The Escort - By Gina Robinson Page 0,25

She nearly bled to death with the miscarriage, but she was a survivor and she lived. We all cried because the baby was lost, but it couldn't have lived."

Maria came back to the present. "I can see by the look of horror on your face that you know what I am talking about." Maria nodded her head, verifying her own assumption. When Angelina didn't answer, she continued, certain that Angelina had suffered far worse than she, because some unknown man had surely taken her virtue, her maidenhood. She patted Angelina's hand reassuringly.

"Don't worry, I will tell you what you must do. For your groom or any other man." She looked Angelina directly in the eye. "After only one time, you will still be tight. Nearly as much as a virgin. No man can tell the difference there. You must act frightened and nervous. And, this is important, in pain. Distract the man so that he will not notice that the maidenhead is broken. I don't think most men can tell anyway, but if he is distracted he surely won't notice.

"But there must be blood. It's the only sign a man really needs. He won't question further once he sees blood. This is what my mama told my sister before her wedding night. My poor sister had fallen straddling a fence and broken her maidenhead as a little girl." She lowered her voice. "You must cut yourself. The area between your legs bleeds readily. Use whatever you must, but do it quickly when he isn't watching, just after the act." She held her hand up and extended a finger. "A long sharp nail works best for this. You understand?"

"Yes." Angelina couldn't tell her that she was still a virgin. One official had tried to extort her, as Maria had described. But it did him no good. She told him up front that she didn't want to go to America. That her family was forcing her to go to an awful old man when she would just as soon stay in Italy. She would be grateful if he would deny her permission to leave. It was a bluff, but it worked. He had no power over her. He stamped her papers and shoved her out the door.

"You're a smart girl, Angelina. You've done the right thing coming here. I've never regretted my coming, only the circumstances of it. You've gotten yourself out of a hopeless situation in Italy and here to the United States where the pool of men, and hope, is much greater. And you've rid yourself of an undesirable escort to hook up with a most desirable one. Maybe you'll be smart enough to catch our Tonio. Goodness knows, he needs a woman."

Maria raised her hand to silence Angelina's protest as it formed on her lips. "Though Tonio has told me time and again that he has no interest in an Italian bride. He likes those blond, American beauties. No old country woman for him."

"Tonio imagines himself an American." Angelina said. It was not a compliment. "An American bride would not suit him." Her pride was stung at being suddenly dubbed unsuitable by the absent Tonio.

Maria smiled back knowingly, smart enough to detect wounded feminine vanity. "Tonio is an American. He renounced his Italian citizenship and became an American several years ago. Have you ever heard him speak English?"

Angelina nodded.

"He speaks like a native. I don't believe that Tonio speaks any Italian when he's in Idaho. He has come to visit us and actually forgotten the Italian word for things. And there have been times when he has interspersed English with his Italian."

"He has forgotten Italian words!" The revelation delighted Angelina. Tonio was fallible after all.

"It's understandable, when you don't speak a language for months at a time." Maria replied. "I think that Tonio would choose to forget his mother tongue altogether, if he didn't need it when he comes to visit his old friends." Maria smiled at her and returned to her original topic.

"You're truly beautiful, Angelina. A woman like you has opportunities open to you. If you get to Idaho, and don't like what you find waiting for you there, discard him. But you must watch yourself in the mining country. It's a rough place, dominated by lusty men.

"Tonio would be a good protector and provider. He's a partner in a mine. He believes it will pay off handsomely and make him rich. It just might." She leaned into Angelina again.

"Tonio is a handsome man, one desired by