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I came to an abrupt halt. Naked bodies were sprawled every which way on the bed. Bare limbs filled my vision, and I couldn’t piece together what was happening. It was . . . shocking. Confusing. Scandalous.
Then I recognized a face.
Myfather’sface.
I couldn’t believe it. Dan Kelly was in the midst of it, his hands and mouth quite busy between two women. He didn’t appear to be held against his willat all.
Heads swiveled toward the door and the coverlet was quickly dragged up to shield the lower half of their bodies. Three surprised faces stared back at me.
Slowly, the coverlet moved and a fourth participant crawled out to peek at me. It was another woman, her big eyes round and wary.
What onearth? How did this even work? The silence stretched as I tried to make sense of thisorgyin front of me.
“Isabelle!” My father scowled as he started to disentangle himself from the bodies. “What are you doing here?”
“Coming to rescue you,” I snapped. “But you’re clearly in no need of rescuing.”
Spinning on my heel, I hurried to the stairs. I was so stupid. I’d climbed out of Bax’s saloon and hurried here to rescue my father, anxious to save him from pain and torture.
Except he wasn’t suffering at all. He was enjoying himself.
“He is the worst kind of hypocrite. He hides behind fake words and speeches . . . .”
Bax was right. I didn’t know my father at all.
“Isabelle,” my father called urgently from behind me. “Stop right there.”
Taking a deep breath, I whirled on him. Thank heavens he’d put on a dressing gown. “Why? So you can tell me the importance of your work? How you’re trying to save the city from corruption and vice? Spare your breath, Papa. I’ve seen the truth.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I am here under duress, yes. But I still have the same needs as other men.”
“That was not duress—and this is exactly the sort of thing you’ve always publicly shamed in your speeches. Houses of sin, you called them. And you’ve encouraged Comstock and the police to shut them down for years.”
“You wouldn’t understand, being a sheltered young girl. Someday you’ll be married and your husband will teach you about these things.” He gave me the same patronizing look he always did when I questioned him. It used to make me feel small; now it made me furious.
I fisted my hands. “Sheltered because youforcedme to stay home. You said people would use me to get to you. That it was to protect me.” I gave a bitter laugh and gestured to the room he’d departed. “Now it’s clear you didn’t wish for me to discover that you’re a hypocrite.”
His eyes rounded. “How dare you say such things to me? I am not a hypocrite.”
I hadn’t ever fought with my father. In all my years I did everything he asked without complaint, thinking he was working toward the greater good. Some greater good, indeed.
Everything Bax had said was true—which I did not find reassuring in the least. No, I felt even more foolish for believing my father for so many years.
But I was done playing the good daughter. I was done pretending like my life didn’t matter.
I straightened my spine. “Not a hypocrite, you say? Then I suppose you won’t mind when I spread the word of today’s orgy,HonestDan Kelly.”
“What has come over you?”
Stepping closer, I gave him the truth. “I searched for you fordays. I went to the police, I went to—” I bit it off, unwilling to say his name. “You have no idea how difficult this has been for me.”
“Well, that was foolish. You should have waited at home, as I’ve taught you. This city is far too dangerous and immoral for the likes of you.”
“But just the right sort of immoral for you, apparently.”
“Young lady,” he growled. “This lack of disrespect will not be tolerated.”
“That door wasn’t even locked! You could have left at any time. Why didn’t you?”
