Queen of Diamonds by Bárbara Metzger Page A

Queenie. Besides, what could be more natural than I would befriend a newcomer to town, who is going to dress me in style?”
    â€œI am?”
    â€œOf course. You would not leave me out of the most exciting adventure of my lifetime, would you?”
    â€œNow that you mention it, I was hoping you might agree to be my shop manager.”
    Hellen’s round face fell. So did the bun from her fingers, to Parfait’s delight. “A clerk in a shop? I was hoping to be a courtesan.”
    Hellen, it seemed, had plans for her own future.

Chapter Four
    Now Queenie dropped her roll from numb fingers. She’d have to give Parfait less for his dinner. She’d give Hellen a good shake if they were not in the park. “You wish to become a…a…”
    â€œA highly paid mistress to a wealthy gentleman. It is good enough for my mother,” Hellen said in her own defense. “And it is not as if any handsome swell is going to come along and offer for the baron’s by-blow, you know. My father is too afraid of his wife to settle an annuity on me or anything. So what choices do I have? Sewing for some toff’s wife, or being his pampered pet?”
    She looked at Parfait, with his leather collar to match Queenie’s bonnet’s ribbon, his sleek, well-fed, well-groomed appearance and relaxed manner. “I choose the life of luxury.”
    â€œBut it is not always that way, surely you know. You have seen the women begging in the street, raddled, pox-ridden hags or emaciated girls with starving infants at their breasts. You could not want that!”
    â€œOf course not. Only fools end in the gutters, widgeons who value themselves too cheaply or who accept the wrong protector. I am too smart for that, and too pretty not to be a success. And while I have seen the street-corner whores, I have also seen my mother and her friends. They have houses and maids and carriages of their own. The cleverest have savings and the others have their jewels for when their gentlemen tire of them. All they have to do is look pretty and entertain their polite friends. Champagne and a few cuddles, then bon-bons and bank deposits. A girl could do far worse.”
    â€œBut what of the gentlemen’s other families?”
    â€œWhat, should I pity those cold women who do not please their husbands enough to keep them home? Or should I be jealous? Who is to say their lords care for them more than for their paramours? Those marriages were business transactions, the same as a rich cull keeping a mistress.”
    â€œBut it is wrong!”
    â€œIt would be worse to make Mama support me forever. The baron is not all that generous, and his health not assured. I need to contribute.”
    By bartering her body? Queenie could not look at her friend.
    Hellen brushed crumbs off her gloves. “I do not intend to sell myself for a groat for a grope in the doorway, you know. You’ll help me look expensive, won’t you?”
    Queenie would do anything to save Hellen from the life of a Covent Garden convenient. “But when my business is a success I can—”
    â€œYou can dress me in the height of fashion and send the bills to my gentleman.”
    Queenie shook her head. “No, I cannot do it.”
    â€œ
You
do not have to do it. You have talent and an education, a profession you enjoy, and the manners of a lady. I have nothing but my face and figure. But I do like the gentlemen.”
    * * *
    Queenie realized that her friend liked
all
the gentlemen. She had to pinch Hellen’s elbow to stop her from batting her eyelashes at the serious young man who was conducting the interviews at the The Red and the Black. Then she had to kick her ankle to keep Hellen from speaking to the handsome newcomer. She had not wanted to take Hellen along with her to the club at all, but Hellen was not to be denied her look at an earl’s brother. Besides, how better to survey possible protectors than as a dealer