MARY: I look at people's eyes. They tell you a lot

MARY says the jellies make her forget faces so she can't remember her first time. She was 16 and got the money she needed to feed her heroin and Temazepam habit down with the other girls in Anderston. For two years she got lucky. Ordinary punters. Then days before she turned 18 she got into a van.

''The guy I was doing business with was all right but, just as I was ready to go, two guys jumped out of the back. They took my money off me and they raped me. I had a knife held to my throat. They hurt me but then I was out later that night. I went home and got a hit, a couple of jellies, and I had to go back out. You're scared but you have to come out. I know I need to come out.''

Two years later, she was raped a second time. She had been taken to a flat in Maryhill and he used a knife. She finds it difficult to talk about: ''I was put through a terrible ordeal. I wouldn't wish it on anybody. I was begging for my life. I didn't know if I was going to live or die.''

She brought charges; picked him out from a line-up; drew a detailed picture of the weapon. The case got nowhere.

She's 24 now. Skinny with a curtain of long fair hair and a bright steely gaze. She's standing on the corner of Cadogan Street, shivering in her warm red jacket, trousers, and trainers. She says she's rattling because she hasn't had her first hit yet.

She's a mother. Her boy is three and she's trying to get custody of him. Her face softens when she talks about him. Last week, she sat him down and told him what she did. He is staying with his father and had heard him call her ''a junkie prostitute''. She was worried someone might explain at nursery.

''I'm telling him about what I do because I know one of the mums will say, oh, she was out on the street last night. You know what it's like. They're jealous of you or you have better curtains up, or something like that. So I told him.

''I really would not wish this on my worst enemy, what I'm doing. I would rather work in saunas or massage parlours but they don't like people that's drug addicts.''

She tried to stop when her son was born but her sister died from a heroin overdose and it tipped her back over the edge. She tried methadone but found herself hallucinating. Two friends, Diane McInally and Margo Lafferty, have been killed. Her mother is dead and her father does not know what she does.

She has just come back on the streets after 18 months trying to get herself sorted out. She feels her head is clearing and she can see what drugs have done to her.

''I want to be treated as an ordinary citizen. I said to my social worker all I want is a wee house, with nice furnishings for me and my boy. Nothing fancy. Just a wee house. That's not asking that much is it? If I didn't have a drugs problem, I wouldn't be here. I'm a hairdresser and a beautician. If I managed to get off drugs I would go back to that. I'm not looking for a buzz so much. I get enough off my wee boy.''

If she won the lottery, she'd buy a big mansion in a fancy part of town and bring all the girls there. ''I would keep them there and make sure they were fed and safe.''

In the meantime, she tries to keep her wits about her: ''I look at people's eyes. I'm a good judge of character. A lot of the girls say you're off your head when I won't go with someone because they look at me the wrong way. But eyes tell you about a person. If you look into them, they tell you a lot.''

JANE: Many older guys prefer a mature woman who is not in a rush

Competing against ''Hot Spanish Babe,'' ''Kinky Thai'', and ''Lusty and horny'' the 45-year-old divorcee who makes a very comfortable living offering her most natural assets finds her age is perhaps her greatest selling point.

Jane is one of around a dozen ''girls'' who regularly advertise under the Massage section of Britain's most down-market tabloid but are highly unlikely to know someone's gluteus from their humerus.

They offer telephone callers a menu of sexual services from their private accommodation around the city and the jovial 45-year-old advertises herself as ''Mature personality''.

''I think my age is an advantage,'' said Jane. ''I think many older guys prefer an older woman who is not going to be in a terrible rush.''

Life as a ''masseuse'' started for her seven years ago when her husband left her and she was desperate for money.

Now she can afford to commute weekly by plane to Aberdeen from the quiet village outside Bristol where she lives.

She works for seven days, starting at 11am and finishing at 11pm before taking a seven-day holiday at home.

''When men phone, I tell them I never work after 11pm,'' she said. ''After that time, I know they will turn up having had too much to drink and apart from the fact they could cause trouble they can be bloody hard work.''

Heading for a spell on the sunbed after dealing with five customers before 4pm, she said: ''I have been rushed off my feet this week,'' laughing when she realised her unfortunate choice of phrase.

Jane's ex-husband, with whom she has a cordial relationship, knows how she earns her living. He looks after her dogs while she is away. Many of her friends are also aware of what she does but her 21-year-old son and her brothers and sisters are unaware.

She has never worked on the streets, says she never would, but has worked out of saunas in Bristol, her home town.

''One of the advantages of Aberdeen is that there are no saunas,'' she said.

''In Bristol, there are hundreds and hundreds and you can earn so much more money here because there is so little competition. Aberdeen is way behind the times.

''The advantages of the saunas are that they are safer but one of the disadvantages is that the owners take a big share of the money and at times you can actually run at a loss.

