Gypsy (39 page)

Every day a ship brought in a couple of dozen young women among its passengers, and it was possible some of them had been whores back in the towns they came from. But not all — some were country girls who just wanted a bit of adventure. Theo met each boat, and it was always the prettiest young women he made a beeline for to offer help and a place to live.

It seemed he didn’t love Beth any more, and he’d forgotten all the plans the four of them had made back in Vancouver.

Chapter Twenty-six

‘You really do have a gypsy in your soul,’ Jefferson murmured as he took Beth’s hand and raised it to his lips. ‘I could listen to you playing for ever and never tire of it.’

‘I would tire of it,’ she said with a smile, and picked up the glass of French champagne he’d just poured for her.

It was the end of January and thick snow lay all around outside, but they were in Jeff Smith’s Parlour, his bar and gambling den for those in his immediate circle. The stove was blazing, Beth was a little drunk, and it felt good to have a handsome man trying to seduce her.

Jefferson had been trying to woo her since December.

He’d given her a rocking chair for her cabin, bought her candy and was always inviting her for a drink or a meal. But this was the first time she’d been entirely alone with him; usually, when he brought her to the saloon, most of his cronies were here too.

They had been present earlier, but they had dispersed a while ago now, and even Nate Pollack, the bartender, had left after putting more logs on the stove.

‘Are you still planning to head for the goldfields next month?’ Jefferson asked, taking a strand of her hair and winding it round his finger.

‘Sam and Jack can’t wait to go,’ she replied. ‘So I guess I’ll go with them.’

‘It’s no trip for a lady,’ he said, shaking his head.

‘I’m as strong as most men,’ she said with a smile. ‘Besides, Skagway will be a ghost town when everyone’s left. What would there be for me to do?’

‘As soon as the weather breaks there will be even more ships. People are making their way here from all over the world,’ he said with that sparkle in his grey eyes she’d come to like so much. ‘You’ll make a bigger fortune here than you ever will in Dawson City. You could die on that journey; even the Indians say how difficult it is.’

‘We planned to go there, so we will.’ She shrugged.

‘And what about the Earl?’

Beth looked down at her lap. However cross she was with Theo, she still loved him, and the prospect of parting company with him was unbearable. But he had been a louse to her for months now, and she knew that if she stayed on here when Sam and Jack had gone, she couldn’t count on Theo to change his ways and she’d be very alone.

‘He won’t be coming with us,’ she said, and tried to smile as if it didn’t hurt.

‘He’s a fool then, for he’ll get himself killed without Jack to get him out of trouble,’ Jefferson said.

‘Surely not!’ Beth exclaimed.

‘He is too cocky by half. There are many who’d like nothing better than to see him dead.’

‘Not you?’ she asked anxiously.

Jefferson looked at her thoughtfully for a moment. ‘No, I like the man,’ he said eventually. ‘But then he’s smart enough not to tread on my toes. I’ve heard the whispers, though, and I can see the signs.’

‘Can’t you speak to him and warn him?’

‘He wouldn’t listen to me. Besides, why should you care what becomes of him? You must know he’s with Dolly at the Red Onion most nights?’

Beth felt as if she’d been stabbed through the heart, for until that moment it was only something she’d suspected, not known for certain.

Dolly was a voluptuous blonde who sang and danced at the Red Onion. She was a whore too, and rumour had it she charged fifty dollars a time. Every man in Skagway, it seemed, wanted to have his way with her.

‘You didn’t know, did you?’ Jefferson said. He put his arms around her and drew her to his chest. ‘I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you, I didn’t intend to.’

Beth bit back tears. ‘I’m fine. I had suspected it anyway. I guess that’s all I need to confirm it’s time to go.’

‘You know, I’d like you to stay and be my girl. I’d get you a real nice place to live, with a maid an’ all. I’d even get the Earl run out of town.’

The champagne and his honeyed Southern accent were breaking down her resistance, and when he lifted her chin to kiss her, she didn’t break away. His kiss was as smooth as he was, warm and very sensual, and she was instantly aroused.

He ran his fingers down her neck lightly as he kissed her, and even though a small voice deep down inside her was telling her that to make love with him would be a mistake, she wanted him. He appreciated her, he treated her like a lady, and if Theo liked that blonde whore better than her, then it was time she showed him she didn’t care.

