressing table. “Do you have glasses?”

Flowers still in hand, Loretta retrieved two glasses from a small table next to her bed and waited as her mysterious client poured wine into them, filling them halfway.

The stranger handed Loretta her drink and raised his own in a salute. “To an enjoyable evening.”

When Loretta finished her wine, the client set his drink down and took Loretta’s. She could sense the man looking at her and began to feel slightly uncomfortable under the silent, heated gaze. She watched as he slowly brought a hand up and removed his hat. Loretta stepped back when she saw a thick mass of strawberry blonde hair fall to frame obviously feminine features. The woman smiled benignly at Loretta, seemingly not surprised by her shocked expression.

“Perhaps you should put those flowers in some water,” the woman said. She pulled her gloves off one finger at a time and refilled her wine glass. “Would you care for another?”

“Damn right,” Loretta said.

“Do you mind if I get comfortable?” the woman asked.

“It’s your time.”

With nothing more than a smile, the woman set her gloves down, then reached up to untie her scarf.

She pulled it off and folded it neatly, placing it next to her gloves. With a flick of her fingers she unbuttoned her jacket and slipped it off, hanging it on the back of the chair in front of the dressing table. She sipped her wine and pushed lush hair over her head.

Loretta set a vase, now filled with the flowers, on the night table beside her bed.

“Come here, please,” the woman said softly.

Loretta moved resolutely toward the woman and stopped in front of her. She looked up into hazy blue eyes behind round, gold-tinted eyeglasses.

“Would you do something for me?” the woman asked.

Loretta closed her eyes for a moment and then said, “You’ve paid for my time. What would you like me to do?”

“Would you wash the rouge and powder from your face for me? You’re very beautiful and don’t need anything to enhance your natural beauty.”

“Wash my face?”

“Please.”

When Loretta returned from the bathroom the woman was seated comfortably on an upholstered chair next to the door. She stood as Loretta came toward her.

“Now you’re even more beautiful. Thank you.”

She reached up and let her fingertips run softly along Loretta’s jaw line before removing the comb holding her hair in place. Loretta heard a quick intake of breath when her hair cascaded over her shoulders.

“You have lovely hair. You must brush it every evening,” the woman said.

“What should I call you?” Loretta asked.

“I’m sorry. I’ve been very rude. My name is Josephine, but please feel free to call me Jo,” the woman said. She searched Loretta’s face. “You’ve never been intimate with a woman, have you?”

“No, I haven’t,” Loretta answered, looking steadily into the woman’s eyes. She recognized the unmistakable look of desire gazing back at her.