Enough to suit any taste.

Captain Kent stood as Melinda entered the parlour again. His drink sat untouched on the elaborately carved wooden table next to his lounge.

“May I introduce to you the beautiful, Miss Emmeline,” Melinda said as she led the first of her ladies over to the Captain.

Emmeline was a tall and lithe girl with the most enchanting curly red hair, dressed in an elaborate red dress with black frilled edging. Pale, near white, skin with emerald green eyes. She looked a fresh face to her line of work, a mere girl to William, she was in her very late teens. Indeed, Melinda had picked well for Bill had always held a fondness for redheads after his first, now departed wife.

“Please to make your acquittance, Captain,” the girl Emmeline greeted him as she curtsied for him. Melinda always made sure to train her girls expertly in their manners.

“The pleasure is all mine, Miss Emmeline,” William answered as he lent to kiss her on the hand.

“Not just red in hair and dress is Emmeline, my dear Captain Kent,” Melinda began her sales pitch of the girl, “but cherry red in all things too. I’ve been saving this one just for you to return. Worth quite the pretty penny…”

New to the game, thought William. Very fresh it seemed.

Leading the girl away after that, Melinda brought the second of her three offerings over. A brown hair lady of mid-twenties. Lightly freckled, she had a healthy country-girl look to her. She was attractive with good full bosoms, not overly large like some men wanted them. William liked them to stay high for as long as possible before their inevitable droop. That was a long way off with this one he thought though.

“Here we have another girl new to The Cat’s Meow. Allow me to introduce to you, Hattie,” Melinda introduced the second girl, this time in a blue gown.

“Coorrr, you’re Bloody Bill!” the girl said in stark amazement.

“Hattie!” Melinda snapped at the girl, smacking her hand, her training only just beginning by the looks.

William found her simple manners charming though, suppressing a laugh if not a smile as Hattie was led away while being lectured. The spirited lass even risking turning back for another look at the famous Captain. Hattie’s eyes twinkling with mischief. William did like brunettes in near equal measure to redheads.

The final enchantress of Melinda’s choosing was a small doll of a lady, grown into full women hood but still petite. Her hair ran long and straight down her back and was the most unusual shade that William could only describe as a smoky-blonde. Dressed in a tight-fitting green dress, Melinda brought over the most different of the three girls compared to William’s normal tastes.

“Finally, to take your fancy, may I introduce you to Élise,” Melinda intoned.

“So wonderful to meet you, Monsieur Kent,” Élise greeted him, her accent and name immediately placing her from Mercied.

"You are a long way from home," William stated the obvious to the girl.

"As are you, from Ithaca," Élise replied but dodged his true question.

It was beyond strange to find someone from there this deep into hotly controlled Ithacan territory. Perhaps she was the most interesting of all three.

Melinda took the last girl back to the others to give William a moment to make his selection. It was as he took in all three of them for a second look that he noticed another girl hiding behind the three. Dress as the others were in a dark silver courtesan dress, she had the unmistakable black hair and tanned brown skin of the desert-dwelling Sylfaian. Her eyes bright white spots in amongst heavily blacked lashes and eye shadow. If the Mercied girl had been exotic, this one was something else. The Sylvia didn’t sail this far west at all so how she had come to be here was anyone’s guess, let along working in an establishment such as The Cat’s Meow.

“Have we given you enough time Captain?” Melinda prompted him when he hadn’t answered for a number of moments.