Keystone: Gateway Chronicles Book 1

Chapter 7

Sami opened the door to find Lucretta coming down the hallway. Lit oil lanterns lined the hall, shedding a dim, ruddy light.

"Oh good! You're... oh, my, I thought I got rid of those clothes." Lucretta tried to bustle Sami back into the room, saying, "I set out some proper clothes for you to wear. Cost a pretty penny, I must say. Only Sylvie's scrawny enough to have anything to fit you. She's just getting started, poor girl."

Sami stood her ground. "That's very kind of you Lu, but I'm fine in my clothes. What did you do with the stuff I was wearing?"

Lucretta waved a hand. "Ain't proper, a young lady wearing that. I expect it's burned by now. Tossed in the rubbish, it was."

"What about my phone?"

"Your what?"

"I had a thing in my back pocket. Like a flat rock, rectangular, about this big." She demonstrated with her fingers.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, doll."

Sami sighed. "Well anyway I'll find something more appropriate to wear when I get to a bigger town. Or have something made. Women don't wear pants?"

"Heavens no! And let a man see all your," she waved a hand toward Sami's midsection, "lady business. You know how men are."

"No, how are they?"

"Well, let's just say, if you go in public dressed like that, you'll get the wrong kind of attention."

"And I won't in that dress? They're pants! It's not like I'm wearing a bikini!"

Lucretta put her hands on her hips and stared hard at Sami. "Listen, young lady. Eli paid good coin for me to take care of you and I intend to see to it. You can't go around in Drywater Gulch dressed like some kind of... of... trollop! Now get back in that room and put on that dress."

Sami would have had to physically fight Lucretta to resist her, and the bigger woman was very strong. She was shoved back into the room and Lucretta stood guard at the door, gesturing impatiently at the dress and waiting with arms crossed. Sami had no choice in the matter. She stripped out of her own clothes and donned the linen slip and gaudy red dress. Though it had the look of silk, it was more stiff and smelled of cloying rose perfume, tobacco smoke, and sweat, apparently not having been washed as thoroughly as the slip. While Lucretta was helping with the buttons, she said, "Want a bit of makeup, to spruce yourself up? A lady should never go out without looking her best."

"No, I'm quite alright," Sami said coldly. She no longer cared for Lucretta and liked this ugly, dirty little backwards town even less. So she'd been well paid to take care of her? And here Sami thought Lucretta was doing it out of the goodness of her heart.

"Suit yourself." Lucretta stood back to inspect Sami and shook her head, saying, "Well, it will have to do." She reached out to "enhance" Sami's bosom and Sami slapped the plump woman's hands away. Lucretta just smiled and said, "Have it your way, then. Don't go running off too far. I'm responsible for you till Eli comes back."

"When will that be? And I didn't ask you to be responsible for me. I can take care of myself."

"Peach, clearly you can't. And I already told you, he's a wanderer. Sometimes it's months, sometimes years before he comes back."

"Years?" Sami said, dismayed.

"If you don't wanna take up whoring, you'd better hope that coin purse holds out." Lucretta gave her a significant look. "Now come downstairs with me. Hank wants to meet ya."

Against her will, and with much trepidation, Sami was led down the hallway to a stone landing and stairway that overlooked a smokey room where men and women sat at tables and a bar. She recognized the misshapen dwarf-like man that had called up to her from the street. Most of the other occupants appeared to be human but there was one woman with a distinctly green tint to her skin. She was bigger than most of the men, but she was wearing a pink dress that made Sami's seem tame by comparison. The other recognizably nonhuman occupant was the source of the strange music, a slim man sitting in a corner with a stringed instrument in his lap that closely resembled a guitar. His long, pointed ears and narrow, delicate features marked him as something other than human.