Page 2 of Mine before Dawn
He was a bigger man than the others, thick through the shoulders and neck, his shirt stretched tight across his chest, sleeves rolled up to show forearms roped with muscle and grime. His face was flushed with drink and dirty from the dust from the mine, grey eyes bright in a way that wasn’t friendly. He took a slow step forward.
“Don’t be shy,” he said, grinning. “We’re generous here. Take care o’ you and the little’un both.”
A few men laughed again, though less easily now.
The woman seemed to shrink. Somehow, she knew to be wary, to watch him from the corner of her eye. The way he leaned in, his deep voice carrying across the room as if he had decided she was his entertainment for the evening.
“Seen your sort before,” he went on, louder, emboldened. “Come in all quiet, then—”
“Alright, that’s enough,” someone muttered, though there was little conviction behind it.
The man ignored it completely.
“—then you’re not so quiet after a pint or two, eh?” he said, taking another half-step forward.
“Reckon you’d do just fine upstairs with your skirts—”
The woman tightened her hold on her son. Her fingers curled into the fabric of his coat. She did not meet the man’s eyes. But there was something in the stillness of her face now—a kind of terror, as though she were holding herself together by sheer will.
The boy stirred slightly against her shoulder, sensing something wrong.
“Amma…” he murmured.
That seemed to snap her out of wherever she had disappeared.
She shifted her weight, took a small step back toward the door. The movement was small, almost unnoticed, but the big man saw it.
“Oi,” he said, sharper now. “Where you off to?”
She didn’t answer. Her eyes flicked up for just a second—not at him, but past him, as if measuring the distance to the exit.
Behind him, some of the others had already begun to drift back into themselves, into their drinks and their bravado. But a few egged him on.
“Reckon she’s thinking about it,” one of them said with a smirk.
“Aye,” another added. “She looks the sort. Come on, darlin, take that coat off and let us see.”
Someone else laughed. “Cold night out there.”
The big man let out a short bark of amusement as he moved away from the door.“Door’s open, love. We’re not going anywhere.”
For a moment, she seemed undecided before she started moving towards the door again… towards him.A mistake… This was a mistake. She had already learned the hard way what men like this could do—and how quickly a place like this could turn.
Then she was almost there, gauging whether he would let her pass.
Behind her, the noise swelled again as though nothing had happened.
“Bit of entertainment, that,” one man said, taking a long pull of his pint.
“Aye,” another chuckled. “Better than the usual lot.”
“Wonder what she’s hiding under all that,” someone added, voice dropping into crudely speculative.
“Reckon I’d warm her up quick enough,” came the reply.
Laughter followed, easy now, unchallenged.
Before she could answer, a woman’s voice cut across the mob.
