Lilly: Bride of Illinois (American Mail-Order Bride 21) Read Online Free Page B

giving a direct answer, because Seth didn’t go into drinking establishments.
    “I went to the Stockyard Emporium the other night and plan to go again in a few days. They had some good–lookin’ women singing in the saloon...and doing other things for men upstairs if you know what I mean,” he grinned while wiggling his eyebrows. “I heard they’re gettin’ a new singer from back East this week, so I don’t want to miss her act.”
    The Stockyard Emporium? Where had he heard that name before? It was at the depot when he overheard the man and woman talking. The Swedish woman, a Miss Lind, was being taken there, and at the time he wondered what she was getting into. Was she the new singing act? Seth thought he understood she was a mail–order bride, planning to meet her future husband.
    “Yes, I’d like to go with you,” Seth said to the man. His parents wouldn’t approve of him stepping into a saloon, let alone drinking a beer. But Seth was a grown man and curious enough about Miss Lind’s welfare to venture inside the “swinging doors” so to speak.
    ***
    Lilly only got a glimpse of her “fiancé” over the next two days. He was always “too busy right now” to talk to her. Lilly needed clothes because other than the dress she wore on her trip to Chicago, she only had extra under garments and a few other pieces of clothing in her bag. Mrs. Mason said she’d mention it to Mr. Hardesty, but nothing materialized after the conversation—if it ever took place.
    The only time Lilly was permitted out of her room was in the mornings when Mr. Boswell worked with her on songs she was to sing during her debut performance. She still couldn’t get through one song without blushing, thinking about the “randy” lyrics she was to sing—out loud for heaven’s sakes.
    During the second day, Lilly stepped out in the hall when she heard other women, but they went into their rooms as soon as she opened her door. Lilly went knocking on doors to talk to someone, but the women never answered.
    Since Lilly had tried to talk to someone else, Mrs. Mason kept Lilly sequestered to her room, bringing in meals, and taking out her dirty wash water and chamber pot as needed. If Lilly hadn’t slept so much because of her exhaustion, she would have gone stark crazy.
    The one small, dirty window in the room looked out to the back alley, but after watching dogs chasing giant rats—and drunk men vomiting and then passing out in their mess—she didn’t look out the window after the first day.
    Of course, she could only sleep during the day. The rowdy noises coming from downstairs from early evening to early morning kept her wide awake. Plus, more than once during the night, someone turned her doorknob, trying to enter her room. She angled the only chair in the room under the knob to block anyone from entering, but wasn’t sure if it would hold against a hard shove.
    Lilly soon figured out what men—and women—were coming upstairs to do. She nearly fainted when she heard what was going on in the room next to hers. The walls were paper thin, and even with sticking her fingers in her ears, she’d heard an “anatomy lesson” she’d never forget.
    Lilly dissolved into tears twice, but hadn’t given in to panic yet. Surely, Mr. Hardesty had a nice home in a good neighborhood where she could live and have a normal life with friends, shopping and attending church and functions, even if her husband was gone “working” most evenings.
    She had no money for food or shelter if she could leave. And where would she go? Her best idea so far—and the only one—was to find a church and ask for help, wherever one might be. It was clear on their carriage ride over here that the Emporium was in a rough part of town, and it was very near the stockyards.
    Now it was her third night here and there was a knock on her door. Beside Mrs. Mason was one of the girls she had seen in the hall earlier in the day. She was shorter than Lilly, with black