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“What is tomorrow?” Remi asked. She sat down on a chair while Lily bustled around the stove, heating water.
“We’re going out to the streets to promote the music hall,” Carmen explained. “Even though inauguration itself would take at least another few weeks, it is better to get the word out early.” The music hall was her greatest dream, one that wasthisclose to coming true after years of setbacks.
“This is really going to be a music hall then?” Remi asked in awe, looking around her.
“We have worked hard on this place,” Carmen said, looking around the stone-steeped walls. “It doesn’t look much right now, but if you step into the west wing, which is where we’ll be holding our shows, you’ll notice the difference.”
“But where did you learn music?” Remi asked, looking Carmen up and down. The question was obvious. Music was taught only to well-bred ladies, and Carmen was obviously not one.
“I learned,” Carmen said shortly.
“And she taught the rest of us,” Lily said. “She’s an excellent teacher and she will put to shame most of the musicians that play in Covent Garden.”
Remi was silent. Lily held up the rag and boiled water to Carmen, who gratefully took it from her. Carmen knelt in front of Remi and said, “This might sting a little.” Then pressed the rag on her wounds to clean it.
Remi hissed in pain. Carmen’s heart panged. She didn’t deserve this. None of them did. “Why did he do this to you?” she asked. Usually, the men didn’t need a reason. They liked the power, and they knew that their actions would go unpunished, so they turned their wrath on the weak and the ones who were unable to protect themselves.
“He came to me drunk,” Remi said. “I threatened to tell his wife about me, about us.”
Carmen raised both of her brows. “He doesn’t want his wife to find out?” Usually, the men didn’t care if their wives knew about their mistresses. Since infidelity wasn’t exactly against any law, little could be done about it.
“No,” Remi said. “He just doesn’t want her to find out that I’m…” She drifted off, putting one protective hand over her stomach.
Carmen knew immediately and her stomach sank. “Oh, Remi.” She was pregnant with the weasel’s child.
“I didn’t anticipate this. Neither of us did. We took all the necessary precautions,” Remi said. “That’s why he thinks that I-I…that this isn’t his child.”
Carmen’s heart ached; a sudden fury climbed up her veins. She remembered herself, years ago, hungry and alone as the winter roared at her back. She had sworn off men a long time ago, but when she saw women falling prey like this, her hatred grew anew. Just when she thought that they couldn’t be any worse...
“That’s why he hit you,” Carmen said, her voice trembling with anger. She had half a mind to hunt down the pig and bring vengeance upon him. “Despite knowing that you’re pregnant with a child.”
“He thinks it isn’t his.”
“It doesn’t matter whose child this is. No men—nobody should get to put their hands on you like this,” Carmen said. “You deserve far better than this.”Like she had.
Lily stood by the side watching them and clucked. “This is terrible.”
“But it isn’t like that,” Remi explained, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. Carmen didn’t remember the last time she had cried, the last time she had allowed herself to cry, to let her pain out. “I haven’t slept with anybody but him. I have not gone to work, and he’s the only man I’ve seen since I met him.”
Carmen shook her head. “That’s not the point. Even if you did business as usual, he had no right to hit you. Especially in your condition.”
“It does matter,” Remi said, her voice sad. And that’s when Carmen knew that Remi liked—maybe even loved the man. “He thinks I’m untrustworthy. He lost his temper. I don’t really blame him.”
“You wrote the letter to me last week,” Carmen said. Women around these parts—especially night women or other exploited women— knew Carmen would always help them. “This isn’t the first time he has hurt you.”
Remi opened her mouth and then shut it. “It doesn’t matter. It’s my fault.” She got up from her seat. “Coming here was a mistake.”
“No,” Carmen said, putting a gentle hand on her. “Don’t leave yet.”
“If he won’t take me back, I have to go back to the streets and start working again.” Her voice caught on a sob. “I don’t want to do that anymore.”
“You can leave your trade and join us if you wish to, like we all have.”
Remi turned away. “I can’t.”She won’t.She was still holding a candle out for a man who would never change. The society and all its rules were made to cater to men like him.
“You will find a good home amongst us, women just like you who have been deemed outcasts by Society,” Carmen said.
“Carmen is right,” Lily said. “She has found a good home for us and, with time, we shall have a decent income to begin life anew.”
