Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [83]
Ira was right, and when Beth asked if she could buy it, the old lady said she’d like to give it to her as a Christmas present.
‘You’re a good girl — I don’t know how I managed before you came,’ Ira said with slightly moist eyes. ‘Giving you a dress that was made for you is the least I can do to thank you.’
‘Then I won’t hang around waiting for Theo,’ Beth replied. ‘I’ll take up the Rossinis’ invitation for Sam and me to have Christmas dinner with them. Maybe if Jack’s in at Heaney’s tonight, I’ll even hint that he takes me dancing.’
It was bitterly cold when she left Ira’s at five. She tucked the parcel containing her new dress under her arm, wrapped her muffler around her neck, and with her gloved hands in a fur muff Ira had also given her, set off for the market to buy some fruit, nuts and candy to share with the Rossinis.
There was a new cheeriness in people’s faces as Beth walked down the Bowery. An organ-grinder had decked out his organ with glittery stars, and it was playing ‘Silent Night’, and she saw a group of children watching in awe as a man wound up some clockwork toys on a stall. She stopped to look at a bear clashing cymbals and a man rowing a boat. She considered buying the bear and sending it home to Molly, but decided it was likely to end up broken in the post.
She turned the corner, and after the bright lights of the Bowery it was very dark. She was aware of someone close behind her, but there was nothing unusual about that for it was early in the evening.
When a hand clamped down on her shoulder, she dropped her parcel in fright.
‘Don’t make a sound,’ a gruff male voice warned her. ‘I’ve got a knife at your back.’
She froze, for she could feel something digging into her coat. Her first thought was that the man wanted to rob her, for that wasn’t uncommon in this area.
‘I’ve only got a couple of dollars,’ she said. ‘But you can have that.’
‘You’re worth more than a couple of dollars to me,’ he said. ‘Now walk, do as I say, and you’ll be fine. Squeal, and I’ll stick the knife in you.’
Chapter Sixteen
‘Where’s that sister of yours?’ Pat Heaney asked Sam. He took his watch out of his vest pocket and looked at it. ‘What’s she playing at? It’s nearly half past eight!’
The saloon was packed and Sam had been so busy for the last hour that he hadn’t noticed the time. But at Heaney’s words he checked the clock on the wall behind the bar. ‘I don’t know where she is,’ he said, immediately feeling a cold chill run down his spine, for Beth was never late. ‘She was working at Ira’s today as usual. Pebbles went in there to buy something, he said he’d seen her.’
Pebbles was the pot man, so named because he wore thick glasses.
‘If she lets me down tonight she’ll be out of a job,’ Heaney snarled.
‘She wouldn’t let you down,’ Sam said defensively. ‘Even if she was taken ill she’d get a message to you.’
‘Maybe that old crow Roebling has been taken bad,’ Heaney said. ‘I’ll send someone down there to ask.’
He walked away from the bar, and Sam saw him order Pebbles to go and check.
There were men clamouring to buy a drink, and as Sam poured their beer and took their money, he remembered Jack’s warning.
He had been convinced Jack had made up all that stuff about Fingers Malone and Heaney as a ruse to get in with him and Beth again. The only reason Sam had been taking Beth home at nights was to give the man no excuse to try to muscle in.
Yet now Jack’s warning didn’t seem so far-fetched, and Sam served drinks with one eye on the door. When Pebbles returned around ten minutes later and went over to Heaney, Sam could wait no longer.
Leaving the bar, he pushed his way through the drinkers towards Heaney. ‘Any news?’ he asked.
‘She left the shop at five,’ Heaney growled. ‘She was going to the market before going home. You’d better get round and see if she’s there.’
Sam ran the whole way, his legs going like pistons. He clattered up the stairs and into the apartment. Mrs Rossini was in the kitchen and looked round in