Read Online The Harlot’s Pen by Claudia H Long - Free Book Online

you wish to leave with me, or some other uplifting work, you may do so and be done.”
    Since the end of the Great War, visitors to Spanish Kitty’s Resort at El Verano had become less formal and more open to conversation and pleasure. It was still rare that a lady visited alone, and rarer still that she came into the parlor. Kate didn’t mind being rude, but she knew well the risks attendant on offending society women unnecessarily. Even in permissive Sonoma, lawsuits to shut down women’s businesses were not unknown. However, her days were busy, and her nights…
    “You are a woman of stature and directness,” Miss Strone interrupted her thoughts. “I want to work for you.”
    Kate sat back, startled. Girls often came to her, maybe once a month, to the back door of her Resort, seeking work. They were usually young, fresh, furtive, and often newly deflowered. They had no other source of funds, they had little knowledge of men, and could only converse in banalities. Some acted cocky, trying to impress, and others were clearly terrified and desperate. She rarely hired them, but took them in for a week, fed them, let them earn a wage in her kitchen, and sent them on their way. She did not, in her opinion, run a whorehouse. She ran a salon. Never in her career, either in San Francisco or here in her El Verano Resort near the city of Sonoma, had a lady so approached her.
    “You must be joking, Miss Strone, though it is an amusing joke, at that.”
    “I am not,” Miss Strone replied evenly. “I am obviously not a practiced courtesan, but I can converse better than most. I am widely read, and I can cook, too. I am not a virgin—I expect that in your business such a statement will not be overbold—and I am prepared to work very hard for you. I am not from this area, and I am not known here, so I have no reputation to hold me back.”
    “Nor references to vouchsafe your truthfulness. I do not take on spies, moles, or other infiltrators. What are you really, Miss Strone? A reformer in plain clothing? A spy for a lawyer after a fee? And be honest with me, or I will escort you to the door.”
    The woman appeared to think for a moment. She did not seem anxious or frightened, nor was she brazen or falsely tough. She seemed to think that Kate’s request was reasonable and should be granted. “I am being truthful. I wish to work in your salon for perhaps one or two months. I will give you good value.”
    Kate rose. “Thank you, Miss Strone. It was a pleasure meeting you. I will see you out.” Miss Strone stayed seated, and for the first time color rose in her face. Kate continued to stand, her mouth pressed in a line. The dog stood with her, his smooth, warm and hairless skin pressed against her leg. There was something truly strange about this Miss Violetta Strone, and Kate felt a surge of nerves. “I am waiting.”
    Violetta Strone sighed and reached into her leather bag. She pulled out a pamphlet. Here it comes, Kate thought. The suffrage pamphlet, the moral guide, the Save Your Soul leaflet. Miss Strone handed it to Kate, who took it reluctantly. The Rape of the Working Woman, by V. Strone. Kate looked at Miss Strone. “You are the writer?” Miss Strone nodded, her color rising more. She was almost pretty when she flushed, Kate thought. She looked at the pamphlet in her hand and unwillingly opened it. It seemed to be a set of verses, perhaps ten pages long. Words like rapine and violation jumped out at her. “Quite a title. Guaranteed to open minds and hearts.”
    Miss Strone looked up sharply. “It does so indeed. And the Petaluma Argus published much of it. It tells the truth of the life of a woman forced to work at the mercy of men. That life is not easy.” Miss Strone had the decency to look embarrassed at Kate’s laugh. “But you are a powerful woman, Miss Lombard. Powerful with connections to powerful men. Men who make or break the conditions of women’s work. Such conditions can be changed.”
    “And you