False Southern Gentility

Christopher closed his eyes and thought of the stories that Christine had told him over and over. Her days as one of the fallen women, she had hated to think over those days, for those days brought shame to her face and reawakened the bruises on her oh-so-delicate Ego.

"I'm looking for work," Christine said as she bent her head towards the steps and closed her eyes. She could smell the thick perfume drifting down from the staircase, it created a harsh blanket around her when mixed with the smell of the rain.

The woman who stood at the doorway smiled. "Put down that hood, and then I'll tell you if we've got anything here for you." she said as Christine dropped the hood of her cape. "You've got a nice face. Untie that there." she said as she pointed to the twine Christine had tied around the outside of the cape to keep out the wind. "And a nice waist to. Alright, come on in." she said with a smile.

"I've...I've never been in one of these places before." Christine told the woman with the strangely white-blonde hair. The woman laughed in response.

"Most of the girls that live here hadn't thought once about going into a place like this when they were...'respectable', but then again, who would plan to live in a brothel?" she said with another cackling laugh.

Christine cringed as she thought of what these walls had seen. "Are you sure that I'll be able to make a living here? I mean...I don't want to become a whor--" the word stopped on the tip of her tongue. "fallen."

"Yes, you'll make a nice living here after we do something about your dressin' and that face of yours. You ever worn face paint?" she asked as she led Christine into an overly done bedroom.

Christine shook her head. "No ma'am, mother said only..." once again the words would not come to her.

"Well, if mother knew what you were doing now, she wouldn't think that paintin' up your face was such a bad thing. Here, try this on for size." the woman said as she tossed an overly low cut dress towards Christine.

"Where's your changing fan?" she asked as she looked around. '

Another harsh cackle broke through the air.

"What?"

"You think I need a changin' fan? Lord have mercy, child. You are the first modest woman that intended to be a whore that I think I've ever met." she smiled, but her smile was kind. "You're gonna have to work away from all that feelin' right now. You understand? Here now, let Duchess help you."

Christine turned around as Duchess unbuttoned her hand-me-down dress. "You're all dirty, so we won't have you workn' tonight. For tonight you'll get settled in your room, take you a bath, and sleep in silk, now how does that sound?" Duchess asked as Christine's dress slipped to the floor.

"Fine," Christine said in a weak voice, "just fine."

"Here now, you take this, and walk up those stairs right there, don't show off to much of yourself, just a little, so the boys will know just who they're gettin'." Duchess said in a crude voice.

Christine sighed as Duchess pulled her stays in tighter. "There, now that little waist of yours is even smaller." Duchess said with a smile.

Christine nodded as Duchess pushed her through the door and out into the crowd of men. The room slowly turned towards her and they all fell into a quiet whisper. Christine started to pull the wrapper closer around her, and then thought again. She slid the wrapper down lower onto her shoulder and smiled.

"Look at her, those eyes," was the general conversation of the room, there were many that were calling things back and forth to each other. "Look at those hips", "Those lips...amazing,", "What a piece,"

A voice reached Christine's ears and she turned to smile at the voice, her false smile faded as she looked into the suddenly quiet voice of Christopher Rudd. She closed her eyes to keep from letting tears well up in her eyes.

She placed her feet, one after the other, on the wide staircase and stepped up to the second floor. As a tall man opened a door and motioned her through, she nodded as politely as she could.

"What's your name?" the man asked as he walked into the room and closed the bedroom door.

Christine did not answer at first, she couldn't. "My name's Faye ." she lied as she thought back on the stories her mother had told her about the fairies who lived alone in forests and wore beautiful gossamer wings on their backs.

The man at the door nodded as he walked towards her and smiled. A few of his teeth were missing around the sides but that didn't seem to discourage him from smiling that gruesome smile.

"How much does Duchess have you charging?" he asked as he took off his jacket and hung it up on the hooks that stood beside the bedroom door.

