‘It’s all hearsay,’ Hester interjects. ‘Sticks and stones ... ‘
‘Ah, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me,’ Runche says, completing the childish quote. ‘You are a clever and determined woman, Mrs Bergman, but there’s one thing you can’t do, and it has indeed got something to do with bones. In the hands of any competent physician it can be quite easily determined whether a woman has given birth to a child or not. The physiological differences to the opening of the womb and the size of the pelvis, the cervix and ... er, other parts of the female anatomy, are readily apparent between women who have given birth and those who have not. I would, of course, obtain a court order, then choose three eminent surgeons, not one drunken and overworked one, to examine Mrs Thomas and Jessica and then to give the court their findings. Do you understand what I am saying?’
Hester is silent for some time, then she looks up. ‘As you can see, Mr Runche, my daughter Meg is a woman of a most nervous disposition. The effects of such an examination — though I have no doubt they would prove our case — would, I believe, do her a great deal of harm. Perhaps we may discuss how such an examination might be avoided?’
‘Very sensible, Mrs Bergman. Very sensible indeed. Let us begin with the business of getting Jessica out of Callan Park and, furthermore, how we might provide for her in the future.’
‘Mr Runche, do you give me your solemn word that you will not attempt to take the child away from my daughter Meg?’
‘My word? Certainly. I shall also try to persuade your younger daughter not to seek litigation. All I can say, madam, is that I would personally not help her in this endeavour. Perhaps, if you are generous in your settlement, I may be able to get Jessica to agree to sign an agreement to this effect. Though she can be very stubborn, as I imagine you know.’
‘And you must also ensure that, with any arrangement we might conclude, there is no suggestion that Joey has ever had any mother other than my daughter Meg. We will not allow his name to appear in any agreement and possibly at some future time become the subject of rumour or speculation.’
‘I can do that, certainly, Mrs Bergman,’ Richard Runche replies, ‘but I must point out that it is not in your interest. I cannot frame a clause protecting you unless I stipulate what it is you are protected against. In this case, the concession you require is that your daughter Jessica does not take legal action against you to attempt to regain possession of her child.’
‘Not her child! Meg’s child!’ Hester snaps.
‘So, now we see the problem, don’t we?’ Richard Runche KC explains. ‘The child is disputed.’
‘What will you do, then? We simply must have such an agreement. The boy’s name mustn’t appear.’
‘Ah, we will refer to the lad as “the child in question”.’
‘The child in question?’
‘That’s right, Mrs Bergman, that way there is no suggestion of whose child it may be.’ The lawyer pauses. The roof of his mouth and his tongue are bone-dry and he badly needs a drink. ‘It’s the only way I can think to phrase it so that it would be acceptable to Jessica. Though perhaps you’d like to engage Mr Cunningham-Thomas, who may find another solution to protect your interests?’
‘No, that seems in order,’ Hester says, not looking at Runche. Then she adds fiercely, ‘And Jessica must never be allowed to see the child.’
‘What do you mean by that — she is not allowed access to the boy?’
‘Exactly. We don’t want her mooning about, demanding to see him.’
‘Oh? Do I not recall Mrs Thomas lamenting that ... let me see, what were her words? Ah yes. “How very much I wish I could share him with Jessie, with his auntie,” wasn’t that how she put it?’
‘Yes, well, we can’t have it. I’ve ... Meg’s put her foot down about that.’
‘Very well then, Mrs Bergman, let us proceed with the documentation. I shall, of course, require Mrs Thomas’s signature and so I think perhaps she ought to be here too, don’t you?’
It is mid-afternoon, and many further cups of tea and corned beef sandwiches later, before Richard Runche KC completes the documentation and obtains the signatures needed to free Jessica.
He has wrung several concessions out of Meg, including the deed to ‘Warralang’, ten acres of freehold land, which comprises two allotments on either side of Yanco Creek and encompasses the boundary rider’s hut where Jessica gave birth to Joey. In addition, she will be granted the permanent use of the old Bergman homestead for the remainder of her life, or, if it is sold or pulled down as no longer habitable, she will be entitled to a similar domicile anywhere she chooses to have it erected.
Hester points out that the Bergman homestead is two miles from what will become Jessica’s land.
‘A short ride away. It is, after all, her family home,’
Richard Runche argues
.
Jessica will be granted a yearly income of one hundred pounds sterling until her death. In addition, she will receive a horse and new saddle every five years, a pony and cart and, as further livestock, immediate allocation of a dozen brood hens and two roosters. She is entitled to a dog from a pedigree kelpie kennel, a small bore rifle and a shotgun with one hundred rounds for each every year, plus three hundred yards of fine rabbit-proof fencing and such farming tools as she might require up to a cost of seventy-five pounds and a further twenty pounds for the same purpose each year.
Meg Thomas agrees to undertake to engage the services of Richard Runche KC at the normal per diem rate of a Sydney barrister in order to conduct Jessica’s release from Callan Park. Finally, both Hester and Meg will agree to her release and will sign her probationary papers and implement the probationary conditions they reqUIre.
‘She will not want to stay with us,’ Meg now suggests.
‘She will not have to, your old home is provided. You will simply sign the documentation,’ Richard Runche says. He is also at pains to point out that, of course, if anyone of the three examining physicians should find Jessica to be insane then she will have to remain at Callan Park. But if not, she will be paid a bonus of one hundred pounds for every year she has been ‘mistakenly’ incarcerated.