Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [115]
Josie, the Irishwoman who lived next door, got Beth a job in a shirt factory with her. It was tedious, repetitive work: she machined up the side seams of the shirts, someone else put the collar on and the sleeves in.
As the autumn turned to winter and the first falls of snow, Beth was frozen all day in that factory. She saw herself becoming like the other women there, old before their time, with stooped backs and poor eyesight. They were nearly all Irish, and they had no choice but to accept the few dollars a week because they had children to feed and often feckless husbands who drank their wages away.
But at least they did have a husband. Beth was calling herself Mrs Cadogan, and she washed Theo’s shirts, socks and underclothes so he could look smart, and cooked him meals when he deigned to come home — everything a wife would do. But it was Sam and Jack who appreciated her home-making skills, it was they who hauled home coal for the fire and comforted her when she felt everything was hopeless. And she couldn’t bring herself to tell them that she was carrying Theo’s child.
Chapter Twenty-three
Beth pulled her fur hat down more firmly over her ears and stepped out into the thick snow with some trepidation for it was five in the morning and very dark. The fur-lined boots Jack had given her at Christmas kept her feet warm and dry, but her long coat, skirt and petticoats gathered up snow as she walked and hampered her movements.
Beth had been laid off by the shirt factory in early December. She couldn’t say she was sorry, for she’d grown to hate the job. She found another one as a cook soon afterwards.
Theo, Sam and Jack had been horrified, and tried very hard to talk her out of it as it was in a bunkhouse for itinerant workers in the construction business. She insisted she was going to take the job as there was nothing else on offer, but on her first day, when she was confronted by forty rough, tough, none too clean men of a dozen different nationalities, she almost turned tail and ran. But the pay was far better than at the shirt factory and it would be warm there too.
The boys were afraid the men would take liberties with her, but she’d found them to be respectful, protective and appreciative. It was a very long day, from five in the morning till seven at night, but after the breakfast was cleared away and she’d done a few other tasks like sweeping out the dormitories and cleaning the dining room, she could go home for a couple of hours. But more often she stayed in the bunkhouse, read a book or dozed by the stove until it was time to prepare the evening meal.
She could have been really happy if it hadn’t been for her anxiety about telling Theo and the boys she was pregnant. From early January, when it became harder to fasten her skirt, each day she resolved to speak to them that evening. But it was the end of February now, and she still hadn’t managed to do it.
It wasn’t just cowardice because she feared the news would be greeted with alarm. Most days she didn’t even see the boys because she went to work when they were still asleep, and they were working when she got home. But even on Sundays, when they were all home together, the time was never right. One day Sam was excited about a pay rise, and she didn’t want to dampen his good mood; another time Jack had fallen in the snow and hurt his leg, and she didn’t want to add to his worries. As for Theo, he couldn’t be relied on to be there even on Sundays, for he had finally wormed his way into a group of wealthy men who liked to play poker.
Theo lived a double life. To his new friends he was a successful businessman with interests in America and Canada. They had no idea that his real home was in the notorious slum area. Or that he had no business other than gambling.
While Beth didn’t like him disappearing for days on end, or the fact that she had no part in his other