The Goblin Bride (Beneath Sands Book 1)

joke with her, laugh when he made her nervous, but in the end tell her that it was all a wife’s tale and that she shouldn’t be listening to rumor mongers.
  But he didn’t. He didn’t say anything. Simon was uncharacteristically quiet as he swung his axe more firmly over his shoulder and started walking down the tunnels once again. They passed the time in silence. The only sounds were the heavy thuds of booted feet and the water dripping down the walls.
  Finally they reached the tunnel they had been working on. They were last of their group to reach their destination. Simon stopped her then with a long meaty arm against the wall in front of her.
  “Now I don’t know what ye’ve heard about the goblins, lad. And you shouldn’t be looking to spread rumors down here when men are already giving their lives for something as foolish as a rock.”
  Jane shook her head. “I wasn’t trying to be rude. I just wanted to know if the stories were true. If there really was something to be nervous about down here.”
  A shadow crossed in front of his eyes, a darkening that made her think that Simon knew something more than he was telling her. That look sent a shiver down her spine.
  “Simon,” she asked quietly.
  He shoved himself off the wall. The crunch as loose stone hit the ground made her wince as Simon walked away from her down the tunnel they had been working on. Whatever she had said, it had not been the right thing. The man that she had quickly started thinking of as a friend was silent. The tunnel itself was silent. A tomb for those who worked in it.
  She was quick to follow. Jane knew better than to push him to talk if he didn’t want to. They quickly fell into the rhythm that the two of them had created in the past few weeks. The thumping of pick axes against the stone, the rattle of the helmets on their heads, the shifting of booted feet against smooth stone floor. These were the symphonies that the miners created in these tunnels. Every now and then they could heard the echoing of others shouting to keep in touch. No one wanted to get lost in the tunnels.
  “Lad.”
  It was the first word Simon had said in hours. She wasn’t sure whether it was time for them to stop for lunch, or whether it was her own stomach grumbling with nerves. “Aye?”
  She was wiping sweat away from her brow when she turned and realized he was much closer to her than she thought he would be. Startled, she stepped backwards quickly. The stone wall pressed against her spine, biting against her flesh.
  “I can’t tell you what lives below these stones. I ain’t never seen one up close.”
  She paused for a moment, trying to understand what he had said.
  “Are you trying to say that there is something in here with us? That the goblin rumors are real?”
  “I can’t say whether it’s goblins.” He took his helmet off, running a hand over sweat slicked hair. “Like I said, I ain’t never got close enough.”
  He gestured towards the rock lip they had left to eat upon. Jane realized in that moment how close she had become to this man. She had looked for him out of the mine, but Jane had no idea where he lived. There were so many people living outside that there was no way for her to find him. A woman could have convinced him to come and visit her but Simon didn’t know her as Jane. He knew her as Joseph, the young man who tried to work very hard but somehow did not bulk up like the rest of the men.
  In another time, or another place, she could have seen them together. Simon was a good man, a kind man. He was likely older than her by quite a few years, and the sand sickness was going to kill him soon. However, they would have had a happy, if short, life together. He had a laugh that made her smile. And when she heard that booming chuckle from his chest, she saw the ghost of her father smiling back at her. If there had ever been a man she could have seen herself ending up with, it was Simon.
  She grabbed her lunch out of the bag they had brought with them and perched on the stone. Simon sat on the floor in front of her, not seeming to mind that he was likely getting his pants wet by sitting on the damp floor.
  He would talk when he felt like it. Curiosity had her burning to ask questions, but she had to control herself. Instead, she busied herself with unwrapping the food. Two sandwiches that would taste like dust were their lunch. It was the flasks of water that they wanted the most. Clear and cool, it would slide down their throats like the sweetest of balms.
  “It was back in the Merrywether mine.”
  She leaned down to hand him the flask of water, gesturing that he should drink before he talked.
  His throat worked as he tilted back his head. Jane was struck by the strength in this man. Even though he was ill, he was still so strong. Powerful muscles threaded across his body from hard labor his entire life.
  “There was five of us in the tunnels back then. Five for each, all of us breaking our backs to work. We could work longer in those mines. When one man got tired, there was another to take his place.”
  He was staring at the flask his hands now, unable to look at her for some strange reason.
  “We hit something back then. I don’t know what it was. But we busted through a wall and suddenly there was a larger opening. It went down so deep that we didn’t know how far it went. Strange to think that there was just suddenly a hole when we were already so far