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“Horses, cows, people,there’sreallyno difference.

Whenthe male gets randy, his baser instincts take hold until he finds a female to slake his needs.

Oncesatisfied, and most times after a nap”—she added with a disdainful twist of her lips—“he moves on, leaving her to deal with any residual effects.”

“Please, I don’t want to do this. Can’t you let me go? I’ll pay you back.”

“How?When? I’m not a bank to have stacks of cash lying around. I have bills and can’t wait on the return of my $1000 investment without guarantees I’llgetit back.”

“One thousand,”she breathed, feeling sick. One of her thoroughbreds went for almost that much. She had no hope of getting a job that would pay anywhere near that amount.

“You have only the clothes on your back and nothing to offer except what lies beneath them. You’re lucky he brought you here instead of to one of the volume houses. Some of those girls entertain twenty to twenty-five men a night. Here, since we charge more, they expect to linger.”

“How many here?”she asked, dreading the answer.

“Depends on the customer and what he orders, but about halfthat.”

She couldn’t begin to imagine a dozen men in a single night.

“A pretty girl like you will be popular. If you’re lucky, you’ll be a top earner with a few good paying customers and won’t have to take on whoever walks in the door.”The madam shrugged. “Either way, you’ll have a quota. Meet that, and before you know it, you’ll have paid me back and can move on.”

“This can’t be happening. Iwassupposedto go to Kansas with my husband and claim the land Mr. Lincoln promised,”she choked out, tears finally breaking the dam.

“Here come the waterworks,”Heloise muttered, thrusting a red lace handkerchief at her.

When she realized Rowie’s hands were still bound, she scrubbed her face for her.

“You need to toughen up. Weak women don’t last long in this business.

You’ve got until Friday’s auction togettwice the amount to buy your way out of this. ”

“Two thousand dollars?”she gasped.

“I have to be compensated for my troubles,”she insisted.

“Butthat’s only a few days away!”

“Soit is.”Heloise reached out and patted her cheek. “It won’t be so bad. YougetSunday all to yourself.”

She sounded sincere, as if she actually believed in her benevolence. A scathing reply was on her tongue, but Rowie held it back. Both sides of her face ached already.

“How long will I be indentured here?”

“Five or six years. Keeping busy, the time will passquickly.”

“Six years! You’ve got to be joking.”

“Hardly. If you’d wound up at one of the cribs a few streets over, where the sheets are never changed because there isn’t time between customers, one leaving often rubbing shoulders with the next, you’d have never seen your freedom. You’re really quite fortunate.”

“Iseenothing fortunate about being kidnapped and sold into prostitution.”

“Andwe’re back to where we started,”she said with a drawn-out sigh.

A loud bang, like a gunshot, shook the floor beneath them, followed by screams and shouts. Heloisewasimmediatelyon the move and heading to the door.

“Damn drunks,”she muttered. “If it didn’t increase profits, I’d outlaw whiskey.

As it is, I think I’ll start collecting a surcharge for repairs.

Five bucks a head should cover all the busted tables and chairs and the bullet holes in the wood.

”She wrenched the door open, issuing a warning before leaving.

“Don’t get any ideas about running. Noah will be at your door keeping an eye on things. ”

Alarge, barrel-chested man with café au lait skin and a gleaming bald head stepped into the doorway, his presence filling the space.

“Noah, this is our new girl—”The madam frowned and glanced her way. “You got a name?”

Rowie clamped her mouth shut.She’dlostso much already, this little piece of her past she refused to share.

“It doesn’t matter. I’d change it if it were something god-awful like Hortense or Dorcas. But I’ve got to get downstairs and see what those heathens tore up now. Noah,keep an eye on…”She pondered this for a moment. “Elisabeth.”She grunted. “No, Frances.Orperhaps, Frannie.”

“Beggin’ your pardon, Miz Heloise,”the big man said in a deep, rumbling voice. “Frannie is a name for a pale, pockmarked girl, not one with milky white skin and eyes the color of… Nothing I’ve seen before, so I don’t know what to call it.”

“She is a beauty, isn’t she?Evenifshe is a bit banged up.”

Rowie ignored them talking about her as though she couldn’thear. Theycouldcall her gone, for all she cared because that’s whatshe’dbe the first chance she got.

“What name would you choose, Noah?”the madam asked.

