Page 5 of Mayfair Madame
“Is it okay if I call you Naomi?” I spoke quietly so as not to spook her further.
“Yes,” she croaked. I took the seat next to the bed.
“Can you tell me what happened?” She screwed her eyes closed and bit her lip. This couldn’t be easy, but I needed to know what had taken place.
She opened her eyes, large brown eyes full of tears.
“I swore I’d never let this happen again.” She pulled herself to sitting and leant against the padded headboard. The silk robe she wore slipped from her shoulder, revealing a torn gown.
“Did he do that?” I took out my notepad, poised and ready to write.
“Yes, cost a fucking fortune too.” She appeared more composed now, her jaw set.
“Let’s start at the beginning, and we’ll go from there. Was it your boyfriend who assaulted you? Husband?”
“Fuck, no. Sorry, I’m just so fucking cross. I never let anyone get to me, but he caught me off guard.”
“Go on.” I motioned for her to continue.
“I was here with Clement. Clement Winthrop. He introduced me to Lord Godfrey. He gave me the creeps right away. Staring and making comments about how when Clement was done with me, he’d be happy to take me off his hands.” She shuddered and pulled the robe closer around her.
The audacity of some men never ceased to amaze me. Just because she was beautiful, they thought it was all right to say what they wanted to, no matter how sexist it was.
“And who is Lord Godfrey?”
“I don’t know. A friend of Emmeline’s? I’ve never seen him before. He’s old. Easily late seventies. I can’t believe he got the better of me, but he was stronger than he looked.”
She explained what had happened. How she’d needed the toilet and how he’d burst through the door, tearing her dress and grabbing her. It was definitely a sexual assault, no doubt about that, but I felt there was something she wasn’t telling me.
“Anything else to add?”
She looked down at her hands, twisting the gold rings on her fingers. “There’s nothing else, but I want to press charges. He had no right.”
“I agree. No one has the right to attack you like that. Can you wait here while I go find my partner? I won’t be long.”
I needed to find out why the man wanted to press charges. I had no idea where he was, but it wasn’t difficult to find him. So much shouting.
“That fucking whore. I want her in jail with the key thrown away. Look what she did to me.”
A large man in a dinner suit sat on a white sofa, four bloody gouges on his face. So Naomi had told the truth about that at least.
A paramedic stood behind him, running his hands through the old man’s hair.
“Please keep still, sir. We need to check out this bump on your head.”
“Have you got a minute?” I motioned to Josh to follow me. He looked stressed. What on earth had happened?
“What have you got, Ellie? He’s got a strong case. She’d better have a good reason for doing what she did to him. He says she scratched him and hit him over the head with a bottle or something.”
“Seriously? He sexually assaulted her. Tore her dress, grabbed her breast. I believe it was self-defence, Josh.”
“Not according to him. Said she led him on and asked him to join her in the bathroom.”
“We both know that’s a crock of shit. Why would she want him? Have you seen him? What does the other guy say? Clement Winthrop. He was there with them before she left.”
“There’s no one around with that name. Who is he?”
“She said she was here with him. I’m assuming she was his date.”
