Page 13

A Predilection for Pain

Noah was kind to her in the beginning. Since he was her jailer, “sympathetic”might be more appropriate.

Now, his face twisted into a scowl every time he saw her.

Five escape attempts probably made him feel justified in his anger.

But Rowie didn’t care. She refused to be complicit in her downward spiral into the gutter and rejected his suggestion to give in.

Heloise hadn’t exaggerated; the Palace was very well guarded.

Only twice had she made it off the floor.

Once, getting as far as the kitchen, where she’d hidden in the refuse bin.

It smelled rancid, and so had she when the cook discovered her and pulled her out.

With each failure, she was marched back to her room.

In due time, Heloise would arrive to chew her out and order more restrictions as punishment.

She also awarded the guard an IOU for an hour of her time—a sample, she’d called it.

She’d passed out three, two less than it should have been, but the cook was a woman, and Noah had vehemently declined.

But none of the eager guards could collect until after Friday night.

“Word would get out. You can’t keep a secret in the Palace,”the madam had declared. “And I won’t have the auction ruined.”

Heloise wasn’t pleased with her newest troublemaker and blamed Noah for“being outsmarted by a girl barely out of the schoolroom.”But no matter how many punishments the madam dished out or how creative she got with them, Rowie was determined to get out of there one way or another.

That her warden was greedy, and the auction several days away, gave her a reprieve from providing full service to the customers.

However, the mistress demanded everyone earn their keep, and she’d been forced to do other demeaning things.

Because of the swelling, she spent her first full day at the Palace in her room and was ordered to apply the cool compresses and ice packs brought to her regularly.

On day two, her bad luck continued. With the swelling gone and only bruising remaining, which Heloise covered with heavy kohl and face powder, Rowie was coiffed, perfumed, provocatively dressed, and put to work in the parlor.

Two guards were assigned to keep her in line.

Her task was to mingle and entice, allowing the men to touch, fondle, and kiss at will.

Her persistent frown and icy demeanor kept most of them away, except for an undauntable randy few who dared to approach. They didn’t stick around long.

The next day, Heloise moved her to the special room upstairs.

It was actually two rooms: a bedroom with windows on three sides and an anteroom with cubicles for men who liked to watch, pleasuring themselves as they did so.

In her wildest dreams, she’d never imagined having to parade around naked or be intimate with another woman, which was another often-requested fantasy for“the watchers.”

The following day was Friday, the auction day, and time was running out for her. She refused to eat, not having an appetite, with her stomach tied in knots.

When Heloise arrived to get her ready for the upcoming evening, she noticed the untouched supper tray. “You’re not the first girl to refuse to eat in protest. It doesn’t impress me. You’re only hurting yourself,”Heloise remarked.

She presented a white gown so sheer Rowie would be almost naked before the ogling, eager men who were bidding on her supposed virginity.

“I won’t wear it,”she stated firmly. “You can’t make me!”

“You know I can,”Heloise replied. Then she shrugged a shoulder. “But if you prefer to walk out on stage in nothing, which the gentlemen would enjoy immensely, it matters not to me.”

She grabbed the gown and put it on because having something was better than nothing.

“Sit, and I’ll do your hair,”the madam said, gesturing toward a chair.

Hopelessly outnumbered by at least a dozen guards, without a single ally to help her escape the locked fortress, Rowie stood firm, arms folded across her chest. She refused to yield even though resistance was futile.

“Shall I call a guard?”Heloise asked, her tone flat as though bored with Rowie’s constant resistance. “Holding you while you squirm in next to nothing won’t be a problem for any of them, I assure you.”

“I hate you,”she whispered, close to tears, but she sat in the chair, picking the least horrible option.

“If you scowl like that while on stage, you’ll scare away the bidders,”the madam grumbled while brushing the knots from her hair, which was now a dark brown, thanks to a rinse one of the ladies had applied, not without a struggle either.

“I’ll put a bagover your headbefore I let that happen. Don’t think that I won’t.”

“You said they wouldn’t be looking at my face,”Rowie retorted. “So, why does it matter?”

