Chapter 10
Lila’s real name was Stephen Marsh. No one who currently knew him knew that name, however, and it’d been so long since he’d been called by it, he no longer turned when he heard it spoken aloud. Lila was his chosen name. He thought of himself in the third person, the woman’s name incongruous with his male identity. Lila, he. Over time, the moniker had become who he was.
At twenty-three, Lila felt old. He’d started his life in a brothel, the illegitimate son of a saloon girl, so it came as no surprise when he found himself in the same profession. As a young child, his idea of beauty stemmed from the women he knew, dolled-up harlots with brash personalities and overly feminine charms. The hair teased and curled, the eyes rimmed with black as if bruised, the lips pinched and bitte
