Belle - Lesley Pearse [79]
‘Belle, I was a burglar, I always mixed with people on the wrong side of the fence. I got to know the girls in cat houses in Marseille like they were my sisters. They would tell me about their lives, their clients, the other girls and the madams, and I know from this that you must always keep the madam on your side. She is the one who can make your life hell if she doesn’t like you.’
‘You said sporting houses and cat houses – are they the same as brothels?’ she asked curiously.
Etienne smiled down at her. ‘They use these words more in New Orleans than the word brothel. Sporting houses are usually quite grand places, often with a band playing in the drawing room. They put a screen round the musicians so they can’t see the identity of the men who come in to dance and have fun with the girls.’
All at once Belle was overcome by emotion and she began to cry.
‘What is it?’ Etienne asked, putting his arms around her and drawing her to his chest.
‘I am going to miss you so much,’ she sobbed.
He held her tightly and stroked her hair. ‘I’m going to miss you too, little one. You have taken a part of my heart. But I may get sent here again some day and you will be so grand and important you won’t want to talk with me.’
‘I would never be too grand for you.’ She sniffed back her tears and almost laughed because she knew he was only teasing her. ‘But my admirers might be jealous as you are so handsome.’
He put his hands on either side of her head and bent down to kiss away her tears. ‘I think it might be better for me to stay away when you are older, for you will surely break my heart,’ he said softly. ‘Now, just remember what I told you, that you are beautiful and clever, and you must use that sharp mind to outfox any that would try to trap or hurt you.’
A little later Etienne left Belle on deck while he went down to their cabin for something. Aside from when he was suffering from seasickness, it was the first opportunity she’d had to speak to anyone she chose. There were dozens of other people on deck – respectable married couples, groups of young men, a few elderly people, and even two plainly dressed women who she felt might be the churchy kind. They would be ideal people to ask for help, and she had no doubt that if such an opportunity had arisen on the steamer from France, she would have gladly snatched it.
But she didn’t want any help now. While it was true that being delivered to a brothel wasn’t her ideal start in life, would London have been any better for her? While she was absolutely certain her mother and Mog would not have wanted her to become a whore, what else was there for a girl of her background except going into service or working in a factory? To stay at home for ever was an even worse prospect, for she’d never make any friends and the days would be endless.
Belle had often looked at the grand department stores like the new Selfridges which had opened just the year before in Oxford Street, or Swan and Edgar’s in Regent Street, and wished she could work in one of them. But even had she been able to get a good reference from someone, which was unlikely, everyone said the girls in those shops worked very long hours for very little pay and were bullied by the floor managers. She remembered how the other girls at the school she went to in Bloomsbury whispered about her. She had no doubt that kind of whispering would follow her to any job she might find. Just as Jimmy had assumed she had to be a whore because she lived in a brothel, so would everyone else.
So she had decided she was going to do exactly what Etienne had suggested and use her wits to make a good life for herself. She wouldn’t fight being a whore, just go with it and aim for the top spot. They wouldn’t lock her in or watch her like a hawk if they saw that she was willing. And it would be good to wear silk dresses and drive in her own carriage. In fact it might even be the greatest of adventures. She was after all in America, a country where dreams could come true.
One day, when she