Chapter 15
The room was hot and crowded - claustrophobic with the stench of sweating bodies and beer. The air was thick with the curling tendrils of tobacco fumes and the sounds of riotous laughter. The three of them entered to see several hunched figures collapsed over the bar, dirty glasses of amber liquid cradles in their arms. There was the combined sound of snoring and groaning drifting across to them.
The rest of the room was crowded with circular tables and chairs, packed closely together. A man in the centre was playing a raucous ditty on an out-of-tune fiddle and some dirt encrusted oil lamps swung from the ceiling, casting a dim radiance out through the stale fog. Men and boys alike were strewn about the ancient furniture, singing drunken ballads, laughing or hunched over the tables slapping down cards and sending glistening gold coins spinning across the notched wood and onto the floor.
Whores, in gaudy coloured shawls, which barely disguised their assets, were soliciting their trade everywhere. They were whispering words of encouragement into the mends' ears and then pausing every so often to subtly indicate the rickety staircase in the corner, almost obscured by a curtain of red shimmering beads, that lead up to the private rooms… Every so often a man would stand, decrepit old fool or mere lad of twelve, to take the harlot's extended hand and follow her to the bottom step before disappearing upwards.
There was only one vacant table in the whole tavern and Horatio made straight for it, dragging Archie and a reluctant Lorna behind him - the latter open-mouthed to find herself dragged into such an environment. She mentally said a prayer for forgiveness for entering a dwelling with such an infestation of sin. Good catholic girl she might not be, but this was profane, and frankly disgusting. The table was squashed into a corner where the light from the hanging lamps couldn't quite penetrate the gloom. A candle stood in the centre of the table to compensate, slowly dwindling downwards into a sallow pool of its own wax. The trio seated themselves onto the wooden benches pressed hard up against the wall.
Lorna tried to keep her eyes fixed upon a particularly fascinating scorch mark on the tabletop, for modesty's sake but she couldn't help but cast furtive glances at their surroundings. Modesty was soon overcome by unadulterated curiosity as she watched the vulgar gesticulations and heard the lewd jesting of the men and women around her. She saw a sailor from Horatio's division - Styles she thought - disappearing past the beaded curtain with some redhead.
She turned back around to her table to find Archie and Horatio involved in animated discourse about the "beauties" the house had to offer. She only listened with half an ear, too overwhelmed by all the other activity around her, and was only vaguely conscious of being thankful that they did not seek her opinion on the matter. But the sight that greeted her, brought little solace: three woman of the establishment were winding their way through the tables from the bar, and headed straight in their direction. She shook Archie's arm with urgency. The two men swung round from their conversing to face her.
"What?" She gave an abrupt nod of her head in the women's direction. Archie's mouth formed an 'o', but before he could do anything Horatio was pulling a dirty blonde on to his lap. Lorna noticed that anything Archie would have done on her behalf was swiftly forgotten as a brunette found place on beside him. Lorna could do little more than gulp when her (unavoidable) turn came. It was another brunette - hair limp and oily from her squalid living and beads of sweat were visible from the steamy conditions. A very… voluptuous woman and Lorna felt herself being slid across the wood and squashed into Archie as she fitted herself onto the end of the bench. There was a slight creaking.
There was a thud as six beer mugs smacked onto the table surface before them. Horatio reached for his in an instant, and immediately became absorbed in rapid unblushing banter with the blonde. It was not long before Archie too began to flirt shamelessly. Lorna was not immediately capable of speech - indeed she could only sit there with her mouth, somewhat gormlessly, agape.
"You're an awful quiet one, aren't you?" Lorna turned in her seat as best she could to face the giantess seated next to her. She decided her best option was simply to play along, and said nothing. Archie and Horatio had already made steady erosion on the amount of drink in their glasses and she reached for hers -what the hell, I'm going to need it! She downed almost all of it at once and turned once again to the prostitute and felt her hot stale breath on her face.
***
The alcohol had taken swift effect as her woman's body could not contain it and her stomach protested violently at every imbibing, but still she continued - tankard after tankard disappeared before the trio and Lorna felt herself lose more and more control of her senses. The last semi-rational thought she remembered entertaining in her anaesthetised mind was sending the whore away, somewhat crassly, before she was too drunk to escape a situation even she could not explain away.
More and more glasses appeared before her eyes and it was with a numb arm that she reached for them again and again to sate the longing on her lips. The golden elixir was making her giddy. It had been gradual at first, just a slight dulling of the senses, but now the room was spinning about her and she could hear singing. She only saw a blurry figure as Horatio stood to take hold of the blonde's outstretched hand and weaving his way to the staircase where he dropped a coin to the table there and unsteadily made his drunken way upwards.
Lorna turned in her seat, repressing a hiccup to find Archie sitting beside her. She vaguely wondered where the woman was, and gave him a large inane grin. She thought he was swaying about in his seat slightly, but that might just be her dizzy mind. She moved closer to him until their faces were almost touching; until she could smell the alcohol fermenting on his breath. He had a slightly glazed expression as she managed a disjointed whisper.
"I love… you, Archie," she hiccuped slightly before continuing with her slurred declaration. "You're a great friend… hand I just wan'ed ye te know… that I love you." She grinned at him again, but he didn't smile back. Archie just put his hands on her cheeks, tilted her face and kissed her. At first it was only a butterfly kiss; just a bare brushing of skin, but then he kissed her again, this time more forcefully - opening he mouth to him. She felt the heat rush over her and she moved closer and closer to him. This feels so natural. Her senses let go to the ale and to him - she felt nothing but heat and pleasure as she leant into him.
Then he pulled away. And she could just remember being upset about that, before he had dragged her to her unsteady feet and lead her across the room to some rickety wooden stairs. The last thing she remembered was a coin hitting the table.