''The customers have to pay #10 or #20 just to get in for a straight massage and on top of that the owners take a share of the money the girls make on the 'extras.' They don't believe you if you say the customer didn't want any extras and demand money anyway, so you can lose out.''

''I prefer working for myself and in general I enjoy my job. I have done all sorts of other jobs, from barmaid to cashier but cannot make the same money.''

She said she liked Aberdeen men, who were normally very pleasant and she had experienced very few problems over the years.

She had never had contact with the police, did not want to have contact, and had never had cause to ask for their assistance.

She operates from a tenement flat near the city centre and says she has never had any problems with neighbours, even those who have known about her activities.

''I try to make sure they are not bothered,'' she said.

''Things for me are fine as they are now.''

TRACEY: By the time I realised I would never earn like that again, I was addicted to the money

Tracey is watching the Jerry Springer show when we arrive. A woman on the screen has just admitted she has been sleeping with most of her fiance's friends and as they rush around the stage, sporadically lunging at each other, Tracey sits forward in her chair, eagerly pointing out who has been sleeping with whom.

After the television has been turned off, she subsides and sits curled up, gingerly touching her swelling stomach and lighting cigarettes.

''I was a problem child from the age of 12,'' she said. ''Before that, I was fine: I got good grades - all ones and twos. Then I was raped by my best friend's brother and beaten up by his sisters and uncles to stop me taking him to court.''

Tracey has just turned 17. She developed a hard drug problem at 14, dropped out of school at 15, kicked drugs one year later, and left home two days after her sixteenth birthday. Shortly afterwards she became a prostitute.

Delicate and nervy, constantly jiggling her feet and stroking her face, Tracey evades questions about her boyfriend, the father of her child, who takes most of the money she earns and beat her last week, although she insists it was the first and last time.

''When I first started prostitution, I was going to do it to put money in the bank and then stop,'' she said. ''But it never worked like that. When I first started, I was a new face and made #200 a night: it was heaven.

''But after a couple of weeks, I wasn't doing so well, but I thought it was just a slow time and I'd do better soon. Then by the time I realised I would never earn like that again, I was addicted to the money.

''I've changed,'' she said. ''I'm so greedy now: however much money I have, I always want more.''

Tracey began working in a sauna to protect her child from the day-to-day violence faced by street prostitutes. Nevertheless, although violence is rare, house rules set by the sauna's owner can be intrusive and unpleasant. Tracey was particularly affected by the ''cabin interview'' each prostitute has to undergo.

''That's when the owner tries lots of things with you to see how far you'll go: you have to work really hard,'' said Tracey. ''The only time I have been asked for sex without a condom in a sauna was during a cabin interview, but I refused. Sometimes he'll get his friends to try you out too: it's scary because each one could tell the owner you're no good and you'd be thrown out.''

Sauna girls work shifts of 7 to 8 hours, from 9am to 4.30pm and from 3pm to 10pm. The clients pay an entrance fee of around #15 to a doorman.

''The saunas look just like someone's living room,'' she said. ''The guys come in, get changed, and we ask them if they want tea or coffee. All the girls try to talk to the men first because if you get into a conversation with them they're more likely to choose you. I've seen girls grab the men as they're getting changed - it gets very competitive.

''We all sit there while he decides who he wants. Some of them take ages to choose because the girls all make a massive effort when they first come in. It's horrible when they do that: it's like being a piece of meat in a butchers.

''The clients don't mind that I'm pregnant,'' she continued. ''Some really like it, they can't get me into the room fast enough.

''The rules about what you can wear varies,'' she adds. ''You're not usually allowed to wear tights - you have to wear stockings or holdups.

''It's more expensive than I expected to work in a sauna. You have to give the owner #10 for every half hour you're with a client, plus #10 each night for cleaning and #5 to #10 for tea and coffee. You also have to buy your own condoms and lubricants.

''I want to go to college and become a social worker,'' she said. ''But I keep putting it off.

''But I've given prostitution up for now, touch wood. It's been a couple of weeks. Once I've had my baby, there are four saunas that have asked me to work for them. I don't know now, but I can't see me giving it up because I can't live off a Giro. Maybe I'll just do the odd afternoon.''

At 1am on the morning after the interview, Tracey received a telephone call from an escort agency asking her to attend to a guest at a high-class hotel in Edinburgh's city centre. She took a taxi to the hotel and didn't return home until dawn.

ROSIE: No envy of the sauna girls for a 'frostie' of 30 years' standing

IT is 11pm on a bank holiday Monday and business is slow. The business is bodies and nine women, standing 30 yards apart on Leith's Coburg Street, are desperately trying to sell theirs. One teenager, her bare legs shivering, looks as vulnerable as a fawn among hunters.

Two older women proffer pale acres of cleavage. Four oafish lads stumble along for a gawp and a giggle.

A nearby warehouse sign mocks the women further with its boast of ''Antique Reproductions''. More pungently, on another Leith street, a sign referring to MoT-deficient cars advises: ''Failures Bought.''

