ON HER WAY back, Annie called in to Rotherham Road, hoping to reassure herself that her father was safe. Nobody was home so she put a note through the door asking Marie to give her a ring when she got back. Then she drove to the school trying to swallow the feeling of dread that was like a bad taste in her mouth. She had the radio turned on in the car and when the news came on, the newsreader made reference to skirmishes at the Matlow colliery, and arrests. There was an interview with a miner who said the police had used unnecessary force, and an interview with a police officer who described the miners as an out-of-control mob. The report claimed that the miners had now been dispersed.
At the school gates, the women were clustered together. They were talking of the fighting at the pit. The mothers held their children tighter these days, they hurried them into their cars and took them home as quickly as they could.
Elizabeth’s teacher came out with Lizzie and walked over to the school gates.
‘Is everything all right?’ Annie asked.
The teacher had her hand on the child’s shoulder. ‘That’s what I wanted to ask you, Mrs Howarth. Are things all right at home?’
Annie blushed at once. ‘They’re fine,’ she said.
‘Only Lizzie wrote a poem today and illustrated it.’ The teacher handed over a piece of paper. The poem was called Murder in Matlow and the picture showed a bloody fight between a male figure holding a spade, and another wearing a helmet. Annie could tell at once that it was a miner versus a policeman and that the miner was coming off worst.
‘Oh.’ Annie stroked her daughter’s hair.
‘It’s not really appropriate for a seven-year-old.’
‘No, it’s not. You’re quite right. We’ll have a chat.’ She smiled at Lizzie, who had a slightly panicked look on her face because she wasn’t sure if she was in trouble or not.
The teacher’s nostrils flared a little. ‘Perhaps you and your husband could try to make sure Lizzie doesn’t overhear adult conversations. She’s been a little unsettled lately.’
Annie took hold of her daughter’s hand. She felt the heat in her cheeks. ‘Like I said, we’ll talk to her,’ she said. ‘Come on now, pet.’
They climbed into the car. Lizzie strapped herself into the passenger seat and leaned forward to turn the radio on. The Ghostbusters theme song was playing. The little girl normally liked to sing along with this one, but today she was quiet. She watched as Annie turned the car not in the direction of home, but the opposite way.
‘Where are we going?’ she asked.
‘Into Matlow.’
‘Why?’
‘I need to see Grandma and Grandad.’
‘Why?’
‘I just do.’
Lizzie had picked up the Barbie doll she’d left in the car that morning. She smoothed the doll’s princess dress. Annie glanced at her.
‘Lizzie, you mustn’t worry about things.’
‘I don’t.’ She made the doll sashay across her knees and pressed its face up against the window. ‘What things?’
‘Grown-up things. Me and Daddy and other people. We’re all big enough and ugly enough to take care of ourselves.’
‘I know.’
‘This strike will be over soon and then everything will go back to normal. You’ll see. People will have forgotten all about it in a few weeks. And Daddy will catch the bad man and we’ll all live happily ever after.’
‘And Uncle Paul.’
‘Hmmm?’
‘Uncle Paul will help catch the bad man too.’ She jerked the doll forward so its head banged on the glass and then let it fall across her lap.
Annie eyed her. ‘Has Ruthie Thorogood been on at you again?’
Elizabeth shook her head.
‘Are you sure? She hasn’t said anything?’
‘No.’
‘If you’re worried about anything, you talk to me, OK?’
‘OK.’
‘Promise me?’
‘I promise.’
‘Good.’
Annie drove back into Matlow the same way she’d come, past groups of men drifting from the colliery. They looked exhausted. Some of their clothes were torn, some were shirtless. She saw one man holding a rag to a cut on his forehead and another whose head and shoulders were spattered with blood. She glanced at Elizabeth. The child was holding her toy dog Scooby up, making him wave at the miners, but nobody saw, or if they did they did not bother to wave back.
They reached Rotherham Road. Annie parked the car outside her parents’ house and knocked on the door. Still nobody answered. She and Elizabeth walked through the alley at the back and across the common, which had been dug up to grow vegetables, to the Miners’ Club. Children were playing on the swings outside. The interior was being used as a makeshift medical centre. Men sat on the chairs with their elbows on their knees and women cleaned up their wounds as best they could. Annie glanced down at Lizzie.
‘There’s nothing to worry about here, Lizzie, OK?’
‘OK.’
They went tentatively forward.
‘Excuse me?’
A man looked up at her. His face was bloody and bruised. He said, ‘You’re Den Jackson’s girl, aren’t you?’
Annie nodded. ‘Have you seen him?’
The miner shook his head.
Gillian Up-the-road came over to Annie and took her arm. ‘See what the police did to the men today? The bastards. Are you going to tell your husband about this? Are you?’
