There was a flurry of activity on Canal Road. An ambulance stood by to take Alice Barlow to hospital. A policeman dressed in civvies arrived and spoke to his officers. He pointed to Barlow’s shop then the two uniformed men hurried inside.
‘Do you want me to take you to the King Edward’s for them to check you over?’ Eddie asked Violet.
She shook her head. ‘I just want to go home,’ she whispered.
But the senior policeman approached them and pinned them to the spot. ‘I’m Detective Inspector Butterworth. We had an emergency call from Jubilee Dressmakers – a lady by the name of Muriel Beanland.’
‘Yes. I work there. I asked them to ring you.’ Wet and shivering, Violet clutched Eddie’s jacket across her chest. ‘He pushed her in the water. He must have known she couldn’t swim.’
‘You mean Mr Barlow?’ The inspector ignored the hubbub that arose when the two policemen escorted Colin Barlow out of his shop and concentrated on the facts.
‘I saw him,’ Violet insisted. ‘He was beating her and then pushed her in. And just walked away.’
Barlow wrenched free of the escorting officers. ‘That’s a lie. Alice slipped and fell. Neither of us knows how to swim. I ran to fetch help.’ He was still arguing, fending off the two officers with his elbows until one of them took firm hold of him again. ‘This girl has a grudge against me.’
Violet noticed Glenda Morris standing stony faced in the shop doorway, watching the police trying to drag her boss towards a Black Maria. Her gaze flickered towards Violet and she gave an almost imperceptible nod. In that instant an agreement was reached and an alliance formed.
‘I’m telling the truth,’ Violet said. ‘Mr Barlow chased Mrs Barlow out of Jubilee down Chapel Street. She was frightened out of her wits. That’s why I asked Muriel to call the police.’
‘It’s a good job she did,’ Eddie said stoutly. ‘Then Ida rang me. She knew I was at the Baths with Stan. We dashed over here as fast as we could.’
‘It’s the girl’s word against mine.’ Barlow struggled with the officers until one brought out handcuffs and snapped them around his wrists. ‘She’s making all this up. My wife was hysterical. I tried to calm her down but she fell.’
‘Take him to the station.’ It was clear that the facts were falling into place and telling the inspector a different story. He turned his back as his men dragged Barlow away to their waiting car.
‘And take this young lady home before she catches her death,’ the inspector advised Eddie. ‘There’ll be time later on to make a formal statement.’
So Eddie and Stan pushed through the crowd, each with an arm around Violet’s shoulder.
‘Plenty of people saw what went on,’ Violet murmured. She was so cold that her teeth chattered. Her legs felt heavy, the inside of her head light. ‘A butcher’s boy, a woman at the bus stop, a man with a car tyre …’
‘You heard Inspector Butterworth – we’ll concentrate on that later,’ Stan insisted.
Eddie agreed. ‘Right now we have to get you back to Jubilee.’
To Jubilee where Ida and Muriel were waiting with hot tea. Muriel ran upstairs to fetch a dry blanket from Violet’s bed. Ida sat her down by the kitchen range.
‘Stan, Eddie …’ Muriel indicated with a meaningful look that it was time for them to make themselves scarce while she and Ida helped Violet undress, sponged her down and gave her clean clothes.
They were slow on the uptake – two tall, ungainly men getting in the women’s way in the cramped kitchen.
‘You’ve done your bit,’ Ida insisted as she showed them the door. ‘I take it Barlow’s in clink?’ she added.
‘Where he belongs,’ Stan vouchsafed.
‘And between us we’ll make sure that’s where he stays,’ Eddie swore.
All the next day the shop bell tinkled.
Lizzie called in during her dinner break to buy half a dozen horn buttons for her father’s sports jacket but really to quiz Violet, the heroine of the hour.
‘What was the water like? Was it freezing? Alice Barlow must have been a dead weight – how did you manage to drag her out? Goodness gracious, Violet, you’re a blooming marvel.’
Lizzie had heard the story from Marjorie who had seen Stan and Eddie bring a dripping Violet back to Jubilee. Marjorie had waited all of two minutes before haring across Chapel Street to Sybil’s shop to find out if Evie knew what Stan and Eddie had been up to. Evie ran to the telephone box on the corner of Cliff Street to speak to Emily Thomson in her box office at Brinkley Baths and so the cat was out of the bag – Violet had saved Mrs Barlow from drowning! And now everyone must call in to see if Violet had survived her dip in the canal unscathed. First Evie dropped by with a fresh sachet of sweet-smelling lavender to pop under Violet’s pillow and take away the nasty, lingering smells of the canal. Then Marjorie herself sailed in, convinced that Violet needed building up with beef tea, marvelling that such a slip of a girl could drag Alice Barlow up from the murky depths single handed. In and out of the shop neighbours came to gossip and praise, to learn of the part that Eddie had played then criticize and condemn.
‘Colin Barlow tried to kill his wife – fancy that.’
‘I never liked the man. Nor her either, for that matter.’
‘She can thank her lucky stars that you risked your life to save her. A lot of people wouldn’t have bothered.’
Violet listened and smiled, sticking up for Alice Barlow when necessary. Though she was looked after by Muriel and Ida who fussed around like mother hens, by teatime she was worn out. After a short visit from Eddie to see how she was coping, she was in bed by eight o’clock, breathing in lavender and falling straight asleep.
