Gretel and the Case of the Missing Frog Prints by P. J. Brackston

Author:P. J. Brackston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus

TEN

On arriving at the brothel, Gretel was greeted with surprise by the madam, ill-concealed lust from Bacon Bob, and suspicion from one or two of the other girls. She was taken to a room where several young women were in varying states of déshabillé and told to get into her costume. She recognized the two girls she had first seen entering through the hidden doorway. One, a tall brunette with a prominent beauty mark above her top lip, looked Gretel up and down scathingly.

“What are you doing here?” she wanted to know.

“I should have thought that was obvious. Working, much like yourself.”

“You’re no more a doxie than I’m an archbishop,” the girl sneered. “You might look down-at-heel, but you’re educated. You speak more like a trick than a working girl.”

“Anybody can fall upon hard times. A woman must do what she must do to survive.” Even as Gretel spun the story she felt her own faith in it waning. It seemed wrong to dupe the girls. And yet, she did not know whom among them she might trust. To tell them the truth behind her being there could put her at real risk of discovery. “Tell me,” she asked, “are you acquainted with a lovely girl called Valeri?”

The brunette shook her head. “I know no one of that name.”

“Really? A bubbly person. Striking red hair . . . ?”

One of the other girls—whom Gretel had previously seen dressed as a serving wench, but who now appeared to be a wood nymph—stopped curling her hair with the heating tongs. “That sounds like Fifi. At least, that was what she called herself when she was here.”

The brunette nodded. “Oh, yes. Fifi. Got it into her head to better herself and took off.”

“Well,” Gretel spoke in gasps as a maid attempted to force her into her black leather, “she did. Better herself, that is. As a matter of fact—oof, steady on!—I was rather hoping she might have had a word with you. About me.”

The wood nymph shrugged, “I haven’t seen her.”

Brunette Beauty Spot gave a snort. “Only visitors we get are paying ones. She’ll not come down here for fear of Mistress Crane getting her claws into her again. No, if she’s any sense she’ll stay well clear.”

Gretel’s shoulders slumped ever so slightly, causing the struggling maid to tut as she continued in her efforts with the outfit. Gretel had harbored hopes that Valeri would have been as good as her promise and alerted her friends to what was going on, helping ensure that Phelps put himself in her way, as it were. But then, she had only spoken to the girl a matter of hours earlier. If, as Beauty Spot pointed out, she was wary of visiting these secret rooms, she might not yet have had the chance to talk to any of the girls. Which meant there was no guarantee Phelps would ask for She Who Rules. At last Gretel was strapped into her shiny encasing. The room was small and crowded and hot, and she felt her cheeks flushing unbecomingly.

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