‘Of course not! Meg wouldn’t. It isn’t decent. Meg’s a nice clean girl.’
Joe looks suspiciously at his wife. ‘You’re not making all this up, are you, Hester?’ ‘I swear it, on my life.’
Joe is silent for a while, then says gruffly, ‘It don’t mean nothing. Just growing pains.’
‘Ha! Joe, it explains everything,’ Hester protests, then stabs her finger at Joe’s chest. ‘Might as well hear it from me, Jessica is a slag. She’s been doing filthy things to herself since she was eleven years old. I tell you, it isn’t natural and it’s what’s made her go loony, too!’
‘Bullshit! I don’t believe she’s mad, not for a minute,’ Joe protests, but he’s out of his depth with such women’s talk. Hester senses his confusion and is quick to take advantage.
‘Joe, listen to me. Jessica’s not well.’ Hester taps her head. ‘Who knows what she’ll do the way she is at the moment? Besides, she doesn’t know about Meg and Jack.’ Hester sighs. ‘What I’m saying is, if Meg is pregnant to Jack he could use the scandal of Jessica’s pregnancy to Billy Simple to get out of marrying her. Then where would we be? Both Bergman girls pregnant out of wedlock, the one to a murderer and a madman, the other trying to entrap the richest lad in the Riverina before he goes to war? Jack Thomas would have the sympathy of the whole community. They’d urge him not to marry Meg, not to go near the little gold digger. We’d be dirt and people would say we deserve all that’s coming to us.’ Hester spreads her hands, appealing to her husband. ‘Joe, don’t you see — it’s not just Meg who’s involved, it’s all of us!’
‘Shit, shit, shit! How did all this happen?’ Joe says despairingly, then looks up at Hester. ‘One night don’t guarantee nothing. What if Meg ain’t pregnant?’
Hester shrugs. ‘We still can’t take the chance of telling Jack about Jessica, not in the next three days anyway. Maybe later — he’ll be in Sydney for at least ten weeks. We’ll know for sure by then.’ Hester walks over and takes Joe’s hand in a rare pretence at affection. ‘Joe, don’t you see? It’s Jack’s child with Meg who needs to be protected. Jessie’s carrying Billy Simple’s bastard and if that gets out, it’s the end of all of us.’
Joe sees the logic in Hester’s argument, sees clearly that they’ve been caught between a rock and a hard place. He brings his hands to his forehead and then wipes them slowly across his face. ‘We’ll have to decide about Jessie, what to do,’ he says wearily.
‘Joe, we’ve got to get rid of it. There’s a woman in Wagga I’ve heard about ... ‘
‘No!’ Joe looks up at his wife sharply. ‘No, I won’t hear of it, you understand? I’ve heard of them backyard doings, knitting needles and bits o’ fencing wire to hook it out. Come what may, I ain’t putting Jessie’s life in danger. She’s still our daughter.’ Hester sniffs. ‘Yours maybe.’
Joe pretends he doesn’t hear. ‘We’ll have to think of something else. We could keep her in the house and when folk ask where she is we could say she’s had one o’ them nervous breakdowns like the newspapers said.’ He glances at Hester hopefully. ‘We could admit to
that, it’s better than the other. They’ll soon enough figure out that she’s gorn a bit in the head, like. They’ll understand that. It’s not too unusual anyway, especially her being through what she’s been.’ Joe stops and seems to be thinking. ‘After a while she could get better an’ all,’ he says, again hopefully.
‘True enough,’ Hester sniffs and then adds sarcastically, ‘and her going loony has put a lot of weight on her at the same time, all of it in front, so she looks just like she’s pregnant! Joe, she can’t just stay in the house for the next seven months until her baby comes. Even if we manage to keep her hidden, then what? What do we tell people? The stork brought us a brand-new baby? A bastard who looks just like Billy Simple? It come down the chimney one dark and stormy night?’
‘She’s not getting rid of it, that’s all there is to it. You heard what she said, she wants to keep the baby.’
