Adeline was about to start dinner, shooing her little brothers out of the room when her father came in the door. He shook snow off his coat before hanging it up near the fireplace.
"Nothing out Papa?" she asked as he hung his rifle up on the pegs above the door.
He grunted sourly and sat down, looking grimly at the fire. After a moment, before she had gotten anything out, he spoke up. "Get dressed to go into town, Adeline," he said gruffly.
"Papa?" she asked, confused. It was late to be going into town, it would be dark before they got back!
"Hurry up. And pack up your things, you'll be staying a couple weeks with Linda Allen till her babe comes."
"Oh... ok. You sure? Hattie Maniford is..."
"You heard me!" he snapped irritably. "Hattie is out of town, ain't no one else to midwife."
Adeline hurried to pack up her few belongings, feeling a little stressed. "Who told you?" she called from her little alcove in the loft. "Did you come across someone while hunting?"
"Hurry your ass up girl! I ain't got all night!"
Adeline winced. He was in an unusually foul mood. "Levi, Daniel, you boys behave now," she said softly. "There's bread in the tin, not too much. You'll need enough for tomorrow too. Levi, you know the cookin' and cleanin' by now, it'll be on you while I am gone."
"Will you bring us back a peppermint?" Daniel asked excitedly.
Adeline sighed and ruffed his hair. "Probably not little man, they are a whole penny for three. I don't have a penny, do you?"
"Maybe you could trade off? Make him some bread?"
"He has a wife," she laughed. "Scoot on now, I have to go. I will be back quick as I can, ok?"
She climbed down and grabbed her coat. Her father wouldn't look at her as they left and she felt nerves trying to make her hair stand on end as she climbed on their horse behind him.
Something was wrong.
The trudge was slow through the thick snow and Adeline felt trepidation climbing. Joseph Mason wasn't normally a quiet man, or a terse man. He was both now and that worried her.
"Papa? Maybe while I am in town, I can see about finding some work?"
"Winter is coming in hard, Adeline, now is the time everyone is tightening their belts. No one will be hiring for anything."
"Maybe I can cook at the inn? Or mend clothes? Something."
"You know what day it is, Adeline?"
"Umm? Not sure," she laughed. "Has to be Christmas coming soon though. You think we'll get much more snow?"
"It's December 15th."
Oh.
"My birthday? Is that what this is about?" she asked, feeling a little more sick now.
"A woman grown now, Adeline."
"So I am. I don't feel any different."
"You never wake up one day feeling like it suddenly changed," he said, but it had a dark tone. She knew better than to keep asking questions. Nothing good would come of it.
"The snow is beautiful," she said instead, changing the subject.
He didn't comment or look around.
Adeline sighed and went quiet, riding the last hour in silence. She said nothing as they rode past Linda Allans place and into the town proper. He reined in in front of the saloon and she felt even more sick as he got down and tied Lady off at the post. He reached up and she let him help her down before leading her inside.
The inside was full and smoky and loud and several dozen men turned to watch them come in. Her father led her to a corner and pulled a chair away from a table, setting it in the corner. "Take your coat off, put it down next to you with your bags," he demanded, staring at the wall.
"Papa?"
"Now, Adeline," he said sourly.
He turned and left as she began pulling her coat off. He went and leaned across the bar, speaking to the barkeeper in a low voice. The large man leaned across the bar, listening to her father, then turned to look Adeline over before nodding to her father.
She sat down as her father turned from the bar and started going table to table to speak quietly. Every single man at every table turned and looked at her as he went around.
A woman stepped off the wall and approached her father, speaking to him quickly. He cut her off angrily and the woman seemed to take offense to whatever he said to her.
Adeline was starting to feel genuinely sick to her stomach. She eyed the door and wondered if she could just walk away. She was eighteen now. He had no real claim to her if she wanted to leave.
She looked back at her father and he was off against the other wall now and over a dozen men were up from their tables, gathered around him as he spoke.
One man broke off from the group and approached her, cornering her. She stood and clasped her hands over her stomach worriedly. His eyes were learning and lecherous as he sneered down at her. "You're 18?" he asked in a slick, oily voice.
"Today," she answered in a whisper.
His lip curled and he reached out, cupping her breast.
Adeline jerked back with a yelp of shock and her hand shot out, slapping him across the face. "How DARE you?" she cried in horror.
The man snarled and drew back his fist, but another man caught it before he hit her.
