by Livia Grant
Opal looked relieved. He knew she didn’t want to waste time waiting for water to warm. After all, time was money at the Red Petticoat.
Charlie led Emelie in her towel out into the hall, walking her to her own bedroom door. Oh how he wanted inside that room, but the doubt was back in her expression, mingled with exhaustion. Tomorrow would be another day.
Unable to resist, he leaned in to steal a quick kiss before opening her door for her. “Go on in and head to bed now. You look like you’re about to fall asleep on your feet. We’ll talk more tomorrow. All right?” he reassured her.
Was that a teeny smile on her lips?
“All right. Goodnight and, Charlie…” she paused before whispering, “thank you so much… for everything.”
“My pleasure, Emelie. Truly, my pleasure.”
He waited in the hall until he heard her lock her door. He had no desire to go back for a bath with Opal and her customer there which is how he ended up back in his too-warm room, laying back on top of his covers, his underwear on the floor and his cock grasped firmly in his left hand.
It took a total of thirty seconds of stroking his long-tortured appendage while remembering the feel of her lips on his, her nipples pressed against his chest before he shot jets of hot seed onto his own stomach.
Shit. Now he really did need a bath.
Chapter Six
“Oh yes, just like that, Charlie. It feels so nice.” Emelie felt like she was floating on air. She didn’t remember ever feeling so light… so free. Strange flutters coursed through her body, making her heart race, her tummy flip with excitement, and her privates throb with a strange new heat she wasn’t entirely sure she liked.
She rocked her body back and forth, throwing off the thin sheet, suddenly burning up. Fingers probed beneath her thin cotton nightgown, searching out the source of the incessant pressure that refused to be subdued. The brush against her private flesh sent a shiver through her. More pressure.
“Oh, God, yes. Harder.” The fingers pressed down, twirling enough to provide the friction she’d been missing. Her hips bucked off the bed, helping to increase the pressure on that swollen nubbin her mother had warned her against touching. It was sinful. She was sinful for wanting it. No, needing it.
It didn’t stop her hips from bucking up and down while fingers moved across that button, playing it like an instrument, making her want to sing as an excitement she’d never known erupted from deep inside, making her feel as if she were falling over a cliff, crashing towards the ground below.
Emelie awoke with a loud cry, unsure at first where she was, looking around the empty room now filled with sunshine from the open window that faced the eastern sky. The lace curtains blew in the slight breeze as if to prove to her she hadn’t crashed to the bottom of a ravine like in her dream.
The room had a new, musky scent. With an uneasy feeling, she held her own fingers up in front of her and was filled with shame. As if the glistening wetness wasn’t damning enough, she could smell that musky scent on those naughty digits, proving they’d been responsible for the dream that had awoken her.
She lay back against the pillows, covering her eyes with her forearm. How late had she stayed up? As exhausted as she’d been after her bath, she’d laid awake for what seemed like hours reliving the kiss… her first.
What kind of a slut had she turned into? She’d let a man bathe her. He’d washed her hair. He’d hugged her and kissed her. And she’d liked it. Every little bit.
She told herself she’d have stopped him from going any farther, even if Opal hadn’t arrived with her customer, but she suspected that was a lie.
She’d only been here less than twenty-four hours and she’d been swept up with unholy feelings for a man. Worse yet, she’d vowed never to trust another man. She’d promised her parents she’d be a good girl, and as awful as the perversions both Albert and the gunslinger had done to her, it had been against her will and she could technically still claim to be pure for a husband. If she weren’t vigilant, she would lose even that last tenuous thread to her future.
She rolled over on her side, hugging the small decorative pillow that had been on her bed. She should pack up and head out. She’d have to move into the inn and spend some of her meager means until the stage came back in a few weeks.
And then what? Scratch out some type of existence in Lake Tahoe waiting to head across the plains in the spring?
