by Iris Gower
‘Be quick, then.’ Rhiannon began to run along the trackside pushing her way between the crowds. Katie followed in her wake, easily keeping pace, fear wrapping itself around her like a cloak and sweat beading her brow. ‘Please, God, let him be alive,’ she murmured over and over again.
She gasped as the huge fall of earth came into sight. The navvies, dressed incongruously in their Sunday best, were digging feverishly. Seth O’Connor was among them, covered in earth, and she ran as close to him as she dared.
‘Seth, what’s happened?’ she called, and the Irishman looked up sharply.
‘Get away from here, Katie Cullen. God only knows what we’re going to find.’
‘Tell me what’s happened, please, Seth.’
He came to her then, rubbing the sweat off his brow with his sleeve. His face was red and he was breathing heavily.
‘A little boy was playing here,’ he gasped. ‘We saw the earth on the bank start to slide and Bull jumped forward to save him. The last we saw of him was half an hour ago when the earth covered them both. Put yourself in mind of it, Katie. The chances are that both the boy and Bull are goners.’
‘No!’ Katie scrabbled at the earth with her bare hands. Somehow she knew in her heart that Bull was nearby.
‘Go back, Katie! ‘Tisn’t safe here, colleen.’ Seth tried to drag her away. ‘Stand over there with the other women – we’ll get him out, I promise you.’
‘Seth,’ Katie looked at him, her eyes pleading with him to listen to her. ‘Bull is under here, I just know in my bones he is. Please, Seth, will you dig this part of the earth for me?’
He nodded and carefully put his spade into the soft earth. ‘If he’s here I’ll find him, don’t you fret.’
After several agonizing minutes Katie heard the spade strike something metallic and Seth looked up at her. ‘’Tis a bit of piping. It might just be . . .’ His words trailed away as an answering knock sounded on the pipe.
‘Over here, boys!’ Seth called excitedly. ‘There’s someone alive down here.’ He glanced at Katie. ‘Don’t get your hopes up too high, love, it might just be the little boy.’
Slowly the men began to uncover the pipe. ‘Look, boys,’ Seth called. ‘A man would get air to breathe through the pipe and some of the timbers under here are poking through the earth.’ His voice rose. ‘It looks as if Bull had a chance to save the boy before the earth covered him.’
Katie clasped her hands together. ‘Mother Mary, keep Bull safe! I don’t care what he’s done or who he wants, just let him be alive and I’ll never ask for another thing as long as I live.’
With painful slowness the pipe was uncovered. Seth grasped the end of a piece of timber and hesitated. ‘We got to do this carefully, boys,’ he said, ‘or we could cause another fall of earth.’
Slowly the timbers were raised and a cheer went up from the men. Katie strained to see but the navvies crowded round, only too willing to help.
‘Here’s the child!’ One of the navvies lifted the boy and wiped the earth from his face. He was passed carefully from man to man until he was in the arms of his weeping mother.
A loud cheer went up from the navvies, and Katie almost stopped breathing as Bull was pulled from the earth. He stood up, brushed the dirt from his face, and Katie felt as if her heart was melting inside her.
‘Thank you, Mother Mary, thank you, thank you,’ she whispered. Then she watched as Rhiannon pushed forward. The crowd of men parted to let her get to Bull and he hugged her, but his eyes were scanning the crowds. When he saw Katie he put Rhiannon aside and came towards her, his arms outstretched. Beneath the earth that grimed his face and matted his hair, he was smiling.
‘My little love,’ he said. ‘I knew you’d be here for me.’ He put his arms around her and she closed her eyes, loving him so much it hurt.
‘Thank God you’re alive. I was so afraid I’d never see you again.’
‘Oh, you can’t get rid of Bull Beynon that easily,’ he said. ‘I had to live to make you my wife. You will marry me, won’t you?’
Over his shoulder, Katie saw Rhiannon, head bent as she walked away, but her heart was so full of gladness that all she could think of was Bull, here in her arms, safe and well and needing her.
‘Go on, Katie Cullen!’ Seth shouted. ‘Put the man out of his misery! Say you’ll marry him.’
Katie’s voice shook as she answered him: ‘I’ll marry you, Bull, my sweetheart. How could I say no when I love you so much?’
Seth O’Connor began to clap and the other navvies joined in. They crowded around Bull and Katie, slapping Bull on the back and heaping congratulations on them.
From the distance came the whistle of the train bringing the directors into Swansea. Bull looked up, his arm still round Katie’s waist. ‘Come on, boys, we’re not going to miss the greatest spectacle of our lives, are we? Get down to the station and catch a look at the great man himself.’
He took Katie’s hand and ran with her towards the station. As she struggled to keep up with him, her heart sang with joy. Bull was alive, and he was hers for now and for always.
Breathless, she came to a stop beside him. She could see the colourful uniforms of the band, the mayor standing at the edge of a red carpet and, in the crowd of dignitaries on the platform, Mr Morton-Edwards with Mrs Mainwaring and her little boy. Then Jayne Buchan pushed forward, impeccably dressed as always. Katie looked down ruefully at her own earth-spattered skirts. But that didn’t matter. She slipped her hand into Bull’s and he squeezed it gently. ‘Any minute now, Katie.’ She knew by the excitement in his voice that he was happy to be here with her to see the majestic engine come into sight. She stood on tiptoe but then, laughing, Bull lifted her in his great arms so that she could see over the heads of the crowd.
Slowly, the gleaming engine came into view. Steam billowed from the funnel like a pale cloud in the sunshine and sparks fell like stars into the grass.
A great cheer went up from the crowd as the train ground to a halt. Men with tall hats stepped from the carriage, and the mayor of Swansea, his gold chain gleaming, was shaking the hand of one.
‘That’s Brunel himself,’ Bull said, and Katie looked at the man who had made the Great Western Railway possible and saw that he was ordinary, stocky, broad-shouldered, not a patch on her Bull.
The band struck up, and Katie felt a catch in her throat as the procession moved away from the platform. Bull put her down and Katie curled into his arms. ‘You must be very proud,’ she said, looking up into his dirty face. ‘You’ve been part of all this from the start.’
‘Katie, at this moment I’m a happier man than the great Isambard Kingdom Brunel himself. His dream has come true. He’s brought the Great Western into Swansea. But my dream, from the first moment I met you, was to make you my wife.’ He bent towards her and a shower of earth fell from his hair on to her face, but Katie didn’t notice for Bull’s lips were claiming hers, and her heart was singing because this was the happiest day of her life.
THE END