more upset when Eddie dumped me and took off. But at the Golden Nugget I had regular baths with warm water. I had two meals a day. I could choose from dozens of fancy gowns to wear. Other women fussed over me, braiding my hair, calling me little sister. Telling me I was pretty. Heady stuff for a thirteen-year-old girl who’d endured two years masquerading as a boy. Madam Marie gave me a frank discussion of what physical acts would be expected of me as a whore. For a month, I watched sex through one of the hidden peepholes, in a carnal education of every possible sex permutation. The ladies taught me how to flirt and play coy. How to be bold. How to fake an orgasm.”
Dinah flinched at that phrase, jerking the needle harder than she’d planned. “Sorry. I just…”
“Wasn’t expecting the dirty details? Honey. That’s part of my story. How I learned to do all of the dirty things men love better than the rest of my house sisters is the reason I ended up a madam and not just another two-bit whore. That said, the only choice Marie allowed me was which man got to buy my virginity. I impressed her when I informed her that I should choose three men, not just one, since I had three places on my body that had never taken a man.”
When Dinah went still, Ruby smiled. “No shame in being a virgin, darling, and not knowing those three places are cunt, mouth and ass.”
“Men…I mean, I knew about them using the mouth, not the ah…other one.”
“Ass fucking is a particular favorite of married men because most wives refuse to allow it. That’s why that service costs them more money.”
Dinah must’ve blushed to the roots of her toenails. Somehow she made the next stitch with a steady hand.
“I was a working girl for Madam Marie until five years ago when she gave me her blessing to strike out on my own. Beulah already had a whorehouse—not up to Madam Marie’s standards, but I had no interest in competing with Gigi and her sole proprietorship. I found it unusual a town the size of Sundance didn’t have a bawdy house. Then I realized the Sundance City Council would’ve run any woman out of town before building construction started. Luckily Darby Sackett and his brother had a falling out and Darby wanted to open his own place in Labelle. He bought the existing saloon and agreed to let me add a boardinghouse onto it and create an entrance into my place with a door on the second floor. No one tried to run me out of town. In fact, the community—or at least the men in it—embraced the idea of a whorehouse because construction only took one month, and we were open for business.”
“Do you ever worry about having a falling out with Darby?”
“We’re both making too much money. But it could happen eventually, I suppose.”
“Just three more stitches to go.”
Ruby frowned. “How many have you already done?”
“Nine. They’re small.”
A few quiet moments passed as Dinah pressed a cloth to the wound to quell the bleeding before she finished stitching.
“I take it you’ve forgiven Silas for his poker game bet?”
She studied Ruby’s placid face. “That happened in Sundance. Just last night. How did you hear about it?”
“People talk.”
“Who talks?” she demanded. “And where? If you mean that Silas has been in your—”
“No, no, darling, it wasn’t Silas telling bordello tales. I actually overheard Jonas talking about it. It was clever for you to send Silas right back into the thick of possible rumors.”
An immediate burst of anger swamped her that Silas’s brother was gossiping about the incident. Then she realized that Ruby had called Deputy McKay by his first name, as if they were on familiar terms. So after Silas had confessed to his brother…maybe Jonas hadn’t been gossiping to anyone but Ruby. “To answer your question, yes, I’ve forgiven Silas. It might’ve been different had the wager come from Silas first, but Zeke West created the situation. And I demanded Silas end their feud as a condition of forgiveness.” She pinched the skin together and quickly made the final stitch. After tying off the thread and wiping away fluid, she bent closer to peer at her handiwork. Evenly spaced stitches, not too tight. “Done.”
“Thank the heavens.”
“You can sit up. But keep the ice on it for ten minutes at a time or until it melts. It’ll help with the swelling.” Then Dinah