“Money talks,” Kristof went on, and hefted a fat coin purse from his pocket. “Not social connections or titles. And we have lots of the former, thanks to our winnings today.”
The social club in question resembled a tavern from the outside, but the queue of patrons lined up in front had us joining it in a hurry. I spied a few familiar faces from some of the discussions in the combination rooms, but it was more of a challenge to recognize my schoolmates without their academic gowns and tassels identifying them. We weresupposedto wear our gowns outside the college, but no one wanted to be singled out, for good reason. I wondered briefly if my stern tutor would be here and then laughed.
Tarik St. Clair wouldnever.
He’d be pronounced dead before entering a place like this.
Suddenly, a frisson of nerves scattered down my spine, and one glance at Will’s very pale countenance had me convinced he was feeling the same onslaught of panic. “Are you well?” I whispered, bumping him with my shoulder.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” he whispered back. “With all of us and so many other students here, it seems like a magnet for trouble.”
“Stick to the plan,” I murmured. I squinted up at the tower clock that was down the street, the hands barely visible though it seemed like it was not far from chiming the nine o’clock hour.“We’ll leave at a quarter to ten. That should give us enough time to get back before curfew.”
“Fine,” he replied.
“Chin up, Will,” I said, and pushed a bright smile to my face. “This could be fun. Let’s give it a chance and have a capital time.”
“If you say so.”
Harold jostled between us with a slightly spooked expression. “Klaus said there are girls here. Women…courtesans.” The last was whispered in a strangled tone, the rest of his words choked out. “Do you think this place might double as abrothel?”
I blinked at the almost-garbled question. I supposed such a thing wouldn’t be out of the ordinary—these kinds of gaming hells had a fast reputation. Drinking and gambling went hand in hand with other vices. I’d overheard enough conversations from my cousin and his friends about a few of their escapades in some of the more notorious areas of London.
While most of the aristocracy—and polite society in general—looked down on courtesans and light-skirts, I was of the controversial opinion that a woman could do what she wanted with her own body. If she chose to be a mistress to a man under her own terms, that was her prerogative. While I understood that some women mightnotmake this choice themselves and others did only out of necessity, none of them deserved to be vilified.
Besides, many of the gentlemen of thetonopenly had mistresses. No one chastisedthemfor their behavior! I’d heard gossip from the maids, who were dependable fountains of information, about several aristocrats who committed adultery withno care for their wives. Thank God my father didn’t. My mother, for all her grace and decorum, would not stand for it.
“Don’t worry, Harold,” Klaus promised. “We’ll take excellent care of you, or at least, we’ll find a pretty ladybird to oblige you for the evening.”
My snort was loud. “Aren’t you studying to be a vicar? Shouldn’t you be preaching self-restraint and abstinence instead of moral excess?”
“Consensual pleasure isn’t a sin, dear one,” Kristof interjected solicitously.
I lifted a brow. “Coitus before marriageisaccording to the Church of England.”
The deviant waggled his own dark blond eyebrows. “Yes, but there are many other marvelous appetizers than can be enjoyed before the main course. And besides, those rules are for ladies, perhaps, not for us men,” he replied smugly, and suddenly, I wanted to kick him.
I wanted to kick every man standing in this line who might share his odious, archaic opinion that women were nothing but vessels of virtue to be consumed at their leisure, even after the bonds of wedlock. Many of them, most likely.
That would mean a lot of kicking.
“What’s wrong?” Will asked, sidling up to me. “You look positively murderous. Was it what the twins said? You know how they are—they say contemptible things to get a reaction.”
“My cousin is a lady,” I whispered heatedly. “Shouldn’t she be deserving of a choice as well?”
He blinked. “To be in a brothel?”
I waved a hand. “To be anywhere, to do anything she pleases. Why are women always viewed as lesser or weaker?”
Will looked genuinely confused. “I don’t doubt that there is a double standard, Roz, but that’s the way the world works. At least for now until change happens.” He shrugged with a wry grin, his round cheeks dimpling. “And sometime in the future when women’s voices have as much weight as men’s, indubitably, they will outthink, outplay, and outpace us.”
I stared at him, stunned. “Do you truly think so?”
“If women are to have the same employments as men, they must have the same education,” he said, and I frowned at the familiarity of his words. “Plato wrote that inThe Republic,” he added.
“You’re right, he did,” I said with a low laugh, clapping him on the back. “Will, if I haven’t said it before, you are a true gem. Whatever you do, please never change.”
By the time we shuffled to the front of the line, the twins were paying the astronomical entry fee for the six of us. I offered to repay them the cost of mine, but they refused as we entered the building. When we passed through the first velvet-draped arch into the main room of the establishment, excitement filled my blood.
