Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [152]
She watched Sam as he packed away his things. He was bare-chested, the first time she’d seen him without a shirt since the previous summer, and it was a surprise to see that the boyish, slender chest and back that she remembered from their days in Liverpool were now rippling with hard-packed muscle. But then, she’d got muscles in her legs and arms too. All that pack-carrying, sledge-pulling and carrying buckets of water had made her almost as strong as the men.
‘Are you excited, Sam?’ she asked.
‘You bet!’ he said, his handsome face breaking into a wide smile. ‘I know we’ve got a long way to go yet, but it’ll be an easy ride, and the weather’s so good now.’
‘I wonder if we’ll still stick together when we get there,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘Do you still think you and Theo can make a go of a gambling saloon?’
‘’ Course we can, sis.’ He laughed. ‘With you pulling them in with your fiddle, we can’t fail.’
‘Do you ever think of England?’ she asked. This was a question she’d never thought to ask him before.
He smiled. ‘To be honest, not much. What is there to go back for? We’d never have the thrills we get here.’
‘But there’s Molly,’ she said.
He scratched his blond head and looked a little perplexed. ‘We’d be nothing to her now. She won’t even remember us. Besides, I know I wouldn’t fit into that narrow way of life again. Not after this.’
Beth felt a lump come up in her throat and her eyes prickled with tears. ‘Then I guess I’ll have to go back alone.’
Sam caught hold of both her arms and squeezed them. ‘What’s up with you, sis? You shouldn’t be thinking about stuff like that today. We’re off on an adventure.’
‘How many times do you think you’ve said that to me since we left Liverpool?’ she asked. ‘It’s always what’s going to happen next, never a pause to think on the past.’
‘Was the past that good it needs digging up?’ he asked with a trace of scorn in his voice. ‘As I recall, it was all about being told what I had to do — no one ever asked what I wanted. Well, I wanted to be rich even as a boy, and I want it more than ever now. It’s up there in Dawson City, Beth, just lying around waiting for us, whether we dig it out the ground, or take it from others at gambling. Being rich will wipe out Papa killing himself because Mama was unfaithful to him.’
Beth was shocked to hear him say such a thing. She’d thought he’d put that aside a long time ago.
‘I can’t forget,’ he said, as if he’d read her thoughts. ‘It stops me trusting women too — except you of course.’
‘Well, I’m glad of that much,’ she said sarcastically. ‘But what happens if you don’t get rich in Dawson?’
‘I will,’ he said blithely. ‘I know it.’
Over 7,000 boats sailed that afternoon in the warm sunshine, a vast armada of the strangest craft ever to be seen anywhere. Some had only an old coat or shirt as a sail; most sported a kind of home-made flag with the boat’s name painted or sewn on to it. Some of the craft were already listing dangerously; others looked jaunty and sporty. Old folk, young folk, bankers, shop clerks, farmers, soldiers, sailors and dance-hall girls — every walk of life was represented here. Some had left wives and families behind, some escaping the law; there were those from privileged backgrounds and those from big city slums. Yet the vast majority had never done anything exciting in their lives before and had invested their life savings in this mad adventure.
Beth felt all their hopes as she sat in the stern of Gypsy, with Jack and Sam paddling like fury, and Theo at the rudder. The cries of ‘See you in Dawson’ rang out over the lake and echoed in the mountains. She glanced towards the shore to see what looked like a vast waste tip: abandoned sawmills, ragged remains of tents, clothes and packing cases. Empty bottles and cans glinting in the sunshine, thousands of tree stumps, a whole forest cut down to build boats.
Everyone paddled and rowed frantically at first, all wanting to be up with the front runners, but as they reached deeper water, a breeze got up and caught the sails, and the paddles and oars were put down.
Later,