‘Well, I’ll believe for the both of us then.’ Now it was her who hugged Olive, and as her sister clung to her as though she would never let her go, Ruby thought how strange, how terrible and strange, life was. If anyone had told her a couple of years ago, before she had come back to Sunderland that first time, that she and Olive would be one in heart and mind with the past of no account, she wouldn’t have believed them. By the time she turned and walked away both their faces were wet, and as Ruby slid into the car and dried her cheeks on a handkerchief, Olive was still standing where she had left her, a tall, thin figure in the falling snow.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Adam had been aware of the pain even in his sleep but now, as he surfaced from the nightmarish dream, it hit hard. Clenching his teeth to prevent himself groaning out loud, he opened his eyes. Three of the miners’ lamps had survived intact – Walt and two other men had been ahead of him and the others when the roof had come down, and he thanked God again they weren’t in the dark, although the rays of light were a mixed blessing. They showed the huddle of bodies of men who had been killed.

He had seen Walt swing round as a terrible, unforgettable sound like a giant grinding its teeth had told them the roof was moving, but then there had been nothing but an almighty cracking and deafening roar as the slabs of rock, choking slack and black splinters had engulfed him, Fred and Pete either side of him and the rest of the shift behind them. He didn’t think he had lost consciousness at that point because he could remember the thick dust suffocating him as he tried to breathe and the feeling that a huge hand was holding him down. It wasn’t until moments later when scrabbling hands had clawed at the rocks and earth and found him, and then attempted to pull him free, that the excruciating pain had sent him into blackness.