The Wives’ Revenge

by Lindsey Hutchinson

  ‘Right, Violet,’ Dr Shaw said as he peeped through Violet’s bent knees yet again, ‘when I say, I want you to push down hard, we need to get this little one out.’

  Violet let out an exhausted moan before catching her breath again.

  ‘Now Violet, push wench…’

  Violet let out a yell and then gritting her teeth she strained hard to no avail.

  ‘What’s wrong Dr Shaw?’ Kath asked as she looked at him, ‘Why isn’t the baby coming?’

  ‘It will,’ he said, ‘I just need to…’

  Violet let out a shriek, lifting her head from the pillow; eyes wide with fear and pain.

  ‘It’s all right now,’ the doctor said, ‘the head’s through. Now, Violet, one more push and your baby will be born.’

  Dragging air into her lungs, Violet pushed down hard then fell back exhausted.

  They heard a slap, then a tiny wail as Dr Shaw said, ‘Violet, you have a fine healthy boy!’

  Tears poured from Violet’s eyes as the doctor finished his ministrations with her. The baby boy was passed to Kath and she quickly wrapped him in a warm towel and carried him to his mother. Kath swelled with love for the tiny bundle in her arms and kissed him gently on his forehead.

  Violet held her child, gazing at him in wonderment, her face aglow with happiness. Kath watched her own child watching her child, and her heart swelled with pride.

  Annie stood by with more towels and water for Dr Shaw and came to the bedside with tears rolling down her face.

  ‘Annie,’ Violet whispered, ‘meet Harry Gittins.’

  Annie clapped her hands in delight as Violet said to Kath, ‘I named him after my dad.’

  Putting her face in her hands, Kath wept uncontrollably then heard Dr Shaw say, ‘Congratulations, Violet, he’s a fine boy and you did so well bringing him into the world. Get some rest now, wench.’ Turning to Kath, he said, ‘She’ll need you and Annie for a little while, and I’ll be back tomorrow to check on her.’

  The doctor left and they watched as Violet’s eyes drooped. Lifting the baby from her arms, Kath passed him to Annie saying, ‘You sleep, Violet, rest easy now.’

  Annie washed and swaddled young Harry and cradled him while he slept, never taking her eyes from his little face.

  Kath said quietly, ‘I’ll go fetch Spencer from the works.’

  ‘Christ!’ Whispered Annie. ‘I forgot about him!’

  Exchanging grins, Kath glanced at Violet sleeping peacefully before creeping out of the room.

  *

  Kath stayed overnight with Annie and Charlie and the following day she visited Violet. Spencer was like a cat who’d got the cream, a wide grin splitting his face.

  Dr Shaw arrived and ushered Spencer out of the room so he could look over Violet and her baby. Satisfied all was well, Spencer was allowed back in.

  As he moved to the door, the doctor flicked his head to Kath beckoning her to follow him.

  ‘I’ll see Dr Shaw out,’ she said to the happy parents who were gazing at their newborn child lying peacefully in Violet’s arms.

  As they descended, the stairs Dr Shaw said, ‘It was a close thing, Kath.’ She shot a questioning look at him and he explained, ‘The cord was round the baby’s neck, if I hadn’t released it when I did, it would have strangled him.’

  ‘Dear God!’ Kath stammered.

  ‘Fortunately I was able to release it in time before Violet gave her last push. She’s a strong wench, Kath, she’ll do just fine and so will the baby.’

  Thanking him, she watched his carriage pull away and then muttered her thanks to the Almighty. Kath walked round the gardens and heard the doctor’s words again, if I hadn’t released it, it would have strangled him.

  Her thoughts immediately returned to Frank Woolley and she envisaged him hanging from the balustrade. As the picture formed in her mind her stomach lurched and she felt bile rise to her throat. She remembered how the others said Frank had struggled to free himself and how, as life left him, his eyes had bulged and his tongue lolled from his mouth.

  Sitting on the bench by the lawn, Kath wept openly, partly for the terrible things she had done in her life and partly in thanks for the safe delivery of her healthy grandchild.

  It was as she sobbed into her shawl she heard hoof beats and looking up she saw Joshua Gittins jump down from his horse. Rushing to her, he said, ‘Hey up Kath, whatever is the matter, wench?’

