Hester attempts to calm her voice. ‘You were there, you should not have let her see that drunken lawyer. You should have stopped her. For Godsakes, Joe, you must have known the shame it would bring us, her defending the murderer against Ada Thomas and her two girls? Whatever could have possessed the girl? Doesn’t she ever stop to think what people will say? How can Jack take her for his wife now she’s shown herself to be against his mother and sisters? How will Meg make a decent marriage? How can we ever show our faces in public again?’ To Hester’s surprise, Joe laughs. ‘You should know better. Since when has anyone been able to change Jessie’s mind when it’s made up? You and Meg been trying for years to rein her in and she’s took no notice. She done what she thought was fair and honest. Never mind what the newspapers say, Jessie done a decent thing.’
‘Decent thing! Defending that brute! You call that decent? She’s ruined Meg’s chances and blown her own forever. You may be sure there’ll be no Jack Thomas over for Sunday dinner from now on!’
Joe grins. ‘Pity that, best tucker I’ve eaten in years. I’m not so sure Jessie ever thought she had a chance. Nor does he seem too interested. They ain’t exactly lovey-dovey. Like I said before, it were you and Meg that were playing matchmakers, thinking it were a great opportunity to get Meg off the hook with young Jack. Meg, the loving sister, giving up Jack Thomas to brave little Jessie who brought the mad bloke to justice. Christ, yiz make me sick!’
Hester brings her fingers up to her lips, trying to calm down. ‘Joe, can’t you see, people think Jessica’s gone crazy! Wrong in the head. Where does that leave us?’
‘Us? Meg, you mean?’ Joe laughs again. ‘Up shit creek for the time being, I reckon.’ Joe lights his pipe and takes a couple of puffs. ‘But Jessie’s not crazy and there’s enough folk around here who’ll soon enough notice that. It’ll sort itself out. Never mind about Meg, she’s too pretty to stay on the shelf for too long. Anyway, the pair of yiz is too fussy, perhaps you should settle for less than the landed bloody gentry?’
‘That I’ll not do, Joe Bergman!’ Hester pronounces.
‘Meg’s not been born to be some scrub farmer’s wife. She deserves the best and I’ll see she gets it, despite Jessica’s every effort to destroy her,’ Hester sniffs.
‘Good onya, in the meantime, let’s just get on with our lives. Jessica’s never done nothing to harm Meg, nor would she ever. Meg will survive and Jessie’s no worse off but for a bit of idle newspaper gossip. You and Meg have got rid of Jack now he’s broke. I dare say the Bergman family will survive the shame,’ Joe grins, ‘though I can’t speak for the Heathwood side.’
Hester is wrong about Jack Thomas who, after the trial is over, turns up as usual for Sunday dinner. The furore caused by the newspapers about Jessica’s behaviour at Billy Simple’s trial is soon enough forgotten by the local gossips, or more likely tucked away for a rainy d
ay when a bit of malicious tattle might come in useful. Country folk have their own way of making up their minds about people and, while Jessica has always been thought of as a bit of a tomboy, there’s many a settler who’d like a daughter like her around to help him. The rumour of the romance started publicly on the steps of the Narrandera courthouse proves much the superior topic among the tongue-waggers. If Jessica has gone a bit strange there’s plenty more in the district to join her. They’ll soon enough make up their own minds, thank you very much.
Nor does Jessica’s defence of Billy Simple seem to have affected Meg’s chances with the better families, who are showing more than their usual cordiality towards Hester and her older daughter. Though Hester has decided to take her husband’s advice and lie low for a while, she is much encouraged by their reception at St Stephen’s. It is almost as though everyone has breathed a sigh of relief at the passing of the interfering and self-righteous Ada Thomas and her two nosy daughters.
Meg lives to see another day and to find someone befitting her beauty and intelligence, while Jessica — poor, plain Jessie — fulfils the romantic dreams of every lonely, work-worn farmer’s wife hungry for a bit of romance and affection. Such is the nature of romantic illusion that Jack’s apparent lack of outward affection for Jessica is simply put down by everyone to his grief and the need for an appropriate and seemly period of mourning for his mother and sisters to pass.
Then one Sunday, a few weeks after the drama of the trial has passed, Jack, in a casual remark, tells the Bergman family he has just spent two days with the Thomas family lawyer in Narrandera, where he attended the reading of his mother’s last will and testament.
Hester and Meg immediately assume conciliatory expressions. Then Jack announces that Ada Thomas has left the bulk of her considerable fortune to him, as well as the deeds to Riverview Station which, it turns out, had always been in her name.
‘You mean you now own Riverview Station?’ Hester, the first to recover from Jack’s announcement, exclaims. ‘Yeah, I suppose that’s true,’ Jack grins.
Jessica reaches over and grabs his arm. ‘You’ll be able to do all the things you’ve talked about,’ she says excitedly.
Meg is stunned. Jessica has won the prize she has worked so hard to earn. It is too much to bear and she pushes back her stool and £lees, sobbing, from the table. Jack looks perplexed. ‘What’s the matter? Did I say something wrong?’ he asks bewildered.
Hester is again the first to recover. ‘No, no, it’s simply her way of showing how pleased she is for you, Jack,’ she says hastily. ‘She’s been terribly upset since your ... er, father .. .’ She does not complete the sentence but takes a deep breath to steady herself, then says, ‘Well I can’t tell you what a great relief it is to us all to know that your future is secure.’ She tries hard to make her smile seem sincere, though Jessica knows her mother well enough to see she’s biting back her frustration.
Jack looks relieved. ‘That’s very nice of you and Meg, Mrs Bergman.’ Then he shrugs and gives a short laugh. ‘I dunno about my future being secure, though. As you know I’m in the local militia, well they’ve asked us to join up. I’m going to fight in the war.’
Hester has risen and is halfway out of the room on her way to force Meg to return to the table. ‘The war? You’re going off to the war?’ she says, as though she can’t quite comprehend such an idea. ‘But there isn’t any war?’
‘There will be, could be declared any day now.’ Jack turns to Joe for confirmation. ‘Wouldn’t yer reckon, Joe?’
‘Yeah,’ Joe says flatly. ‘It’s comin’ orright, war clouds gathering over Europe.’
Jessica has remained silent since Jack’s last announcement. She has her head bowed and fidgets with her pinny. Jack turns to her. ‘I’ve got an uncle in Sydney who’s going to be the colonel of a squadron of the 1st New South Wales Light Horse, he’s got me in.’ He shakes his head. ‘Fancy that, Jessie, I’m going to war on horseback. Don’t you wish you could come, mate?’
Jessica looks up slowly, tears running silently down her cheeks. ‘You could get killed,’ she sniffs, then knuckles the tears from her eyes.
Jack laughs. ‘Nah, not me, mate. I’m too ugly and stupid to die.’
‘You’re not ugly and stupid!’ Jessica cries out, then falls silent, blushing furiously.
Joe sees Jessica’s dismay and looks over to Jack and inquires, ‘How long have you got?’
‘What do you mean, Joe?’
‘Here. Before you go?’
‘A week, then Sydney for ten weeks, then .. .’ Jack shrugs. ‘I dunno, could be over the pond right off if war is declared.’