Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [101]
Beth looked beseechingly at Jack but he just shrugged. ‘There’s worse places than whorehouses,’ he said.
It was barely light the following morning when Beth heard Theo’s voice. It sounded as if he was in the kitchen upstairs talking to someone. Full of fury that he’d not only betrayed her but corrupted her brother and friend too, she flung on her clothes and raced up there.
He was sitting calmly at the table, drinking a cup of coffee and talking to Pearl. His mussed-up hair and the dark shadow on his chin proved he’d been out all night.
‘How could you do this to me?’ she raged at him, before he could even say good morning.‘ You led me to believe you were taking me somewhere respectable. This is a whorehouse!’
She didn’t care if she offended Pearl, and when he laughed at her indignation she wanted to slap his handsome face.
‘Come now, Beth,’ he said, patting the chair next to him as if inviting her to sit down. ‘Do you really think anyone entirely respectable would take in people on the run from New York thugs?’
That was something Beth hadn’t considered and it took the wind out of her sails.
‘I think you should be very grateful that a good person like Pearl was prepared to risk having trouble brought to her door,’ he added reprovingly.
Beth glanced at Pearl, who was still in her night clothes with a little lacy cap over her hair. Her kindly face was full of concern and Beth felt a little ashamed of her outburst, for the woman had welcomed her so warmly last night. It also seemed that Pearl wasn’t a mere housekeeper, but the owner of the house. ‘You could have warned me,’ she said weakly. ‘It was such a shock.’
‘You ought to have been smart enough to work it out for yourself.’ Theo sighed, running his fingers through his hair. ‘You’ve been in Heaney’s pay for months now, you worked in a shop where most of the New York whores buy their clothes, I would’ve thought that would have opened your eyes to reality. Besides, you lost your respectable image the first time you played in a saloon.’
Beth stared at him for a moment, hardly able to believe what he’d just said, but then, as it dawned on her that he was probably right, she burst into tears.
It was Pearl who moved to comfort her.
‘There now, don’t take on,’ she said, enfolding Beth against her large bosom. ‘No harm’s going to come to you here, you don’t even have to meet my girls less you want to. But if you’re set on earning a living playing your fiddle, then you’ve got to live with being seen as a floozy.’
‘But why?’ Beth sobbed. ‘No one thinks anything bad about a man who plays an instrument. I’m not a bad girl, I just love music.’
‘It’s a man’s world, honey. Dancers, singers, actresses and musicians, they all get branded the same,’ Pearl said soothingly. ‘You can choose to be Miss Prim, go-to-church-on-Sunday, but that means you have to dress quiet, and find respectable employment and lead a dull life. But if you choose to be Miss Sassy the fiddle-player who sleeps till noon and has a heap of fun, you’ve got to learn not to give any mind to what people say.’
‘What’s it to be then, Beth?’ Theo asked. ‘Because I’ve got a debut lined up for you tonight.’
Beth disengaged herself from Pearl’s arms, wiped her eyes and looked into his dark ones, hoping to see love in them. She could see amusement, but that was all.
‘Then I guess I’ll have to play,’ she said airily. ‘It wouldn’t do to let you down after you’ve gone to so much trouble.’
Maybe if she continued to amuse him he’d come to love her.
‘There you are, honey,’ Pearl said as she handed over Beth’s red dress which she’d just pressed for her. ‘And I’ve got a real pretty red hair ornament you can borrow if you like.’
It was six in the evening and Beth had managed to overcome her shock about the nature of the house, for no one could have been kinder than Pearl.
After their words that morning, Theo had disappeared off to his room which was further along the passage