  Drying her eyes, she related what Dr Shaw had told her.

  ‘Bloody hell!’ was Joshua’s response. ‘No wonder you’re weeping, but it’s all right now, mother and baby are doing fine aren’t they?’

  Nodding her head, the tears fell once more and before Kath knew what was happening she was in Joshua’s arms. Holding her while she cried, she heard him whisper, ‘It’s all right wench, you’re safe with me.’

  Allowing herself to fold into him, Kath relished the feeling of his strong arms around her. It had been a long time since she had been held this way and she succumbed to the joy of it.

  Thirty-Six

  The feeling Spencer had each time he looked at his wife and child was so powerful it threatened to crush him. He was as proud as a peacock and revelled in the chorus of applause back at the factory as he walked to his office.

  The foreman followed him in and Spencer said, ‘Jack, I need you to watch over the works for a couple of days.’ Seeing the man’s nod, he continued, ‘I wish to spend some time with my wife and son.’

  ‘Yessir gaffer!’ Jack Hesp doffed his cap. ‘And congratulations to you and the missis.’

  Thanking him, Spencer made his way out of the factory. As he rode home he thought about a gift for Violet for giving him such a beautiful child. He decided to call in on Martha; she would be the best person to ask about the ideal gift.

  ‘Hello lad,’ said Martha as Spencer knocked the door and entered her kitchen, ‘have a seat, tea’s fresh made.’

  Over tea and cake he said, ‘Martha, I want to give Violet a gift as a thank you for giving me such a beautiful son, and I thought you might help me out with ideas.’

  ‘Our Violet wouldn’t want a gift as such, lad…’ Seeing his puzzled expression, she laughed, saying, ‘The only thing I can think of that Violet really wants is to find somewhere for my Nancy and a few of her friends to set up looking after the little ones so their mothers can try to find work.’

  ‘Oh, her latest venture.’ Spencer smirked.

  ‘Ar lad, and the only place she’d found was the old epidemic hospital.’ Spencer watched the shiver take Martha as she thought of it. ‘Bloody awful place that is an’ all. There’s no way that place could be used.’ Martha looked at him out of the corner of her eye, a grin slowly creeping across her face. ‘Mary was right when she said it should have been fetched down years ago.’

  ‘Martha Slater, you are a wily woman!’ Spencer said as his grin joined hers.

  ‘Well lad, you asked – I told. But it would take a lot of work and money…to pull it down and rebuild I mean…’ Martha allowed the sentence to hang in the air.

  ‘I would imagine so. Looks like I need to meet with the accountant…again!’

  Giving her a hug, Spencer set off to see the accountant to check on the state of his finances. He was told, providing he was careful, it would be possible. Spencer worried about the amount of money he had spent recently trying to help the folk of the town. However, he set out for the Town Hall to make a bid for the derelict building with the powers that be. The old building had stood empty for some considerable time; no one had ever shown an interest in buying it, so in a matter of hours the deeds were in his hand, the council only too glad to be rid of it!

  Riding to the ‘bread line’ down by the marketplace, Spencer had decided to get the work underway immediately he meant it to be a surprise for Violet.

  The queue of men standing at the edge of the market seemed to grow longer every day and his heart swelled to think he might be able to help them. Sitting squarely on his saddle, S
pencer shouted across to the men, ‘I need workers!’

  The scramble almost took him from his horse as shouts came back, ‘Me gaffer,’ ‘I’m a hard worker.’

  Holding up his hands, the men calmed before he spoke again. ‘Anyone know the old epidemic hospital?’

  Nods and mutters of ‘Ar, we know it’ sounded and Spencer saw heads lower in dreaded anticipation of working there… but work was work.

  ‘I need workers to tear it down!’ Spencer yelled.

  Cheers sounded before one man shouted, ‘About bloody time it was done away with, good on you gaffer!’

  Spencer told the whole line of workers, about fifty men in all, to bring whatever tools they had and meet him at the hospital building.

  An hour later every man was there with handcarts and tools. Spencer shouted over their heads, ‘I want the building pulled down and the bricks to be reused if possible. The land is to be cleared ready to put up a new building. I will pay each of you a weekly wage until the building is completed. Any man found shirking his duties will find himself back on the “bread line”. Is that understood?’

