Читать книгу Judith of the Red Hand - J. Monk Foster - Страница 5

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On the evening of the same day on which we saw Judith Trafford and Roderick Norbury coming down the hillside road together, the pit-brow girl was to be seen making her way along the inclined path towards Haliburton's Mine. It was midway between half-past seven and eight; there was a ruddy glow in the west, and a glimmer of iridescent hues to mark where the sun had lately sunk; and the valley, village and river lay in the hush of peace and gathering twilight.

Gone now were all traces of the somewhat grimy occupation the girl followed; soft bonnet and short breeches and skirt had been replaced by a straw hat and bright print gown; even the little wooden shoes had given way to more orthodox leather footgear; and the comely pit-brow maiden was now as fresh, sweet, and pleasant as the green valley lying around her.

At eighteen years of age, Judith Trafford was probably as strong, healthy, and handsome a specimen of budding womanhood as one could have found in all England. She was an inch or two taller than most women; was slim-built, lithe as an untamed animal, had a flowing bust for a girl in her teens still, and a great sheaf of ruddy hair, which had in it the mixed shimmer of copper and gold and chestnut.

Judith's origin was of the humblest. She was a worker, sprung from a race of workers, and had no ambition to live and die out of the sphere wherein she had been born. But her face was as perfect in its way as any a great painter could have desired to limn. It was a sweet oval, broad at the brow, and pointed and velvety at the chin; her warm complexion, downy and velvety in texture, matched well with her red-gold tresses and her big grey eyes, with dark glints in them, firm finely-moulded nose, and that pretty scarlet bow of a mouth, the lips just full enough and pouting slightly had made many a young fellow's heart leap and hunger for their owner's smile.

Judith Trafford was alone in the world. Her father had been a collier, and her mother a pit-brow woman in her day; an only child, the lass had been left parentless, and homeless, too, shortly after entering her teens. Jack Trafford had been both a hard worker and hard drinker; and then an explosion of firedamp burnt him almost to a cinder, he left some debts but no savings to the widow and daughter bearing his name.

In a month's time Mrs. Trafford had broken up her home; had gone into lodgings with her ten year old lass; had gone back to the pit-brow to earn food and shelter for them both; and just three years later, when Judith was earning four shillings a week on the pit bank, a short illness carried her mother away.

At seventeen Judith had gone to work at the Hill End Mine. Even then, though tall and scraggy beyond her age, she had beauty of an uncommon kind, and great promise of future rare comeliness. Between eighteen and nineteen she had developed a wondrous beauty of the most florid type, and Gabriel Blackwood, the underlooker at Haliburton's Colliery, and further, only son of the manager there, had been one of the very first of the Saxilham young men to admire and appreciate Judith's budding charms.

Judith and Gabriel had known one another all their days; had even been the best friends always; and when the lass turned her eighteenth year nobody in the big village seemed surprised when it became known that the young underlooker and the handsome pit-brow lassie had commenced to walk out together.

Even at sixteen Judith Trafford had given her heart and all its holiest affections to Gabriel. But the gift had been all unsought then. She had come to look upon the big, handsome miner as everything that was best and most desirable in manhood; and when Blackwood told her that he loved her, and begged her to meet him in the adjoining town one Saturday evening the previous winter, it seemed then that all happiness was found and that earth had nothing more to offer.

Half-way up the sloping, winding, unpaved way which led to the Hill End Colliery, Judith paused. A couple of hundred yards in front was the mouth of the black tunnel, the squat engine-house, the wagons and so forth; and men were moving about the place. Turning, she swept the valley for a moment, where the shallow Saxe flowed lazily, then walked slowly back, her gaze on the upland road she had climbed. And there below, coming to meet her, was the man she wished to see. She went down slowly, he swung up quickly, and in half a minute they were face to face.

"Judith! What brings you up here, lass?" he demanded, with a pleasant unceremoniousness. "Not coming to waylay me, surely, dear?"

"That's just what brought me, Gabriel," she said simply.

"But how could you know that I was to work to-night?"

"I heard your father and Mr. Haliburton saying so this afternoon when they were at the colliery; and—and I wanted to see you, Gabriel!" she stammered, her fresh face flushed now with the crimson tide of confusion.

"Well, you see me now, Jude," he cried airily. "What is it, my dear lass?"

"I heard them saying that the work might be dangerous. You're to try to tap all that water that lies in the old Slackey Brow workings, and I wanted to ask you, Gabriel—dear Gabriel, to be careful, for my sake!"

"I will be careful for my own too, Judith. But there is nothing much to fear. And was that all you had to tell me, sweetheart?"

"Not all——" and she paused in sudden doubt. "But I'll tell you again when we meet on Saturday night."

"No; tell me now! What is it?"

"I was talking to Roderick Norbury this afternoon—he would walk home with me, Gabriel, and—and he said things."

"Making love to you again eh?" and the shadow of a black look flitted across the man's face. "Curse his impudence! Doesn't Norbury know that you're my sweetheart now?"

"I told him; and—and he said nasty things, Gabriel. That's what made me come out to meet you."

"What did he say?" he demanded, in a hard tone. "Nothing serious, I hope, or it may be necessary for me to punch that thick head of his again."

"Oh, don't quarrel with him!" she pleaded, her grey eyes fixed for a moment on his dark ones. "Roderick is a dangerous man, and he might do something—might lame or kill you, dear—and then run away."

"I don't fear such rats! But what did he say? I must know, Judith! If you don't tell me I won't go to town on Saturday night. Now, what is it he said?"

She looked up in his face steadily for a moment, and saw it was glooming and serious. The woman's whole soul was in her eyes then, and that her life and welfare were in this man's keeping it was easy to see. Of his own feelings towards the maiden his own face gave no proof.

That Judith Trafford loved this man was no wonder. He was in the very prime of virile manhood—five-and-twenty or so—was tall, powerfully-framed, though not unduly burly, had a thick, black moustache, eyes, hair and skin all in keeping, and his face was handsome and strong enough to have won any woman's heart—especially the heart of such a one, who loved strong men who were daring, clever, ambitious, and had a spice of daredevilry in their characters.

"If I must tell you, Gabriel,"—she murmured.

"You must—or manage without me on Saturday," was his sharp rejoinder.

"Then he told me this. He said our keeping company was all a mistake—that you would never marry me; that you were too clever and ambitious for that; that you meant to get on in the world; that—that—but you can guess all the rest, Gabriel."

There was a little break in her voice which showed him that tears were not far away, and his own tones softened wonderfully as he laid one big hand on her shoulder caressingly, remarking quietly:

"Yes, I can guess, Judith. But Rod Norbury is a liar—my dear lass, I love you more than I care about the world, my ambitions, everything! Say that you believe me before I run off to the mine."

"I do believe you Gabriel! That is why I determined to tell you at once. But you will say nothing to that man?"

"I will say nothing to him—yet. But if he doesn't toe the line squarely I'll soon bundle him neck and crop out of the Hill End Mine. Now one kiss and I'm off."

She raised her face, and he drew her to him, kissing the sweet red lips passionately as a lover will. Then he hurried to the mine, and she went back to the village happy.