‘Jessie come,’ Billy calls out almost immediately, ‘Billy clean boy!’
Jessica approaches the windlass and sees Billy sitting in the tub, his broad, strongly muscled back facing her. She walks up and places Joe’s moleskins and hat down on a log beside the tub.
‘There’s a pair of moles here, Billy, and a towel and I’ve brought you a hat. Shirt’s in the kitchen — I want to dress them cuts and scrapes before you put it on. You come back when you’re done, tucker’s near ready.’ ‘Hat! Hat!’ Billy shouts excitedly. Then suddenly he stands up in the tub and turns to face Jessica. ‘Hat, gimme hat!’ he pleads, his arms stretched out urgently towards her. Billy’s torso and arms are covered in cuts and dark bruises but Jessica’s eyes are drawn to his thighs the moment before she shuts them tight. She cannot believe what she’s seen hanging between his massive legs. ‘Turn around, Billy! Sit in the tub!’ Jessica says in a low voice, her eyes still closed.
‘Hat, Jessie! Gimme hat!’ Billy whimpers.
Jessica’s heart is thumping, filling her throat. She turns about so that she has her back to Billy. ‘Orright, orright, Billy!’ she cries over her shoulder.
‘Hat! Hat!’ Billy is now sobbing and panting wildly. Jessica grabs Joe’s hat and turns again to face Billy, whose extreme agitation has caused him to have an erection, though he’s oblivious of this, his arms stretched out to take the hat, his lips trembling. Jack’s right, Jessica thinks, it is a monster. She shuts her eyes again and edges towards the tub, extending Joe’s hat to Billy Simple.
Billy snatches the hat from her hand, grunting and snuffling like a pig, then Jessica hears the splash as he subsides into the water. There is a moment’s silence as Billy pulls the hat over his head and then, like a little boy addressing his mother, he says, ‘Thank you, Jessie. Billy happy now. Look, look, washed good!’
Jessica opens her eyes and tries to keep her voice steady. ‘Have you washed your hair, Billy?’ she says. She turns her back on him and begins to walk away.
‘Billy wash his hair, lots a soap!’ Billy calls out after her.
‘Good boy. Now hurry and dry yerself and get dressed, there’s plenty of good tucker in the kitchen.’
Billy arrives in the kitchen shortly afterwards, Joe’s hat clamped down over his eyes. The dark ends of his hair poking out from underneath the hat are still dripping water from the tub and it runs down his neck and shoulders onto his naked wet torso.
He’s done a pretty fair job of washing himself and the bites from the dogs seem to have largely stopped bleeding. He’s also washed his boots and belt and there’s a puddle where he stands in the wet boots. ‘Billy hungry, Jessie!’ he pleads.
‘Sit, then,’ Jessica says, pointing to the table with the soup ladle. She feels like she is in command once again. With Billy seated on Meg’s stool Jessica takes Joe’s large enamel soup bowl over to the stove and ladles soup into it, then she returns and places the steaming broth down in front of Billy.
‘Careful now, it’s hot. Use the spoon, blow on it, or it’ll burn your tongue.’
Jessica goes to the window, fetches the loaf of fresh bread and breaks it in half. Steam
rises from the freshly broken ends. Billy grabs one half and tears at it, wide-eyed with excitement, and he stuffs the warm bread into his mouth, grunting happily, his cheeks blown out so that he can barely chew. ‘There’s plenty of food, Billy. Take your time, no need to make yourself sick!’ Now she breaks six eggs into the bacon fat sizzling in the skillet. ‘New bread eaten too fast will give you a gut ache, indeejestin!’
Billy eats everything Jessica lays in front of him, polishing off the remains of the egg and bacon fat on his plate with the last of the loaf of bread. When she puts a mug of sweet black tea in front of him, Billy beams up at her, licking his chops.
‘We’re gunna clean and dress those cuts now, Billy. Drink your tea and be a brave boy while I fix you up.’ Jessica brings a bowl of warm water over and drops a pinch of Condy’s crystals into it, turning the water a deep purple. Then she fetches a bottle of iodine and a pile of old rags from Hester’s cupboard.
She sponges the numerous cuts and dog bites on Billy’s arms and chest with the warm solution and washes the deep gash in his stomach. Then she makes a swab from a piece of rag, soaks it in iodine from the bottle and dabs it over his wounds. She’s felt the sting of iodine often enough herself to know how it must be hurting Billy. But he only winces momentarily as the liquid burns white hot. Jessica waits until the iodine has dried over his cuts and then she applies Joe’s horse ointment and ties a bandage wherever she can. Billy has a deep, ugly tear in the muscle of his right leg where the kelpie ripped into him. Jessica makes him take off his boot and put his foot on her lap while she rolls up the leg of Joe’s moleskins and cleans and dresses the torn flesh before bandaging it. When she’s through he looks like a giant scarecrow with bits of coloured rag wrapped all about him.
Jessica takes up Joe’s faded red shirt and helps Billy get himself into it. It fits perfectly. Then she brings over the pot of tea, refills Billy’s tin mug and ladles three heaped tablespoons of sugar into it and stirs it for him. The room is silent but for the clinking of the spoon against the sides of the mug.
‘Now Billy, what are we gunna do with you?’ Jessica asks, sitting on the stool beside him.
Billy looks confused then licks his lips. ‘Billy stay here, plenty good tucker.’
‘No, Billy, you can’t stay here, you’ve done wrong.’ Jessica can feel her heart start to pound again as she speaks. She doesn’t want to upset Billy, but she doesn’t know how else to put it.
‘Billy bad boy!’ he suddenly bursts out.
‘Billy, I’m going to have to take you in. Do you . understand?’ ‘Billy stay with Jessie.’
‘Billy, you’ve done something terrible, you can’t stay here.’
Billy looks as though he’s about to cry. ‘But d-d-ddogs bite Billy!’ he stammers. ‘Sorry kilt dogs, Jessie.’ ‘No, Billy, not the dogs! What you did at Riverview!’ Billy Simple looks as though he’s trying to recall something stuck way back in his past. He smiles. ‘Ah! Billy break gun! Missus Thomas shot-gun!’ Then he says urgently, ‘No! no! Billy not shoot them blacks.’
Jessica sighs. ‘No, Billy, not the shotgun, that was this mornin’. What you did yesterday, or was it in the night? Did you do it last night? You know, what you said you did to Mrs Thomas, Winifred and Gwen at Riverview?’ She can’t bring herself to be more specific.
Billy smiles again and claps his hands triumphantly. ‘Kilt ‘em!’
‘You killed them? Are you sure, Billy?’