  Nods and shouts of ‘Yes’ filled the air.

  ‘Now,’ he went on, ‘this work will take some time to complete, and if I’m satisfied with it, I may be able to find more work for you at the end of the project.’ Cheers went up. ‘Who was it shouted to me earlier?’

  A man stepped forward, doffing his cap, ‘Me gaffer, Fred Pincher is my name.’

  ‘Right Fred, you’ll be my foreman, it’s up to you to set these men to work, and each Friday morning you come to me at Gittins Nails to fetch the wages.’

  ‘Yessir gaffer!’ A murmur of approval ran around the men on hearing the mention of money.

  ‘I will also want you to report on the progress of the work, Fred; I want it completed as soon as possible.’

  ‘Be our pleasure, Mr Gittins sir,’ he said as he turned to face the other men. ‘All right, you heard the gaffer!’

  As one, the men turned to face the old building and charged as if going into battle.

  *

  Dr Shaw had called and recommended at least ten days’ bed rest after which Violet could get up for gentle exercise.

  ‘While you’re here, doctor, I wondered if I could ask a favour,’ Violet said.

  ‘You can ask,’ Dr Shaw grinned.

  ‘Well, I’m sure you know the women who act as midwives for their neighbours when they can’t afford to come and see you…’ The doctor nodded. ‘There must be a way the women can encourage others to not have so many children. They struggle to feed the ones they have.’

  ‘And you want me to speak with them about contraception so they can pass it along’

  ‘Yes. Now I’ve experienced childbirth for myself, I don’t understand how women would choose to have as many as they do! It’s far too painful if you ask me.’ Violet gave a nervous smile.

  ‘Obviously I don’t know what it’s like, but I see the pain and, the deaths.’ Dr Shaw shook his head sadly. ‘I can’t promise it will make any difference, but I will certainly give it a go.’

  ‘Thank you doctor, we will wait and see.’

  *

  Spencer’s son seemed to grow quickly as the winter finally came to an end. Work on the old hospital building was progressing quickly. The building itself had been taken down and the men were busy clearing the land. Spencer had visited Mr Morgan, the architect in Pinfold Street, who had drawn up plans for the new building which promised to be exactly as he envisioned it. Another visit to the ‘bread line’ had provided him with woodworkers given over to making toys for the youngsters to enjoy once the building was up and running.

  Regular visits to Martha and her daughter Nancy allowed him to inform them of the work being done. Spencer had requested Violet not be told of his venture, he wanted it to be a surprise, but knowing the grapevine in Wednesbury as he did, he suspected news would leak out eventually. Martha had said Violet was far too busy with Harry to worry about that.

  Spencer was on his way to Martha’s once more and found her in the kitchen, hands flat on the table, staring into space.

  ‘Martha?’ he called quietly, afraid she was feeling ill. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘Hey up lad,’ she said. ‘Ar, I’m fine.’

  Taking the tea offered, he asked, ‘What’s going on, Martha?’

  ‘Oh lad,’ she began, ‘I want Geordie to get out of the pit. I worry for his health in all that coal dust, but it’s the only work he knows and he wouldn’t give it up without something else to go to. Besides he won’t listen to me.’

  ‘What about if I asked him to leave the pit?’ Spencer enquired.

  ‘Surely lad, but what would we do without money coming in? We’d have to leave the house an’ all. No, it ain’t possible, but I thank you kindly for offering.’

  Leaving it at that Spencer determined that he would think on it a while and discuss it with his wife. He wanted to find work for Geordie, but he wanted to be sure he could make the offer before mentioning it to Martha. He also thought that, with Martha confiding in him so readily, he really had been accepted as one of the ‘Wives’.

  Thirty-Seven

  Nancy had gone off to visit her friends who would join her in looking after the young children in the new building, and Martha was sat with her cup of tea thinking on the past months and her current predicament when Mary burst in through the kitchen door.

  Slapping both hands on the table, she leaned forward catching her breath then, ‘She’s at it again!’

  ‘Who’s at what again?’ Martha asked, pouring her visitor a cup of tea.

