Thurston House (1983) by Steel Danielle

Author:Steel, Danielle [Steel, Danielle]
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2010-12-12T15:08:23.437000+00:00

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And two weeks later, watching the men work in one of the shafts, she turned eighteen. She had given them the promised raise, and still they seldom, if ever, spoke to her. The two smaller mines were closed, and she was running the main mine at full power, and she had promoted one of the newer men as her new foreman to replace Dan. He wasn't any fonder of her than the others were, but he liked the pay, and she liked that about him. She played him like a violin, promising him raises that made him drool, if he could recruit new men for her so that she could open the number two mine again. And by November of that year she did, just in time to have it flood and kill five of her new men. But she was there in the pouring rain, helping to dig them out, and it was she who knelt beside them and closed their eyes, she who rode soaking wet and bone tired to tell their wives, she who helped bury them as her father had done, and she who opened the third mine in the spring. It had taken her a year to recover from the blow of losing more than three hundred men, but they were working at full force and full profit again. It made Dan Richfield sick every time he thought of it.

You have to hand it to her, Dan. She's as tough as her old man and twice as smart. John Harte could barely believe what she'd done.

Little whore ' He said nothing more as he slammed out of the room, and Harte watched him go. He had learned a lot in twenty-three years at the Thurston mines, but there was nothing decent or likable about him, and John was surprised Thurston had kept him on for so long. Perhaps he had guarded his tongue more in those days. He had had a profitable end in mind, which no longer mattered now. But John Harte thought of it again and he approached Sabrina for the second time.

He walked into her office one day, and took her totally by surprise. For the last year, she hadn't even thought of him, and she was proud of what she had done at her father's mine. She knew the men weren't fond of her, and probably never would be, but they worked hard for her and the pay they earned.

Did you come to shake my hand, Mr. Harte, or to work in my mines? Her eyes laughed at him as he approached her desk.

Neither one. I'm bolder than that. Not unlike you. He admired her more than she knew, and he saw that she was pleased with herself. She had a right to be. The war wasn't over yet, but the first battle was won. The mine was at full strength again, though whether or not she could keep it that way was another thing. He doubted that, and so did Dan, and perhaps he was wrong to return to her so soon.

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