A Wanton Tale (5 page)

As for the girls, Alice tolerated them but found Lily hard and feisty. She ruled the roost of the oppressive attic room. As far as Alice was concerned, Ellen was the slim one, Lou was the dim one and Lily was a crafty, red haired bitch. At times it seemed unbearable, overcrowded too. All of the girls had annoying habits but Lily’s slovenly ways were the worst. Alice knew that Lily was, by far, the most attractive and probably the brightest of the group. She was the most popular with the men callers, earned the most and Alice sensed that she had private schemes going on in her head. Lily lapped up the attention that the clients bestowed on her. She was deluded into thinking she was more special than the others. The praise bestowed on her was just the client’s way of encouraging her to perform more degrading acts.

For the third time this month, she was ‘entertaining’ Sidney. Known as Sid, he was a man of means and a well known landlord in the area. On a previous visit he had told Lily that he wanted to dispose of one of his properties. It was a four storey house on the end of Seymour Street, at the back of Lime Street station. She had secretly met him outside and had already seen the house. It was ideal for her plans of having her own ‘cab’ or brothel.

‘Are you sure that the little weasel isn’t piping through spy holes?’ Asked Sid as he threw down his bowler hat. Lily’s red lipstick covered mouth smirked slyly as she closed the drapes and turned up the oil lamp to an ambient glow. It was a dull, overcast winter’s afternoon but in Betsy’s house the seasons were neither here nor there. It was always a shadowy, ill lit place, inside here, the weather didn’t matter.

‘We’re in the posh room Sid, the weasely little bastard can’t see anything in here and he is out, whoring in Su May’s accompanied by the old hag.’ Lily had no idea that this room also had a spy hole concealed behind a picture on the landing. Her eyes cast over to the window, indicating towards China Town ‘Keep your voice down though. Besty’s due back any time and I don’t want the others knowing what I am doing.’

Sid knew that walls had ears and Lily didn’t, entirely, trust the other girls. Lily was aware of every move in the house and she could read Betsy like a book. She knew every little nook, cranny and hidey hole in the whole rotten house.

‘Sit yourself down on the bed now Sid. I am excited about the house and I have the money. We can work something out, right now.’ She patted the bed with her ring bedecked hand. Her long nails, as usual, had been painted red.

‘I hope you’ve given it some thought now Lily, it’s time you made your mind up. I’ve had another offer but I would prefer to sell to you even though the other offer is higher. We agreed four hundred pounds.’

Lily could not help but smile, ‘Yes,’ she thought, ‘four hundred pounds and free afternoons of my charms, I am not soft.’ For Lily, free sex with Sidney was a small price to pay to secure her escape and her future.

Lily had cooked the whole thing up, she knew that Betsy was milking the girls for a lot of money and selling the underage girl was adding to her stash. Lily even knew where she kept it.

More than a year ago Mary was polishing the ornaments when Lily walked into the parlour. For a fleeting moment Lily noticed that the head on one of the green Fu Dog ornaments was loose. She thought it was unusual but didn’t say anything to Mary.

Lily was curious and sneaked back later that day when no one was around. She was excited as she lifted the head off the body of the ornament which was stuffed with high value notes. The ornaments that she had always considered so ugly had suddenly become very attractive.

Lily had saved three hundred pounds of her own and needed another hundred to buy Sid’s property. Over the past year, the pair of Fu Dogs had been crammed with money. Freddie’s drinking habit had worsened and he had experimented further into the use of drugs. Even, Betsy suspected he was taking opium. As for Betsy, she was getting a little slip shod with her calculations. Most of the time her head was pickled with gin. However, she was safe in the knowledge that there was more than enough coming in for their needs and plenty left over.

The motley pair had failed to notice over the last lucrative year, that crafty Lily had been siphoning off the cream from their profit. She had acquired herself a hundred pounds, stolen in dribs and drabs from their ill gotten gains.

Lily also hated the Hales. They had tricked her into prostitution when she was just a child. She had waited a long while to even the score. In this way, she thought that the money was rightly hers. She had no trouble in justifying her actions, as far as she was concerned, the Hales were the dishonest ones. It was time to get her own back.

‘Have you got the money then?’ Asked Sid. He needed hard cash rather quickly to fund another of his business ventures. She gave him a knowing smile, ‘I’ll meet you with the keys then at tea time.’

