Over the following weeks, the orphans settled well in the Gittins household. Spencer returned to his work at the nail-making factory, and Violet spent her time getting to know her wards. They had accepted her readily as their unofficial guardian and enjoyed her attentions. Each having their own bedrooms, they had also been kitted out with new clothes and boots.
Violet slowly came to realise they had brought vitality and laughter to the house, which, for a long time, had felt dark and foreboding. They bickered often, but deep down they were extremely close.
After the evening meal, Spencer would get down on the floor and play games with them. He laughed a lot, but she knew beneath that thin veneer he was terribly sad his own son was not there to play too. She knew this because she felt the same.
Only time would heal their wounds but it would leave behind scars that would forever remind them of their great loss.
Over the winter months, Violet realised she had come to love the two little orphans as though they were her own. Molly and Young Jim never spoke of their past, only what the future held for them living at Gittins Manor with Violet and Spencer. The relationship between the four of them grew strong and Violet, although never forgetting her own boy, revelled in the love shown to her by the children.
*
Spring eventually pushed winter back a step, and with its arrival came the railway. The line had been laid to connect Wednesbury to Birmingham and there was great excitement surrounding it. The others flatly refused to board the ‘great steaming beast’, but Violet revelled in travelling on the steam train to New Street Station in Birmingham. The journey took less than half the time it took by horse and carriage and she was able to visit their shop in the town more often. Both of the shops were doing well and gave them a healthy profit. Life went on much as usual, until one day Constable George Micklewhite called in on Violet at Gittins Manor.
Over tea he said, ‘It was a really decent thing you did taking those orphans in.’
‘I couldn’t leave them to starve,’ she said as an uneasy feeling crept over her; she felt sure he had not visited just to tell her that.
‘Ar… but it ain’t that I came to see you about,’ he said, as if reading her mind.
‘I thought not,’ Violet said as she watched the Constable search for the words to explain his visit.
‘Last week Judge Stanhope let Ernie Pitt go from jail after he was accused of raping a wench on the heath…’
Violet’s hand flew to her mouth and she gasped in horror.
‘Ar, the Judge said that the wench had probably asked for it as she was on the heath by herself an’ all.’
‘What! So now us women can’t cross the heath alone for fear of being attacked?’ Violet was furious.
Bringing his hands up palms toward her, he went on, ‘Hear me out, wench. Ernie Pitt denied the accusation, saying he was in the Three Swans Inn on the Holyhead Road all night drinking with his mates. Now, no one I spoke to saw him in there on the night in question… Obviously he don’t have any mates…’ The Constable grinned at his own wit.
Feeling all colour drain from her face, Violet watched the Constable shift in his chair. Keeping her counsel, Violet listened as he went on.
‘Ernie Pitt insisted he was at the pub drinking and the Judge believed him.’
‘And that proves what exactly?’ Violet snapped.
‘Well,’ the Constable blustered, ‘it doesn’t exactly prove anything…’
‘Who was the girl who accused Ernie Pitt of raping her?’ Violet asked, her mind in a whirl.
‘Phoebe Slater…’ said the Constable as he looked down at the helmet lying in his lap.
‘Phoebe Slater? Martha’s daughter?’ Violet asked incredulously as he nodded. ‘Oh my God! Does Martha know of this?’
Shaking his head, he looked up. ‘There is more to this than meets the eye,’ the Constable said, ‘young Phoebe isn’t the sort to go accusing people… and, how come Judge Stanhope let Ernie Pitt go just like that?’
Constable Micklewhite was voicing the questions falling over themselves in Violet’s mind, then she asked, ‘Tell me, Constable Micklewhite… why you have brought this to me?’
‘Well, Phoebe is the daughter of your friend and…’ his eyes met hers, ‘you are one of the Wednesbury Wives.’ A knowing smile crossed his lips before he brought his teacup to them to finish his tea. His eyebrows rose and wiggled.
*
Rallying the others in her kitchen at Gittins Manor, Violet explained about Constable Micklewhite’s visit.