Temptation nipped at her resolve. She’d had so much fun singing last night. It had been scary at first, but she’d seen how Charlie watched over her. She didn’t know how, but she knew he wouldn’t let anyone hurt her. He’d proven that when he’d fought off the guy who rushed the stage.
Charlie Walker. Was it possible for there to be an honorable man? Intellectually she knew it to be true. Her father and her sisters’ husbands were all wonderful men of integrity. But Charlie was oh so different from them. A man of music, not the cloth. And she couldn’t forget that he worked in a brothel. That had to be a few strikes against his moral fiber.
That was when she remembered technically now she worked in a brothel, too. At least it wasn’t as a lady of the night, but did God even distinguish these subtleties when it came to deciding who got through the pearly gates?
From beyond the open window, Emelie could hear the sounds of clinking dishes and laughing women. It reminded her of her and her sisters in happier times. She felt like an outsider, intruding where she didn’t belong.
She had no clock in her room so she had no idea what time it might be, but by the sound of laughter, it was late enough for most of the house to be up and moving. That meant it was time to start her day.
The first problem she faced was what could she wear. She opened the small armoire in the corner and had exactly two options. She looked at the same blue gown she’d worn for the last few days. She fingered a stain on the bodice and caught a whiff of kerosene, instantly bringing back the nightmare of the gunslinger.
How could she have gotten so distracted by the goings on of the saloon to forget that she was a murderess? An on-the-lam criminal. She couldn’t stop her uneasy chuckle as she realized she’d been silly to worry about getting into Heaven. If the fact that she’d killed a man didn’t prevent it, she was pretty sure the fact that she didn’t even feel sorry he was dead had surely earned her a one-way ticket to see Satan.
With regret, she pulled the blue gown out and got herself dressed. Her hair was a jumbled mess having slept on it while it was wet. She used her favorite hairbrush to wrangle it under control, pinching her pale cheeks to bring a bit of color, hoping no one would notice the trace of the bruise that remained from where both Albert and the gunslinger had backhanded her.
Emelie took a calming breath and opened her door, making her way down the long hall to the kitchen where a madhouse seemed to await her. Over a half dozen scantily clad women seemed to all be talking at the same time. Snippets of conversations met her ears making her blush all the way to her toes. Plates of ham and eggs were passed while everyone ate with gusto.
And there, smack dab in the middle, sat Charlie Walker, surrounded by beautiful women who snuggled up to him, flirted with him and even playfully ate the food right off his plate. She’d never even seen her mother be so intimate with her own father. What a fool she was to think last night had been anything special to him. She was merely another one of the girls.
“There she is! Come on in, Silver. I was just telling the girls how you’d already got an early start by scrubbing Charlie’s back last night. And to think, it wasn’t even Monday.” Opal grinned as if she’d told a funny joke and Emelie had a sudden urge to smack the smile right off her face.
Why the room had burst out into smatterings of giggles she hadn’t a clue, but she needed to set the gems straight. “I never scrubbed his back. He scrubbed mine.”
Giggles turned to roaring laughter. Charlie shot to his feet. “That’s enough. Emelie just arrived. You need to treat her with respect.”
A wo
man with the most beautiful black hair talked through her laughter, “We don’t mean nothing by it. You have to admit, it’s kinda cute.”
A man’s voice startled her from directly behind her. “And you have to admit, it’s none of your business.”
Gabe, the stern man who was in charge of security stepped around her and into the middle of the room. “I’m pretty sure everyone has some chores to take care of today before the day gets too hot. And Charlie, I’ll remind you again, this here young lady is Silver.”
Madam Jewel was next to her, linking her arm around Emelie’s waist. “Come and have some breakfast with me and Gabe. We’d like to run through the house rules to make sure there are no misunderstandings. Let’s hope the gems have left us some scraps for breakfast.”
Emelie sat in the seat recently vacated by Opal as Nettie arrived with a fresh platter of ham and eggs. “Good morning. I’ve had this plate warming on the back burner for you folks. Glad you could join us for lunch, er… breakfast.”
