Willing Read Online Free PDF

earned for her time. Constance swallowed, but Berty’s face furrowed as she pulled a card from inside. She stared at it for a long moment, wordless.
    “Roger!”
    He appeared from his room behind the bar almost instantly, his face betraying an exhaustion to match her own.
    “Take Constance’s things up to my room, please.”
    Constance and Roger both stared at Berty. “What?”
    She took a shallow breath, reaching for her snuff box on the bar. “Do as I ask please, Roger.”
    Berty gestured to the box and Roger obliged, disappearing up the stairs with Constance’s things. Constance watched him go, his shoulders rounded with the same strange quality as Berty’s cautious frame.
    “Berty, I can’t take your room. Just make Josselyn -”
    “It’s already done. Here. I believe this is for you.”
    It’s already done? What did she mean?
    Constance turned back to Berty who held out a small card. Constance took it, then held her hand out in expectation. Berty lit her cigarette, only pretending not to see for a moment. Then she sighed, dug into her skirt pockets and retrieved the envelope that held the large sum of money. She placed ten pounds into Constance’s waiting hand. Constance’s eyes went wide, then she shook her head, willing Berty blind to her surprise, put the notes in her pocket and opened her hand again. Berty groaned and handed Constance another ten pounds.
    “Thank you, kindly,” Constance said, letting each word simmer with sarcasm to hide her almost giddy mood. 
    Berty waved her away, and Constance turned for the stairs. She passed Roger coming back and headed down the long hallway to the last door, the most secluded and spacious of all the bedrooms. She reached the doorway, smelling Berty’s perfume from within. The bed was a four poster, covered in silks and satins. The curtains matched the bedclothes, hanging from the high ceilings, but long enough to still brush the floors when a draft came in through the high windows. Roger had lit a lamp on the bedside table, and the room glowed in red and gold. Berty might be a crass creature at times, but she had rich tastes. Constance shut the door to the bedroom and turned her attention to the card –
     
    Until we meet again.
    -          A
     
    Despite the exhaustion she’d felt on the ride home, suddenly Constance was wide awake.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Three
     
    “Damn it, girl! I need you here!”
    Berty’s voice boomed in the downstairs of the tavern, rattling the loose window panes.
    Sally tucked her shawl over her mouth and giggled, cruelly, her small carpet bag hefted onto her hip as she marched across the parlor.
    “You’ll have to find someone else then, old Berty. I’ve a better offer.”
    The argument had started sometime the day before, but Constance was kept too busy by her regulars to pay much mind. Now with the lull of early morning, the entire house was privy to Berty’s business. Sally was a shorter girl, dark blonde hair, and missing a couple teeth at the corners of her smile, but she had a round ass and a girlish giggle, and the lads enjoyed that. The lads also enjoyed Sally for a particular expertise.
    “A better offer my arse! You know damn well how Coogan treats his girls. You’ll end up with your throat slit in some alley – or worse!”
    Coogan was a pimp down on Dorset Street; not a friendly part of Whitechapel. He sent his girls out to work the roughest streets in London and was more than happy to rough them up from time to time when they didn’t pull their weight. Members of his gang didn’t think twice either.
    Sally dropped her bag onto the floor and stared Berty down. “He pays a better percentage though, don’t he?”
    “Aye, and you pay for it! He’ll have you out in the streets, no protection at night, no -”
    “Say what you will, I’ll go where the pay is, and that’s that. Girls say they’re makin three times as much as we are pickin up fellas at the Ten Bells!”
    “God damn it,