Something Old, Rebecca Connolly [ebook reader for laptop TXT] 📗

“I’m simply me,” she told him by way of a scolding. “Ordinary, simple, steady little me.”

“Extraordinary,” he corrected firmly, still holding her hand, “intricate…” He paused, then laughed a little. “Unfailingly steady you. And it is because you are you that everything in this moment is perfect.”

“Flatterer,” she retorted with a faint snort, flicking his chin with one of her fingers. “It won’t do for me to appear blushing before them, so you had best stop that now.”

He shrugged and released her hand, nudging his horse to hurry a little. “Suit yourself, but I happen to adore your blushing.”

Lily made a sputtering sound behind him, laughing as her own horse moved more quickly to match his.

They reached the engine house and dismounted, Thomas belatedly coming to assist Lily, though she was already down. Thomas offered his arm, then, thinking better of it, his hand. She took it without hesitation, squeezing tightly.

A middle-aged man in common clothing came from a building to one side of the engine house, brushing at his jacket and smoothing down his hair. “Mr. Granger,” he called out in a proud Cornish accent. “Welcome to Wheal Venton.”

Belatedly recognizing the man as the mine captain he’d met days before, Thomas smiled in greeting. “Mr. Flincher, good morning. This is my wife, Lily. I hope you don’t mind that we are here.”

“Not at all, not at all,” Flincher told them with a warm smile, bowing slightly in greeting. “You are both very welcome. Come, let me show you what we have here.”

He brought them into his offices in the building first, showing them detailed charts and maps of the tunnels and the works below them. He showed them examples of a good sample of copper and a poor one, and something called fool’s copper, which Thomas, for one, struggled to find the difference in. Flincher then led them back out of the building to the small queue of miners and women surrounding a youngish man with markedly cleaner clothing than the others.

“Who’s that there?” Thomas asked with a quick gesture.

“Dr. Stephens, sir,” Flincher told them. “He’s a local doctor, and we’ve contracted with him to aid us with mine emergencies, and every now and again, he’s able to come out to the mine itself and see some of our workers.”

“And the women and girls?” Lily inquired, taking note of those in particular.

“Bal maidens, Mrs. Granger. Their tasks are to work above ground with the samples brought up, processing the ore and preparing it to be sent on for smelting.”

Lily looked at the man in bewilderment. “For what?”

Flincher chuckled. “Smelting, madam. The metal is taken from its ore by heating and melting. There’s a smelting works over on Penfarthing land near Wheal Sundry, and they do the smelting for all of the mines in the area. Many of the local women work here as bal maidens and the girls as well. We take them as young as ten and pay them a proper wage for their work. My own daughters have worked at it, and their wages came as a great delight to them.”

Lily smiled at the mention of children. “You have daughters, Mr. Flincher?”

“Two of them, madam,” he replied proudly. “And four boys. The girls have outgrown interest in the mine, but my sons all work it, the youngest only half a day, as he’s still attending the village school.”

“Your wife must have a hardy nature, sir,” Lily said with a laugh. “I can imagine you and your sons work up quite the appetite, spending all day at the mine. She’d need to work all day just to keep you fed.”

“She has help enough to manage the mess.” Flincher’s expression turned rather fond, “but that don’t mean we don’t get our ears boxed for bringing dirt inside her kitchen. I think she’d rather like you, Mrs. Granger. Should you come to Wheal Venton again, I’ll ask her to meet you here. If it would not be an imposition.”

Thomas watched his wife’s reaction, smiling when she beamed at the suggestion. “There is very little my wife considers an imposition when it comes to meeting people of interest.”

“I would love to meet her!” Lily all but gushed.

Flincher seemed surprised but pleased by the reaction. “Thank you, madam. I’ll be sure to tell her so.” He gestured toward the entrance to the mine and began walking in that direction. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you down into the mine.”

“It won’t be too much trouble?” Thomas asked as they moved. “We shouldn’t like to be in the way.”

“No trouble at all,” Flincher insisted. He glanced over at Lily with a slight smile. “You’re coming down as well, madam?”

Lily brightened at the question. “If I’m permitted, Mr. Flincher! I’m so very curious, but as my husband said, I would not wish to be in the way.”

Flincher chuckled and waved them on. “Well, it might raise a brow or two, having a fair face so clean down in the tunnels, but I daresay the men could use the change in scenery.”

Lily looked at Thomas, her excitement undeniable, her smile on the verge of ecstatic.

He had to laugh at it, shaking his head in amusement. “If I had known you’d be this enthusiastic about my business ventures, I’d have brought you into the meetings long ago.”

“What else are you investing in?” she demanded without shame, taking his arm quickly. “Anything exciting?”

“Well, are you at all interested in shipping?” Thomas asked in a low voice, leaning closer. “We could meet with those associates while we’re in Cornwall as well…”

Her beaming smile was answer enough, and he plucked her hand from his arm to kiss it quickly, then laced their fingers together as they moved to the entrance of the mine.

“I think it best if I go down first,” Flincher told them as they joined him. “Then Mr. Granger, if you would follow. That way, you may see to Mrs. Granger on her way down.” He gave Lily’s skirts a quick look. “I trust you won’t mind