can do?”
Her enunciation was perfect, but then she’d been practicing for the past five years. She’d wanted to eliminate all traces of the east end from her voice. She had already done miracles with her dress and personal hygiene.
Maggie had been his introduction to London. The minute he’d stepped off the train he’d been robbed.
No doubt he’d given off an aura of being naive and gullible. After all, London had been nearly overpowering for someone who’d spent his life in the Highlands. However, he’d never been truly naive, thanks to Betty, and he was becoming less gullible with every moment.
He’d known who robbed him immediately, had caught up with her and grabbed her wrist, spinning her around and staring down into her face.
She wasn’t young. If anything, she was the same age or thereabouts as his mother. He doubted, however, if she had washed in the past fortnight. Or even eaten, for that matter.
“I’ll have my money back.”
She’d attempted to pull away from him, but his grip was too tight.
“My money.”
She answered him in a nearly indecipherable voice. It wasn’t that he couldn’t hear what she was saying. He couldn’t understand her. It took several moments for him to figure out her accent and that she was denying the theft. He solved the problem by reaching into her cloak, finding the hidden pocket, and pulling out what she’d stolen from him.
When he let her go, he expected her to disappear into the crowd. Instead, she scowled at him.
“You’re a fool if you keep it all in one pocket. Spread it out so that if you do lose something, it’s not everything you have.”
“Good advice,” he said. “When was the last time you ate?”
She put her hands on her hips and said something he was certain was an insult.
“Come along, then, and I’ll buy you a meal.”
He didn’t have any trouble deciphering what she said next. He’d used the same words when joking with the stable lads at Adaire Hall.
Gordon bit back a grin, turned, and headed for the exit out of the station. He glanced at her over his shoulder. “If you’re coming, come, but no more insults, if you please. I’ve had enough of those to last a lifetime.”
He thought it was curiosity more than anything else that had Maggie following him. From the way she’d eaten that day, he was right about thinking that she was nearly starving.
He’d suspected that Maggie had earned most of her money as a prostitute, but he’d never asked and she’d never confessed to it. From the beginning he’d wanted to help her. When he thought about it, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was the countess’s influence. There were times when he could almost hear her voice guiding him to do more and to be a better person.
To his surprise, Maggie had become a friend. It was Maggie who directed him to cheap lodgings, and Maggie who first took him to the Alhambra. He’d been fascinated by the acts as well as the fact that the establishment seemed to be a resounding success. Music halls were evidently the newest entertainment in London, and they were filled to capacity with people out for an evening of fun.
For six months he’d attended every music hall in the London area, studied the layouts, made a list of the acts, the fare charged to enter, and the various drinks served at the small bars inside. By the time he’d rented a building himself, he was prepared and determined to duplicate—on a smaller scale—what he’d seen at the Alhambra.
The Midlothian had a small orchestra, a stage where scenes could be changed simply by a quick rotation, and a series of trapezes attached to the framing of the roof. Instead of simply hiring a male trapeze artist, he employed women who’d been trained in the skill. They also doubled as dancers in the last act, appearing on stage clad in numerous petticoats and performing a dance classified as French and therefore moderately scandalous.
He never hired prostitutes and he made that clear to everyone from the beginning. Whatever arrangement they made with the clientele was their business, but he didn’t condone it. Nor would anything of that sort be done on the premises. In addition, he ensured that the women in his employ were always treated with dignity. They had a carriage to take them home, most of the time in the wee hours of the morning. Their safety was important to him, especially when tales came to