The Price of Innocence (The Legacy Series) by Vicki Hopkins

be no sleeping under my roof once I fire an employee. Get your things and get out.” He swung around and stomped back to his office slamming the door behind him.
    Suzette turned to Flora, who was standing nearby. “Flora, he cannot throw me out on the street like this, can he?”
    “There’s nothing you can do. You best be going before he calls the police to have you forcibly removed. He’s done it before.”
    Not wishing to bring his unbearable anger upon herself, Flora turned away from Suzette and finished her duties for the day. The other women who stood by said nothing. No words of comfort or help met Suzette’s ears—only a cold silence and disregard that shattered her faith in humanity.
    The unbearable cruelty caused hot tears to stream down her face as she ran upstairs to her cot and packed her few things into her small, tattered suitcase. She shook in fear as she walked down the wooden staircase, ignored by the women she passed, and exited the door to the street. Gas lamps lit her path, but only a few people and carriages traversed the avenue.
    Afraid her life was in danger, she turned right and walked aimlessly down the sidewalk. Tears trickled down her cheeks, blurring her vision. She tried to keep her wits about her, as she wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve to stop the flood.
    Her feet carried her in the same direction she walked every day for months—straight toward the Chabanais. Almost blindly, Suzette headed for the only place she knew where others knew of her existence. She thought of the interior warmth and beauty of the brothel and wondered if Madame Laurent would be merciful enough to allow her to spend the night. She would make her way to the shelter tomorrow on the other side of town.
    As she arrived at the Chabanais, she stood hesitantly by the corner of the building watching the brothel entrance. She spotted a few well-to-do men in black top hats leaving the establishment in waiting carriages. Fearful to approach until everyone departed, she stood in the shadows for fifteen minutes until everything went quiet.
    When Suzette felt it was safe, she scurried down the dark alley until she came to the back entrance. She turned the doorknob, and to her surprise found it unlocked. Desperate, she opened the door and stepped inside hearing voices and activity in the kitchen. When she was spotted in the doorway, it grew silent. Every eye turned in her direction. Madame Laurent saw her shivering body and came to her side.
    “Suzette! My God, what are you doing here? You look absolutely frightful!”
    Unable to control the floodgate of tears, Suzette stood rigid, sobbing like a child. “They—he—he fired me, Madame. I have nowhere to go, to sleep—nowhere . . .” She couldn’t finish the words.
    Madame Laurent hugged Suzette and smiled at Nadine over the success of her plan. A few girls standing nearby giggled.
    “You can spend the night here, dear. I couldn’t bear to think of you sleeping in the alley. God knows you’d be raped by morning or found dead by the police, oui?”
    Her words frightened Suzette so much that she stepped farther inside the ironic haven of the brothel, fearful of what was behind her back.
    “Follow me.”
    She grabbed Suzette’s hand and led her up a back staircase at the end of the long hallway that she had walked daily to carry out her duties. The narrow stairs climbed upward to the far end of the second floor. After a few short steps down another hallway, she opened a door to a room.
    “Most of my girls live here at the brothel.”
    Suzette, frightened and uncomfortable, hoped that the brothel mistress wouldn’t reveal too much about life inside a house of sin. Madame Laurent walked over to a closet and flung open the double doors to reveal a large assortment of beautiful clothes and nightgowns.
    “There’s a bath chamber adjacent to this room through that door. Take a bath, and you can use this for the night.”
    Suzette gasped at the beauty of the