Lily smirked, ‘Bring the deeds Sid. Don’t you dare double cross me. I have some nasty friends.’ She threatened, ‘And I know where you live and I’d love to meet your wife.’

‘Don’t worry your pretty little head, all above board. By the way, you owe me.’ He joked. ‘See you about six. I have arranged for the cart to be here at half past five, you might get there before me, just be patient and wait.’

‘Thank you, Sid.’ Lily sounded sincere.

He nodded then left without having the pleasures he had paid for. Lily had much work to do, she had carefully planned her escape.

Betsy and Freddie were enjoying an afternoon treat at Su May’s. They both liked to watch two women performing sex acts. They didn’t need spy holes here, they could sit on comfortable chairs at a discreet distance from the bed. The show from the young Chinese girls today was particularly good, Freddie loved it when they pleasured each other with a cucumber. That’s why they were here, to be titillated by the unusual, it was no trouble at all, to the Oriental girls, easy money in fact.

Back at the house in Duke Street, it was Lou’s turn to entertain her punter in the ‘posh’ bedroom. There was no hint of excitement in Lily’s demeanour as she brushed passed Lou on the way out of the room. Her expression was set and unemotional. Lily was careful to hide her elation which was welling from deep within her, all the butterflies were dancing.

Ellen was downstairs and Alice was taking the coats from the punters and collecting their money. Each of the girls would take on this role when they were ‘poorly’ down below.

Lily’s timing was perfect, nevertheless, she would have to be quick. She skipped up the stairs where she stood in the shadows. She could hear the heavy footfall of Lou’s punter coming up to the room. From the gloom of the windowless area he was unable to see her looking down on him, she had her back pressed tightly to the door.

Lily wanted him in and settled before she started moving around. With the front bedroom door firmly shut, this was her opportunity to enter the attic room. She knew that Alice would be tucked away in the front parlour as quiet as a church mouse, Ellen had twenty minutes left with her client.

Lily could hear her own heart pounding as she picked up the two large bundles containing her possessions, they were hidden under her bed. She left several dresses that she didn’t want any more. They were left in a prominent position to cover her tracks. The others hadn’t even noticed that some things were missing after she had packed her bags the day before. There were so many billowing, elaborate frocks and petticoats in the overstuffed wardrobe so nothing was obvious.

Lily had rearranged them to disguise the fact that some were missing. The house was silent except for the gentle murmur of voices combined with groans from the downstairs bedroom. She took a deep breath as she heard the hall clock chime once indicating it was half past five. Betsy would be back by six at the latest, she had a small window of time to spirit herself away.

She crept to the first floor landing and went into the washroom. The window was already open as planned and the man with the hand cart, was waiting below. He was looking up at the window with his arms outstretched, he was eager for her to throw down her baggage. Lily put her fingers to her lips to warn him not to shout up to her. She then hurled each of the bundles to him which were expertly caught. He rattled away on the back jigger cobbles without exchanging a word. She flew down the stairs with her lightest footfall. She avoided each creak and broken board on the way out of the house that she knew like the back of her hand.

No one saw nor heard her go. She opened the door quietly but didn’t close it behind her. Lily was gone forever.

‘The lousy little bitch, the lousy scheming little cow!’ Squealed Betsy. Her eyes were wild with rage. By this time, everyone knew that she had taken most of her belongings and had long gone.

‘An’ where do you think she is?’ She asked of the others addressing no one in particular, but her eyes were accusing. Lou, Ellen and Alice had been frantically searching through the pockets of the few dresses that she had left behind. But she had left no clue as to where she had gone. They had deduced that she must have done a ‘moonlight’ at around half past five in the afternoon.

‘Honest, Aunty I don’t know where she went, do you Lou?’ Asked Ellen.

‘No I bloody well don’t. Why are you asking me? Do you know Alice?’

After a year in Betsy’s establishment Alice was no longer the timid mouse who had arrived as a twelve year old. ‘She doesn’t even like me, hardly speaks. How do I know where she’s gone, good riddance anyway, never liked her.’