Christine couldn't help but wonder what had happened to the last woman who had had this bedroom. Had she been to good for this, had she been neat and clean, was that why she had placed the hooks by the door? Because she wanted her customers to keep her room clean?

"I'm charging about twenty-nine for an hour, and twelve for half of an hour." Christine swallowed as she rambled off the crude sounding figures. It was so strange to think about how much she was selling herself for...how strange this felt...

"That's a little steep, don't you think so?" the man asked with another strange smile. Christine shuddered as she slipped her wrapper to the floor, exposing her full hips and cleanly rounded chest.

He walked towards her and Christine turned off her emotions, or tried to. She didn't cry during the act, honestly, she hadn't cared. She had just laid there, he took what he wanted and she reacted when she thought the most suitable.

It was strange, the way she didn't move until he stood up and buttoned his trousers. "Here you go, twenty-nine dollars, Gold, of course. Confederate money ain't worth the paper it's printed on." and with that, the man left the room.

Christine stared at the gold that lay in her hand. She kind of expected it to burn her skin, after what she had been raised to believe, she half expected to see Lucifer standing beside her.

But he wasn't there, and she didn't feel as bad as she had thought she would. she was tired, and her ego was bruised a little bit more violently than she had thought it would have been, but she was intact for the most part.

Another knock at the door, Christine thought to herself, I thought...what was her name? Duchess, that's is, I thought she said that I could wait to work until tomorrow...oh well, there's more money to send back home. And aloud: "Come on in."

Christopher stepped through the door and watched Christine look down at her nails and then look back up and look around to find a place to put her gold. She didn't look at him. "Give me a minute mister, I've got to find a place to put this." she said as she pulled open a drawer and slipped her money into the under part of the drawer.

"Alright." she said as she looked back at her nails and crossed her legs alluringly. "What do you nee--" she stopped as she finally looked the 'man' in the face. "Why in the hell did you bring yourself up here?" she demanded as she leaned back on the bed.

"Well, I had heard rumors from a few men downstairs that a girl with red eyes was here, so I knew that it had to be you." he said with a smile as he took off his coat.

So he was going to use her too, that was just fine, but she was going to get paid first. "Alright then, hang up your coat. It'll be twenty--I mean thirty-five an hour, twenty for half." if she was going to sleep with Christopher Rudd, she'd sure as hell raise the price.

"I'm not going to sleep with you, but you are going to sit here with me. Actually, I wanted to just come in and lie down with you." he said as he walked to the other side of the room and loosened his tie. "I can't lie down with you if you're sitting up." he said with a smirk.

Christine laid back, stunned. "You're not going to try anything?" she more said than asked as she laid back, her corset showing as her hair touched the pillow.

"Now you should know me better than that, Christine. I paid up for until eleven o'clock tomorrow morning, Christine, so you'd better try to get some sleep."

"How did you know how much I was charging?" she asked as she laid closer to him and let his hand fall on her shoulder.

"Lucifer came out and I asked him. His coat was off, so I figured that he knew what the price was. I've been to a brothel before, Christine, this isn't my first go around. In-fact, Duchess and I were once great friends.

"Lucifer?" she asked as she looked over at him with concern. So she had actually laid with Lucifer. Who would have known.

"Yes, Lucifer Regen. Strange fellow, but Duchess always lets him have a go with the girl her first night." he said in a strangely calm voice.

"I actually made a deal with the devil." Christine said as she looked up overhead. How strange it was, to not be looking up at the same ceiling that she had stared at when she was a little girl.

"Yes, quite." Christopher said as he kissed her hair; she relaxed with his touch. "Now, stop worrying about it anymore tonight, try and get some sleep." he said as he pulled her closer to him, and Christine fell asleep.

Christine awoke to the strange smell and sounds around her. "Christopher, your times up, darlin'." Duchess called through the door. "Faye's got to start her advertising today." Duchess laughed.

Christopher rolled over and laughed. "Faye? So that's the name that you told Duchess, huh. And she believed you?"