“Stuff a sock in it, Nettie. We closed the place down at four in the morning.” Gabe sat across the table from Emelie, calling out, “Charlie, I think you should stay and join our little discussion this morning, don’t you?”
“Actually, I have a few errands to run…”
“Sit. Now.” The men were in some kind of a silent stare down until Gabe added a more jovial, “Please.”
“Well, since you asked so nicely, I guess it won’t hurt to sit for a bit,” Charlie countered, not taking his glare off the only other man to live at the saloon as far as Emelie could tell.
She didn’t miss Nettie taking herself outside, muttering something about checking the hen house for fresh eggs and leaving the four of them to fill their plates with the heavenly food. She could feel her tummy growling and was grateful this time it was quiet.
It took effort to keep from heaping her plate full. That wouldn’t be ladylike. One fried egg. One slice of ham. One biscuit. One glass of milk. More breakfast than she’d eaten in a week and yet, Charlie clucked at her, leaning over to add another slice of ham to her plate.
“You need to eat more,” he cautioned as he reached for the bowl of creamy honey butter. “Try this. You’ll love it.”
Emelie protested, “Stop! I don’t want to waste. I’ll never be able to eat all this.”
“Give it a try.”
Jewel broke in with an interesting observation. “I’ve never seen you so worried for one of the gem’s nutrition before, Charlie.”
“She’s not really a gem now, is she? She’s a singer,” he countered.
“She’s a singer and a gem. Just like Ruby is a gem. Just like the girls who come and deal cards. All gems.” Emelie was unsure why it sounded like Gabe was angry. The long silence as the two men stared at each other confirmed there was something going on she didn’t understand.
Jewel carried on as if she were oblivious to the rift growing between the men. “How did you sleep last night, Silver? Is your room to your liking?”
“Oh yes. I can’t thank you enough for taking me in like you have. It’s been a while since I’ve…” She faltered, not wanting to disclose too much of her past. “Well, I’ve been moving around a lot is all.”
Jewel finished a bite of biscuit before continuing. “And how is it you’ve found yourself on your own like this?”
Emelie was uncomfortable. “Does it matter?”
She expected the woman to back down, but was surprised when Jewel pressed her. “Yes, as a matter of fact, it does. For example, if you have a husband or beau who’s gonna show up asking questions and not taking kindly to you working in a saloon, I’d like to know so we can be prepared.”
Fair enough. “No, ma’am. No one is going to be looking for me, that’s for sure.”
At least she prayed they weren’t. The only possible person who might be tracking her would be the constable looking to throw her in jail for murder.
No, she might want to keep that little fact to herself.
“That’s excellent. If you don’t mind me asking, do you have any family in these parts?”
Not sure why it mattered, Emelie hesitated before answering truthfully. “Not in these parts, no. My parents, sisters and brothers-in-law are all back in Wisconsin. My oldest sister, Nora was expecting when I left in the spring. I’m guessing I’m an aunt by now.”
“I see. Well you have my promise that you’ll be safe here at the Red Petticoat. I don’t know what made you leave your family and truthfully, as long as it doesn’t involve bringing danger to my doorstep, it’s none of my business. We all have our stories of what brought us here.”
Emelie let the breath go she’d been holding, expecting to be lectured or worse, judged for her poor choices. The fact that Jewel didn’t care in the slightest made her want to hug the beautiful woman.
“Now, let’s get down to business. The rules. No gems leave the building alone or without first telling us where they are going and when they’ll be back. If you choose to leave, you need to dress as you are now, not in your uniform.” Emelie wanted to reassure her. There was zero chance of her wearing the skimpy gem outfit a minute more than she had to.
“You need to be very careful when you are in town. As you’ve seen, the men outnumber women over ten to one and it’s getting worse each week. The men have very few outlets for their pent up… energy. Most of our customers are honest men, but there are a few bad apples Gabe has had to ban from the saloon for one reason or another. I’d hate for you to meet up with one of them and be recognized as a gem. No telling what mischief they might dream up. And definitely no leaving after dark. Period.”
