Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [165]
Beth hated everyone for celebrating while she was so desperately unhappy, and she wouldn’t even allow Jack to persuade her to put on a pretty dress and go and play at the Monte Carlo. ‘I’ll never play again,’ she vowed.
Since Independence Day, Beth had hardly set foot outside the tent, preferring to lie there feeling bitter and hurt. Jack and Theo had been working long hours on the saloon, and although Jack had tried many times to persuade her to come down and see how the work was progressing, or to go back to the Monte Carlo to play, Theo had said little on the subject until today.
‘You have got someone left, there’s Jack and me,’ Theo said wearily. ‘The saloon is finished, so we can move in tomorrow. But you haven’t even been to see it.’
‘I don’t care about it. I don’t care about anything,’ Beth sobbed. ‘I left Molly with the Langworthys because I thought she’d have a good life with them, but she still got sick and died. Maybe if I’d stayed with her she’d be alive now.’
‘It’s foolish to say such things,’ Theo replied, his voice softening. He sat down beside her on the floor of the tent and wiped her tears from her face with his handkerchief. ‘It was fate, just as Sam’s death was too. I don’t believe we can change our destiny, whatever we do. But you can’t stay here moping for ever, that won’t make it better. If you put your energy into turning our new place into a home, it will take your mind off Molly. So come with me now and look around. Jack was going to put the name up today. We’ve decided to call it the Golden Nugget.’
Beth was tempted to refuse, but in her heart she knew everything he’d said was right, and staying in the tent wallowing in grief wasn’t going to make anything better. So reluctantly she got up, found a comb and ran it through her hair.
Theo patted her on the shoulder in approval. ‘You can have a bath tonight if you want. Jack managed to get the boiler going. Imagine that, sweetheart, a real bath, we’ll be the envy of everyone else in town. That is, if you don’t run out on us and take the steamer back to Vancouver at the end of August.’
‘Why would I do that?’ she said. ‘There’s nothing for me there.’
Realizing that sounded self-pitying, she blushed. ‘We’ve got the gambling saloon we wanted, and I’m glad about that,’ she continued. ‘Just be patient with me a little longer. Two deaths in such a short time are more than anyone could bear.’
‘I know, darling,’ he said, enfolding her in his arms. ‘But you must play on opening night, everyone’s expecting it.’
Beth washed her face and walked with Theo to the new place. It seemed many people had heard about her loss, for they stopped her and said how sorry they were. She hadn’t expected that, and it helped to know people cared about her.
Jack had just finished putting up the sign as they approached the new place. He shinned down the ladder and hugged her.
‘What d’you think?’ he asked.
Beth stepped back into the street to look properly. When she’d last seen it the facade was only half done, and raw timber at that. The wood was painted red and shiny now, with a black sign bearing the words ‘The Golden Nugget’ painted in gold.
‘It looks marvellous,’ she said, and smiled for the first time since she’d received the news of Molly’s death. ‘You are a miracle worker, Jack.’
He glowed at the praise. ‘I had a lot of help,’ he said quickly. ‘Now, come and look inside.’
Beth had grown accustomed to the tricks used to create a sense of permanence and luxury in saloons since her time in Skagway. False facades led into the most flimsy of buildings, often tents, and even those that were built of wood had only canvas tacked on to the timber posts to make interior walls.
But Jack had lined the wood walls with another layer of timber, making it warm and windproof,