In the quietness of her parlour Betsy poured herself a large measure of gin and stared wildly towards her treasure trove, the Fu Dogs. She frantically whipped off the heads of the ornaments then quickly counted out the money, all seemed to be in order. ‘She hasn’t robbed me, that’s something to be thankful for.’ It would never dawn on Betsy that others could be more devious than her. She lit her cigar and pondered that the back of Lily could be a blessing in disguise.

Freddie returned from Su May’s, he had walked home after sleeping off his drunken stupor. Betsy wouldn’t allow Freddie to be drunk in the house in case he made a racket. He regularly got it in the neck from Betsy. He was an easy target to blame when anything went wrong. He was becoming more of a hapless buffoon every day as his heavy drinking and opium habit worsened. Betsy had always said that it would be his job to keep an eye on the girls and he had failed. Lily had made fools of them.

Alice turned down the oil lamp in the dark attic room. It was eleven o’clock and all three were turning in and were putting on their night attire. Considering their situation, they all wore crisp cotton nightdresses which were surprisingly unremarkable, if anything rather staid and conservative. They were surprised by Lily’s sudden departure but not at all shocked. Alice had guessed that Lily had something up her sleeve.

There was an uncomfortable silence and a heavy atmosphere, each one thought perhaps one of the others knew something. There had never been a bond of trust between them and even less so now. Although they were all bone tired it was hard for them to catch their sleep. Betsy and Freddie were having a screaming match in the parlour and the sharpest, loudest most shrilly voice was Betsy’s. The last thing they heard her bellow was, ‘There’s no men coming here tomorrow, I’m going out.’ The girls were disturbed by the whole episode and had a fitful night.

The following day, they all pretended to be surprised when Betsy shouted up the stairs. ‘There won’t be any men coming here today, do you hear?’ It was Betsy’s coarsest voice. A woman who never went into too much detail, she always got her message across and said as little as possible. Arrogant and aloof at times she never had long and meaningful conflabs with ‘that lot’ as she called them.

Lou heaved herself up from her creaky iron bed and went to the door. ‘Fine by me, where are you going?’ Betsy was in her finery, hat on and clutching her purse. Lou’s question was met with a glower and with a swish of her huge skirts, she turned on her heels and teetered to the door. The girls were puzzled but mildly amused that Freddie would have to face the punters. They would not be best pleased and slippery Freddie, who recoiled from responsibility, would hate having to turn them away. He often went out in the early hours of the morning and should have been well back by now. The girls had an idea that he must be up to no good. They couldn’t think for the life of them why he would be regularly going out at such an ungodly hour.

After Betsy had left, the girls were thankful to have the house to themselves.

‘I saw Lily writing a letter last week and she was acting funny.’ Said Alice.

‘Go on.’ Answered Lou impatiently. Ellen was intrigued.

‘I’ve never seen her writing, she’s got no one to write to, no relations, no friends either,’ Ellen added, pensively, ‘didn’t even know she could write.’

‘I asked her what it was about and she wouldn’t answer, put her arm over the letter and sat on the bed muttering to herself.’ Alice went to Lily’s unslept in bed and her eyes dropped down to the floorboards. She knew that was where Lily kept her money, hidden in a space under a broken board. The board had been removed and the space was empty. For most of the time she was crafty but occasionally, when she was tired, she was off her guard and Alice had seen her crouched there. She also knew she had a good post office book. She glanced up again and spotted the corner of an envelope protruding from under the mattress. Impulsively, she stood up and darted towards the bed. She pulled out the white grubby envelope, the word ‘Friends’ was written on it in a scrawled hand.

‘Give it me!’ Ordered Lou, ‘Let me open it.’ Alice handed over the envelope, her reading wasn’t too good anyway. Ellen was rubbing her hands with excitement, ‘She’s left us a message, an important message!’

Dear Friends,

‘Sorry to pull a trick like this on you but I just had to get away, I’ve got my own place now and I’m only telling you this because I know you are all as unhappy as I have been. I trust you and want you to tell the gentlemen where I am. When I’ve built up a business you can come and join me. It will take time but only come to me when you’ve told about twenty, slip them a little note. Remember you are sworn to secrecy, then when you come to me your money will be your own money. I sincerely promise that I will help you get away from those evil bastards. I am in 55 Seymour Street, I am taking a risk telling you where I am but I have every faith in you
.
Alice I can’t take you. The risk is too much for me, you are not of age.’