Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [100]
The room was plain, nothing more than an iron bed, a wash stand with a tin basin and ewer, and a small clothes closet. But it looked and smelled clean and Beth was so tired she didn’t even feel dismayed that Theo had left her alone again.
After Pearl had gone upstairs, she took the oil lamp and went into the next room where she was reassured to see one of Sam’s shirts hanging on a peg on the wall and Jack’s checked jacket on the back of a chair.
Beth had just finished unpacking her valise when a clock upstairs struck ten. Thinking she would run up and ask Pearl if she could have some hot water for a wash, she made her way back to the staircase.
The basement door opened up at the back of the hall, and as Beth reached it she heard people coming down the stairs from the first floor. Assuming they were family members, who might not wish to run into a stranger so late in the evening, Beth shrank back into the doorway.
On the wall opposite was a large looking-glass, and suddenly reflected in it were four girls.
She gasped in shock, for they weren’t the kind of sedate young ladies she had expected to see, but scantily dressed floozies, their breasts and legs partially revealed as their brightly coloured satin and lace garments fluttered around them.
It was very obvious what they were, and indeed what this house was, for Amy and Kate had shown her similar garments more than once. Even Ira had a special section in her shop where she kept such things.
All four girls, a blonde, two brunettes and one redhead, were young and pretty, and they were all giggling at a shared joke.
‘If he’s not done in ten minutes I’ll make him give me another ten dollars,’ the redhead said, spluttering with laughter.
Beth took a step backwards on to the stairs to the basement and quietly closed the door, so shocked that she no longer cared if she had a wash. She wanted to believe that there could be another explanation, but she knew there couldn’t be.
Theo had brought her to a brothel.
Chapter Twenty
Beth lay rigid in the narrow bed, too upset to sleep. It was very quiet in the basement, but if she strained her ears she could just make out the sound of laughter and the tinkling sounds of a piano from above.
It was bad enough to think that women were selling their bodies to men up there, but she was even more affronted that Theo would bring her here without any warning.
Could it be that he thought she was too stupid or too innocent to realize what this house was? Or was there a more sinister reason, namely, that he was planning to recruit her to the business?
She had no idea what time it was when she finally heard Jack’s and Sam’s voices outside in the passage, but she guessed it to be well after one in the morning. Leaping out of bed, stopping only long enough to throw a shawl over her nightdress, she ran barefoot to the room next door.
‘Beth!’ Sam exclaimed. ‘We weren’t expecting you so soon.’
‘Are you feeling better now?’ Jack asked.
It was clear both of them had been drinking for they were unsteady on their feet and had glazed eyes.
She blurted out what she had seen and how upset she was that Theo hadn’t warned her. ‘Did he tell you what this place was before you got here?’ she asked.
‘Well, yes,’ Jack said a little sheepishly. ‘But he said we’d be down in the basement with no connection with what went on upstairs. We don’t even use that door, we come in through the basement one.’
‘Don’t take on, sis,’ Sam said, slurring his words a little. ‘It’s just a place to stay until we get something else, and we’ve already got work. Besides, it ain’t as if you’ve never met any whores before. Kate and Amy were your friends.’
Beth had naively imagined that Sam had never known what her friends back in New York did for a living, and she felt awkward then. ‘But Theo didn’t tell me,’ she wailed.
‘Go back to bed,’ Sam said impatiently. ‘Yeah, Theo is a bit of a cad, why’d