On and on her thoughts raced, interwoven with worry about her da’s condition and how her mother was feeling and the terror that the fall was a bad one. Ronnie sat beside her not saying a word, and once they reached the town she drove straight to the pit to drop Ronnie off and also to find out if there was any news before she carried on to her mam’s. She parked the car in Wreath Quay Road and she and Ronnie walked quickly to the crowd standing at the pit gates. It was comprised mostly of women of all ages and a few old men, and there were two constables stopping anyone entering the yard beyond the gates. She saw Olive and Adam’s mother and his brothers’ wives straight away. They were standing in one of the small groups that made up the crowd and Adam’s father had his arm round his wife. No one was saying anything and no one was crying; in fact, on the whole it was eerily quiet.

As Olive saw her she gave a little cry and then pushed through the crowd to fling her arms round her sister. Taken aback by the open show of affection, Ruby returned the hug and after a moment, when they drew apart, she looked into Olive’s agonized face and whispered, ‘Oh, lass, lass.’ Olive just shook her head, unable to speak, and then slipped her arm through Ruby’s and drew her over to Adam’s mother and the others.

‘Hello, lass.’ Adam’s mother’s voice was dull, and as his brothers’ wives nodded to her, his father said, ‘They won’t let me go down, damn ’em, in the rescue squads. Said they needed younger men because the air’s putrid and old lungs wouldn’t cope.’

Ruby didn’t know what to say and as Ronnie sidled close to his father, Mr Gilbert said, ‘This is why I said I don’t want you going down when you leave school in the summer, all right? Nowt to do with whether you’d be a good miner or not. All the pits are in a hell of a state, your brothers have told you that. Timber’s rotted, there’s water gathered an’ gas built up, an’ the ventilation is shot – an’ the owners aren’t liftin’ a finger to put anythin’ right after the strike. Nor will they. No, nor will they. They won’t spend a penny on makin’ the pits safer ’cause in their eyes miners are barely human beings an’ if there’s falls an’ explosions, so what? A few men an’ lads lost is no skin off their nose ’cause they know there’s more waitin’ to take their places from the herd. An’ that’s how they look at us – animals in a herd from which they can pick an’ choose whenever they like.’

‘John.’