Chapter 76
Away from the soldier’s camp, Silvia sat in the brothel staring at the paper in her hands. She couldn’t believe what she was holding now as she believed she would never see this again after the stranger last night left with it.
She had to thank a customer who once fancied her enough to show her name which she had forgotten what it looked like after years of not writing or seeing it.
Silvia was one of the few servants that remained in the brothel. There were young girls recently bought who didn’t know where to run off to. They had already gotten used to this being their new home and didn’t know the dangers that were within the brothel to think of running like everyone else.
Silvia didn’t have anywhere to go. She was well known as a woman from the brothel so the second she stepped out of her, there would be men looking to take her. Men who would expect her to lie with them for free.
"He’s going to hunt them down and kill them," Silvia said, knowing the other women and servants were not going to be free for long.
Graham was going to be angry when he returned and found that not only had his brothel burned again but most of the people he owned were missing.
"This is my chance," Silvia concluded.
She proved her loyalty by remaining here so Graham wouldn’t kill her. When he returned, she had to plead her case to be made the madam of the brothel. Something like this would never have happened if she had helped him.
Rose would have never been able to run away.
Silvia looked to her right where she heard two children she hadn’t noticed earlier crying as they were hungry. What did they know about hunger? They had never faced hunger like she did during the time she was to be sold. Their crying bothered her as this was just the beginning when she had suffered for years. What did they have to cry about at the start?
"Quit your crying. Do you think if you cry like that anyone would want to feed you? You should get started on cleaning up so we can see what in the kitchen survived the fire. Start moving or I shall whip you on your legs for doing nothing," Silvia threatened the children.
This was the best way to get them to behave as it had worked on her. There was no point in babying these young girls or children as their lives were no more sweet for anyone to care about them.