Chapter 11
His mother died from s******s two years later. Lila wore a dress to the funeral, standing among the other saloon girls with his head high beneath the veil that hid his face. Later that evening, he dumped out the few articles of men’s clothing remaining in his closet; he threw away his belts, his spats, his wallet. With Marie’s help, he altered his mother’s best dresses to fit his lanky frame—the madam showed him how to stuff an old scarf into the front of his corset so the extra fabric billowed into some semblance of a bust, and that evening he went to work for the first time.
He had a knack for picking the right clients—virgins mostly, daunted by the other girls but easily assured by Lila’s gentle manner. Men who had never been with a woman before had no expectations Lila had
