This is a work in progress for my friends to peruse...hope I'll have the next installment soon.  Hope you enjoy.

 A KEPT WOMAN

It was just another miserable day, as were all of her yesterdays; no hope for tomorrow, only the bleak resignation, the will to survive, her mask well in place, of brightness, cheerfulness, contentment.  She was the perfect actress, cheeks flushed in the crisp morning air.  Today, she would find a rich merchant, perhaps a caravan of merchants, in need of her wares; oh how she needed the extra money for mom's appointment next week.  She would have to go further afield, and meet new clients if she was going to amass enough. 

Laughter, long, loud, perhaps a little more raucous than was necessary, rang forth from her brightly painted mouth; a smile played at the corners of her lips, as she looked into the faces of these travel weary, lovelorn pilgrims.  Her hair was carefully washed to a glowing sheen, as it hung around her face, in thick, dark masses, hiding some of her sorrow from the eyes of her potential clients.  Her light blue robe, wrapped ever so tightly around her, reflected the blue of her eyes. It opened slightly as she bent forward over her water pots, showing more than a hint of her ample bosom to any and all who would cast a gaze upon the beauty of her.  How many patrons would she serve this day, she wondered? Would she be able to get the feel of their wandering hands, acrid breath, throbbing manhood, off of her, along with the steaming bath she had this evening?  She could never obliterate the hideous nightmares that plagued her, leaving her exhausted and clammy from writhing in torment on her pallet.  Her limbs were weary; she felt as though she had not slept in a week.  Would this degradation ever end?  Would she ever be able to stop this humiliating way of earning a living?

She did not fail to see the faces of women who passed her by.  One look in their direction told her of the derision on their faces, and the fact that they warned their daughters, and most importantly, their sons, to steer clear of her.  She may as well have been a leper for all the friendship she enjoyed; the only “friends” she had were those brief acquaintances from mid afternoon until the wee hours of the morning.  And whom was she fooling?  They paid for her attentions and wanted shot of her as soon as they had had their fill of the delights she had to offer.

To be continued...