Tears filled her eyes. “Do you even know what you look like, Kit? You’re as white as bone. There are marks on your wrists from the shackles and glass all over your bodice. You’re shaking.” She held out trembling hands. “God blind me.
“We’re angry, and hurt, and frightened.” I touched her cheek. “But one thing we’re not, the one thing we will never be, is daft. We need to take some time now to think and to plan.” I put my reticule in her hands. “This is every pence I have left in the world. I need you to hold it safe for me.”
“You’re staying here.”
“I can’t risk—”
“Shut up. I needed a new gel—and so I hired one.” She tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. “Name of Connie. A bit dark and on the skinny side, but some gents like that.”
I sighed. “Walsh knows my middle name.”
“Then Rosie, or Lucy, or . . .” She stopped and suddenly smiled. “Prudence.”
Chapter Four
“If I like the looks of someone, can I give him a free one?” I asked my new employer, and then hissed as a hairpin dug into my scalp. “You’re hurting!”
“You’re not selling or bartering or giving anything to anyone under my roof,” Rina told my reflection. She pinned the new switch in several more places. “You’re a good gel, and you’re going to stay that way.”
I tucked my bottom lip under my top teeth to keep from correcting her.
“Don’t do that; you’ll scrape off the tint.” She sprayed my switch with a light mist of her perfume and stepped back. “You make a pretty hothead.”
I studied my reflection in Rina’s vanity glass, turning my head this way and that. The elegant scarlet curls of the expensive hair switch should have made my tanned skin appear yellow, but instead they brought out the pinkish tones and gave me a rosy look.
“Bridget has freckles,” I mentioned. “I always wanted freckles.”
“You always wanted to be a man, a firebrigader, a pilot, and seven feet tall. Let us be grateful that heaven has remained stone-deaf to your prayers.” She went to her working-hours armoire. “Take off everything, including your drawers.”
I didn’t mind the switch or the lip tint, but I couldn’t imagine myself parading about in one of Rina’s filmy business garms. “Couldn’t I be Prudence the new scullery, or Prudence the apprentice cook?”
She began pushing hangers back and forth as she searched through a rainbow of cutout velvets, thin silks, and spangled nettings. “He’ll be expecting that.”
I got up and joined her. “But my posing as a working strumpet would be a complete stunner.”
“You may stir up trouble on the Hill, poke your nose in the wrong corners, and have all the worst sort of friends”—she turned and held a bronze satin corset against my front before replacing it in the armoire—” but you’re still a decent woman with a business and your own home. You’re regarded as such by all who know you. Women like you would rather starve, go to prison, jump a cliff, or embrace a blade than give it up for money.” An odd look came over her face. “No matter how desperate you lot become.”
She was only repeating the words her father had hurled at her the one time she had tried to see him. I knew because I had taken her. “Rina.”
The side of her mouth curled. “No worries. We’ll need a nudie. Be right back.” She hurried out.
I didn’t know what a nudie was, so I went to refill my tea and sat down on the window seat. Fingers of icy air poked at me from where they crept under the sill, and I saw drifts piling up on the street below. The temperature was still dropping, which would keep trade light tonight.
It had been a bright and sunny day two years ago when I’d taken Rina on the shopping expedition. She’d hated the proper bodice and skirts I’d lent her for the excursion, and had refused to take off her hat and veil, even when we stopped for tea and cakes. I hadn’t understood until after I made her come with me into the glove shop.
“You paid for tea, and you need a new pair for church,” I’d argued as I dragged her in through the entry. “Besides, I can’t afford anything grander than kid, so they’ll be warm and serviceable.”
“Aye.” She looked at the proprietor, who was coming round from behind the counter to wait on us. “I’m certain that you’ll find that here.”
“Ladies.” The shopkeep, a pleasant-faced older man with ruddy skin and a suggestion of native round the eyes, bowed politely. “May I be of service?”
“We’d like to see something in thin kid for my friend here,” I told him as I ushered Rina over to the counter.
“I have all colors dyed, bleached, or natural,” he said, holding out his hand to Rina. “If the lady would let me size her?”
“You needn’t,” Rina said, taking off her hat and veil and gazing at him with big eyes. “I’m a four slim, remember?”
Watching the change that came over the shopkeeper was like seeing a man turned to stone. “Carina.”
“Hello, Da.” She offered him a beautiful smile. “How’s trade?”
Much bellowing had followed, all from the glovemaker, who had called his daughter nine kinds of a slut before I’d tried to intervene. Then he had told me exactly why he and his family had washed their hands of their strumpet daughter before kicking us out of the shop.
Once we were in the cab I hailed, I’d turned to Rina. “Why didn’t you tell me that was your father’s shop?”
“You wouldn’t have gone in, and I wanted to see him,” she’d said simply. “I haven’t, you know. Not once since Medford broke our engagement. Last time I saw Da was when he’d tossed me out the house and bolted the doors. When I wouldn’t leave the front stoop he had the servants summon a beater to drive me off.”
That was the last of our shopping excursions, and although I hadn’t known until it was too late, I’d always felt guilty over causing the ugly reunion. Now I’d reminded her of it again.
Rina returned with what appeared to be a pair of flesh-colored stockings sewn to the bottom of a thin corset-style bodice in matching fabric. “Here, this one should fit you.”
My gaze went to the open crotch. “I can’t wear that contraption.”
“It’s called a nudie, and it’s to preserve your modesty, madam.” She tossed the odd garment at me. “You wear it under your negli, and it keeps your naughty bits from showing through.”
I held up the crotchless bit. “Not here, it doesn’t.”
“Oh, right. Sorry.” She went to her dresser and began sorting through her lingerie. “The open crotch is for convenience; some gents can be too impatient to wait.”
She produced something that looked to me like a thin nappy.
“You’re going to diaper me?” I asked.
“They’re called knickers,” she explained as she brought the abbreviated garment to me. “All the rage across the pond.” When she saw my face she held it up against her pelvis. “You see? You put them on just like drawers.”
“So I’m to wear drawers without legs under stockings and a corset without a crotch and then a gown on top.” I caught the knickers she tossed to me. “Couldn’t I pretend to be a client? A fully dressed, male client?”
“That’s a good idea,” Rina admitted, “but I haven’t any men’s clothes small enough for you here. I’ll send out for some tomorrow, but in the meantime you’ll have to be patient, Prudence.”
I gave her a narrow look. “You’re enjoying this.”
“Enormously.” She went round me and began unfastening my waister. After a moment she added, “I didn’t mean to go off on you before, love. That business with Da back then, that was all on me.”
“I never stopped wishing I could do something about it.” I pulled my bodice carefully over my head so as not to dislodge the switch. “Expose Medford’s son for what he did, or at least make him tell your da the truth.”
“No one would believe the word of a woman over a man’s,” Rina said, her tone firm. “If someone had, the rot bastard would’ve just had all his mates swear that I’d bedded them, too.” She helped me step out of my skirts.
