The Parlor House Daughter Excerpt

“Keep yer voice down!”  Panicked, Ruby didn’t want Becca to wake up—he didn’t know about Becca—until now.  Ruby had been able to hide the fact that she had a toddler sleeping in the back room all this time.  Desperate to remain calm, fighting for control, Ruby rolled away from her “best customer” and pulled the muslin sheet up, covering her naked breasts.  This wasn’t going right.  None of it was going right.   Second to giving birth to Becca, this was the most important moment in her life.  She had to make it all go right; she just had to. The lamplight flickered on her bedstead.  Ruby reached over and turned up the wick, buying time to think of what to say next.   She lay back in bed, forcing her insides to calm.   There was too much riding on this moment for her to panic.   Suddenly her customer rolled out of bed and began to dress.   She panicked all over again. “Please, honey.  Come back to bed.  Let’s talk and work this out,” she pleaded, trying to keep her voice to a whisper. “There’s your mistake, Ruby; nothing here to work out.  I never promised you anything but the price of a brass check.  You don’t even use them.  Get the point.” Ruby “got” it all right.  He meant she didn’t work at a high enough level, in a decent brothel, to use the token exchange for favors.  Well, she’d been “decent” enough for him to bed her for the past year!    “You trying to say I’m not good enough fer you anymore?” she spat, her anger growing.   She hurtled out of bed, wrapping the muslin sheet about her and faced him.   “Yeah,” he smoothed.  “Something like that.” “You bastard,” she hissed. “Yeah, something like that,” he chided. Instinctively, she reached inside the wrapped sheeting, to take her derringer from her thigh.  She wanted to wipe that smug smile from his face—she wanted to kill him.    Didn’t do her any good tonight, with her derringer tucked in her trunk instead of on her! “Well, hey…Ruby Rose,” he came closer.  “You want to hurt me, going for your gun.  Well, well,” he stood over her now.  One quick jerk of the sheeting around her, and he had her naked.  “I don’t see any gun, do you?” he said, his tone low and dangerous. Desperate and frightened, Ruby swallowed hard.  “Please honey.  Please, make it right by me and my baby.  Marry me and give me and my baby a decent life, a respectable life.  I’ll be good to you, like always.  I’ll keep you smiling and happy, like always.   We can go to Denver City.   Nobody knows me in Denver City and we can live all respectable-like.    Please, honey.  I can’t let my baby grow up in this kind of a place.  It’s not fair to her.  Please help give her a chance, oh please, honey.” “Why Ruby Rose,” he rasped.  “Didn’t I ever mention that I’m already married with children of my own?  I just don’t happen to need another wife and child.  Besides, if I was in the market for another wife, it sure as hell wouldn’t be you.  You’re good in bed, I’ll give you that, but do you expect me to look at you any more than I have to?” Ruby’s insides heaved.  His hurt went deep.     “My wife is a fine, elegant, respectable lady; something you’ll never be,” he quipped, his tone deadly.    “No way any wife of mine is going to raise a whore’s brat,” he leveled, searching the room with his gaze, no doubt looking for Ruby’s child.   “Yer married!  All this time … and yer married!” Ruby yelled.  She couldn’t control her anger.  He’d called Becca a whore’s brat.    “So you have a wife and children in Denver, do you?  Well, what if I go to Denver City and find yer wife and tell her what you been doing with me fer a year now?  How do you think yer precious respectable wife would like that?”   “Aw, Ruby girl.  Now you wouldn’t go and do a nasty thing like that to me, would you?”  He took hold of her upper arms, his hands like manacles, keeping her from moving away. “Oh, I would.  You bet I would,” she promised, her fiery eyes on his, knowing she was on dangerous, deadly ground.  She didn’t care.  All this time—a whole year she’d been planning this—planning to live with him and give Becca the respectability she deserved in life.   It was Ruby’s last chance, her only chance, and now there was no chance … or was there …      “Would … would you take my baby then, and raise her with yer’s?” she begged.  If his wife was a true “fine, elegant lady” then she could raise Becca … and he had a lot of money and all … it would kill Ruby not to have her daughter with her, but if … if he’d take Becca to raise…” “You’ve got sass all right, Ruby.  I’ll give you that,” he laughed under his breath.  “One minute threatening to cause me trouble, and the next asking me to take on yours.”  He looked around the room again.  “Where is the brat?” he demanded, tightening his hold on her arms.     “None of yer business, you bastard,” Ruby hissed.   He threw Ruby onto her bed then, like so much garbage.  In another swift move, he straddled her.  “You stupid, stupid whore,” he rebuked, taking out his knife.  “You probably think you’re my only whore.  Honey, you’re only my Friday night whore.”