Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [125]
For a few long moments there was no reaction from the drinkers; almost every one of them had their backs turned to her. Theo held his breath, but slowly men began to turn towards her, and smiles of appreciation began to creep on to their faces.
Theo saw how in tune Beth was with her audience. She smiled and tossed her hair, picking up the tempo as she got their complete attention, and once she’d got it she certainly knew how to hold it.
They were mainly stevedores and sailors, some already very drunk, but they began to tap their feet, their eyes never leaving her, and she took them to the far shores of their imagination with her music.
‘She’s better than ever,’ Jack gasped. ‘Look at her face!’
Theo could see nothing else. Not the men jigging on the spot in front of her, not the couple of whores eyeing him up from the corner, or even the glass of whisky in his hand. He’d seen that same blissful expression on Beth’s face just hours earlier when they made love. He felt he ought to feel jealous that her music meant as much, but he didn’t. He just felt bigger and more powerful than any other man in the saloon because she was his girl.
By the time she’d played for twenty minutes, people passing were elbowing their way in through the door until the saloon was packed to capacity.
‘They’ll never be able to serve them all,’ Jack said, nudging Sam. ‘We’ll get up there and see if they need a hand.’
Once again Theo saw Beth’s impeccable timing, for as the boys reached the bar and offered their services, she finished her number.
‘I’ve got to take a break now,’ she called out. ‘Get yourselves drinks and I’ll be back soon.’
That first night there was over thirty dollars in the hat, and Oris Beeking, the landlord of the Globe, was only too delighted to agree that Beth should play four nights a week. Furthermore, he took Sam and Jack on as bartenders too.
Vancouver suited them in every way. People were not as staid as they’d been everywhere else in Canada, for it was in many ways still a frontier town. It was good to be able to walk along the shore in warm sunshine, to chat to fishermen and sailors and feel they belonged here. Sam and Jack found a couple of sassy saloon girls they liked. Theo got into some poker games, and on Sunday evenings when they were all at home together, they would plan their saloon, a place with gambling, music and dancing girls.
After the uncertainty and discomfort they’d experienced on their travels, all four of them were happy to be settled again. There was no more talk of moving on, only of finding somewhere a little bigger to live.
On 16 July, Beth went to the post office to post a letter to Molly and the Langworthys. She’d been posting letters home in almost every town they’d stopped at, and she was anxious now for them to receive the address they could write back to.
Outside the post office there was a large group of men, and Beth’s first thought was that they were about to start fighting, for they were pacing up and down, shouting and waving their arms. But as she got closer she saw it wasn’t anger infecting them but excitement. Two of the men were stevedores she knew from the Globe, and she guessed that the others had just come in on a ship.
‘What’s all the excitement?’ she asked, when one of the men she knew smiled and waved at her.
‘Gold,’ he replied, his eyes glittering. ‘They’ve found gold up in Alaska. Tons of it. We’re planning to go there on the next ship.’
Beth laughed. It sounded like a tall story to her. As far as she knew, Alaska was under thick snow all year round and the only people likely to go there were fur trappers.
She posted her letter, bought some bread, meat and vegetables, then made her way home. But as she passed a news-stand, she saw the headline ‘Ton of Gold’ on the front of the newspaper and a picture of a ship berthing in San Francisco on which this ton of gold was said to be.
Snatching up the paper, she read how in August of the previous year a man called George Carmack, with his two brothers-in-law, Tagish Charlie