Thurston House Read online

  “Run the mines yourself? What kind of whores do you think we are?”

  “… Work for a woman?… She has to be nuts!… Hell, she’s nothing but a kid!…” The shouting grew into a din and drowned out the reassurance in her words, and she fought to keep them from becoming a mob.

  “Listen to me, please … my father taught me everything he knew.…” They laughed openly at her now, and only a few stood listening to her, but it was more in disbelief than respect. “I promise you …” She rang the bell again, but pandemonium had broken loose, and Dan Richfield had joined the crowd. She stood looking at them all in despair, and after another fifteen minutes of fighting them, she gave up and went back inside, and she sat at her father’s desk with tears running down her cheeks. “I won’t give up! I won’t … damn them all …” she whispered to herself. But she refused to be beaten by them, even if every one of them quit.

  By the next day that was exactly what most of them did. They threw their picks and their tools through the windows of the office where she worked, and she found a mountain of debris heaped around her desk, their names signed on a single sheet, headed by the words “We quit. We ain’t going to work for no girl.” And then they signed their names, three hundred and twenty-two of them, which left her a hundred and eighty-four men to run three mines, which was clearly an impossibility. It was only enough to run one adequately, the other two would have to be shut down temporarily, but if that was what she had to do, she would. She wouldn’t give in to them. There were other miners who needed work, and in time they would see that she knew how to run a mine. They’d be back, and if not, others would take their places. But it was frightening anyway. She called in five men to clear up the mess around her desk, and she was besieged all day with men lining up for their final paychecks before they left. It was a nightmarish way to begin, but she would never give up. She wasn’t that kind of woman—she was her father’s child. He wouldn’t have given up in her place, although she suspected that he would have been astonished at her. And Dan knew it too. At six o’clock, he looked at her with folded arms and a look of disgust.

  “It’s a good thing your father’s not alive to see what you’ve done.”

  “If he were, he’d be proud of me.” At least she hoped he would. It was a moot point. If he were alive, this wouldn’t be happening to her. “I’m doing the best I can, Dan.”

  “And it ain’t bad. I thought it would take you longer than this to run the place all to hell. Instead it’s only taken two days. What the hell do you think you’re going to do with a hundred and eighty-four men, Sabrina?”

  “Close down two of the mines for now. We’ll get more men begging to work here soon.” She sounded nervous but brave. And she was a brave girl, and what’s more she was right. Her father would have been proud of her.

  “Congratulations, kid. You’ve managed to turn the biggest mine in the West into the smallest show in town. And do you have any idea what you have left working for you? Some old men Jeremiah was just keeping on to be kind, but he could afford to do that, he had hundreds of others backing them up, some kids, boys, who don’t know any more about this place than you do, and a few cowards who couldn’t afford to give this up because they have too many children to feed.…”

  She looked him dead in the eye. “Does that include you, Dan?” Touché. “Just why did you stay on? Maybe it’s time you made that clear.”

  He flushed beet red, and looked at her angrily. “I owe a debt to your old man.”

  “Then let’s imagine that debt’s been paid. You worked twenty-three years for him. That’s enough to pay any debt. I set you free, like Lincoln with the slaves. Want to go? You can walk right out that door and never come back”—she waited silently and there was not a sound in the room—“but if you stay, I expect you to be on my side, to help me run this place, to help me reopen the other two mines again. I don’t want to have to fight you too.”

  He came right to the point. There was no reason to play games with her now. She was never going to let him run the mines. He already saw that. She was a damn fool, and as stubborn and power-hungry as her father had been, at least that was how he saw her now. His eyes had been opened in the past two days. He had stuck around for more than twenty years so that one day he could run this place, and in two days she had blown his plans all to hell. Now she had to sell out. John Harte would let him run the mines. He had promised Dan that, if Dan could help him make a deal with her, and he was going to see to it now. “Sell to John Harte, Sabrina. They’ll never let you run this place. You’ll lose everything you have.”