“Iheardthe man who brought her in call her Rowie.”

“What kind of name isthat?”she asked with a grimace. “No,thatwon’t do at all.”

“Knewa green-eyed gal named Jade once. Not asprettyas this one but passable.”

“I like it. Jade, it is,”Heloise declared. As she sailed through the door, she issued Noah one final order. “Untie her, but stay sharp. She’s young but not as docile as sheseems.”

“Yes, mistress. Don’t fret. She’ll be here when yougetback.”

Her heels clicking on the plank floor faded fast as she swept down the hall.

Left alone, Noah turned to her. “You’re new to this, Miss Jade. My advice: Don’t cause trouble.”

“I’mjustsupposed to keep my mouth shut and my legs open. Isthatwhat you’re saying?”

“The walls here are thin. Iheardyour story. You got no one, and without money, how would yougetthereif you wanted to return to Virginia? Madam Heloise told you the truth.Ifyou leave, you’ll be living on the street and sick and starving within a week.Orworse, if youknowwhat I mean.”

“At least I’d be free.”

“Youseethe color of my skin?”he asked bluntly. “You think I don’tknowwhat it’s like? Believe me, miss. You wind up with someone who doesn’t take care of her whores like Heloise does, who doesn’t feed ’em or bring the doctor around—ever.”He shook his head. “Thenyou’dknowwhat I’m saying.”

That sounded like the bare minimum to her, and she must have looked like it because Noah warned, “Trust me. St. Louis is no place for a woman alone. At least you’ll be safe here.”

“In a whorehouse?”she replied in disbelief. “I bet you wouldn’t saythatif your motherhadbeen snatched off a train and sold into prostitution or your sister or wife.”

“Don’t got no sisters and ain’t never married, but Iknowabout these things because of my ma.”

Feeling a twinge of regret for her diatribe, Rowie asked with less spite, “You mean shewasin the ‘trade,’ as Heloise calls it.”

“Ifmoney traded hands, Ma neversawa dime. She worked in the best parlor houses in New Orleans for nigh on fifteen years. The gentlemen customers like their ladies young and fresh, like you.Whenher newness wore off, she got sold to another house andthenanother, each worse than the last. None of ’emwasasniceas this one.

Being the biggest port in the south and one of the largest cities,therewerealways men looking for company, sotherewasalways work,evenwhen the war started.

Untilthe Union fleet arrived with their gunboats.

”He got a far-off look in his eyes. “They bombarded the city with cannon fire for a week,”he whispered.

“I didn’t think my ears would ever stop ringing.

Therewerefires everywhere, and peopleweretrapped.

Folks whocouldgetout fled for their lives.

The house where Ma worked burned to ashes.

With no reason to stay, we came west to be free, but wehadnothing andhadto beg, plead, and do whatever it took.

Of course, for us,thatwasn’tanything new. ”

“How old are you?”Rowie asked.

“Twenty-one.”

“Youlookolder.”Realizing what she said, she apologized, adding, “I meant no offense.”

“Ifeelolder.ButI suppose that’s to be expected after the life I’ve lived.

Born in a Bourbon Street brothel, the son of a whore and a slave, I didn’tknowmy father.

Butthey kept Ma and me together. They learned it made for happier whores if they got to keep their babies.

WhenI got old enough, I worked in the kitchens and, later, the stables.

They moved me back inside and put me behind the bar when I turned fifteen.

I’dnever poured whiskey before, but they wanted me as muscle in case anything got outta hand, which it did—a lot. ”

“Why did you continue working in a brothel? Youwerefree to choose.Werethereno other jobs for a young man of your size and strength?”

“Weweren’tthe only ones fleeing the South, and a man’s gotta eat.

IhadMa to take care of, too.We’dbeen here a month, living on the streets.

Some nights, if wewerelucky, we slept in a tent they set up for refugees—that’s what they called us—like bythattime, most of usweren’tbornhere.

”He shook his head. “We had no money and were eating scraps. Until Ms. Heloise saw me on the street one day and hired meon the spot. She needed an enforcer. For the first time in my life, I got paid for working. Things turned around for us then. I had money to put food on the table and a roof over my mama’s head.

So, you see, I’ve lived and worked in cathouses all my life.

Here, at least, you get clean sheets and good food. ”

“That’s a very low standard. What if I’d rather starve?”

