Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [105]
It was already very busy, men three deep at the bar waiting to be served, and another couple of waiters taking orders from those sitting in the raised section. There was an entirely different kind of atmosphere to Heaney’s too, perhaps because there were more women. Not the kind of low types that Beth was used to seeing in saloons, but ordinary, neatly and soberly dressed women, the kind who might work in offices or shops. She felt afraid of playing in front of them, sure they would not approve of her.
She could see both Sam and Jack serving, but they didn’t appear to have noticed her.
‘I’ll take you in to meet Frank now,’ Theo said, taking her arm and leading her briskly through the tables.
Beth clutched at her fiddle case with both hands as they went through a door beside the stage, down a short passageway and then stopped outside another door while Theo knocked.
‘He’s a good man. Don’t be scared,’ he whispered.
Frank Jasper was a huge, bull-like man, with a bald head, thick neck, splayed nose and pockmarked skin. He looked like a man who had come up the hard way, but his elegant evening clothes were evidence of his success.
‘So this is your little fiddle player,’ he said to Theo after he’d looked Beth up and down. ‘I sure hope she’s as good as you claim or they’ll throw her to the bear.’
Beth had no idea then that Frank was in the habit of using the bear his saloon was named after as a joke. She thought he meant his customers were very hard to please and she quaked in her boots. The size of the saloon was another worry — she wasn’t sure if she would even be heard over a couple of hundred noisy drinkers.
The men left her alone in Frank’s office for at least twenty nail-biting minutes. Frank hadn’t told her how long she’d got to play for, or even what numbers she was going to play, and as she waited she thought she’d sooner be a laundry maid than face this kind of terror. She was just considering looking to see if there was a back door she could slip out of when Jack came in to get her.
‘I’m too scared,’ she admitted. ‘I won’t be able to play a note.’
Even he looked unfamiliar in his striped barman’s apron and bow tie, and the noise from the saloon was becoming more raucous by the minute.
Jack put his arms around her. ‘You’ll be fine, Beth, you aren’t up there on your own, Frank’s got a double bass player and a pianist with you.’
‘He has?’ Beth instantly felt more confident. ‘But why didn’t he tell me?’
‘Maybe he wanted to see if you’d lose your nerve,’ Jack said with a grin. ‘You go on in there and show him what you’re made of.’
Beth slipped off her coat and lifted her fiddle and bow from the desk where she’d left it after tuning up. ‘I’m ready.’
As Jack opened the door through to the bar, she heard someone ringing a bell for silence.
Then Frank spoke, welcoming his customers to the Bear, and Jack held Beth back, indicating she was to wait until she was introduced. ‘Most of you already know Herb on piano, and of course Fred on double bass,’ Frank said. ‘But some of you have been saying you wanted someone good to look at too. So tonight, for the very first time in Philadelphia, we’ve got a real live English doll to play. I heard tell they called her Gypsy in New York, cos she set all their feet a-tapping with her fiddle-playing. So a big hand now for Miss Beth Bolton!’
‘Go,’ Jack said, and gave her a push towards the stage steps.
Hearing applause again was like taking a big swig of rum, and Beth ran up the stairs and bowed to the audience, then quickly turned to the pianist, an older man with a mournful face. ‘ “Kitty O’Neill’s Champion“?’ she asked.
‘Sure thing,’ he said with a smile and then a nod to the double bass player.
The two musicians played an introduction and Beth smiled at the audience as she tucked her fiddle firmly under her chin and lifted her bow. Her fear was gone now, she was back