Kate Welsh - Questions of Honour

Murphy looked suddenly alarmed. “Let the boy go now! Damn you, you drunken sot!”

Daniel felt himself falling then found himself in Murphy’s arms. “Now, there’s a lad,” he said, patting Daniel’s back. “All righty? What were you were doin’ with the likes of Dooley?”

“He came up from behind me. I’m not supposed to have nothing to do with men like him, my ma says.”

“And your ma would be right. That doesn’t explain why you’re here,” the tall, dark-haired man said as he made himself comfortable on the ground next to Daniel.

Daniel knew he had to tell the truth. Murphy might be sympathetic to his cause.

Murphy scratched his head after Daniel shared his plans. “I can see your dilemma. I faced the same choice myself a while back. Tell you what. I’ll introduce you to Luther Dancy myself and get you started. You can clean up at my place after work and maybe put off your folks finding out for a few days.”

“Geez, thanks, Mr. Murphy,” Daniel told him, wondering why so many men made fun of him.

“That’s what friends are for. We miners have to stick together. And we have your mother’s welfare in common, too, don’t we?”

The hair on Daniel’s arms stood up. He didn’t know what he’d heard in the man’s friendly words but something hadn’t sounded quite right. Murphy loved Daniel’s mother. Love was a good thing. Confused, Daniel looked up into Murphy’s eyes and relaxed. His blue eyes sparkled and his smile was kind and friendly. “Thanks again for saving me,” Daniel said.

“No problem a’tall,” Murphy replied and smiled.

It was a friendly smile, Daniel reassured himself. He’d been imagining that Murphy wasn’t what he seemed. Dooley had spooked him. That was all. He took a deep breath. That had to be all. Murphy planned to help him. Wasn’t that proof of his goodwill?

Six hours after being ordered out of Michael Kane’s home, Joshua ordered yet another crew out of a mine shaft. It was not, he told himself, the same thing. He was trying to save lives.

Because this mine was a young one, he’d held out hope it would be in better shape. His hope had fled hours earlier. Lilybet’s workers had heard what Joshua had done the day before, and they’d cooperated by pointing out problems. But those same men broke as many rules themselves as the poor engineering had.

He understood why. If they didn’t cut coal, they didn’t get paid. It was piecework by the ton and safety took too much time. He understood but he had to find a way to show them how foolish it was to risk their lives for pennies.

Joshua looked over the notice to be posted and he picked up the pencil to add to the list of rules he planned to have posted. Any miner caught breaking a safety rule will be suspended. He ran his fingers through his hair. It wouldn’t make him popular, but he didn’t want to be liked as much as he wanted to save lives.

Tired and worried about the deplorable conditions he’d found, Joshua glanced at the sky on his way to the main breaker shed. The sun was low, casting long shadows on newly fallen snow. A group of men trudged toward home. One of them was Brendan.

Josh wished with all his heart he could walk over and talk to him. He wanted to tell Bren the engagement was a farce. But something bigger stood between them. And that was the next thing on his agenda before the day was out.

Harlan had a lot to answer for. But still, he dreaded the coming confrontation, especially with Helena Conwell and Franklin Gowery still staying with them. Tonight there’d be no civilized meal.

Joshua strode into the shed and stopped short at the sight of the breaker boys. This was worse than the condition of the mines. They were far younger than they’d been when Josh was a boy. It was common practice to have boys do the job of separating shale from the coal. But back then, only boys older than thirteen and men too old or ill to work the mines worked the breaker sheds.

The problem was the parents of the boys often sent them at too young an age to help support their families. He vowed before the day was out he’d have a plan to get them back in the school room, where they belonged.

He looked around. Who the hell approved this?

Joshua went looking for an answer from the breaker boss, Luther Dancy. As he passed in front of the breaker bins, he glanced down at the boys’ callused hands. But then he saw a pair of bleeding hands—a new boy unaccustomed rough work. The pain the child must have felt twisted Joshua’s stomach. How dare anyone do this to a child? Josh’s eyes automatically flew to search the young face.

Daniel’s face!

Joshua had never known such rage. This was his son. Until that moment he hadn’t felt it. Not really. This was his flesh and blood, bleeding for pennies. “What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded.

Daniel looked up at him, shocked at first, but then his little, coal-smeared chin jutted out. “I’m here helping do what you never did, supporting my mother.”

Josh was struck anew by all he had lost, and by the hatred in his own son’s eyes. It was nearly more than he could stand. A bad day just got so much worse. He knelt in the coal dust in front of his son and took him by the wrist.

“Open it,” Josh ordered. His brows rose at the curt, profane answer Daniel spat back at him. “That may well be true but I am bigger than you, too. We can do this the easy way. Do as I say—right now. Or the hard way. I pry them open, which may just hurt them more. But either way, I will see the damage done to those hands.”

Daniel, eyes hot, rotated his wrist slowly and opened his hand, palm up. “Ain’t so bad. Few days and Mr. Dancy says they’ll callus up real good.”

“Your sorting days are over.”

His chin, so much like Abby’s, notched up. “You saying I’m not good enough to separate your coal?”

“I’m saying my son isn’t going to hurt like that for a few measly cents a week. If your mother needs the money so badly, I’ll give it to her.”

Daniel’s cheeks paled beneath the coating of coal dust. “She … she won’t take money from you. Too little too late, she’ll say.”

Joshua could almost hear Abby saying exactly that but there was something about the way Daniel had grown nervous that gave him pause. “Does your mother know you’re here?”

Silence.

“Daniel?”

His son’s face reddened. “I hate you! You’re wreckin’ everything. I was going to buy her a fancy dress. Fancy as the one your lady wore. My ma is a hundred times better. She should have nice things, too. I’m gonna’ give them to her. I’m gonna’ give her everything you never did!”

Joshua had no reply. At least not one Daniel would believe. “Come on, son, I’ll take you home so your ma can take care of those hands.”

“You’re not my—”

“Father,” Joshua finished on a tired sigh and stood. “Tell me, Daniel, if I’m not, then why am I so damn proud to have you for a son?”

He didn’t wait for a reply, but steered the boy out of the shed. His business with Luther Dancy would have to wait. It was probably just as well, Josh decided as they rode toward the Kane house. Had he seen Dancy just then he might have beaten him till his face was as bloody as Daniel’s hands.

Worried over the late hour, Abby pushed aside the worn calico curtains, hoping to see Daniel. But instead, a man on horseback came into view at the end of the road. He carried a boy in front of him. It was Joshua and Daniel.

Abby saw red. She grabbed her shawl and rushed out of the house. “He was supposed to be home an hour ago. He knows better than not to come straight home from school on days I’m not in town. How dare you make him disobey me? Do you know I’ve been worried out of my mind?”