Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [75]
She could accept that Theo gambled — for gentlemen it was part of their way of life. But Sam had been brought up warned about the evils of it. Their father wouldn’t even put a shilling on a horse, for he always said it was a slippery slope.
‘I want to work in gambling houses, not to throw my money away in them,’ he said, giving her a sharp look as if daring her to disapprove. ‘There’s good money to be made in them; the house never loses.’
‘Has Heaney got anything to do with this?’ she asked.
‘No more than seeing how much he makes from the games at his place,’ Sam retorted. ‘That’s why I have to stay late — he gets me to serve drinks to the players. I’ve been watching them closely.’
Beth slumped down on to his bed. She felt panicked for suddenly everything seemed threatening.
‘What’s wrong?’ he asked. ‘Oh, for God’s sake don’t go all holy on me, Beth! Gambling is big over here, people don’t think badly about it, so why should we?’
‘Don’t you ever get afraid about losing the values we used to have?’ she asked.
‘That we had to remember our place? To kowtow to the gentry? To be poor but honest? You tell me, Beth, why shouldn’t we be rich? Is it written in the stars that because our father was a shoemaker, we shouldn’t aspire to more than that?’
‘I suppose I’m scared we’re getting corrupted,’ she said weakly. ‘You know very well, even if you won’t admit it, that we’re bound to Heaney, and he isn’t a good man.’
‘I know he’s using us, but we can use him too, Beth. You’re gaining experience and practice while you play for him, and I’m learning all about gambling. When the time is right we take all that experience and move on, out of New York and on to Philadelphia, Chicago or even San Francisco. We came here for adventure and to make our fortune, and that’s just what we’re going to do.’
‘You won’t just go off one day without me, will you?’ she asked fearfully.
Sam moved over to sit beside her on the bed and hugged her tightly. ‘Beth, you are the only person in this whole world I really care about. You’re not just my sister, you’re my dearest friend. I will never go anywhere without you.’
Sam had never been one for flowery speeches, and knowing he meant what he said made Beth burst into tears.
‘Don’t cry, sis,’ he whispered, stroking her hair. ‘We’ve done just fine so far, and we can do better still.’
Chapter Fifteen
After Sam had told her of his aspirations to run a gambling house, Beth sat by the window looking at the view of the rooftops and the grey sky above them, thinking of all the people she knew back in Liverpool. She wondered what they would make of how she and Sam were living.
She had written to the Langworthys every two weeks since they arrived here, and she knew that she was guilty of adding a kind of glossy veneer to everything. She used the word ‘hotel’ rather than ‘rooming house’, she described Central Park and Fifth Avenue rather than the Lower East Side. While she hadn’t exactly told lies, she had created an image of Heaney’s as a select establishment and implied that Ira’s shop just sold clothes, not second-hand ones. She’d jubilantly announced their move into the apartment, but failed to add they had only one shared room.
Her justification for her omissions had been that everyone back home would be distressed if she described the poverty she lived amidst, and be worried for her safety if she was a little more frank about Heaney’s. But now she was seeing all those people she cared about in her mind’s eye, she felt they would be even more alarmed by the changes in her and Sam than by how they lived.
They certainly wouldn’t approve of her flaunting herself in scarlet satin, or that she had a few tots of rum most nights she played at Heaney’s. They’d be appalled that she’d made friends with a whore, and that the man she wanted was a womanizer.
As for Sam, they’d be shocked that he stayed out all night, and planned to have his own gambling house. Mrs Bruce would be opening her bottle of smelling salts!
It made Beth sad to think she was leading