On Friday she was asked to go to the police station to give her account. Inspector Butterworth, inscrutable as on the previous day behind a pair of silver-rimmed glasses, tapped a pencil on the table and listened carefully while a police constable wrote down every word Violet said. Afterwards Butterworth told her that Alice Barlow was still in the hospital but that she was on the mend.
‘You’ve no need to worry – she’s already backed up your version of events,’ he told Violet calmly. ‘We’ve charged Barlow with attempted murder for a start. There’ll be other things to add to that, I shouldn’t wonder.’
Violet left the police station with a spring in her step. At last, she thought, the man will get what’s coming to him!
Walking along Brewery Road, on her way back to work, Violet ran into Sybil, who insisted on shaking her by the hand.
‘Winnie would have been proud,’ she said with the warmest of smiles. ‘I don’t know the full story of what Colin Barlow got up to behind his wife’s back – only what I’ve picked up here and there from Ella Kingsley and the like. But we all knew he was a bully and a cheat. It takes courage to stand up to a man like that.’
Violet thanked her and would have hurried on, but Sybil kept tight hold of her hand.
‘Now, Violet.’ She spoke with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. ‘You’ve probably heard that I have room for a new seamstress at Chapel Street Costumiers.’
‘I have.’ Violet looked steadily at Ida and Muriel’s inveterate rival.
‘Whenever your name comes up, Evie never fails to sing your praises.’
‘She does, does she?’ Violet raised her eyebrows.
‘Yes. And I know from past experience that you make a good job of hems, buttonholes and suchlike. So, I’ve been turning it over in my mind – well, let me get to the point. I don’t suppose that you would think of applying for the vacant position?’
A smile appeared on Violet’s lips and she spoke with confidence. ‘You suppose right. I’m very happy where I am, thank you.’
Sybil released Violet’s hand and smiled back. ‘It was worth asking, at any rate,’ she called over her shoulder as she walked on, heels clicking smartly along the pavement.
‘She only did it to annoy us!’ Ida exclaimed when Violet reached Jubilee and told her what had happened.
‘You weren’t tempted, were you?’ Muriel gave Violet a searching look.
‘Never!’ Violet swore. ‘I’m only just getting started as a dressmaker but believe me, I’m a Jubilee girl through and through.’
Saturday came and an invitation from Eddie via Ida for Violet to meet him at the Assembly Rooms at seven o’clock.
‘He said I should tell you that he was sorry he couldn’t pick you up as usual – and very mysterious he was about it too,’ Ida commented as she closed up for the day.
Violet didn’t mind. ‘I’ll walk,’ she decided. ‘It’s a nice night. The fresh air will do me good.’
So she dressed warmly in her red hat and best coat over her green dress and set off at a sprightly pace up Chapel Street in time to see what was left of the sun sinking behind clouds on the far horizon. She faced the biting wind and walked along Under-cliffe Road. On Violet went in the autumn evening, past the cemetery gates then the entrance to Linton Park, looking straight ahead along the busy road until she could see the lights of the Assembly Rooms and Eddie waiting for her on the steps outside.
Her heart quickened as the man she loved came to meet her, his hand in his jacket pocket, a nervous smile on his lips. Strains of music – the introduction to a waltz – drifted from the hall.
Eddie took a small red velvet box from his pocket and handed it to her, there in the middle of the pavement where couples brushed past in their eagerness to get inside the dance hall, where friends called to each other or gazed expectantly at passengers alighting from the tram.
Violet opened the box. Inside was a gold ring set with a small ruby, with two sparkling diamonds to either side.
‘Do you want me to go down on one knee?’ Eddie’s heart was in his mouth until he got a response.
‘No – people will stare!’ The ring was beautiful, nestling in cream satin, glinting in the lamplight.
Trying to read the look on Violet’s face, Eddie said the only thing he could think of. ‘I rode into Welby after work to fetch it.’
‘It’s lovely,’ she whispered, looking up at him with tears in her eyes.
‘Is that a yes? Does that mean you’ll definitely marry me?’
Voices washed around them.
‘Yes I will,’ Violet murmured.
Eddie breathed again. ‘Try it on. Is it the right size? Do you like it?’
‘I love it.’ A ruby and four glittering diamonds seen through a blur of tears – five tiny stones signifying a life together. ‘I love you, Eddie Thomson.’
The music began full swing. Stan and Evie stepped from a tram and strolled hand in hand towards Violet and Eddie.
‘Hello, you two,’ Stan said. ‘I hope you’ve got your dancing shoes on.’
Violet held up her hand to show them the ring, her heart so full she thought it would overflow. ‘You’re the first to know – Eddie and I are getting married.’
Evie smiled and hugged her. Stan shook Eddie’s hand. The band played ‘Blue Skies’.
‘That sounds like our tune.’ Eddie spun Violet round and ran joyously up the steps with her into the dance hall.
Behind them, still visible, the moors formed a sweeping horizon against a sinking, melting sun. Tomorrow Eddie and Violet would announce their engagement then ride out on the bike. She would clasp her arms around his waist with a ruby ring glinting on her finger. They would swoop, swerve and sail along the moor road and not look back.