Julia Justiss by The Courtesan Read Free Book Online Page A

middle of the street prevented Belle’s carriage from advancing.
    Another Corinthian stood on the steps conversing with a sharp-eyed woman Belle took to be the brothel’s owner.
    “Hurry up, Fen,” a young buck called to him. “Don’t want our lovelies—” he ran his fingers over the bare shoulders of the wench he held “—to catch their deaths.”
    The gentleman on the steps waved a languid hand. “Just settle our, ah, ladies into the coach while I conclude the negotiations with their charming employer.”
    “It’ll be fifty pounds and not a tuppence less,” the older woman was saying. “Not with ye taking off the best of me girls at the very start of the evening.”
    “A vast sum, ma’am,” the gentleman said, extractingcoins from his purse. “But how can I quibble when the company is so lovely? Now, my sweet, don’t be bashful.”
    With that, he pulled from the shadows a slender lass who seemed, to Belle’s eye, to be scarcely in her teens. Shrinking from the light, the girl raised a hand, trying to cover the bare skin revealed by her skimpy bodice.
    “Please don’t, sir,” she protested when the man, laughing, brushed her hand away and bent to kiss one nipple, clearly visible beneath the gown’s thin material.
    Instantly Belle was transported to another time and place, when another young girl had vainly tried to hang on to the last shreds of her modesty.
    A wave of heat swept through her, intensifying the lingering nausea in her gut, and for a moment, she feared she might faint. An inexorable need for cool air to clear her head of the memories and her stomach of the queasiness set her feet in motion. Several moments later, she stood at the top of the stairs beside the madam without any recollection of having traveled there.
    But she was utterly sure of her purpose. “I, too, require a lady this evening,” she told the woman. “This one—” she pointed to the cowering girl “—will be perfect. Whatever the gentleman is offering, I’ll double it.”
    For a moment, the man on the steps sputtered a protest. Then his eyes widened and his indignation faded to a smile. “Lady Belle, a pleasure! We should be delighted to invite you to join our humble gathering.”
    “Regretfully, that is not possible, sir. Watson,” she called to the bodyguard who’d trotted up in her wake, “escort the girl to my coach.”
    “Right ye be, Lady Belle.”
    The gentleman on the steps opened his lips as if to object, but after glancing at Watson’s impressive bulk, he must have realized that, alone, he could not hope to prevail. His smile more forced now, he bowed. “I must cede to your wishes, Lady Belle. But I consider that you owe me a favor—which I hope to redeem later.” He ran a hot, speculative glance over her cloaked figure.
    Dismissing him with a noncommittal nod, Belle turned back to the madam. “My man will return to pay you. Good evening, ma’am,” she said and paced back to her coach.
    She found the girl huddled at the far corner, arms wrapped around her torso as if trying to take up as little space as possible. The flickering carriage lamp revealed her small, pinched face and large, fearful eyes.
    “What…what be ye wanting with me, ma’am?” she asked.
    What reprobate would trifle with this child? Belle wondered. But the girl’s wary pose and the arms braced defensively over her body told Belle more eloquently than words how life had treated the lass, despite the her fragile air and apparent youth.
    “What is your name, child?”
    “J-Jane Parsons, ma’am,” the girl replied.
    “Don’t be afraid. I require no, ah, personal, services from you, nor am I taking you to a gathering at which you will be forced to entertain. You know who I am?”
    “Oh, yes, ma’am. Everyone knows the beautiful Lady Belle.” Looking wary, uncertain but resigned, the girl watched her.
    Belle smiled wryly. What did she intend to do with this child whose services she had purchased on a whim for an