‘Martha, I hate to tell you but it was your Phoebe who made the accusation against Ernie Pitt,’ Violet said as gently as she could manage.
‘What! Our Phoebe…? But she hasn’t said anything to me… how come I am the last to bloody know?’ Standing up, she growled, ‘I’ll bloody kill that man, you see if I don’t… the bastard!’
Annie intervened, saying, ‘This needs a deal o’ thinkin’ on.’
Despite the anger boiling inside her, Martha’s mouth tilted upwards at Annie’s use of her own stock phrase.
While the meeting continued, Joyce ran down to Hobbins Street to fetch Phoebe from Martha’s house.
Violet said, ‘It’s that Judge that worries me.’
‘Why?’ Annie asked.
‘Well, Annie, think about it. Young Phoebe accuses Ernie Pitt of… attacking… her on the heath; the Judge lets him go when Ernie says he was in the Three Swans. Now then, what is the Judge getting from Ernie Pitt that would secure his release so easily?’
Violet looked around the table at faces pondering her words before Kath asked, ‘Where does Ernie Pitt work?’
Violet answered with, ‘Constable Micklewhite said Ernie unloads cargo at the canal.’
‘Hmmm,’ said Annie, ‘cargo such as brandy?’
The penny dropped with them all at the same time.
‘Judge Stanhope likes his tipple an’ no mistake,’ said Martha, ‘but would he let Ernie go for a bottle of brandy?’
‘Not a bottle, Martha,’ Violet said, ‘but maybe for a case?’
Audible sighs filled the kitchen as Violet rang for the maid to bring some more tea.
Just then the door opened and Joyce walked in with Phoebe Slater trailing behind, her head bowed.
Martha rushed to her daughter, wrapping her arms around her sobbing, ‘Oh wench, why didn’t you tell me?’
‘How could I?’ Phoebe sobbed back. ‘Besides I thought to go through the proper channels and report it to the police. I thought the Judge would deal with it!’
‘Ar well, he didn’t did he? But we will, be sure of it!’ Martha added, leading Phoebe to a chair.
Amid tears from everyone, Phoebe told of how taking the short cut across the heath to the marketplace, Ernie Pitt had appeared. At her rebuff to his request that she be his sweetheart, he had attacked her.
‘But the Constable said you accused him of rape!’ Violet said.
‘No Violet, I didn’t! I told the police he’d attacked me and tried to rape me but I kicked him really hard in the… and when he fell down, I ran!’
‘Thank God!’ muttered Martha.
‘This gets more complicated by the minute,’ said Kath, ‘perhaps we should speak with Joshua and Spencer about it?’
Everyone nodded their agreement.
*
Joshua, Kath, Spencer and Violet sat around the fire in the living room at Gittins Manor trying to decide what should be done about the situation of Ernie Pitt and Judge Stanhope.
‘Maybe the Wednesbury Wives should make a visit to the Judge?’ Violet suggested, not entirely convinced on this occasion it would work.
‘No Violet wench,’ Joshua pondered aloud, ‘it’s a man needed to deal with the Judge…’ Seeing her wince, he went on, ‘Now I’m not saying you can’t deal with it, I am just saying he’ll more likely talk to a man than a woman. Judge Stanhope has no time for women Violet, as I’m sure you know, so maybe us men should tackle him.’
Nodding, she saw the sense of his words.
He continued, ‘As for Ernie Pitt…’
‘We can take care of him!’ Violet spat.
‘Right then! Now, Spencer lad, we need to find out just what Judge Stanhope is up to.’
‘How, Father?’ Spencer asked.
‘Well now… how would it be if we had a lavish dinner and invited the hoi polloi of Wednesbury? We could say we are raising money to… build a new courthouse!’
Clapping her hands together, Violet said, ‘Joshua, you are so clever to think of that… of course the Judge would attend!’
‘Ar, and with enough brandy inside him… many a slip betwixt cup and lip!’