  “No, I won’t. My father taught me more than you want to admit. And I’m sorry it’s turning out like this. I thought you and I could work together, just as you worked for him.”

  “And just why do you think I did that, you little fool? Because I loved him so much? Hell, I thought I’d be running this place one day, not you.” He wasn’t going to mince words with her. He hated her guts. He should have been Thurston’s son, not this damn girl. And who was she anyway? The daughter of that whore who’d run off and left him seventeen years ago, at least that was what he thought. They said she had died, but he had never believed that. He had heard rumors about her lover in town years before, but he was only a kid then and what did he care. He looked angrily at Sabrina now, hatred spilling from his eyes.

  “I’m sorry you feel this way, Dan.”

  “You’re a damn fool. Sell out to John Harte.”

  “You’ve already said that, and you know I won’t. I’m not going to sell out to anyone. I’m going to run it myself if I have to go down in the shafts myself. I’ll work till I drop, but I’m going to keep what my father had, I’m going to be just as good to his men as he was, and the Thurston mines are going to be here a hundred years from now, if there’s still any quicksilver left here. I’m not going to let someone like you scare me out now, and I’m not going to sell to John Harte, or give in because a bunch of bastards up and quit. Do what you damn please, Dan, but I’m staying right here.” She was just like her old man, and he suddenly wanted to slap her face. He had meant to stay calm with her, to urge her gently to sell out, but she had pulled the rug out from under him. She had taken over, cut off his balls publicly, she had shown everyone that he was nothing more than a hired hand, and he wasn’t going to put up with it, and suddenly as he looked at her in the silence of the office they shared after dark, he reached out and grabbed her by the hair, and suddenly lost control of himself. He shook her until her teeth rattled in her head but she didn’t scream, and twisting her hair around his hand, he brought her to her knees. “You little whore!… little slut … you can’t even begin to run this place.…” And with that he grabbed her by the throat and suddenly he realized exactly what he wanted to do, he grabbed the collar of the blouse she wore and tore it from her back, and she stood in her corset, her skirt, her stockings, pantaloons, and boots. She never took her eyes off him, and he was leering at her now, fondling her breasts with one hand, as he held her captive with the other hand, still clutching her long dark hair.

  “Let go of me, Dan.” Her voice was far calmer than she felt. She was terrified of what he was going to do. And there was no one to help her now. They were alone at the mine. The last of the men had left, and the watchman they kept on duty at night would be too far away to hear her screams, and she didn’t want them to see her like this. She had to win their respect and if they saw her getting raped by Dan, it would be all over for her. “If you lay a hand on me, you’ll wind up in jail for the rest of your life … if you kill me, you’ll hang.”

  “Are you going to tell, if I lay a hand on you, Sabrina dear?” His eyes looked half mad, and his voice whined in her ear. And he had already realized what she was thinking. How could she admit it if he raped her? Then they wouldn’t respect her at all … it would be her fault … and God only knew who would try it next … the very thought was terrifying and suddenly she flung herself away from him with all the strength she had, and
ran across the room, pulling open her desk drawer as she went. She knew what her father kept there and so did Dan, and they struggled for the small pistol she grabbed, and it went off into the floor, and suddenly they both stood there, as though realizing for the first time what had happened. He looked at her in sudden horror, and she looked up at him in shame and disgust. He had almost raped her, and a week before he had been their friend, hers and her father’s. Her eyes met his now, and her hand trembled as she still held the gun.

  “I want you to get out right now and stay out. You’re fired.”

  He looked stunned for an instant, as though only then realizing what he’d done, nodded, and walked toward the door. He wanted to help her put her shirt back on, but he didn’t dare. It was just that she had destroyed his dream of two decades. But that was still no excuse. He couldn’t understand what he had done, or why. “I’m sorry, Sabrina. I really am.…” He looked at her in despair, and felt sick at what he had almost done. And yet she was so wrong to try to run the mines. He had been right about that. “You’ve got to sell out, you know. This will happen again. If not with me, with someone else. And someone else may not come to their senses next time.”