  ‘That bloody baby killer!’ Mary slumped into the chair with a curt nod as a thank you for the tea.

  ‘Colleen?’ Martha asked quite surprised.

  ‘Ar, and this time she’s gone too far!’ Mary blew on the hot tea before taking a sip.

  Martha waited for her friend to slake her thirst.

  Mary went on, ‘She’s only gone and killed somebody!’

  ‘Oh Christ! Damn the woman to hell!’ Martha said venomously.

  ‘I’m not quite sure who it is she’s done in, but Dr Shaw is riled all to hell!’

  ‘That’s no surprise is it?’ Martha asked, not really needing an answer.

  ‘Martha…’ Mary began.

  Cutting her off, Martha said, ‘Ar, this needs a deal o’ thinkin’ on.’ This time the saying brought no smile with it.

  *

  Trudging up the road to Kath’s house with Mary in tow, Martha’s mind whirled. That Irish woman had killed a woman trying to rid her of an unwanted pregnancy. Anger boiled as they stamped their way to Kath’s. Something must be done about this and the sooner the better.

  Kath gasped as she heard the news of the dead woman. ‘What can we do?’ she asked. ‘These women see her as their saviour!’

  ‘Saviour my arse!’ spat Mary.

  ‘The time has come,’ Martha expostulated. ‘She was warned!’

  ‘This calls for more tea,’ said Kath, ‘and ladies, I don’t want Violet involved in this… After tea, we’ll gather the wenches together and formulate a plan.’

  All together later in Kath’s kitchen, ideas were tossed back and forth. It was evening so Joyce and Primrose had joined them, along with Annie.

  Joyce said, ‘I knew this would happen, the doctor said the woman died of septa summat or other.’

  ‘Septicaemia,’ Martha put in helpfully, ‘the blood was poisoned.’

  A collective intake of breath showed the shock of all.

  ‘So what are we going do about it?’ asked Kath.

  Quiet shakes of heads around the table, they sat in silence.

  Looking around, Martha said, ‘Does this Colleen know that woman has died? Because if she does, she’ll take to her heels.’

  Annie chimed in, ‘If that is the case, we might never find her.’ She patted her hair to ensure it was still in place.

  ‘We’ll know if we visit her,’ added Kath.


  ‘Not yet…’ Martha said, ‘we have to have a plan first, then we’ll visit… by night.’

  *

  Going their separate ways, they decided to think about the matter and how they could put a stop to Colleen and her insalubrious business.

  It wasn’t until a few days later that Kath informed Martha that Joyce had taken it upon herself to visit Colleen as a potential ‘patient’.

  Joyce had been told by the Irish woman to go back in a couple of days with half a crown.

  ‘Half a crown!’ Martha said in disbelief. ‘Where do the women get that sort of money from?’

  Kath gave a weak smile, saying, ‘Half a crown is nothing compared to the raising of yet another child.’

  ‘Still an’ all…’ The sentence hung in the air as they stared at each other.

  ‘You know if we took her to the police, she’d say the woman died of sickness, and we couldn’t prove that sickness was caused by Colleen,’ Kath said at last.

  ‘Ar wench, I know that, then that Colleen would just carry on and we could have another death on our hands.’

  Rubbing her hands over her face, Martha suddenly felt very old. Weariness weighed heavily on her as she racked her brains for an answer to the latest problem facing them.

  *

  Geordie arrived home from the pit and while he washed down in the scullery sink, Martha laid out their meals of faggots and grey peas.

  ‘Eeh lass, that looks good,’ he said as he tucked in to his food. ‘Eh, you’ll never guess who came to see me the day,’ he went on as he finished eating.

  ‘Who?’ Martha asked, her mind still on the problem of Colleen.

  ‘Young Spencer Gittins. He came to the pit as I was coming out; asked me if I fancied a change of work.’

  ‘What!’ Martha said, all ears now.

  ‘Aye, said he had need of a foreman at some new building of his.’

  ‘I thought he had a foreman there already.’

  ‘Aye well it seems he’s taking on some new men like, and he wants me to oversee them.’

  ‘So what did you tell him?’ Martha asked, silently praying for a favourable answer.