Jefferson’s hand stole into the bodice of her dress, cupping her breast, and his kisses became more passionate. ‘Let me take you to my room at the back,’ he murmured against her neck. ‘We can be comfortable there.’

He didn’t wait for her agreement, just picked her up in his arms and carried her through a door at the back of the bar. It was warm in there too, for there was another small stove, and by the light from it she saw a mahogany carved bed suitable for a grand hotel, covered with a red patterned quilt.

He didn’t fumble with the small buttons on the back of her dress, or the laces of her stays, and though she knew this meant he was practised at undressing women, it didn’t make her feel any less wanted.

His experience showed in his lovemaking too. He didn’t rush, and his touch was firm but caressing as he whispered little endearments and told her she was beautiful.

She was whipped up into a state of near delirium even before he removed his clothes; and as she wrapped her arms around him and caressed him she found him to be all hard muscle, with none of the softness she’d expected from a Southern gentleman.

It was weeks since Theo last made love to her, and that had been a hurried, unsatisfactory snack rather than a feast. Jefferson offered her a banquet, teasing her, sucking and licking at her, and when he finally entered her she was drenched in perspiration and fevered with lust.

‘You more than exceeded my expectations, mam,’ he said with a mischievous smile as he propped himself up on his elbows, looking down at her, but still inside her.

‘So did you, sir,’ she replied, and giggled. ‘I think, too, we have solved the problem of how to keep warm in Alaska.’

‘Whatever happens in the future, I’ll always remember this night and treasure it,’ he said, bending his head to kiss her.

Beth could only smile, for she knew that his words would ease the guilt she’d feel in the morning.

‘I hope I can persuade you to stay on here,’ he said a little later after he’d rolled off her and was holding her in his arms. ‘You and I could be a great team. And when the gold fever is gone we could go on to other towns and find new challenges.’

Beth was relieved to find the cabin empty when she got back there at noon the following day. After the comfort at Jefferson’s place it looked spartan and dreary. Their beds were just sacks filled with straw, and the one she shared with Theo was as neat as she’d left it the previous evening, so she knew he had stayed out all night. Sam’s and Jack’s had the imprints of their bodies still and the blankets were in the usual heap.

Sam and Jack knew Beth had gone back to Jeff Smith’s Parlour for a drink, and as they’d taken the trouble to bank up the stove before they left this morning, she felt they couldn’t be angry she’d spent the night with him. Yet all the same she felt awkward about it. It was fine for men to bed women, but a woman who succumbed to the same temptation was considered a trollop.

She had already bathed at Jefferson’s; he’d filled his bath for her and even washed her. Sitting down on the rocking chair he’d given her, she put her head back and closed her eyes, reliving the sensuality of it all, and decided she didn’t care if she was a trollop. She would brazen it out when the boys came home. Jack and Sam had romantic dalliances all the time, why shouldn’t she?

As for Theo, if he didn’t like it he could just go off and stay with Dolly the whore. Perhaps when he discovered she was only good for one thing, that she couldn’t cook, sew or wash his clothes, he’d realize how valuable his Gypsy Queen had been.

The door of the cabin crashed open late that afternoon, bringing with it an icy wind and a flurry of snow.

Beth had been dozing in the rocking chair. She woke with a start to see Theo in the doorway, purple in the face with anger.

‘How could you let that bastard fuck you?’ he shouted at her. ‘You’ve made me look like a prize idiot!’

Beth had intended to admit what she’d done, for she knew someone would eventually let it slip. But she hadn’t expected that word would reach Theo so fast.

For a second she just looked at him, shocked that he was more hurt by how others would react to the news than by her faithlessness.

‘You had it coming to you,’ she said defiantly. ‘You’ve been a pig to me for months, and you’ve been spending all your time with that whore in the Red Onion.’

‘I’ve been involved with business,’ he snarled. ‘A man’s business interests have to come first if he is to get anywhere.’

‘There’s only one kind of business going on in a brothel,’ she retorted, her voice rising in anger. ‘And I’m never going to play second fiddle to a whore, so get back there now and wait in line while she lets every other man in town fuck her.’

