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Eugenia laughed hoarsely. "Thanks to Key, you didn't," she said.
"Thanks… to Key?" Clarissa mumbled. "Who's Key?"
"Kiyomasu. The prized cook of Frederick's? Remember? And also remember his leaving the very same night as I?"
"Yes?"
"He's now with me. Here in this house. He's the one who helped with my escape."
Clarissa's eyes beamed. "He did that? I thought maybe it had been one of the girls coming back to get back at me for what I had
done to them."
"Girls? What girls?" Eugenia said, leaning forward, almost toppling her teacup from her lap.
"I never did away with those two other girls," Clarissa said sternly. "I kept them locked up for a few days to clear their minds from the kind of life that Frederick had forced on them, then I set them free. They are both on their own now. Each of them has a crib of her own. Only down the road from here."
"All of this is lies, Clarissa," Eugenia said, rising, going to the fire to stand before it, eyeing it, wondering how any one woman could be so full of lies.
Clarissa rose and went to Eugenia's side. "No. None of it is lies," she said. "Now, I must say, one of the girls took a big disliking to me. I was kind of rough on her. I thought maybe she had been the one who had come and set you free."
"How should she have known I was even there?"
"I was dumb enough to brag to her about it," Clarissa said, walking away from Eugenia, going to a window, staring outward.
"Why would you have been talking to her, at her crib?" Eugenia said, following behind her. Eugenia remembered the cribs, and the type of women who lived in them.
"I had tried to patch things up with her," Clarissa said softly. "I had enjoyed our time together while in the tower room. This girl taught me much about my body that I had forgotten. But, I guess only because I had forced myself upon her. I had thought maybe she had possibly enjoyed it also. She acted as though she did. I have gone, many times, to try and persuade her to let me share a small portion of her life with me."
Eugenia could feel her pulse racing, envisioning Clarissa with another woman, still remembering Clarissa's touches to her own body. "You're disgusting. You know that, don't you?" she snapped, going back to sit down in front of the fire.
"But… you see?" Clarissa said, going and settling herself on the floor in front of Eugenia, peering upward, pleading once again. "I didn't murder any of those girls. In the end, I set them free. They had hated their existence while with Frederick, had never liked what he had tried to make of them. They had been too wild. Too wicked. They had already tasted a side of life that they had enjoyed."
"And myself?" Eugenia hissed. "You had said that Frederick had wanted a virgin? What had you meant by that? Just more lies?"
"Yes. Lies. All lies. True, you were much different from the other two that Frederick had invited into his house. That's why he got so upset with me when he learned what I had done with you. He would never have dismissed me if he hadn't truly cared about you."
Eugenia was finding it hard to breathe, she only wished that Clarissa could vanish, and she could forget all of this conversation. She didn't need anymore complications in her life—not so soon after Dawn's death.
"Do you mean that Frederick wouldn't have taken advantage of me like you said he would?" she said in a low whisper.
"It was a lie. Believe me, Eugenia," Clarissa said, grasping onto Eugenia's hands. "I only told you all of this to make you hate him and want to leave the house willingly. I only wanted to frighten you enough to let you free, possibly the next day, and never want to return."
Eugenia eyed Clarissa cooly, seeing the tight, shiny black curls sweeping around the semidark face.
"And you? Would you have abused my body by force if I hadn't escaped?"
"No. I swear I wouldn't have," Clarissa said quickly. "I hated you too much to even want to try to get you to accept my sexual advances. Please believe me. I would have set you free in only two day's time."
"And what do you really want of me now, Clarissa?"
"I need help. Desperately. As I said, Frederick has gotten my name around, and no one will hire me. I have no one else to turn to."
"Frederick told me that he had given you enough money to leave by train. Go to another town. Or state. Why stay in Cripple Creek?"
"I don't know this country," Clarissa said, her voice breaking. "I wouldn't know where to go. Or how to exist day to day. I wouldn't even know how to seek employment elsewhere."
"Again, I ask, what do you expect of me? What should I be able to do for you?" Eugenia demanded hotly.