“I also told you if you pay off your debt, you’ll be free one day. At this rate, it will take twenty years, not six. Is that what you’re aiming for with your ice queen act? You must find my hospitality to be quite agreeable.”

A tentative knock preceded the groan of hinges, and the door slowly swung inward.

Rowie’s eyes snapped to the young woman peeking in, worry etched on her face and an obvious reluctance to intrude on her mistress.

In contrast, Rowie longed for any interruption to halt the merciless march of time toward the event that would change who and what she was forever.

“Madam Heloise?”

“Not now,”she snapped. “Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something?”

“Your pardon, ma’am,”the nervous girl murmured. “There are men downstairs to see you. One said he was an old friend and another is in need of the doctor’s attention.”

That piqued Heloise’s interest. She turned and asked, “Did he give you his name?”

“Thorn was all he said, and at least one of the others was a Hartigan.”

Her voice was breathy with excitement when she asked, “Bill Hartigan?”

“I can’t say, ma’am. There were four in all. The man they were carrying didn’t look good. He was bleeding pretty badly.”

A shadow crossed Heloise’s face, her lips pressing into a thin, tight line that betrayed her disappointment.

“Show them to the room at the end of the hall and send Noah for Doc. It’s past ten on a Friday night.

If he can’t wake him, he’ll have to pour coffee down his gullet to sober him up. It’s the only way.”

The girl had already turned to do her bidding, so she raised her voice to a shriek at her, “Tell them the nightly rate is double if I find any blood on the floor or the sheets, and remind him that Doc’s fees are separate.”

“Yes, ma’am,”the young woman called back.

“This isn’t a convent, after all,”Heloise muttered.

Then, seeming to have forgotten her visitors, the madam grabbed a jar of white cosmetic paste and applied it generously to the bruises on Rowie’s cheek and below her eye that were still visible after the swelling had gone down.

She then dusted her face with powder, a few tones lighter than her complexion.

Next, she rouged her cheeks and lips and applied kohl to darken her lashes.

When she stepped back, rather than being pleased with her handiwork, she frowned. “I had hoped the purple and yellow would have faded by now. An entire jar of this paste won’t be enough to cover it. The boot mark on your side is a problem, too.”

Rowie could tell she was scheming as she gazed down at her, chewing her bottom lip. “I’ve changed my mind!”Heloise suddenly declared, “You’re not going up on the block tonight.”

Relief washed over her. She wouldn’t have to endure being put on display and sold to a stranger. It was short-lived, however, when the madam revealed her new plan.

“One of my most valued out-of-town customers is here tonight. He has particular tastes but pays top dollar to get what he wants.”She picked up a lock of her henna and indigo-dyed hair and wrapped it around her finger. “I think he will enjoy a feisty brunette.”

Afraid to ask, she forced herself to. “What kind of particular tastes?”

Heloise’s lips twisted into a grimace. If she found them repulsive, they must be truly awful.

“You won’t like him. None of ’em do, but we’re here to please, and you have to be punished for being a right royal pain in my ass. Noah!”

Her sudden, high-pitched shriek made Rowie jump nearly out of her skin.

The big man appeared in the doorway so quickly, he had to have been waiting in the hall. “Yes, mistress?”

“Find Monsieur Augustine and let him know I have arranged his entertainment for the evening. Then have someone prepare his special room.”

Noah jerked in surprise. “Your pardon, mistress. But she’s not ready for that. Not even Marta could withstand—”

Heloise whirled on him. “Don’t question me!”she shouted shrilly. “Just do it.”

The guard’s pitying gaze landed on her, but only briefly before he complied.

The madam stepped into the hallway. At an even greater volume, she bellowed, “Roger! Nate! Get up here now!”

The woman had slapped her for making the slightest noise and risking disturbing her patrons but had an atrociously bad habit of shouting her demands whenever she liked.

Moments later, two strapping young guards came clomping noisily down the hall.

“You sound like a herd of stampeding cattle. How many times do I have to tell you to be quiet when we’re open for business?”

The irony of taking them to task after she’d just done worse, caterwauling loud enough towake the dead, was utterly lost on her.

“Take her to the attic room,”Heloise ordered. “Her gentleman caller will be there shortly. Do not leave her until he has the situation well in hand.”