"Callahan 04 - Lady Sally's House 01 - Callahan's Lady" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Spider)

"A tiger in the kitchen will keep the cockroaches away," Philip said. His voice was soft and deep and furry.
Oh yeah? I wanted to say. I 'ye got that tiger trained as docile as a pussy cat-but apparently that was not correct.
In truth, I was shocked at the extent of my misjudgment. It was more than the disappointment felt by an owner whose pet tiger has gone savage and had to be destroyed. Damn it, I had liked Big Travis. I had, in a way, cared about him. I had thought that beneath his necessary macho armor he cared about me. I was his special girl. The one he almost didn't want to make whore for him. All the while, deep down, he had thought me such a trivial possession that it had been simpler to kill me than to bother disciplining me. The knowledge put a deeper, sharper hole into me than the knife had.
"I'm in a lot of pain," I said. "I need another shot."
"Shot?" Lady Sally said.
"That stuff Mary gave me, Placebo."
She blinked. "I'm not sure I approve of her giving you that. Oh well, the damage is done. Let me summon your physician. Phillip?"
He rose, went to a phone on the dresser, punched a three-digit number and asked for Doctor Kate to be sent to Mary's room. I gritted my teeth for a wait. Doctors never come promptly.
She arrived almost at once, carrying a black bag. Reading from the top, she wore a doctor's reflector headband, square severe glasses, unbuttoned white doctor's jacket, stethoscope, white lace garter belt, white cobweb stockings, and white high heels. Oh yes, and a wedding ring. She was a natural redhead.
Where the hell was I?
"Patty's keeping his vital signs stable," she said to Lady Sally, and to me, "Hello, dear, how are we feeling today? You're looking much better. You had a close call, but you were lucky." She reached the bedside, took my pulse. I could feel her pulse. High and strong and steady. "Are you in a lot of pain?"
Her question took precedence over her costume. "Yes. Lady Sally says I have to see you to get some more of that painkiller Mary gave me last night."
"Placebo," Lady Sally enunciated. Doctor Kate looked thoughtful. It was weird to see that judicious doctor-look above a pair of large seminaked breasts. Disorienting. "Yes," she decided, "I can let you have some more of that. Mary's judgment is usually sound. Did she say what dosage?"
I thought hard. "Fifty milligrams. In some solution with a long name."
She frowned. "That's a lot. You'll have to take it orally from now on. Here." She took ajar of pills from her bag, gave me one.
Damn. It wouldn't hit as fast, or as hard. Oh well, it would probably last longer. "Looks just like aspirin," I said as she fetched cold water from a bathroom to my right.
"Trust me," she said, returning. "It isn't aspirin."
I gulped it dawn, lay back to wait for it to work. "It isn't addicting or habituating either," she said~ "In case you were wondering."
"I'd have gotten around to it," I muttered wearily "I've got to change your dressing now," she said. "I call your attention to the fascinating ceiling."
I snuck a peek and it was pretty bad, but the medicine was beginning to come on and it helped. When it was over I found that Philip had come to sit beside me and hold my hand. I half expected him to tell me a bedtime story.
"Philip ...," I asked him quietly, while Doctor Kate was off washing her hands in the john. "Look, where the hell am I? I mean what kind of place is this?"
One corner of his mouth crinkled up. "I'm not sure that could be put into words. In fact, I'm not sure I'm wise enough to know."

There was nothing wrong with Lady Sally's hearing. "This is my House," she said clearly, "and you are safe here. You may stay as long as you like, or until I take a notion to throw you the hell out, whichever comes first."
A chilly sensation began just below where my ribs met. I think I kept my face straight, but m~ hands closed into fists under the sheet. I was a long time answering her. Oh my God, I kept thinking, How could I have been so dumb?
"Thank you, Lady Sally," I said finally. "That's a very generous offer. I already owe you more than I could ever repay."
"Nonsense, dear child," she said. "On the day I leave a stranger to bleed to death in an alley, there'll be a brisk trade in ice skates in Hell. As the old joke goes, it has been the equivalent of a formal introduction."
Doctor Kate came back from the jake. "Will you excuse me, Maureen? Your Ladyship- I have a patient waiting."
"Thank you, too, Doctor," I told her. "I peeked while you were fixing my-bandage, and you did a good job."
"Wait'll you sec the size of my bill," she grinned, and was gone.
I thought: I'll bet you think I think you're kidding.
"I'll bet you think she's kidding," Lady Sally said.
I smiled. "I'm grateful that you didn't bring the cops into this. Like, report it or anything. Thank you." I already knew why she hadn't, but I was mildly curious to see what lie she'd use.
"I detest official formalities. Unoflicial ones, though, are a different matter: you are welcome, girl. All puns intended."
I made a small sick-patient sound. Phillip frowned in concern. "What's the matter, Maureen?"
"Nothing. This painkiller is making me sleepy." I yawned.
"That's common," he agreed. "Get some rest; -you need it. I have an appointment coming up, but I'll look in on you later." He and Lady Sally got up and left.
As soon as the door clicked shut behind them, I closed my eyes tight and groaned.
Now it all made sense. All of it. Oh, I should have guessed! Aw, Jesus.
Lucky Maureen. Saved from death and a fate worse than death by a kindly old auntie, a wealthy Good Samaritan who leads werebeagles around on leashes and just happens to be a trained street fighter. I'd always said if I ever met one real Samaritan in my life, one person who gave without taking, I'd kiss my own ass-and for a minute there, I'd almost been ready to bend over. I'd almost forgotten what the Professor used to tell me, over and over... Always look for the other guy's angle. If it seems too good to be true, it is. What a chump
She'd said it with a capital H.
"This is my House," she'd said.
A goddamn madam!
Of course she'd stopped Big Travis from wasting me. Simple conservation. Waste not, want not. Some people can't stand to see a good horse mistreated.
I was in a goddamn whorehouse, and from the looks of Doctor Kate and Robin, a very kinky whorehouse, and unless - I played my cards just right, I was never going to get out of it.
There are basically three kinds of prostitute: street hooker, call girl, and house whore. Each kind is convinced that the other two are the lowest of the low. I was a little more sophisticated: I had started as an independent call girl, then shifted tracks after a few unpleasant incidents persuaded me that it was good to have a protector. But I still had nothing but contempt for house girls.
For one thing, I knew who ran the whorehouses in New York. Better to work the streets! I knew a girl named Marcie who'd been in a House in L.A., once, and she said it combined the worst features of a girls' reform school and a gang rape. You had to work sixteen hours a day, and take on any john who wanted you, had do a lot of the perverted kinky stuff. She showed me scars. You weren't allowed to ask them to use a condom because you were so expensive, yet you got less of the money you made than many street hookers did. Marcie had managed to escape and come East-she'd even managed to kick the drugs they'd hooked her on-but she always used to say that one day they would find her. One day I stopped seeing her around.
My side was giving me hell, but I embraced the pain. I was going to have to get used to it. I was not going to let them give me any more of that Placebo shit. Phillip did come by to cheek on me later, but I pretended to be asleep so I wouldn't have to talk to him. Then awhile after that, Doctor Kate came back, Her I did want to talk to.
"Look, Doctor Kate-"
"Just ~Kate, dear. We're going to be friends, I hope."