The Letter (12 page)

Of course, it made sense William was involved in some sort of business that would employ Chinese workers. Perhaps this was a laundry?

“
It all right, come in, my name Li,” the girl said kindly.

To leave now would be rude.

Smiling as she cautiously stepped inside, a mixture of perfumes assaulted her. “My name is Victoria Riley.”

The house was beautiful, filled with oriental furnishings and art.

“
Don’t be afraid, it alright. I get special tea for you . . . . sit in chair,” Li said kindly indicating a large, red velvet, cushioned chair. “You like special tea?”

“
Thank you.” Victoria smiled. “I would really love some of your special tea.”

Victoria nervously waited while Li went to make tea.

A few minutes later, Li returned smiling with a cup of very dark green tea. “You will like special tea.”

Victoria cupped her hands around the comforting warmth of the cup. “Thank you,”

Green tea was always so bitter, Victoria thought as she took another sip, wishing she had a bit of cream to put into it.

Li continued to smile and hover apparently unsure of what to do about an uninvited guest. Her dark, slanted eyes and warm complexion was so vividly and exotically beautiful. “I take you to see show, yes?”

“
A show? Yes, I do like shows very much, I don’t get to see them much,” Victoria responded. “But I don’t really expect to be waiting very long. William will be available soon won’t he? Please do not go to any trouble.”

“
Do not worry, show not long,” Li answered. “You wait for Will, you watch show. Will like that I think. Make you ready.”

“
Well, if you really think so, as long as the show doesn’t last long,” Victoria responded doubtfully.

“
No, no, show not ling,” Li assured her.

“
Thank you, Li.” Victoria sipped the contents in the cup and stood up to follow Li down a long hallway.

What did Li think she needed to be ready for? Where was William anyway? Better question was what was he doing here?

This was a very strange place to do business, but then what did she understand about such things? William was likely involved in all sorts of businesses that she scarce knew or understood anything about.

She should probably leave because he might not like her intrusion into his business dealings. Besides, there was something distinctively odd about this house.

It was, however, too late to do anything about her current predicament without hurting Li’s feelings.

She would watch one show to avoid being rude, then if William were still not available, she would leave.

They stopped at a door at the end of the hall. Victoria followed Li inside of the dimly lit room with a stage curtain with a few wooden chairs in front of it.

“
Li, this seems a strange place to see a show and where are all the other people?” Victoria inquired. Her tongue was inexplicably thick as she sat down on one of the chairs.

She felt strange and unlike herself and the world began to move out of focus taking on a dream-like quality.

“
Good show,” Li answered, pulling the heavy, gold cord that opened the curtain.

Turning back just as she left the room, Li smiled and added. “You feel good soon. William like you to feel good, you do what William like.”

The world continued to fade into a colorful warm fog.

Victoria felt so odd, disconnected and confused. Yet, at the same time, she felt so good, like she was floating on air, without a care in the world.

Maybe it was just nerves because of her immanent meeting with William. Yet upon further consideration she realized she wasn’t feeling nervous any more. In fact, she was beginning to feel very at ease with herself and the world.

She looked up then, remembering the show.

There was a giant, glass window behind the curtain and on the other side of the glass was an elegantly decorated bedroom. A large four-poster bed adorned with red, silky sheets sat in the center of the room.

A Chinese woman, wearing a robe similar to Li’s, sat on a chair.

How odd that a play would take place in a bedroom, Victoria thought through a rosy haze. Everything had become more and more like a strange, foggy dream. Perhaps it had not been wise to follow William here. Perhaps she should go home and just see William tomorrow.

Yet, she could not move. At the moment her brain was numb. To her fogged mind, at first nothing seemed out of the ordinary about the girl sitting behind the glass, except she was dressed in only a silky robe. Yet, her reasoning skills told Victoria that something was terribly amiss. This was no church play like she had seen from time to time in Ft. Worth. Women in those plays were not dressed in silky robes and obviously naked underneath.

She had come looking for William in a brothel.

The delayed comprehension was startlingly obvious to her now. She just wasn’t worldly enough to see it at first.

Shock and outrage should be driving her right out the door, but for some inexplicable reason normal reservation and offense had fled her. She was surrounded by a warm cocoon of indifference and was inclined to stay seated and contemplate the scene with curiosity more than disgust.

She had always harbored a morbid curiosity about brothels. There was a much less opulent version of a bordello in Fort Worth that everyone was acutely aware of, but never discussed.

Before her sluggish mind could sort out the best course of action, a tall handsome blonde man, dressed in a black brocade tailcoat and lively multi-colored vest, entered the room behind the glass and captured her attention.

The willowy girl immediately left her chair and went to the man. She pulled his head down to her and kissed him long and hard, as if she was going to take his whole face right into her small mouth.

Transfixed, Victoria didn’t turn away when the girl stood back, opened her robe and allowed it to fall into a pool around her feet leaving her completely naked.

Somewhere in the recesses of her numbed mind her conscious was screaming that she should leave immediately, but she was falling deeper and deeper into an awake-slumber where even such a disturbing scene was nothing to get flustered about.

Was William somewhere in this house, doing the same thing? Now that was a disconcerting thought.

The girl began removing the man’s clothing with slow deliberate fingers while he ran his hands over her naked flesh. Victoria’s trembled and her heart pounded through the fog of indifference.

