Reginald Hill: Under World

‘Bloody meetings!’ said Dickinson. ‘I reckon committee’s got a woman up there and they take a vote on who gets first bash!’

Wardle ignored him and said, ‘There’ll be a full branch meeting next Sunday, Col. You’ll be coming to that?’

‘Mebbe,’ said Farr indifferently. ‘They’ll likely manage without me, but.’

‘Likely we will. But will you manage without them?’

‘Union didn’t do my dad much good, did it?’ said Farr savagely.

‘It did the best it could and he never complained. Col, you were grand during the Strike. It were a miracle you didn’t end up in jail, the tricks you got up to. Nothing seemed too much bother for you then. But the fight’s not over, not by a long chalk. The Board’s got a long hit list and only them as are ready and organized will be able to fight it.’

‘Oh aye? Best day’s work they ever did if they put a lid on that fucking hole!’ exclaimed Farr.

‘You fought hard enough to keep it open in the Strike,’ said Wardle.

‘I fought. But don’t tell me what I fought for, Neil. Mebbe I just fought ’cos while you’re fighting, you don’t have time to think!’

Wardle drank his beer, frowning. Dickinson, who hated a sour atmosphere, lowered his voice to what he thought of as a confidential whisper and said, ‘See who’s just come in? Gavin Mycroft and his missus. They’re sitting over there with Arthur Downey and that cunt, Satterthwaite. Right little deputies’ dog-kennel.’

‘I saw them,’ said Farr indifferently.

‘Here, Col, you still fancy Stella?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Come on, Col, you were knocking her off rotten when you were a lad, up in the woods by the White Rock. By God I bet you made the chalk dust fly! And don’t say it weren’t serious. You got engaged when you went off, and you didn’t need to, ’cos you were stuffing her already!’

He smiled at the perfection of his own logic.

‘That’s old news, Tommy,’ said Farr.

‘And you were well out of that,’ said Wardle. ‘Marrying a deputy in middle of the Strike and going off to Spain on honeymoon while there were kids going hungry back here! That’s no way for a miner’s daughter to act.’

‘What did you want her to do?’ exclaimed Farr. ‘Spend her honeymoon camping on a picket line?’

‘See! You still do fancy her!’ crowed Dickinson.

‘Why don’t you shut your big gob, Tommy, and get some drinks in?’ said Farr.

Unoffended, the young miner rose and headed for the bar. Wardle called after him, ‘No more for me, Tommy. I’ve got to be off and look after you buggers’ interests.’

He stood up.

‘Think on, Col. If you’re going to stay on round here, make it for the right reasons.’

‘What’d them be?’

‘To make it a place worth staying on in.’

Farr laughed. ‘Clean-up job, you mean? Justice for the worker, that sort of stuff? Well, never fear, Neil. That’s why I’ve stayed on right enough.’

Wardle looked at the young man with concern, but said nothing more.

‘Bugger off, Neil,’ said Farr in irritation. ‘It’s like having me dad standing over me waiting till I worked out what I’d done wrong.’

‘He were a clever man, old Billy,’ said Wardle.

‘If he were so bloody clever, how’d he end up with his neck broke at the bottom of a shaft?’ asked Farr harshly.

‘Mebbe when he had to transfer from the face, he brought some of the dark up with him. It happens.’

‘What the hell does that mean, Neil?’ said Farr very softly.

‘Figure of speech. See you tomorrow. Don’t be late. Jock never is.’

Left to himself, Colin Farr sat staring sightlessly at the table surface for a while. Suddenly he rose. Glass in hand, he walked steadily down the room till he reached the table Dickinson had called the deputies’ dog-kennel.

The three men seated there looked up as Farr approached. Only the woman ignored him. She was in her mid-twenties, heavily made-up, with her small features diminished still further by a frame of exaggeratedly bouffant silver-blonde hair. But no amount of make-up or extravagance of coiffure could disguise the fact that she had a lovely face. Her husband, Gavin Mycroft, was a few years older, a slim dark man with rather sullen good looks. Next to him, in his forties, sat Arthur Downey, also very thin but tall enough to be gangling with it. He had a long sad face with a dog’s big gentle brown eyes.

The third man was squat and muscular. Balding at the front, he had let his dull gingery hair grow into a compensatory mane over his ears and down his neck.

This was Harold Satterthwaite. He regarded Farr’s approach indifferently from heavily hooded eyes. Mycroft glowered aggressively, but Arthur Downey half rose and said, ‘Hello, Col. All right? Can I get you a drink?’

‘Got one,’ said Farr. ‘Just want a word with Stella.’

The woman didn’t look up, but her husband rose angrily, saying, ‘Listen, Farr, I’ll not tell you again …’

Downey took his sleeve and pulled him down.

‘Keep it calm, Gav. Col’s not looking for bother, are you, Col?’

Farr looked amazed, then said with an incredibly sweet smile, ‘Me? Nay, you know me better than that, surely? It’s just that me mam wants Mrs Mycroft’s receipt for potato cakes. It’s all right if your missus gives me a receipt, isn’t it, Mr Mycroft, sir?’

Mycroft was on his feet again, his face flushed with rage. Then Pedro Pedley was between the two men, collecting empty glasses from the table.

‘Everything all right, gents?’ he said pleasantly.

‘Nowt we can’t take care of ourselves, Peter,’ said Satterthwaite, staring with cold dislike at Colin Farr. He was Pedley’s brother-in-law and shared with his sister the distinction of using the steward’s real name.

‘Not in here, you can’t,’ said Pedley. ‘Down the hole or in the street, you do what you like. In here you do what I like. Arthur, you’ve got some sense …’

He jerked his head towards the door. Downey gently took Farr’s elbow.

‘Come on, Col,’ he said coaxingly. ‘Let’s go and sit and have a chat. It’d be like old times for me. Your dad and me had some good nights in here …’

‘Not that many, Arthur,’ sneered Satterthwaite. ‘He didn’t dare show his face in here much at the end. I’ll give you that, Farr. You’ve got real nerve. I’d not have thought even you would have had the brass balls to come in here tonight of all nights.’

Farr swung towards him. His glass fell from his hand and crashed to the floor, scattering beer and splinters. Downey flung his arms round the youth to restrain him. Pedley said, ‘Belt up, Harold! Col, you get yourself out of here else you’re banned. Now!’

Farr was trying to struggle free from Downey’s restraint, then suddenly he relaxed.

‘You know what, Harold?’ he said. ‘You’re full of shit. It’s time somebody took you apart but who wants to get covered in shit?’

Tommy Dickinson arrived from the bar, his face wreathed with concern.

‘What’s going off, Col?’ he asked. ‘I’ve got you a beer.’

‘I think mebbe Col’s had enough,’ said Pedley.

‘You’re right there, Pedro,’ said Farr. ‘More than bloody enough!’

He pulled free from Downey, seized the glass from Dickinson’s hand, drained it in a single draught and banged it down in front of Satterthwaite with a crash that almost shattered it.

‘Take it easy, Col,’ said Downey.

‘You can fuck off too,’ snarled Farr. ‘Call yourself a friend? What did you ever do for my dad? What did any of you ever do?’

He pushed his way past Dickinson and headed for the exit door.

Dickinson slurped hastily at his pint and said, ‘I’d best go after him.’