  She turned to him, indifferent to the way she looked, her hair tangled, her shoulders bare. “I’ll never sell, Dan. Never. And you can tell your friend John Harte that too.”

  “Tell him yourself. I’m sure you’ll have the chance.”

  “I have nothing to say to anyone. And I’m going to hire any of his men that I can.” She knew that Dan would probably go to work for him. But she didn’t care about that now. She never wanted to see Dan Richfield again. He was an evil man. Her father would have killed him for what he had almost done. Thank God he had stopped in time. He looked at her one last time, standing there in the ill-lit room, and she looked remarkably beautiful with her silky hair falling around her face, and her huge, sad eyes. What a difficult coming of age it had been for her.

  After he left she slowly put on her torn shirt, put the gun back in the desk and tidied the room, and at last she turned off the lights and left the mine. It was a relief to feel the cool night air on her face, and suddenly as she did, she felt her whole body shake. She had almost been raped by a man she had known all her life. She couldn’t even walk to where she had left her horse, and she had to sit on the office porch for almost half an hour, until she could walk again. And at last, when she pulled herself into the sidesaddle she used and rode home, with the wind in her hair, a huge sob flew from her like a large bird and she cried out into the night. She was suddenly angry at her father for the first time, how could he leave her? She wanted to ride as hard and long and far as she could, but her faithful mount took her home, and she rode right into the barn, and her horse’s stall, and slid down and nestled her face in the horse’s neck, wondering how he could leave her so alone, when she needed him so much.

  “Dan Richfield is right.” She jumped at the sound of the familiar voice. Hannah had seen her ride into the barn, and had walked up. “You’re out of your mind.”

  “Thanks.” Sabrina turned so Hannah wouldn’t see the tears on her face. She had already had enough for one day. “I needed that.”

  “Your father never intended for you to run those mines.”

  “Then he should have provided for something else. But since he didn’t, I’m all I’ve got.” She looked her straight in the eye. She didn’t feel like taking any more nonsense from anyone.

  “You’ve got Dan.”

  “Not anymore.”

  “He quit?” Hannah looked shocked.

  “I fired him.” She didn’t tell her that she had almost been raped, and the jacket she wore hid the torn blouse.

  “Then you’re a bigger fool than I thought.”

  “I’ll tell you what.” Sabrina deposited her saddle in the usual place, and turned to look at the woman who had nursed her since she was born. “You look after the house, I’ll look after the mines. It seemed to work when you and Daddy worked it like that. Why don’t we try the same thing?”

  “Because he wasn’t an eighteen-year-old girl. My God, what will people think if you try to run those mines?”

  “I don’t know, and I don’t care. And I’ll be sure not to ask.” And with that, she turned off the light in the barn and strode purposefully into the house.

  22

  When Sabrina went back to her office the next day, there was an eerie quiet sound about the mines. The loss of three hundred and twenty-two men was making itself felt, and at midmorning, she rang the mine bell, and made an announcement about closing down the two smaller mines. She reassigned all the men to the largest network of shafts in the biggest mine, and told them just exactly what she expected of them. There was suddenly a harshness about her that hadn’t been there before, and they saw something different in her eyes than they had the day before. One of the men mentioned it as they went back to work, and the others shrugged. Like the men who still ran her father’s vineyard, they didn’t give a damn what went on in her head, as long as she kept paying their salaries on time. That was why they had stayed, not for love of her, or out of devotion to her old man. They figured they didn’t owe her a damn thing, they needed the work, and they made a good wage working for her. The rest they didn’t really care about, although when word reached them that Dan Richfield had quit too, they began to worry about that.

  “Do you think she knows what she’s doing up there?”

  “Can she sign a check?”

  “I guess.” The men grinned.