Were these the things William wanted her to do for him too? Her breathing quickened over the notion.

Soon, the man was naked and the woman was touching and kissing his naked flesh. It was stunningly easy to imagine she and William in such a way…and worse….she would enjoy touching William in such a fashion.

Victoria gasped in disbelief when the woman went to her knees and took the man into her little rosebud mouth.

Oh my gracious! Even her befuddled mind registered the utter obscenity of the scene unfolding right in front of her eyes. She should turn away. Instead, however, she sat immobilized by shameful curiosity.

The man’s handsome face contorted in pure pleasure while his hands tangled and pulled on the girl’s silky, black locks.

After a few agonizing moments, the man’s body went into spasms and his face twisted in immeasurable ecstasy. When his face and body relaxed again, he gently pushed the girl away.

Moving to the bed they fell into the silky sheets touching and kissing.

The astonishing things they did cut through Victoria’s sluggish, unresponsive mind.

She must leave.

With extreme effort, she pushed herself up from the chair and walked to the door on slow unsteady limbs. The world around her was tilted and skewed.

She tried to hold onto fragments of sensible thought clamoring in her head. Without a doubt, something was terribly wrong with her.

Maybe she was ill – yet, she felt no pain. She must talk to Li and find out what kind of tea she had given her. Maybe she was dying from poison or some bad reaction to the tea.

Reaching the door she clung to the door jam for support and turned the knob allowing the door to swing out. Her thoughts continued to run together without a pattern or coherency.

“
Victoria? Victoria?” It was William. He was calling her from somewhere nearby.

Or had she imagined it? Desperately wishing she could move forward and respond to his calls, her feet clung to the floor like a heavy anchor and her thick tongue glued the words in her mouth.

“
Victoria!” William called her again. “Damn.”

She clung to the doorjamb for support, unable to respond to him.

***

William’s heart thudded in his chest as he strode toward the “show” room. How had Victoria found him here?

As usual, Lotus had been prone and auspicious to serve him when he arrived.

And as usual, he had allowed a relaxing massage to start his pleasurable journey from tedious day. Normally her touching and caressing would build up the pleasure they would later share and he had believed that Lotus’ hands would banish the stubborn thoughts of Victoria from his mind.

Instead of seeing and desiring Lotus it was a bold, daring, blue-eyed girl with the ability to see down to his soul that assaulted him. It wasn’t Lotus he craved. It was Victoria Riley who fired his blood and no one else would do.

What had been due course in the past with Lotus was suddenly sordid and immoral. This unexpected ridiculous sense of righteousness caused by Ms. Riley cooled his libido so significantly that he finally had abandoned his quest.

Disappointed from his lack of interest, Lotus murmured to him, “You are ready, let me help ease you.” Indeed, he was more than ready….ready for Victoria Riley.

“
No, Lotus, another time.” He rose, dressed with haste and prepared to leave.

When he got out to the parlor, Li had immediately descended upon him.

“
You have a friend waiting for you.”

“
What friend….someone came here?”

“
Dark hair, dark blue eyes, very beautiful.”

The earth crumbled under him.

Victoria.

How the hell had she found him? Here of all places!

“
Where is she?” Fury enveloped him.

How dare she come here!

“
She watch show in red room,” Li answered, smiling broadly. “Will do not like shows, but Li knew the tea and show would prepare his friend for him. Will would be pleased.”

“
Show?” His heart lurched inside of his chest. Turning from Li with an oath, he sprinted down the hall toward the room where the lewd shows were performed.

Victoria would be horrified and repulsed beyond words…she was just an innocent country girl who knew nothing of such things...let alone seen them!

He wanted to introduce her to pleasure with loving hands, not lewd images.

Before he even reached the door it swung open.

Trembling with agitated breathing, Victoria stood there grasping the door jamb and stared blankly at him, her eyes wide and unnaturally bright and her cheeks flushed.

He was too late.

Why didn’t he tell Little to stay on her every moment she was outside of the hotel? He should have known Victoria would not stay out of trouble.
Damn!

“
Victoria,” he said reaching out to take her arm. It took all his self-control to speak quietly rather than give her a good tongue lashing – little good that it would do because the woman did exactly as she pleased with little regard to her safety and well being.

Her eyes found his, but they were dark, glazed and blank as if she didn’t recognize him. Her trembling was visible and induced by something other than a chill.

Fear clawed through him. Something was terribly wrong with her. She was not in a normal state of mind.

Firmly taking her shoulders he looked at her closely.

“
Look at me Victoria sweet, what is wrong?”

Her mouth opened, but no sound emerged.

“
Li! What has happened to my friend?” He pulled Victoria’s shaking body against his feeling his control slipping.

“
I help make her relax,” Li explained, anxiously twisting her hands together and standing a few feet down the hall. “Did I do bad thing?”

No matter how tightly he held her, Victoria’s trembling didn’t cease.

Cold fear engulfed him. And he was angrier than he could ever remember being.

“
What did you give her, Li?” he asked, as rage pulsed through him.

Li started to cry.

“
I sorry, Will, she your friend, I just give her powder to relax, feel good, make her not scared….I… I help your friend.” Li was hiccupping her answers. “I never see Will angry before.”

Lotus, now dressed, came rushing down the hall brushing past Li to investigate the commotion.

“
What is wrong?” she asked looking at Will cradling Victoria.