He looked at her in astonishment.

‘You are a lying, cheating louse,’ she continued. ‘Telling people you’re an earl! Robbing them blind with your marked cards! I might have been able to live with that. But I won’t live with a man who doesn’t value me. I’ve stood by you through everything, but not any more. Get out now and don’t come back.’

He faltered for only a moment, then snatched up his clothes from the shelf in the corner, bundled them into a bag and left, slamming the door behind him so hard, the whole cabin shook.

Beth cried then, bitter tears which were not for sorrow that she’d been with another man, but for love turned sour. She would have gone to the ends of the earth for Theo, and for all her harsh words she knew she loved him still.

A week later Beth and Sam were having a night in. It was so cold outside that eyelashes became covered in frost within seconds and lungs hurt just breathing in. They had banked up the stove with logs, and sat close to it, each of them wrapped in a warm quilt.

Jack had gone to see the Arnolds, a family with three children who had arrived in Skagway in early December. They had been ill equipped from the start, and what little money they’d brought with them had soon vanished. They were still living in a tent, like so many people here, and one of the children, nine-year-old Nancy, had died from pneumonia just after Christmas.

Jack had tried to get Sid Arnold, the father, some work. He had been a barber in Portland, but there was little call for barbers here where almost all the men favoured thick beards and moustaches. He lasted only one day in the sawmill — he just didn’t have the strength for heavy work — and he had proved to be something of a liability in every other job Jack had found for him. Now his wife and young son Robbie were sick, and Jack had made a collection around Skagway to send them home on the next ship. But Sid’s eyes were as bright with gold fever as his wife’s were with a high temperature. He kept insisting that he was setting off for the Chilkoot Pass, convinced that was the answer to everything.

‘Do you think Jack will talk him round?’ Sam asked Beth.

Beth shook her head. She had observed this gold madness for so long that she had come to the conclusion it was terminal. Most of the people who arrived here had no idea how far it was to Dawson City — they imagined it was a short stroll up a couple of hills. Few realized how cold and treacherous it was on the mountains, and a great many of the people who had set off last autumn on both the White Pass and the Chilkoot Pass had been forced to turn back and wait till spring.

But the Chilkoot Indians, who were accustomed to using this trail, had reported that many of those who didn’t return had perished up there. The flesh had been picked clean from their bodies by birds and other scavengers.

‘Maybe the only solution is to put his wife and the two remaining children on the boat alone,’ Beth said sadly. ‘I believe they have family in Portland who will nurse them back to health. That is, if they don’t die before a ship comes in.’

‘Are you afraid of going up the Pass?’ Sam asked curiously.

‘Yes,’ she admitted. ‘But we’ve come this far, we’d always regret it if we didn’t go the rest of the way.’

‘It won’t be the same without Theo.’

‘No, it won’t,’ Beth sighed. ‘It will be easier.’

Sam was silent for some time, staring at the fire with blank eyes. Beth knew that both he and Jack missed Theo for his imaginative ideas and the fun he could create. They had admitted that they’d known for some time about Dolly, and had hoped Beth’s night with Jefferson would bring him sharply back to heel.

But however much they liked him and thought of him almost as a brother, their primary loyalty was to Beth. So they hadn’t tried to talk to him, and he in turn hadn’t gone looking for them.

‘What about Soapy?’ Sam asked, breaking the silence. ‘Do you have feelings for him?’

‘Lustful ones, perhaps.’ Beth giggled. ‘But it’s been a week now and he hasn’t made any move to see me again. I guess now he’s heard Theo’s out of the picture, I don’t look quite so attractive.’

Sam half smiled. ‘Maybe that’s just as well, sis, he’s a dangerous man. I like him well enough, but he’s more slippery than an eel. If just half the stories about him are true, there’s still enough to put the wind up anyone. You’ll find the right man one day, someone who is worthy of you.’

Beth reached forward and ruffled his thick blond beard. ‘We’ve come a long way, haven’t we? I doubt the Langworthys would recognize us now. Not just the way we look, but how we’ve changed inside. Imagine us trying to have tonight’s conversation when we were back in Liverpool! Remember what Mama said about passion? I had no idea what that was then.’