  “Then I’ll stay. She pays better than John Harte, at least her old man did.” And there had been no mention of a decrease in pay. In fact, she was planning to give them all a raise the next week. Her father had been planning to that spring, and she could afford to now, with two thirds of the men gone. She had to concentrate her efforts on recruiting more men now, and she was making some notes on that, that afternoon, when her office door slammed and she looked up to see John Harte stride across the room. She looked up at him, but she didn’t move, and she didn’t smile when he reached her desk.

  “Unless you’re here to buy quicksilver from me, Mr. Harte, you’re wasting your time, and mine.”

  “That’s one of the things I like about you.” He did not seem put off as he looked down at her. “There’s something very warm and welcoming, I knew it the first time we met.” In spite of herself she smiled and moved back in her chair, waving to a chair on the other side of her desk.

  “I’m sorry, it’s been a rough couple of days. Sit down.”

  “Thank you.” He did, and pulled a cigar from his suede coat, and she suddenly remembered the Indian girl. She wondered if he still lived with her, not that it mattered to her. But the pretty little Indian squaw had struck in her mind. There was something so delicate and sensual about her, it was an odd insight into this rugged, almost gruff, man. “I hear you’ve had an interesting week. Mind if I smoke?” It was an afterthought. It was difficult thinking of her as a lady here. She was in a man’s world and he half expected her to light one herself, although she was a remarkably pretty girl. But she had put herself in a rough spot, and he wanted to offer her a way out.

  “I don’t mind. And yes, it’s been an interesting few days.”

  “I hear two thirds of your men have quit.” He wasn’t going to play any games with her, and she smiled tiredly.

  “Looks like it. I imagine by now, most of them are working for you.” Even though he had a far smaller mine than she.

  “Some. I didn’t need them all. I took what I could. They were good men.”

  “Apparently not.” She looked at him defiantly, and he admired her for her guts.

  “You took on a mighty tough horse to tame, Miss Thurston.”

  “I know that. But it belonged to my father, and now it belongs to me, and I’m going to break this horse if it kills me first, Mr. Harte.” And she meant just that.

  “Is it worth it to you to do that?” His eyes were kind, but she didn’t
want kindness from anyone now. She was going to fight her own fight, without the Dan Richfields of the world, or the John Hartes, or anyone. She was alone now. And she’d make it on her own, no matter how unorthodox that was.

  “It’s worth it to me, Mr. Harte. I’m not going to give this up.”

  “Then I guess you were right.” He sighed with a smile.

  “About what?”

  “I’m wasting my time.” He put the cigar down and leaned closer to her. He wanted to make her see things sensibly. He wasn’t trying to steal anything from her, but she had to be reasonable about this. What she was doing was wrong. Even her father wouldn’t have approved, and he was prepared to say that to her. “Miss Thurston, you are a very intelligent, very decent, very charming young girl, and from all I understand, you were the apple of your father’s eye.”

  Her face hardened into a frown. “You’re wasting your time.…”

  “Hear me out!” This time his words were harsh. “You know what I want. I want to buy this mine, all of it, all three mines in fact, that’s obvious to both of us, and I’ll pay you a handsome price, and if you turn me down, I’ll survive. I have plenty on my hands as it is, and I’m making a damn fortune over there, so I don’t really care, but what I hate to see is waste. You’re wasting this mine hanging on to it, you’ve already had to close two of your mines down, but more important than that, you’re wasting yourself. You’re a young girl.” He looked around the dingy room. “What in hell are you doing here? Is this what you want to do with your life? You’re not a man, you’re a girl. What are you trying to prove?” He sat back with a sigh and shook his head. “I didn’t know him well, but from the little I knew, I can tell you that this isn’t what your father wanted for you. No one in their right mind would. It’s a lonely, ugly, filthy, tiring life, grinding away, and digging dead men out of mines, fighting fire, and floods, keeping drunks in line. How the hell do you think you’re going to do all that and you don’t even have Dan Richfield now?” He looked genuinely distressed for her, but she was leery of him now. She was leery of everyone.