‘Joe, she’s not right in the head. Don’t you see? She’s not responsible, not normal. What does Jessica know about babies, eh? I ask you! Would anyone normal who has a murderer’s bastard child, a madman’s brat in her stomach, want to keep it? I know I wouldn’t. Meg wouldn’t. No sane woman would! Can you imagine the future for the child? For Jessica herself? People pointing at her and the child, never forgetting where it came from. “There goes mad Jessie with the murderer’s bastard child”,’ Hester mimics. ‘Joe, she’d be better off in her grave, and the child with her!’
Joe cannot believe he has heard Hester correctly. ‘Better off in her grave? It’s all about Meg, ain’t it? All about your precious daughter. Not spoiling her chances,’ he says coldly.
‘It’s about us, Joe,’ Hester now says urgently, ‘all of us!’ She is close to tears. ‘Meg hasn’t let us down, she deserves her chance!’
‘Well, if it’s about all of us, then we stick together. Jessie is us, she’s our daughter. I don’t give a fuck about what folk say. I come from nowhere, I’m nothing, nobody, but I won’t destroy me own. Jessie’s not to be tampered with, you hear me, Hester?’
Hester bursts into tears. ‘You won’t have to destroy her, she’s already done it to herself.’ She looks up sobfaced. ‘Joe, I beg you. This is Meg’s last chance. We’ve got to hide Jessica, if only for another three weeks, please!’ ‘Three weeks? Why three weeks?’
‘Meg, she’s not like Jessie — she’s always on time with her monthly. Her bleeding. If she doesn’t bleed we’ll know she’s pregnant.’
‘And then what?’ Joe asks, still not understanding. Hester looks fiercely at Joe. He recognises it is the same look she had when she banished him from her bed eighteen years before, a look in her dark eyes that brooks no refusal. ‘If she’s pregnant we’ll take her to Sydney and make Jack Thomas marry her.’ She glares defiantly at Joe. ‘I’ll not have both my daughters branded whores!’ ‘Oh, Jesus, what will become of us?’ Joe says, more to himself than to his wife. Looking up at Hester, he says slowly, ‘Woman, I know this is of your making. You and your daughter. I pray that Meg ain’t pregnant to Jack Thomas — that what you done isn’t forever on our conscience.’
‘Then you agree?’ Hester demands to know. Joe nods wearily. Hester straightens up and wipes her hands across her apron, now the picture of resolve. ‘Joe, Jessica mustn’t know about Meg and Jack, not until she sees Meg’s pregnant for herself.’ Joe nods again. ‘And she can’t be about when Jack comes over to say goodbye to us — it may give her a chance to speak to him.’ Hester looks at Joe, her eyes narrowed. ‘Besides, he’ll want to know what the marks are on her throat.’
Joe ignores this last remark. ‘So? What are you saying, woman?’
‘We can say the doctor kept her in hospital in Narrandera. He knows you took her in to see him and that she wasn’t well.’
‘Nah, he’s gotta go to Narrandera to report to the recruiting office and then catch the train to Sydney. He’ll want to see her — they’ve been good mates a long time. She’ll just have to stay in her room when he comes over on Sunday.’
‘No, Joe, you know how stubborn she is. Even if we lock her in, she’s just as likely to scream out, shout to him. The way she is, she could do anything.’
Joe looks down and scratches his head. ‘She could go down to the hut, I s’pose. You know the little corrugated iron humpy down by the creek. Boundary riders used it when this was part of the Great Peter’s Run. It’s still in good enough nick — nothing but tin and a dirt floor, but the weather don’t get in too much.’ Hester looks puzzled. ‘You mean lock her up?’ ‘I could, though there’s no door. I guess I could make one. Take a good part of the day, though. It’s a mile off — she won’t be heard by anyone if she shouts and I’ll fetch her back after Jack’s gone.’ Joe can’t believe what he is saying to his wife — that he could do such a thing to Jessica.
Hester is immensely pleased with the idea and claps her hands. ‘We’ll tell Jack she’s had to go to Wagga — something to do with Billy Simple’s trial, some paper she has to sign for the court that they didn’t tell her about at the time.’
‘Nah, won’t work. Jack’ll be suspicious that I let her go alone, him knowing she isn’t well and me having gone with her before.’