“Yes, ma’am.” She’d be sticking close to be sure.
“Next, let’s talk about your job while you’re here. You truly do have the voice of an angel and the men loved listening to you and Charlie last night.”
Charlie grinned at her and her heart did a funny flutter, which was crushed when Gabe continued gruffly. “But the hymns are gonna have to go. You got away with them for one night, but if you intend to keep singing, you’ll need to learn more appropriate material. We aren’t running a church choir here.”
Charlie’s eyes flashed with anger. “Since when do you tell me what to play? I don’t tell you how to keep the place secure.”
“Whoa, there, big fella.” Gabe held his hands up defensively. “I’m only saying what needs to be said and you know it.”
Jewel reached over to pat Gabe’s arm gently. “Let’s all stay calm. Gabe is right, Charlie, even if he could have said it in a bit nicer way.” She gave a censoring glance to Gabe who raised his right eyebrow as if to say, “really?”
Jewel turned back towards Emelie. “Now, let’s talk business. Salary. As a server, you’d make a small wage and keep all your tips. Same goes for you if you are singing with Charlie, which is why I asked Charlie to stay. If you join his show, that will mean he will need to split tips with you. Charlie, are you willing to give up…”
Charlie cut Jewel off. “Hell yeah, I’m willing. Even splitting tips, I made more last night in one night than I normally do over a whole weekend. The crowd was eating you up, Emelie.”
“Silver,” Jewel and Gabe corrected him in unison.
Jewel continued. “I promise not to pressure you to do anything you aren’t comfortable doing, but I do have to let you know that the offer will still stand to work upstairs. As you know, the gems who work upstairs wear red petticoats. They make their money entertaining men in their rooms and I have to be honest, they make a great deal more money than you’ll make working downstairs. That, and well, to be frank, we are pretty short staffed right now. At least until the first freeze, I expect we’re gonna keep entertaining close to twenty-four hours a day. Some of the girls have been working for weeks straight without a day off. You are a beautiful woman so I feel it my duty to let you know you could be a very rich woman by that first freeze if you decided to wear red instead of pink.”
Charlie stood up, throwing his cloth
napkin down on top of his breakfast plate. “I never thought I’d see the day that you’d try to steer one of the girls wrong like this, Jewel. I thought you were different.”
Gabe jumped to his feet, leaning across the table to poke his friend in the chest with a pointy finger. “Excuse me? Did you just disrespect Jewel with that tone of voice?”
“Gabe. Charlie. Sit.” For a moment Emelie wondered if they’d start throwing punches. Jewel had to add on a stern, “now” before they listened.
Once seated, she continued. “Charlie, I’ll let that one pass because I think I understand what’s going on here, but I warn you. I won’t be able to stop Gabe from punching you the next time you speak to me like that. Got it?”
Emelie wanted to giggle at the contrite look on Charlie’s face as he apologized. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean it to sound like that, but damnation, I don’t understand why you’re hell bent on convincing Emelie to work upstairs.”
“Of course you understand. You just don’t like it. But guess what. It isn’t my decision, or Gabe’s or even yours. It’s Silver’s.” She turned her smile on Emelie then. “And don’t let anyone try to pressure you either way. Now, I’ve said my piece. The only thing we haven’t covered is to warn you of the punishment should you choose to break a rule or put yourself in danger. You’ve seen Gabe here keep the customers in line, well, he also keeps the peace with the gems. Him and his leather belt.”
It felt like her stomach dropped out of her body. How one minute she could feel fine and the next she wanted to cry was a mystery, but Emelie fought down the panic rising in her throat. She’d been a little wary of Gabe already, but now, knowing he had carte blanch to beat her like Albert and the gunslinger had before him turned her cold. She looked at her hands in her lap, trying to focus on taking calming breaths, but it wasn’t working. She needed fresh air… and quick.
