It was then that a pretty young woman came downstairs still dressed in a diaphanous robe that left nothing to the imagination. She was yawning and her loose fair hair was spilling across her shoulders.
‘Ah, you must be the new girl. Lilly told us you’d be arriving,’ she said in a surprisingly upper-class voice. ‘Are you lost?’
‘I am rather. Winnie said I was to go to the parlour to see Miss Flynn but I don’t know which door it is.’
‘It’s that one there.’ The girl pointed as Abi blushed and tried to keep her eyes averted from the flimsy robe. ‘And I’m Bella. You are?’
‘Abigail.’
‘Well, I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of each other,’ Bella said. ‘Goodbye for now.’ She walked towards what Abi assumed must be the dining room, while she herself approached the parlour door. She paused and tapped on it and a voice from the other side said, ‘Come in.’
When she opened the door, Lilly looked up from the pile of paperwork she was tackling and her face broke into a smile. She too was still in her night attire – a pale-blue silk negligee trimmed around the neck with ostrich feathers – and without the heavy make-up and with her hair loose about her plump shoulders, she looked younger.
‘Ah, Abigail, I trust yer slept well?’
‘Yes, Miss Flynn, I did, thank you.’
The woman laughed. ‘It’s Lilly, or Lil if yer prefer it. We don’t stand on ceremony ’ere, queen.’ She narrowed her eyes and peered at Abi closely and Abi felt herself blushing again. It felt as if that was all she had done since arriving.
‘Hm, I reckon we’ll need to get yer fitted out with some more suitable workin’ clothes,’ Lilly said, eyeing her gown critically. ‘That gown yer wearin’ is very nice but no good at all fer the job you’ll be doin’. We’ll need to sort yer hair out an’ all. That style is far too severe fer in the club. My punters like me girls to show off their assets, if yer get me meanin’.’ She threw back her head and laughed as Abi stood there looking completely confused. ‘I reckon I might get young Bella to show yer the ropes,’ Lilly went on. ‘Met ’er yet, ’ave yer?’
‘I have as it happens, just now,’ Abi answered.
‘That’s good. She’s one o’ the favourites in the club is Bella. Come along now an’ we’ll see what we can find yer to wear.’ Rising from the table she went out into the hallway and led Abi upstairs to a room that stood right at the end of the long landing where she took a key from the pocket of her robe and unlocked a door. They entered a room that had a number of clothes rails standing about the walls on which hung gowns of every colour of the rainbow.
‘You can borrer some o’ these till you’ve earned yerself enough to get some new ones,’ Lilly told her as she began to lift them out one by one and study them. Eventually she smiled as she held up a soft-green satin gown heavily trimmed about the low neckline with guipure lace. It was quite exquisite and Abi gasped with pleasure as she fondled the heavy material.
‘This should suit you down to the ground an’ it’ll go with your eyes an’ all. Try it on,’ Lilly urged and once again Abi looked uncomfortable.
‘What now? .?.?. In front of you?’ she said in a small voice.
‘That’s what I said, ain’t it,’ Lilly answered with a chuckle. ‘An’ don’t worry, queen. You ain’t got nothin’ I ain’t seen a million times afore.’
And so somewhat self-consciously Abi undid the row of buttons that ran up the front of her gown and slipped out of it as Lilly lifted the green dress and lowered it over her head. It fit as if it had been made for her, but while Abi thought it was beautiful, she was also acutely conscious of how low cut it was. She had certainly never worn anything like as daring before and could only begin to imagine what her mother would say if she could see her in it.
‘Perfect,’ Lilly declared when she had finished fastening the little pearly buttons on the back of it. She then took the clips from Abi’s hair and let the chestnut curls spill across her shoulders. ‘What do you think?’ When she turned Abi to look at herself in a long cheval mirror, Abi anxiously chewed on her bottom lip.
‘It’s very beautiful,’ she conceded slowly. ‘But isn’t it a little too .?.?.’ She tugged at the neckline, trying to conceal some of her ample cleavage.
Lilly chuckled again. ‘The punters will love it,’ she assured her as she began to undo the buttons. ‘So now I’ll explain what will be expected of yer. Fer a start off it’s your job to approach the men who frequent the club and get them to buy you a drink, preferably champagne.’
‘But I’ve never drunk much before,’ Abi told her worriedly.
‘And you needn’t now, queen. Just sip at yours and encourage them to drink it – the more the better. For every bottle of champagne your punter buys you’ll get a bonus and all you ’ave to do is keep ’em happy an’ chattin’. Flirt wi’ ’em a bit too; I’m sure a pretty girl like you knows ’ow to do that.’
Abi smiled coyly and Lilly was pleased. The girl was a looker, there was no doubt about it, young and innocent too, and very well spoken, just as the gentlemen liked them.
‘So, remind me, ’ow old did Jasper say you were?’
‘Sixteen. Almost seventeen.’
‘Ah, sweet sixteen an’ never’ad a sweetheart, eh?’ Lilly said with a sad smile. ‘What I wouldn’t give to go back to bein’ that age, knowin’ what I know now.’
As she was dressing in her own gown again, Abi plucked up the courage to say, ‘I couldn’t help but notice when Winnie showed me to my room last night that some of the girls were, er .?.?. entertaining gentlemen in their rooms. Will I be expected to do that?’
‘Not if you don’t want to,’ Lilly assured her as she placed the green gown back on its hanger. ‘You make yer own rules, queen. You can go as far as you like as long as you get the chaps spendin’ their money in the club. Anythin’ you want to earn after that is entirely up to you.’
Abi sighed with relief as she took the dress from her new employer. ‘And what are we expected to do during the day?’
