Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [177]
‘When will my room be ready?’ she said.
‘An hour?’ he suggested.
She nodded. ‘Do you have anyone who could escort me back to the Golden Nugget to collect my things? I fear One Eye may be a little unpleasant about me leaving.’
‘I’ll come myself, mam,’ he said with a wide grin. ‘Just give me five minutes to get dressed properly.’
It was the most deliciously satisfying moment to see One Eye’s look of sheer outrage when he encountered John Fallon on the stairs with his arms full of Beth’s dresses.
‘Wh-wh-where you going with that?’ he stuttered.
‘To my place,’ Fallon said breezily. He turned to Beth on the stairs behind him. ‘Have you got everything now?’
‘All that’s important to me,’ she said, smirking at One Eye. She had her fiddle in one hand and her valise packed with everything else in the other. ‘You can let my room to a couple more whores now. You’ll need some new attraction without me to pull folk in.’
‘You can’t leave me in the lurch like this,’ One Eye protested.
‘Come, come, Mr Donahue,’ Beth said silkily. ‘Customers who shit their pants and vomit on the floor don’t much care for fiddle playing, and you can turn the whole place into a brothel now. You’ll do just fine.’
She had the delight of knowing that Dolores, one of the biggest gossips in Dawson, was at the top of the stairs listening. By tonight the story would be right round town.
One Eye made an attempt at blocking Fallon from reaching the back door, but Fallon pushed past him.
‘Do make sure the saloon is cleaned up before opening up today,’ Beth said crisply as she breezed past One Eye. ‘Otherwise people might just think you’ve got the skids under you!’
‘The Gent must have been feeble-minded to walk out on you,’ Fallon said as he carried Beth’s clothes into one of the front bedrooms at the Monte Carlo. ‘It was admirably dignified, the way you put One Eye in his place.’
‘My time at the Golden Nugget is over now,’ she said sternly. ‘I’d rather you didn’t speak of it again.’
He laid her dresses down on the bed and smiled. ‘That’s fine by me, and I think we should have some champagne to celebrate a new beginning.’
‘That would be very nice.’ She smiled. She liked the look and sound of this man. From now on she intended to stop looking back over her shoulder and make the most of any opportunities that came her way.
The Monte Carlo was packed to capacity that evening, and when Beth peeped down over the banisters before she was due to start playing, she guessed that the latest story about her was circulating, gathering even more drama with each telling.
Fallon had put signs outside proclaiming she was playing there tonight, and young Tom had just informed her that he’d been past the Golden Nugget and there were only three or four customers in there.
She was going to earn a great deal of money here. She had the best room in the house, complete with a feather mattress on the bed, and a dressing table grand enough for the Queen of Sheba. Even electricity had been installed, and the place was as warm as toast.
Theo was just a slight ache now. She could live very well without him.
As she turned back to her room to collect her fiddle, she looked at herself in a long mirror on the landing. Her hair shone like wet tar, her eyes were bright with excitement, and her cheeks flushed a becoming pink. In the purple satin gown with black lace flounces she’d recently had made by a dressmaker, with elbow-length black lace fingerless gloves and a purple flower in her hair, she knew she looked sensational.
‘Use it to your advantage,’ she whispered to herself. ‘Be the Gypsy Queen!’
All through the remainder of December, into the New Year of ’99, Beth triumphed at the Monte Carlo. She did two hour-long sets each night, but often sat in with other musicians too. John Fallon liked her to mix with his customers, and it was like a party almost every night.
New Year’s Eve and her twenty-second birthday later in January were special highlights, for Fallon threw a private party to celebrate the New Year for all