that. A nice place with a pie-ano, too, ’cause I can play anything I hear. And besides the money, the madam buys the girls all the pretty dresses they want. They got candy there too.”
Dessa had folded her arms halfway through Nadette’s tirade. “She buys those dresses without expecting to be paid back?”
Nadette shrugged. “If you’re in the business, it’s all the same. Pretty clothes on the girls bring in men with more money, and that’s what I want. So, you gonna do it? Visit Miss Remee?”
“But if she doesn’t want anyone to know she’s thinking about leaving, my visit won’t—”
“That’s just it, Miss Caldwell! You don’t hafta convince her; you could get her in trouble with a visit. Why, they’re apt to throw her out on her—well, toss her right out on the street any day now. Nobody talks to her but me, she’s so uppity. But the men like her, so Miss Leola keeps her on. If she’s tossed out, she won’t have noplace else to go but here. She won’t go down to the cribs, let me tell you that! She’s likely to leave the business altogether. She just needs a little push, is all.”
Dessa drew her bottom lip between her teeth. “I don’t know, Nadette. I don’t want anyone to get into trouble. I’m here to help, not make things harder.”
“But she wants to leave; she just won’t admit it to nobody but me!”
“Why doesn’t she come here herself, then, if she wants to leave the business? The reason I’m here isn’t any secret, especially to the place down the street. I’ve dropped off my applications there.”
Nadette threw up her hands. “What kinda help are you gonna be if you don’t follow up on a tip like this? I tell you there’s a girl who wants to leave the business, and you’re standin’ up there with all kinda excuses to do nothin’. You gonna do it, or what?”
“I’ll see, Nadette. I want to pray about it first.”
Nadette looked as if she might say something else but instead just nodded and turned away.
Dessa surveyed the dining room table, where she’d placed lace-edged hankies and little white cards with a verse printed in calligraphy on one side. To the handkerchiefs she’d easily added a small, embroidered teardrop in the corner to match the verse from the Fifty-Sixth Psalm: Put thou my tears into thy bottle.
“Do you think anyone will come?”
Jane asked the question innocently enough, but it nonetheless sparked in Dessa the very thing she hoped to dispel in others: insecurity. If the announcements she and Jane had distributed to various brothels around the neighborhood had been received the same way the Pierson House applications had been, the afternoon was doomed to failure.
Dessa refused to contemplate such thoughts. “Of course they’ll come! We only have to let out the scent of those fresh scones we have baking. We mentioned free refreshments on the flyer. Come, let’s open those windows.”
Before long the table was complete with teacups and plates, along with napkins Dessa had also embroidered.
“Everything looks beautiful, Miss Caldwell.”
Dessa smiled, glancing at her watch necklace. It was exactly two o’clock. This had to work. It must.
In light of the note Dessa had received earlier today, she could barely deny she was more desperate than ever. Last week she’d invited Mrs. Plumstead to come to today’s inaugural beauty lesson, since she and her husband had been unable to attend the donors’ dinner party. But Mrs. Plumstead’s regrets had come this morning. Was it another scheduling conflict, or was one of Dessa’s biggest donors second-guessing her pledge of support?
Holding out her hand to Jane, Dessa led the way toward the door. “Let’s wait on the porch, shall we? The banisters on each side of the steps should do for seating, don’t you think?”
The day was glorious, with endless sunshine and the cool, dry air Denver had become known for. Even the unpaved street out front was free of mud or puddles and the boardwalks along the sides easily navigated. Nothing, absolutely nothing, stood in the way of visitors today.
They sat in companionable silence for a while, and when the first pair of ladies—of questionable virtue from the cut of their bodices—walked by, Dessa smiled broadly and called a hello.
But they ignored her and kept walking.
“I guess they have someplace else to go,” Jane said softly.
Dessa nodded. She looked down the street again, seeing it was empty. She did hear voices nearby, female voices—a laugh now and then—but not a soul