Christine licked her teeth, stood up, and pulled the wrapper from off the floor up and around her shoulder. "Yes, and don't you tell a soul what my name actually is. Or," she swung her hand out and slanted her eyes, "I'll cut off your equipment and feed it to the crows."

Christopher raised his eyebrow and the corners of his mouth went down slightly. "One night as a fallen woman and you're already thinking like a hardened woman." he looked at the door and picked up his coat from the hook.

"Damn you." she said as she walked over to the mirror and brushed out her hair. "Now leave, I've got to get a bath. Send Lucifer up with some water and a wash tub. Oh, and Christopher," she said with a smile as she looked at the pots of rouge. "before you go, could you tell me what this is?" she asked.

Christopher smiled and nodded. "That is called eye-powder. I'm sure that Duchess will explain how to use all of that...ALL of what you will need to know, Duchess will teach you." he walked out the room without another word.

Christine looked at herself in the mirror and closed her eyes. She needed silence. She needed peace.

She wasn't going to get any.

A hard knock at the door. Duchess didn't wait for an answer before she came in. "Hm," she said as she turned her head to one side and then the other, "you were nice to Christopher, weren't you? He's a very old and dear friend of mine...but to tell you the truth," Duchess leaned in further as if it was a very large secret. "no gentleman, not that I would know the difference, but Christopher..." she licked her lips. "Christopher's far to good in bed to be a gentleman."

Christine sighed and nodded. "Yes, I suppose he is." she turned back to the mirror as Duchess felt of her hair. "Something the matter?"

"No, nothing's wrong, it's just very nice hair." Duchess smiled as she pulled it back out of her face. "Now, you're face." Christine's hand went up to her cheek in defense. "Now don't yourself all worked up, there isn't anything wrong with it...it's just to...I don't know...it looks to sweet for this business."

Christine nodded as Duchess took a brush from the table and ran a light cover over her face. Christine looked in the mirror which now held rosy-red cheeks and startling red eyes. "And as for those eyes," Duchess licked her teeth as she popped her mouth. "hand me that eye-powder." Duchess said as Christine looked around.

"Your what?" she asked in confusion.

"My eye--oh yes, I forgot your mama didn't like you wearin' no face-paint. This," she said as she reached over and held up a small container of colored powder. "is eye-powder. It makes your eye stand out like a hawks."

Christine sat still for an hour, resisting the urge to cry as Duchess turned her into a painted lady. Christine had shied away from the sharp silver tweezers as Duchess held them up to her face.

"Don't start jerkin', it don't hurt much." she said as she began pulling hair out of Christine's eyebrows.

After Duchess had finished, she took a step back and admired her work. "I done good." she said with a smile as she pressed another bobby-pin into Christine's already sensitive scalp. "Go on, look at yourself."

Christine had resisted the urge at first, but then turned back to the mirror, but did as Duchess said. Duchess had been right, she had done a wonderful job on her. Christine smiled in the mirror, but her smile faded.

Her normally submissive eyes now shone bright and hard. Her delicate features that she had been so proud of, now stood out. Her high-resting cheekbones were outlined in the bright red color of the rouge.

"Whew, that was some hard work, but wasn't it worth it?" Duchess asked with a smile as she adjusted the waterfall of hair down Christine's back.

Christine smiled, but it wasn't the same smile...it would never be the same smile. She was a different person now, a different woman. She could no longer expect to be comforted by her family in the early morning hours, she would never again be able to look her mother in the face without guilt staining deep within her eyes.

"Yes Duchess, it was all worth it..." a knock came at the door and Duchess smiled.

"Your first real customer, now, you be real sweet to him and just see what you get outa this one." Duchess said as she walked to the door and opened it. "Peter, you handsome old thing you."

Peter smiled and then looked over Duchess's shoulder. His eyes shimmered as he looked at Christine's eyes.

"Amazing." he whispered under his breath.

Duchess closed the door.