"Louis, now now," the new man chided. "You deserved that. And you've no right to discipline her."
"Yet," Louis spat angrily, jerking his arm away from the new man.
He left back to the group and the other man turned and looked Adeline over. "You are a slight thing, aren't you? Your father claims you are quite a cook and you can..."
"Why would you care?" Adeline demanded heatedly. "Why am I here? What is happening?"
"You seem clever enough, girl. I am sure you have it figured out, even if you refuse to admit it yet."
"He has no right to sell me!"
"Sell you?" the man laughed. "It's a dowry, girl. A father does have a right to ask that. He just happens to be auctioning yours. You upset Louis, I think he means to have you. Punish you for your outburst."
Adeline went pale and looked behind him at the group of men. They were bidding, she could see them all going back and forth to her father. Louis was glaring at her as he bid. "Why? Why would he do this?!?" she wailed. She pushed past the well dressed man who seemed out of place in this mining town and went to her father. "Papa! Papa, please! I will be good, I swear! I can find a way to..."
"Go sit down!" her father snapped.
"Let her stay," another man said, catching her arm, then her other arm and pulling her arms wide to hold her out.
"We want to see what we are getting!" another man agreed and a hand shot out to cup her breast. After that, hands seemed to come from everywhere, feeling her, holding her, groping her, pulling her.
She screamed in horrified revulsion as she struggled and several men laughed. She broke down sobbing and there was more laughter.
"I do love to make a bitch cry," Louis said, grabbing her face and turning it to him. "Forty five dollars."
"Papa, help me!" she wailed.
The bids started moving fast as she was pulled and groped and shoved. There was pressure, then she heard a rip as her dress gave way and the hands were fast and viscous ripping it away.
Adeline screamed and threw herself to her knees, hugging herself.
"Enough!" a man yelled angrily. "Two hundred. I dare any of you to try and top it," he snarled.
There was silence and the hands slowed as they stopped yanking on her.
"Release her, all of you," the man said more calmly and she recognized the voice now. The man who had stopped Louis from hitting her.
The hands left her, one of them pinching roughly before it did. She was shaking and sobbing as a shawl or blanket was thrown over her. Hands on her shoulders helped her up and she let them as she pulled the lace shawl around her. It was the woman who had spoken to her father who was helping her, covering her with her own shawl.
"Any other bids?" he father asked, still not looking at her.
No one answered, all of the men fading back to go back to their seats. The man in the fine clothes stood in front of her father, looking down at him in disgust. "Mathilde, pay the man. Once you are... paid... you will never enter my establishment again."
"I didn't bring her to be a whore! If you aren't going to..."
"Do you really care? Two hundred dollars is beyond your wildest expectations and you know it. Take it and go."
"I meant her to have a husband, not..."
"Go before I have you thrown out," the man hissed.
Her father went to the bar, where the bartender was signalling him and took his money and left. He never looked back.
"Papa, please?" Adeline sobbed brokenly. "I will be good!"
"Hush now, girl," the man said gently. "Mathilde, get her things and show her up to a room. Her own for now. The attic room with the lock, so she feels safe. Girl, go along with her. This is Mathilde, the madam here. Your father said your name, but I was not listening," he said expectantly.
Adeline didn't hear, she only sobbed into the woman's arms. The man sighed and waved Mathilde off to take care of her.
Adeline was shown to a tiny closet in the attic with a little cot that was almost too small even for her. She didn't care. There was a lock on the door and she had a little candle and there were blankets on the cot. She pulled her other dress on after pulling off the remains of her old one, then climbed into the blankets to cry.
The woman had said nothing to her, just led her to the room and set the candle on the tiny table before leaving.
Adeline sobbed, feeling alone and betrayed and humiliated. When the sounds far below began to go quiet and the music stopped, she finally started trying to get her head straight. She would run away! She would take off, head south where they got less snow and there were no mountain mining towns!
She got up and righted her clothes, then pulled on her coat and wrapped in one of the quilts before easing the lock open on the door and slipping out. She had hardly looked around the large attic room when they had been led up, but now she noticed that someone obviously lived up here. There was furniture like it was someone's office and there was a couch and two tufted sitting chairs. There was a dining table on one side with a buffet on the wall that held an assortment of bottles and large platters and bowls. On the other side was a desk and bookshelves with more books than she had seen in her life. It was dim and she couldn't see into the further corners, but she didn't need to. She knew where the door was.