Rosie Jackson, 46, stands for sale three nights a week on Coburg Street - not a mile from the returned royal yacht Britannia - but she is no failure. Indeed, she is proud of what she has achieved for her kids and of her skills as a ''professional''.

In nearly three decades of street work in both Edinburgh and Glasgow, she has seen it all. And she is angry.

Angry at the infiltration of drugs into her Bible-old profession, angry at the dealers exploiting ''wee lassies that would break your heart to look at'', angry at the perception that street girls are inferior to their sisters in the saunas.

The latter refer to the former as ''frosties'', because they stand in the cold. Even so, Rosie does not envy the sauna girls: ''It is a nice safe way to do it but they have to give a percentage of their earnings to the sauna owners and I refuse point-blank to hand my money over to anyone. Also, on the streets, I have the choice of who I go with.''

Away from the frosty beat, Rosie is any warm-hearted, middle-aged mother heading for Marks & Sparks. She has a healthy complexion and smiling eyes and is dressed in smart black and white jacket and trousers ensemble.

She is newly married and, from a previous marriage, has two sons and three daughters, aged between 15 and 28, who know how she earns her cash.

''They now accept it's my job. My youngest daughter is not proud that I'm a prostitute but she is proud that she has never had to do without.

''I have always brought her up to know it is a very unhealthy profession now because of the drug element. These wee lassies out there now are not prostitutes. They are drug addicts out to feed their habit. I feel very sorry for them. They could be anybody's daughters.''

When Rosie had her children, she gave up the streets for six years, and missed it. ''I missed the camaraderie and the buzz when you had #200 in your pocket for one night's work.''

Her then husband reluctantly accepted the situation: ''We had a mortgage and he had very bad health problems.''

Rosie began work in Glasgow and her assessment of both cities conforms to popular stereotype. ''Glasgow punters are friendlier. They like you to chat away. Even getting the names of Edinburgh punters is a problem.''

As with property, prices are higher in Edinburgh: #20, #25, #30, and #60 compared to #10, #15, #20, and #40 in Glasgow.

However, Rosie, who followed a friend into the trade at 17 ''out of bravado'', says drugs are becoming the common bond between the cities. Around four-fifths of Glasgow's street prostitutes are drug addicts. At present, there are only a handful in Edinburgh.

''If Edinburgh does not stamp out the drugs problem, it will go like Glasgow. I was there when the drug problem started in Glasgow. It started with one wee girl then more and more came out.

''Now, Glasgow has only five working prostitutes that don't take drugs. The same is going to happen in Edinburgh because these wee lassies are now coming through from Glasgow. People say they come to Edinburgh because of the murders in Glasgow.

''I don't believe that. I worked there when three of the murders were committed and, sure, there's a sense of fear for a week or a fortnight. But then life goes on.

''So it is not fear. And it is not the police presence in Glasgow because there has always been a heavy police presence in Glasgow. Everybody keeps saying Edinburgh police are more liberal. Okay, they operate a policy of tolerance. But I have never encountered anything in Glasgow except tolerance, simply because I don't take drugs.''

According to Rosie, the teenage girls are heading to Edinburgh because they are now known in Glasgow as thieves - ''dippers''. Now, up to the same tricks in Leith, they are driving away Rosie's regulars.

On Temazepam and heroin, they think themselves invisible and openly steal from clients.

''It's going to take a murder in Edinburgh to open people's eyes to what is going on. And it will happen. It's guaranteed.

''I have been in prostitution longer than those wee girls have been alive. Are they going to reach my age or are they going to die first?''

SHEILA: Offered #800 for sex without a condom

SHE is 19, with a perfect oval face and big eyes made all the bigger by her gauntness and the pallor of her skin.

She got a clutch of O-grades at school, speaks two languages, did a business administration course, and got a full-time job. She also got a drug habit. To feed it, she was working on the streets as a prostitute at the age of 16.

She is only too well aware of so much potential going to waste but has to take home #100 a night to feed her own and her boyfriend's drug habit.

While most people need a morning cup of coffee to get them into working mode, Sheila needs smack to spend the night in Glasgow's red-light area providing sexual services which make sex in her private life repugnant.

She is also aware of the dangers of her work. Her best friend was murdered and she has been beaten up. One client attempted to rape her at knifepoint, and she was offered #800 for sex without a condom by another.

''No amount of money could buy me my life,'' she comments wryly. She has been fined up to #150 for soliciting and has fallen behind with payments.

She says: ''I get a #150 fine. In order to pay the fine, I need to work, to work I get fined, so it's a vicious circle.''

She gets fifteen free condoms and free needles a night from the drop-in centre Base 75, and can get medical treatment there, but she says with passion: ''I'd love to come off drugs, I'd love to come off the town.''

Estranged from her family, she says: ''I am 20 this year and where has my childhood gone? I've grown up far too quickly and I don't want other girls going through the same.''

TOMORROW:

A tale of four cities where the game is played to very different rules