Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [199]
The following day, Jack went off to help someone build a new cabin, and Beth tried to put the thought of a baby right out of her mind by going to visit some old friends. But it didn’t work; whether it was just the power of suggestion, or for real, her breasts felt tender, and she’d even had a touch of nausea in the morning. She chatted and laughed as she visited people, but foremost in her mind was how happy Jack was going to be when it was confirmed.
On the evening of the 31st, a rumour ran round Dawson that gold had been found in Nome on the Bering Sea in Alaska.
Beth and Jack first heard about it from a fellow guest who’d just received a telegraph from a friend somewhere nearby. They thought nothing of it, for there had been a rumour about another new gold strike back in January, and many men had rushed off to it, some of them so ill prepared they got frostbite, only to find it was a hoax.
But when they walked down Front Street later, everyone was talking about it. In the saloon they went into, men were saying that the gold was just lying on the beach waiting to be picked up, and all of them were intending to leave for Nome as soon as they could get a passage.
The rumour spread like wildfire, and suddenly all the men with vacant expressions who had been spending their days lounging around on the boardwalk had that old familiar fire in their eyes.
Jack found it very funny. He roared with laughter when an old Sourdough stopped him in Front Street to ask if he’d be going. ‘Not me,’ he said. ‘I’ve had enough of gold fever to last me a lifetime. I just want to go home with my girl.’
The following day, the whole town was buzzing with excitement. People were fighting to get on to boats, and when they couldn’t get tickets were commandeering pole and row boats to sail themselves.
Jack seemed to find the whole thing very disturbing, and said he was going off for a tramp up the hills. Before he left, he peeled off five hundred dollars from their stash of money and suggested Beth went to Madame Aubert to buy something smart and fashionable to wear in Vancouver.
The Frenchwoman was a marvellous dressmaker, but she also had ready-made clothes in her shop that were the latest fashions from Paris.
‘I can’t buy something there,’ Beth said in horror. ‘She’s too expensive.’
Jack laughed. ‘We’re rich now, and all your clothes will look very shabby in Vancouver. Besides, with so many people leaving for Nome, I bet you can beat her down in price.’
Beth wanted a new dress, but she told Jack five hundred dollars was far too much to give her.
‘You hang on to it,’ he said. ‘You’ll need shoes and other things too.’
Jack was a little distant over dinner that evening. Beth had found a lovely costume at Madame Aubert’s, a dark green and cream striped peplum-style jacket with a matching plain green skirt, and a little green hat with a veil. She was excited about it, and all the gossip she’d got from the Frenchwoman, and she felt rather disappointed that Jack wasn’t more receptive.
She had a couple of glasses of whisky after the meal and it went straight to her head. She could barely stand, and Jack helped her up to the room and into bed.
‘I think I’ll go out for a bit of a wander and see what’s going on,’ he said. ‘It’s too early for me to go to sleep. Sweet dreams.’
Beth was woken abruptly in the morning by noise in the street below. But to her surprise she was alone in the bed. She got up and looked out of the window to see what the noise was about, only to see hundreds and hundreds of men with packs on their backs heading down to the landing stage.
It was just like it had been two years ago in Vancouver, and she assumed Jack had slipped out quietly to watch. But when she looked back at the bed, it didn’t look as if he’d slept there. No indentation on the pillow, and the sheets and blankets were still tucked in on his side.
Yet even more curious was that his new