Free Tiger Men by Judy Nunn Page B

out any disputes, and one by one inspect them for any sign of disease, Mick O’Callaghan was invariably the topic of conversation. She finally decided it necessary to issue a warning. Not only to the girls.
    ‘No sampling of the goods during working hours, Mick,’ she said. ‘If my girls want to give you a free poke, they can do it in their spare time. What they get up to then’s none of my concern, but they’re here to make money and I’ve a business to run.’
    ‘You’ve no cause to fear, Ma. I’ve not been with one of your girls yet, either in or out of working hours, and I’m not about to avail myself of any offers. I’ve no intention of mixing business with pleasure.’
    Mick was telling no lie, though his practise of self-control had not proved difficult for he’d hardly been celibate. He’d sated his lust any number of times in the little room out the back with pretty Molly Bates, the smithy’s daughter who lived several blocks away in Sun Street.
    Sensing the truth, Ma gave a satisfied nod. Her next comment, however, took him completely by surprise. ‘You could do Evie a favour and give her a bit of a jig though. Make her feel good about herself, you know what I mean?’
    ‘Eh?’ He wasn’t sure if he’d heard right. Ma wanted him to bed Evie? Why?
    ‘The girl worships the very ground you walk on, Mick.’
    The statement bore an element of exaggeration, for young Evie couldn’t actually recall the night of her assault beyond the moment she’d scratched her attacker’s face. She did, however, see Mick as something of a hero, a view based purely on hearsay, for Ma had circulated the story of the fight, embellishing the action with heroic detail in order that her girls should feel safe under the protection of one as deceptive in appearance as the handsome young Irishman.
    ‘Brawn is no match for brains,’ she’d said to them collectively on the evening she’d come downstairs to introduce Mick. ‘Mick here will look after you like he did Evie: that’s his job. But if you’re smart and pay heed to him, he’ll steer you clear of the troublemakers and you won’t find yourself in the predicament Evie did. That way you’ll get to keep your front teeth,’ she’d added meaningfully, ‘do you follow me?’ The girls most certainly had, and they’d nodded obediently.
    ‘It’s a matter of pride, Mick,’ Ma now said, sensing his bewilderment. ‘Evie was the most popular girl I had, the youngest and the prettiest, and now she’s stuck in the kitchen.’ His confusion still evident, she went on patiently to explain. ‘It’s her teeth, you see. Teeth are one of the main things that’ll put a whore out of business – all the other stuff can be hid behind paint and rouge.’ Ma surreptitiously ran her tongue over her own teeth. Yellow as they were they were still there for the most part and she was proud of the fact. ‘The loss of teeth’s a sign of age,’ she said, ‘and that’s a hard cop when you’re nineteen like Evie.’
    Ma poured herself her first tot of rum for the day. It was late afternoon and Mick always called upstairs for a chat before the evening trade picked up.
    ‘She’s a hard worker, Evie, which is why I’ve kept her on as a full-time domestic, but that’s quite a step down the ladder for one who’s been as popular as she was.’ Ma took a swig of rum before repeating her proposition. ‘So what if, out of all the girls, Evie was the one to find favour with you – just for one night, mind – you being her hero and all. Well for starters, it might keep the others off your back, mightn’t it? And it’d give Evie “face”, like the Chinee say. She’d be able to hold her head high with the girls. She could go back to the kitchen and bugger the lot of them. What do you say?’
    ‘I say you’re not as tough as you pretend you are, Ma.’
    A number of things suddenly made sense to Mick. He’d noticed several women about the place, women scarred or minus teeth,