“Eve, I will leave you to dress Bronnah. It seems to have hit her harder than the others. I’d hate to lose her.”
"Some people react harshly to the drops, we shall see." Glancing closely at Bronnah's eyes. Eve frowns and lifts Bronnah's wrist to take her pulse and finds it pounding hard. "It will wear off soon. She's exquisite." Eve lifts Bronnah's chin to look in her eyes and smiles softly. "Yes, Mr. Chen will want her for himself."
"Girls it's time for baths!" Mrs. Killian claps her hands, and they all giggle. "I love baths!" Emma said.
“Perfect,” Rose sits her ledger on the table near the fireplace and leads them with the help of two other girls into the bedroom.
Bronnah finds that the evening passes in a blur. From time to time, she sleeps while she is stripped, bathed, oiled and dressed. Her hair is twisted into a crown braid, over the top of her forehead, giving the illusion of a tiara. The rest is left loose in long white blonde curls, and her eyes are lined in black eyeliner. If her eyes were pretty before, now they are shocking. Eve and Mrs. Killian stare at Bronnah and speak softly.
“How long do you think before it wears off?”
“Not sure, her fingers and toes are moving already, maybe a couple more hours. She did vomit, and that usually helps to clear the system pretty quickly. I would say we give her more in two or three hours. Once she can sit up on her own.”
“We better get on with it then.” Mrs. Killian suggests, and Eve nods and gets her tools. Each girl will be marked with an identical flower on their wrist below the thumb.
“What about the other girls?” Ms. Eve asked. They talk while she begins the tattoo process. A needle is dipped in black ink and hammered into her wrist, while the blood is wiped away. Sweat breaks out on Bronnah’s body from the unexpected pain. She struggles to not twitch and thankfully it doesn’t take long. Her wrist is wrapped in white gauze which will be removed in the morning and cleaned once more to avoid infection. They walk away to mark the other girls.
Bronnah forces herself to remain still. She knew it would do no good to try to fight back while she was outnumbered five to one. Each time they check on her she pretends to be sleeping or doesn't move. Escape! I need to escape. Moving her head, she turns to look around the room and sees Kai through the window looking at her. She lifts a hand and struggles to lift a foot.
Voices are coming her way once more, so she pretends to be sleeping once more. "Put her on the other bed. Don't mess up her hair. I don't want to have to fix it when they come for them in the morning." They place Helene in the bed across the room, and she never wakes up. "This one had three cups. She won't wake up until the train is already halfway to its destination." Mrs. Killian laughs, and they shuffle out of the room.
“Eve, the first six of this batch were already sent to the mining towns and the second batch will need to be dealt with in the morning. Why don’t you all go get some sleep? I’ll rest here until it’s time to load them on the train.”
They all agree and quickly filter out. Rose orders room service and rests in a chair flipping through her ledger, making notes. She keeps tabs of all the women, coming and going in this ledger. Soon the food arrives, strong, flavorful soup, with biscuits and fresh coffee. Kai watches and listens from the double doors. Thinking quickly, he runs to one of the bedroom windows and knocks softly before running back. Kai grins when she goes to check on Emma and Diane. He opens the unlocked French door and runs swiftly to her tray. Inside is a bowl of soup and biscuit. He quickly pulls out a dropper and squirts half the bottle into the soup and then dashes into Bronnah's room and slips under the bed. Mrs. Killian returns and finds everything quiet. She sits back in a chair and drinks her soup.
"Mmm, delicious. This time tomorrow, the train will arrive, and I will be five hundred dollars richer." Picking up the bowl she finishes the last drop and begins chewing on the biscuit. Yawning she stands and walks to the room where the French girls are sleeping. "Exquisite," she runs a hand up the net stocking covering Emma's pale white legs and checks the garters are tight. "The saloon boys are going to enjoy you. They like French girls." Emma is dressed in a dark blue and black corset, stockings, garters, and black ankle boots. Each girl was given exquisite clothing, designed to tempt a man.
“Don’t worry, Diane, you’ll have your fair share of attention too.” A wave of dizziness has her shaking her head. She giggles and runs a hand over Diane’s lush breasts. “So pretty,” she stretches out beside her on the bed and touches her red painted lips with her fingertips.
"Tomorrow those lips will be busy, but tonight they are mine," she whispers and her body jerks. Ms. Killian tumbles from the bed to the hard-wooden ground below and convulses. The opium hits her, and she's unable to fight it. Half a bottle, in a small cup of soup, will either kill her or take her out for days.
Kai waits until he hears the noise and scrambles out from under the bed. “Come on!" he pulls on her hand. Bronnah glances at him and sits up slowly. She tests her feet and hands, before trying to stand.
