His Dancer, His Chains novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: On the Steps

The revolving doors let us out onto the steps of the tower, and the noise hit us all at once.

There were thirty cameras and more phones than I could count.

A man shoved a microphone toward my mouth and shouted my name.

Rafferty stood a step below me and a little to the side, with my hand in his.

He did not speak.

He had told me in the elevator that this was mine.

"Mrs. Gage! Is it true you worked at the Gilded Room?"

"Yes," I said.

The shouting broke off for a breath, because they had not expected me to answer.

"My name is Cora Pownall. I'm twenty-seven."

"My sister needed heart surgery, and the hospital wanted ten thousand dollars before it would book the room."

"I had three days."

"I danced for one night. I was paid for the dance, and on Monday I paid her deposit."

"She's alive, and she's upstairs making soup."

A woman near the front lowered her phone.

"Did you marry Mr. Gage to cover it up?" a reporter called.

"I married him because he said so in front of nine directors who wanted me out of the room."

"I'm not sorry for the dance. I'm sorry for the people who laughed."

I felt Rafferty's hand tighten on mine.

"You can look at the photographs," I said. "They're on every screen you're holding. Look at all of them."

"That's a scared woman doing arithmetic, and she did it right."

Nobody shouted for a moment.

"Mr. Gage!" a man called. "Did you know?"

Rafferty stepped up beside me.

"I knew from the first night," he said. "I sat in that club and watched a man bet on a woman's clothes, and I laughed with the table."

"It's the worst thing I have ever done."

"She is the best thing I've done, and I'm not going to let anyone bury her for it."

"Is she still your employee?" someone yelled.

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