Striding out once more for the canal basin the following day, the women knew they had limited time to sort out The Margaret Rose but had to ensure no one was aboard at the time.
The man who had shouted to Martha the previous day eyed them as they approached.
‘She ain’t in, nobody is there, missis.’
‘Good,’ Violet said as she stepped forward, ‘I need a favour, one that will pay handsomely.’
‘Oh ar, what you want then?’ he asked.
‘We want that boat a bit wet – inside!’ Violet said quietly, tipping her head to the barge in question.
Nodding, his head the man said, ‘Well now, if you happened to be strolling past later in the day you might want to stop by again.’ Giving her a wink, Violet replied with a smile and a nod and the women turned for home.
‘What’s he going to do, Martha?’ asked Mary.
Martha’s patience exhausted she snapped, ‘Now how the hell would I know!’
Kath said, ‘Maybe we’ll find out later, Mary.’
*
Work finished for the day, the women again strolled towards the canal in the early evening sunshine.
At the edge of the canal towpath they saw a crowd of people gathered and, with an easy pace, made their way towards it.
A lot of shouting could be heard as they neared the crowd and the woman who had hit Nancy pointed, shouting, ‘Them! They did it!’
The crowd turned and Violet asked her, ‘We did what?’
Pointing to her barge, she spat, ‘That!’
‘I’m sorry, I don’t understand!’ Violet said unable as yet to see what the woman referred to.
‘There’s water everywhere!’ the woman yelled.
‘Yes, I can see that, and there are boats on it,’ Violet replied, barely able to contain her grin.
‘Oh ain’t you funny?’ The woman said sarcastically. ‘There’s water everywhere – inside! Look at this – it’s sodden!’ She held up a small rag rug which dripped dirty canal water.
Glancing at the man they had spoken with earlier in the day, who was sitting on his own barge, he doffed his cap and it was all Violet could do not to laugh. Instead she said, ‘How do you suppose we did that?’
‘I don’t know how you did it, but you did!’ the venomous reply came.
‘I’m afraid you are mistaken,’ Violet said with as much dignity as she could muster, ‘my friends and I have been working all afternoon.’
Martha yelled, ‘Just as well you didn’t have the coal loaded else she might have gone down altogether!’
Howls of laughter erupted from the crowd.
‘I’ll have you for this, you see if I don’t!’ The woman, in a rage, was pacing back and forth on the towpath.
‘That right?’ shouted Martha in response, ‘Word of warning, you don’t want to be messing with us “Wives”. Still an’ all, I expect you’ll be too busy drying your stuff out!’
Cheers rang out as the woman spat on the ground and marched away.
The man jumped down from his boat and walking close to Violet said quietly, ‘Job complete.’
Violet discreetly handed him a small bag of money, saying, ‘Payment made.’
Strolling back the way they had come, they chatted about the woman and her wet boat. It would take time to dry out the things the man had drenched, but at least he hadn’t sunk the boat thus leaving the woman and her children homeless.
‘I wonder how he managed it.’ Violet queried.
‘A couple of buckets of water would be my guess, but then I’m not a “cut rat” so what would I know?’ Martha laughed.
‘Blimey, Mum,’ said Nancy when they told her of the event, ‘it doesn’t pay to get on the wrong side of you lot!’
It was considered justifiable retribution… yet again.
*
Later in the evening, Joshua and Kath sat on a bench in the garden of Gittins Lodge discussing their wedding plans. ‘I saw the vicar today,’ he said, ‘and he assured me no one would know about the service other than those attending.’
‘That’s a relief,’ Kath said, ‘but how do we get everyone up to St. Bartholomew’s Church without people seeing?’
‘We don’t,’ he answered with a smile, ‘the vicar is coming here to us!’
‘But, Joshua…’ Kath started.
‘It’s all right wench, the vicar said something about blessing the house first, I’m not quite sure of the ins and outs of it, but he assures me it is all above board and legal.’
‘Right, well we just need to set a date then.’
‘What about the banns being read?’ Alarm sounded in her voice. ‘They have to be called in Church!’
‘We just ask the vicar to call them when there’s nobody there!’ Joshua said,
‘But…’
‘But nothing,’ he went on, ‘they’ll be called, it won’t be our fault nobody will be there to hear them!’
Laughing together, he said, ‘I heard about an incident on the “cut” today.’
‘Oh yes?’ Fear gripped her as he continued.
‘Ar, I also hear you were there…’
Kath’s fear tightened in her chest. Joshua still had no idea about the Wives club and she wasn’t sure he should – yet. So she answered with, ‘And?’
‘Well, the story goes you lot were blamed for a barge being sunk.’
Giving a little laugh, Kath said, ‘Were we indeed?’
‘All because some harridan slapped Martha’s wench.’
‘Firstly, Joshua, the woman was not a harridan – she was not nice, but she was not a harridan. She hit Martha’s daughter, Nancy, not slapped her; we strolled the towpath after work, and yes… we were accused of sinking her boat.’
‘And…?’
‘No Joshua, we did not sink the barge – how on earth do you suppose we could have done that without being seen by countless people?’
‘Ar, I suppose you’re right,’ he muttered, settling more comfortably on the garden bench. ‘Still an’ all, she was a daft bugger to meddle with you lot!’
Exchanging a smile, Kath knew that he knew they had something to do with the dousing of The Margaret Rose, he just didn’t know what, and she was not about to enlighten him.