A Greater World by Clare Flynn

Author:Clare Flynn [Flynn, Clare]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Genre Fiction, Historical, Romance, 20th Century, Historical Fiction, Australian & Oceanian
Amazon: B00LCC0U50
Publisher: Cranbrook Press
Published: 2014-06-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen – Pit Fall

Will was never going to fit in at the Black Water Colliery. As the boss's son, the men treated him with suspicion, fearing he was his father's eyes and ears. After a few months, when they saw that Jack Kidd showed no favours to his own son and that Winterbourne, whom they all liked and respected, was clearly fond of the lad, they showed him grudging acceptance. He wasn't sure which was worse: being cold-shouldered or being the butt of their jokes. He sensed that his workmates knew he was afraid of the mine and that as, a result, he'd never really be one of them.

Michael understood how he felt. Not the fear, but the dislike of being down the pit. The Englishman had worked underground all of his adult life so, while he hated it, he didn't fear it. For Will though, every time he stepped into the metal cage and heard the winder and the ironbark beams creak as the cage descended into the shaft, a wave of nausea swept over him despite his empty stomach.

The men didn't eat much below ground: just some bread and jam, washed down with water. Eating too much heavy food gave them heartburn – no fun when crawling along the tunnels or bent double, hacking at the rock face. Will hated the way his feet got wet, no matter how well he fastened his boots or how thick his socks were. If it wasn't the surface water, it was his own sweat.

Michael was working with them underground today. He liked the spirit of the men and the sense of belonging and the misery of the pit was preferable to sitting in the office with Robinson and his snide comments. Seeing Michael walk towards the cage instantly cheered Will: the shift was more bearable when his friend was beside him.

They were working in a detail of half a dozen men, with a couple of pit horses to help haul the rock back to the base of the main shaft. The mine wasn't fully mechanized and there were dozens of horses employed. The animals never saw the light of day again once they went down into the pit. They were stabled underground. Moving them back to the surface was too much of a logistical complexity to be considered except in emergency. Accustomed only to the dark underworld, they would be uncontrollable if brought to the surface. The prevailing philosophy was that what they'd never known they wouldn't miss. Each horse worked with one designated miner, a bond of trust growing between them.

Will loved the horses. Compared to them, his own plight seemed trivial. At least he got to return to the surface at the end of his shift and had days off to enjoy the sunshine and breathe clean air. So he spent time at the beginning and end of each shift talking to the animals and feeding them the odd carrot when he could avoid the eyes of the miners who partnered them.

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