In the Rogue Blood Read Online Free Page B

corner and heard “Hey, handsome!” and looked up to see a pair of pretty girls, a freckled redhead and a dusky mulatto, grinning down at him from a wrought-iron balcony. They were in bright white underclothes and the sight of their legs in tight pantalettes and their breasts bulging over the tops of their corsets nearly staggered him. “Get on
up
here, you rascally-looking thing, you!” theredhead called, and both girls laughed and beckoned him and the redhead squeezed her breasts and blew him a kiss.
    He went inside and a goateed man wearing a checkered vest and a pistol in his waistband told him he could have the girl of his choice for five dollars and he had a plentiful selection. He had a gold front tooth that glinted in the light. Edward said he didn’t have but three dollars and the man said all right then, since they weren’t too awful busy at the moment he could have a special rate of ten minutes for three dollars. Edward handed over his money and picked the redhead.
    His first time had been the year before when he and John were hunting up along the Escambia and came upon a pair of women scooping mussels from the glassy river shallows and towing a dugout behind them on a bowline. The older was the mother of the younger and offered her daughter’s sex in exchange for the deer carcass they were carrying home on a shoulder pole. The brothers were quick to strike the bargain even though the girl was a softbrain with an drifting stare and a wet vacant smile. She was younger than their sister and her breasts were still only buds and she lay inert on the weedy bank while the brothers took their turns on her. They then gave their attention over to the woman who shied away and said no, not unless they added to the bargain. She had a thin white scar along one side of her face but was striking nonetheless and had full breasts under her worn wet shirt. Edward was about to offer his knife but John said they wouldn’t break her neck, how was that for adding to the bargain? The woman looked from one brother to the other and then told the girl to go sit in the dugout. She lay down on the grass and pulled up her skirts and John fell to her. After Edward had his turn they loaded the deer in the dugout and watched the women pole the boat around the riverbend and then slapped each other on the shoulder and laughed.
    He went back out on the street with the sweetpowder taste of the redhead’s skin on his lips and her perfume on his hands and he was feeling very much a man of the world. He would have bought himself a cigar if he’d had any money left. He continued to search for Maggie until the evening vermilion sun glanced redly off the roof tiles and eased behind the palms and then the streets were in deep shadow and the first sidewalk lamps were being fired. He returned to the mules and found John already there and looking glum because he’d found no sign of their sister either. Edward told him about the whorehouse and the passel of pretties who worked there but John scowled and said they had come to find Maggie and not to look for a good time. Edward had anyway been cheated at aprice of three dollars, John told him. Edward asked how he knew that and John said, “Hell, I guess everbody knows that but you.” John did not in fact know any such thing but he was angry because they had not found their sister and was in no mood to hear about Edward’s good time in a cathouse. Edward did not press the matter but the idea that he had been cheated was enraging.
    They decided to eat supper before renewing the search and went into the tavern and ordered two platters of fried oysters, a loaf of bread, and a bucket of beer. After they’d cleaned their plates John ordered another bucket and when they finished it he suggested they try a taste of something with more bite and Edward said why not and they called for a round of whiskey. They raised glasses to each other and tossed the drinks down in a gulp. It was their first taste of