Page 98 of Not Quite a Lady
Lily tried to slow down to watch, but Jinny tugged her wrist. ‘Don’t go getting under foot now. Here’s Da.’
Lily found herself tucked into an alcove out of the way while Jinny went to speak to the dark figure ahead.
The man put down his pick and straightened up as much as he was able in the undercut he was working on. ‘Good lass. I’m clamming for a drink.’ His accent was even thicker than Jinny’s, but had the attractive burr and lilt Lily was coming to like. ‘Load up for me will yer? Tom’s gone to fetch more dips.’
‘Aye, Da.’ The girl came back. ‘I’ve to help me da a while untilme little brother gets back. You’d best go back to the foot of the shaft and wait there, ‘tis the safest place. Yous canna get lost, just to the end of the gallery and then left, back aways.’
‘I will do that, but I’ll not wait.’ Lily did not want the family to suffer any loss of work on her behalf. ‘I will go up with the next group of women who come along. Thank you very much for your trouble.’
Lily made her way back to the main heading, dodging the pickaxe-wielding men and flattening herself against the side as the boys came through with their loads of coal.
Corves, that was it.
She was almost at the point where the gallery reached the heading when a familiar deep voice had her flattening herself back into the deep shadow.Jack.
He passed her without a glance, another man at his side carrying a long pole and a bundle and William Sykes bringing up the rear. Jack was stooping, unable to stand erect, even in the main passageway.
Lily hesitated, then turned to follow. It was a wonderful opportunity to watch Jack, see what it was about his precious mine that engaged him so much, try and understand him.
She could hardly get lost, she reasoned, so long as she did not turn off the heading, and her eyes were beginning to accustom themselves to the gloom.
They passed more galleries, the passage began to curve and Sykes started to call warnings down the galleries as they passed them.
What it was about Lily could not make out, but answering shouts echoed back.
Finally they stopped. The heading stretched ahead into blackness with no glimmers of lights to be seen. The man with the long pole bent and began to tie the bundle to the head of it and William Sykes lit a candle, long, white and of fine wax
Oddly he appeared to be lifting and lowering it slowly. Lily crept closer. It still did not make sense. Now he was conferring with Jack, walking forward again, going through the same process, raising the candle from waist height to above his eye line.
Lily inched nearer until she could have reached out and touched the skirts of Jack’s greatcoat.
‘Aye, there it is.’ All three men were gazing at the flame, held near the roof now. ‘See the ghost?’
And sure enough, at the top of the flame, a cap of eerie blue light danced.
‘I’ll light up, shall I, guv’nor?’ The man with the pole queried.
‘Do that.’ Lily could make out Jack’s nod of approval. ‘And be careful, Sam, I think this one is going to be big.’
Jack reached out a hand and braced himself more comfortably against the wall of the heading while Will set down the candle on the floor and Sam finished securing the bundle of cloth and kindling on the end of the pole. It would be a few more minutes yet, both men were experienced at this and knew it was foolhardy to rush things.
The rock felt warm under his hand and he flexed his fingers, feeling the fissures and nodules. Almost he could believe he could detect a heartbeat, slow and deep. His land, reaching down into the depths of the earth.
He smiled in the near-darkness, recalling his instinctive recoil when Lily had suggested selling some of it the other day. Practical, sensible Lily. He had not explained his revulsion to her at all well, but then how could he, when it was something he had never articulated to himself?
‘Got any twine, sir?’ It was Will, clasp knife in hand. ‘This stuff’s right rubbish.’
‘Yes, here.’ Jack fished in his pocket and went back tobrooding. Talking to Lily had made him realise how blessed he was in owning all that land, in possessing it down to the very roots of the earth. How rich.
Gazing into the blackness until spots of light began to swim in front of his eyes, Jack probed that thought. Rich. Rich in land and in minerals and in history. Rich enough to match Lily’s cash wealth, as an equal. Rich enough for them to discount both her money and his title.
Neither meant anything anymore, he realised, not when it came to loving Lily. Not his pride, his land, her money, her stubbornness.
He was a man, she was a woman and he loved her. Could she love him, after all that had passed between them? There was only one way to find out and that was to talk to her and court her.
‘That’ll do it, Sam lad.’ Will’s voice cut through his thoughts, jerking him back into the present and its dangers. ‘You moving back, sir?’
‘No, I’ll stay here.’
