In Darkest London

Chapter 5 ~ Stella {'I'll Bleedin' Kill Him!'}

The light trickled through a crack in the torn material which covered the small window, pulling Stella out of her slumber. She tried to raise her head off the bed but a heaviness tugged behind her eyes and so she laid there, cold fingers rubbing over squeezed shut eyelids. She tried to recall her last steps but it all fizzled and dissolved in her memories, after seeing that pathetic excuse Dooley. She hissed out loud at the thought of his smug little face.

An arm outstretched from beneath the blanket and gently landed on Stella's naked flesh. She couldn't remember letting one of the girls in last night but she had a feeling Flo had invited herself, as she regularly did, into her bed. She yawned, a long groan bellowing the smell of stale alcohol up her nose. Her mouth felt as dry as sawdust; she smacked her lips to try and create some saliva for relief before rolling over towards the warm body beside her.

"I'll bleedin' kill him," she snarled.

"Oh, morning Flo... thanks for the fuck!?" the short-haired, high cheek-boned dollymop replied.

"What hour is it?" Stella ignored her attempt for a reaction, looked around the room and focused on the candle on the side, burnt down to the wick. "Bleedin' hell!"

She sat bolt upright, swung her legs off the bed and picked up her boots off the wooden floorboards. "Everyone back safe and accounted for?"

Flo lit a cigarette. "Yes. Well, umm actually - wait. Last I heard Ginnie ain't clocked back in."

"Christ, Flo." Stella stood, boots laced over linen trousers and found her screwed up shirt on the other side of the room. She gave it a sniff and winced. She threw it at Flo. "Get me a clean one will yer! And gather the girls for some grub."

"Yes, sir!" Flo rolled her eyes and skulked out of bed with her bottom lip out.

"And gimme that will yer." She plucked the cigarette from Flo's grasp and took a long, deep inhale as Flo slipped on her nightgown.

"And if Ginnie's not down there?" Flo opened the door to leave.

"Well then," Stella looked her dead in the eye, "I'd say you got some searchin' to do."

The door slammed shut behind her without so much as a look back. Stella finished the cigarette, taking her time. When she was good and ready she put it out on the candlestick holder, pulled the door back open and stepped out into the stairwell.

The hallway was eerily quiet, usually brimming with life by this time. Gentlemen coming and going, the girls well into their work. They never stopped. Stella didn't let them. Money's money.

She got to the bottom of the wooden spiral staircase and stopped. She was just about to yell when the door from out in the courtyard flung open and a woman with long, dark tangled hair and a dress that was ripped all across the front came staggering in.

"Ginnie! What the bleedin'-" The woman fell to the floor and Stella ran to try catch her.

Stella brushed the hair off Ginnie's face to reveal bruised eyes and a bust lip. She also noticed a gash to her head that needed immediate attention.

"FLO!" Stella called out. "Here, and bring the gin." She yanked the girl up and sat her on the only chair in 'the waiting room'.

She was trembling and incoherent. The only thing she could manage just as Flo made an appearance was, "Dooley."

"I'll bleedin' kill him!" Stella said.