“I suppose that’s your choice, but it won’t break your bond with the mistress. Without a man or family, you might as well give in to it. Talk to some of the other girls. Rose and Cindy don’t mind it here. They say it’s the best house they’ve worked at.”

“What stellar references,”she muttered.

“You’re angry and scared. Icanseethat.”He put his hand on the doorknob to leave. “Think about what I’ve said.”

“Wait! Istherea robe I might wear? I can’t sit around without a stitch on.”

His smile was sympathetic. “You bettergetused tothat, too.”

Whenthe latch clicked shut, the sound ricocheted through the room like a shout in the valley back home.Asif itwasa harbinger of doom, itseemedto signal the end of one part of her life and the ill-fated start of another.

This couldn’t be all lifehadin store for her. At nineteen,therehadto be hope for something better in her future.

“No!”she exclaimed to the empty room. “I refuse to raise St. Louis’ prostitute count to 3001.”

Rowie inched to the edge of the bed, stiff and achy like a woman four times her age.

She scanned the room for something to wear andnoticedher heap of discarded clothes in a corner.

Moving as fast as her battered body would allow, she made her way to the pile and held up her traveling dress.

Itwasnot only filthy but in tatters, ripped from her earlier, along with her underthings.

Of no use to her, she dropped it and surveyed the barren room. The“niceties”Noah mentioned weren’t afforded to the less-than-cooperative new girl, evidently.

Rowie crossed to the only other door in the room. Surprised when the doorknob turned, she eased it open and peeked inside. Itwasa closet. On the shelves, she foundneatlyfolded linens, towels, wrapped soaps, and, to her relief, several shifts.

She slipped one on, dismayed itwasnearlytransparent, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. She stuffed sheets and towels into a pillow slip.Ifshehadto sleep on the street,she’dneed them.

Whenshe stepped back to close the door, shewasnever more relieved toseeher cloak hanging on a hook on the back. Itwasas dirty as her dress and stained with vomit and Carson’s blood, but she slipped it on, thankful for what little protection it provided.

Next, she dashed to the window and opened the shutters.

She undid the latch with trembling hands, but when she pulled up on the handles, it wouldn’t budge.

She ran her fingers along the top edge, searching for what kept it from opening.

Finding nothing amiss, she did the same at the bottom.

Her fingertipsimmediatelyencountered the problem—nails, at least a dozen of them.

She didn’tknowwhat she wanted more, to scream or punch something.

Considering her vexation, her preference would be the latter and her punching bag, Madam Heloise.

Staring at it in frustrated disbelief, she declared, “What idiot nails a window shut?”

“Not an idiot, a savvy woman who has lost valuable purchases out that window.”

Rowie spun and found the madam standing in the doorway with her arms crossed, which was a feat with her mammoth breasts. She said in an accusatory tone, “Iseeyou’re a thief as well.”

“The cape is mine, stolen along with me from the train.”Rowie refuted her allegation with more bravado than she felt. It almost collapsed when Heloise stalked toward her and yanked open her cloak apart.

“The shifts and linens are yours, too, I suppose?”

“I wouldn’t call a shift and a few sheets stealing after you destroyed my dress and underthings.I’dsay it’s compensation, although it doesn’t come close to a fair trade.Butby all means, send for the law and have me arrested.I’dchoose jail over your hospitality any day.”

Heloise’s eyes narrowed, but Rowie stood her ground. “You’re going to be a problem, aren’t you?”

“Not if you let me go.”

“Without a return on my investment? I think not. Have you come up with a way to pay me?”When Rowie didn’t have a comment for once, she laughed.

“I didn’t think so. You’ll be enjoying my hospitality for quite a while then, won’t you?

”She turned to leave. “There are guards at every door and the bottom of both staircases. The reward for preventing an escape is $50 and a free sample. They all want to try out the new girl. So, by all means ,”she echoed snidely, “test them all you like.”

EventhoughHeloise slammed the door behind her, shecouldhearher cruel laughter in the hall. What she didn’thearwasthe snick of the lock. She tested the knob, cracking the door when it turned, and peeked out.

Noah stood guard, as big and silent as a mountain. When he looked her way, Rowie retreated inside.

“Now, what?” she whispered.

With no way to escape Heloise’s hellish prison, she slid to the floor out of hope. That’s when the tearsshe’dheldat bay for so long overflowed.