Belle - Lesley Pearse [118]
Belle pulled herself up sharply and went over to Faldo, smiling a welcome. ‘How nice to see you, Mr Reiss. I hope you didn’t risk getting pneumonia just to see me?’
‘I would risk anything to see you,’ he said gallantly, taking the glass of whisky Cissie offered him and downing it in one.
‘Could we dry his clothes for him?’ Belle turned to Martha to ask.
Martha gave a kind of bodily quiver, as if she was trying to shake off the incident she’d broken up a few minutes earlier. ‘Yes, Belle, that would be kind. Would you like to go up with Belle, Mr Reiss, or was it another girl you wanted to see?’
Belle sensed Martha hoped it was another girl he wanted. But Faldo smiled and said it was Belle he wanted.
As they went out of the room, Belle couldn’t resist smirking back at Anna-Maria.
Up in her room, Belle urged Faldo to take off all his clothes. She said she’d give them to Cissie to dry down by the stove in the kitchen. ‘Mind you, they won’t be dry in just half an hour,’ she said, as he began to peel them off.
‘I’ll pay to stay all night,’ he said all too eagerly. ‘Will that be all right?’
‘I’ll have to consult Madam,’ Belle said, lowering her eyes coyly. She wasn’t keen to have him there all night; he was a big man, and the thought of him wanting to do it over and over again wasn’t inviting, but then, she had wanted an opportunity to get to know him better, and this was it.
She took his clothes and shoes downstairs, passing them on to Cissie.
Martha was still in the parlour, and as Belle went in she sensed tension and guessed she’d been telling the girls off. Belle asked if she could speak to her privately. When Martha came out into the hall she explained, and asked how much it would be if Faldo stayed the whole night.
‘Five hundred dollars,’ Martha said curtly.
Instinctively Belle knew that was a far higher price than was normally charged, especially in such bad weather when they were unlikely to get any other business. But she had a feeling Martha had picked on such a high price hoping Faldo would refuse it, which would make Belle lose face in front of both her and the other girls.
‘I don’t know if he likes me that much,’ Belle said with a little grin. ‘I can only ask him.’
As she went back upstairs, her satin gown rustling, she could sense Martha’s eyes following her, and her animosity. It made Belle feel uneasy, but she really didn’t know what she could do about it.
Faldo was in bed when she got back to her room. He had a big, flabby white chest, and where he’d rubbed his hair dry on her towel it was standing up like a porcupine.
‘I don’t think you’ll want to stay all night, she says it will be five hundred dollars,’ Belle said in a small voice.
He made a loud guffaw of laughter. ‘I call it a bargain to stay with you,’ he said. ‘Pass me my pocketbook on the table, honey. I’ll add another twenty so we can have a bottle of champagne too.’
As Belle came back up the stairs a few minutes later with the champagne in an ice bucket and two glasses, she could hardly contain her delight. Martha’s face had been a picture when Belle gave her the money, struggling between pique because she’d been mistaken about Faldo, and sheer greed that she’d got so much money on a bad night.
But Belle’s delight was not in making Martha eat humble pie, but in Faldo’s reaction. He wanted to be with her, and he’d asked for champagne, which implied he saw this as a special occasion. She was determined to make sure it was one.
A little later, sitting up beside him in her bed drinking the champagne and laughing with him, Belle remembered what Etienne had said about loving her clients a little. Physically Faldo was not very attractive; in fact, he was very odd-looking. His head was small and egg-shaped and completely out of proportion with his big frame. His eyes were like black boot buttons and his nose was too big, and with his big flabby belly, yet skinny arms and legs, he was all wrong. Yet despite that he was a nice, good-humoured man, who’d always