Read Online Cold Gold by Victoria Chatham - Free Book Online

from neck to ankle, then I can remove bits of my costume throughout the performance. That’s why I want this dress constructed in parts.”
    For the next hour they discussed the cut and line and types of fabrics that would be needed to create the multi-purpose costume Serena envisaged.
    “We can’t do anymore until we go over to Hetty’s,” Maggie decided. “Biggest problem I see is getting all these pieces actually made.”
    Serena put her sketches away and wandered to the front of the house while Maggie fetched her coat.
    “Hetty is goi ng to be just tickled with this.” Maggie linked her arm into Serena’s as they walked out into the street. “She makes just about everything from lingerie for the girls in the cat houses to evening gowns for the high and mighty church ladies.”
    “Cat houses?” Serena queried. “Does Lorelei own more than one?”
    “Heavens, no.” Maggie held Serena back at the corner of the block while a wagon drawn by two big Belgian horses trundled by. “Just along the road from Lorelei’s is Dollie Cook’s house, but that’s pretty much the end of the road for both the girls who work there and the fellows who use them.”
    “I see,” Serena said quietly.
    “Do you?” Maggie quirked an eyebrow. “In most towns there’s a pecking order between the bordellos. You get the likes of the Men’s Club used by the toffs, some of the miners too, but not many. Next there are places like Lorelei’s and at the bottom of the barrel are places like Dollie’s.”
    “What happens if any of the girls want to leave?” Serena asked, curious about a way of life so different from her own. She couldn’t imagine living that life but, if Randolph didn’t return and her singing didn’t support her, was it something she would have to consider? She shuddered. The thought of anyone other than Randolph touching her made her skin crawl.
    “All Lorelei’s girls have contracts,” Maggie told her. “ She puts quite a bit into looking after them, so she does. She wouldn’t want any of them running away or going off to get married, especially if they owe her money. Here we are.”
    A bell tinkled above her head as Serena follo wed Maggie into the dress shop. Floor-to-ceiling shelves covered each wall, and bolts of different types of fabric loaded each shelf. Several dressmaking dummies stood to one side, some of them with half-made garments on them.
    “Hetty!” Maggie thumped the counter top. “You have customers.”
    She went behind the long counter, where a length of lavender wool with pattern pieces pinned to it was spread out on its surface, and opened a door.
    “Hetty?” she called again.
    “I’se coming, ya’all, nothing to get excited ‘bout.” A fine-boned black woman came through from the back room. Her gold hoop earrings gleamed against her dark skin but the frown on her face was hardly welcoming. “So what c’n I do for ya’, Maggie O’Connor?”
    “We’d like you to take a look at these,” Maggie said as Serena took out her sketches again and handed them to Hetty who studied them carefully.
    “Need lots of fabric he’ah.” She looked up at Serena. “This all for you? You a danc’ah?”
    “ No, I sing,” Serena saw a frown crease Hetty’s face. “Will it be difficult? I really tried to make my drawings as basic as possible.”
    “Well,” Hetty turned and looked at the bolts of cloth on the shelves. “Could use some o’ these fabrics, but I figure most of it will have ta come from Yreka. How soon ya’ll going to need these?”
    “How soon can you make them?” Maggie asked in return.
    “If’n I can borrow coupla’ Dollie’s girls, who are quite fine seamstresses, a week. But if I stop all other work it’ll cost ya.”
    “Don’t worry about the money,” Maggie said. “Lorelei and I will take care of that.”
    “Not the lady?” Hetty raked Serena with a suspicious glance.
    Serena flushed under Hetty’s beady gaze. “I’m in rather a difficult