‘Gill, I’m looking for my dad, that’s all.’
‘Well, he’s not here. Look somewhere else.’
‘Is that Den Jackson’s lass?’ somebody called.
‘Aye!’
‘Tell her they took him.’
‘Who took him?’
‘Who do you think? Put him in the back of a van and drove him off.’
‘He’ll be down the local nick.’
‘Him and all the rest.’
‘Thank you,’ Annie said. ‘Thank you, Gill. If you see my mum …’
‘I’ll tell her you were here.’
‘Come on.’ Annie took hold of Lizzie and hurried her away. They ran back to the car and clambered in. Annie locked the doors.
‘Why is everyone upset?’ asked Elizabeth.
‘It’s been a bad day,’ said Annie. ‘It’ll soon be over.’
She drove towards Matlow police station, but couldn’t get close. The road had been closed at both ends and hundreds of people were milling about outside. Some of them were shouting. A bottle flew through the air and a moment later there was the sound of breaking glass. Elizabeth was sitting up straight, gazing out of the car window and holding tight to her dog. The doll, forgotten now, lay in the footwell.
‘Is Grandad here?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know,’ said Annie.
‘Are we going to look?’
‘No. I think we’d better go back to Everwell.’
‘But what if he’s waiting for us to come and get him?’
‘We’ll ask Daddy to look for him when he comes home.’
Annie put the car into reverse and turned it around. Crowds of people were walking down the road, men with their arms around each other’s shoulders, women comforting one another. Annie’s hands were trembling. She had trouble changing gear. She could not wait to be out of the town, away from all this, back at Everwell.
When they got there, there was no news.
Mrs Miller said nobody had called on the telephone all afternoon. Annie gave Lizzie a glass of squash and a sandwich, turned on the television in the living room and went through the motions of preparing dinner. She watched the first few minutes of the news but it was all about Princess Diana, who was pregnant again.
When the telephone rang, she ran to the hall and picked up the receiver: ‘Hello? Mum?’
There was an embarrassed laugh at the other end of the line.
‘No, it’s Julia Thorogood. I just wanted to check that you weren’t ill.’
‘I’m not ill. But why are you asking?’
‘Because you missed the meeting.’
‘What meeting?’
‘The planning meeting, for the well-dressing. It was this afternoon. I called you last week to remind you and you said you’d definitely be there. So when you didn’t show up, we were worried.’
Annie exhaled shakily. ‘Sorry, Julia, I completely forgot. I have a lot on my mind at the moment.’
‘Perhaps I could come up to Everwell now?’
‘Now’s not really a good time.’
‘But there are things that can’t wait, Annie. We need to make some decisions. We were wondering if we should even have a well-dressing this year. It might look as if we were supporting the miners.’
‘I don’t see what the well-dressing has to do with the strike. And what’s wrong with supporting the miners? Mining is what our community is all about.’
‘But the strike’s not legal, Annie. That awful man Scargill is manipulating those men and they don’t have the brains to see it.’
‘My father is one of those men.’
‘Oh, of course.’ There was a long silence. ‘Well, let’s not fall out over politics. Can I pop up to see you?’
‘No,’ said Annie, and she put the phone down. She turned to go back into the kitchen. Ethel and the nurse were coming the other way. Ethel gave Annie a filthy look.
‘Who’s that?’ she asked the nurse. ‘Who is that person and what are they doing in my house?’
Annie thought, Give me strength. She went back into the kitchen. The onions were burning in the butter at the bottom of the pan and the potatoes had boiled over. She put the onion pan under the cold tap in the sink, and started again. The phone rang for the second time at the same moment as William came through the front door. When Annie reached the hallway, drying her hands on a tea towel, he handed the receiver to her.
‘It’s your mother,’ he said. ‘She’s in a phone box.’
Of course she’s in a bloody phone box. ‘Thanks,’ said Annie. She took the telephone. ‘Hello, Mum?’
‘Your dad’s been arrested,’ Marie said. ‘Along with a dozen others. He’s locked up at least for the night.’
Annie glanced at William. He had picked up the mail on the hall table and was not looking at her.
‘Are you coping, Mum?’
‘What do you think? At least I know where Den is – it’s not him I’m worried about. Johnnie was supposed to help out at the kitchens today but he never turned up. You haven’t seen him, have you?’
‘I saw him this morning. He said he was going straight to the Miners’ Club.’
‘Something must have happened. Johnnie’s never let me down; never. If he says he’s going to do something, he does it. Not like some.’
She was right. Annie knew she was right. Dread was growing inside her; it was like a rock in her stomach.
‘I’m on my way, Mum,’ said Annie. ‘I’ll be there as quick as I can. We’ll look for him together.’