Jessica

by Bryce Courtenay

  ‘Runche. Ah, tea, yes, how jolly,’ the lawyer cries. Settling himself into the chair next to the cat, he reaches over and strokes the back of the animal’s ear. ‘Ah, a marmalade cat, quite the best ratters.’

  Both women ignore the remark and Hester turns to her daughter. ‘Meg, wait until I return,’ she commands. Meg looks annoyed. ‘Mother, I’m quite capable of .. .’ ‘Oh, yes, we shall wait, I’d like to talk to both of you,’ Richard Runche says, smiling at a grim-faced Hester.

  When Martha, a fresh-faced country girl, brings the tea and a plate of biscuits Hester pours a cup for each of them. Handing a cup to Meg and Runche, she takes up her own and sits back, resting her cup and saucer comfortably on her lap. She tries to look unconcerned. ‘Well then, Mr Runche, what is it you wish to see my daughter about?’

  ‘Both of you, really. I’d like to talk with you about the boy Joseph “Joey” Thomas.’

  The barrister can see the sudden anxiety in the eyes of both women and Hester hurriedly places her cup and saucer on the wicker table.

  ‘And what about the boy?’ she asks sharply. Runche deliberately ignores her and turns to Meg. ‘There is some doubt that the boy is your legitimate son, Mrs Thomas. I need to talk with you.’

  Hester rises from her chair. ‘I think you should leave, Mr Runche.’ She points to the door. ‘Right now!’

  ‘I don’t think that would be in your daughter’s ultimate interest, madam,’ Runche says softly, not in the least intimidated by Hester’s imperious command.

  ‘Just who do you think you are, barging in on us like this without so much as a by-your-leave and making these horrible claims?’ Hester shouts again.

  ‘Calm down, Mother,’ Meg says in a surprisingly composed voice. She turns back to the lawyer. ‘What are you trying to say, Mr Runche?’

  Richard Runche KC looks surprised. ‘Why, I’m not sure I can put it any more precisely than I just have, madam.’ He pauses and looks at Hester, then back to Meg. ‘Do you wish me to repeat what I have just said?’

  ‘Take no notice, Meg, the man’s quite mad. I’ll call two of the boys from the stable.’

  ‘You’ve seen Jessie, haven’t you?’ Meg says, still ignoring her mother.

  ‘Yes, that I have,’ Runche agrees.

  ‘And you know she’s ... she’s in the lunatic asylum?’

  ‘In Callan Park, yes.’

  ‘Well, that’s why. She has delusions — she thinks I’ve stolen her baby.’

  ‘Oh, but you have, my dear,’ Richard Runche replies, smiling.

  ‘He’s mad! Look at him, he’s a mess. Are you trying to threaten us, Mr Runche?’ Hester shouts. ‘Because if you are, you’re going to be very, very sorry you ever came snooping around here!’

  ‘Mother, do sit down!’ Meg. cries. She turns to Richard Runche. ‘Mr Runche, I don’t think you quite understand — my sister is insane. She’s been committed!’ ‘Ah, glad you brought that up.’ Richard Runche turns to Hester. ‘I believe it was you, Mrs Bergman, who signed the committal papers?’

  ‘I had no choice, she attacked me.’

  ‘She?’

  ‘Jessica.’

  ‘And why would Jessica do that?’

  ‘She was hysterical, she said ... I mean, she deluded herself that Meg had stolen her child.’

  ‘Ah, there we are, right back to the very reason why I’ve come to see you and your daughter, madam.’

  Meg’s bottom lip suddenly starts to quiver. ‘Can you imagine how sad that makes us, Mr Runche? Joey is my child, I love him more dearly than my life. Oh, how very much I wish I could share him with Jessie, with his auntie,’ she sobs softly.

  Hester is suddenly aware that she’s not taken Richard Runche seriously enough and that Meg sees the threat posed by the dirty man in front of them much more clearly than she has. She curses herself inwardly for having lost her touch. Meg, so far, is handling the situation far better than she. Hester resumes her seat and silently takes up her cup of tea.

  ‘Ah, I’m so glad you feel this way about your sister, Mrs Thomas. I believe she has written to you both on several occasions — seven to be precise — to beg you to agree to her release. You did not respond to any of those letters. Why is that?’

  ‘I imagine that should be obvious,’ Hester says, her voice now greatly mollified. ‘We were naturally afraid she might harm the child, harm Meg’s baby.’

  ‘I believe she told you in the letters that she would first have to be declared sane by three separate doctors, experts. And that only after they had all agreed did she need your permission and custodial care for a period of six months. Doesn’t that suggest that the baby would have been quite safe?’

  ‘Yes, well, Mother and I agreed we couldn’t take the chance,’ Meg sniffs tearfully.

  ‘The doctors might be wrong,’ Hester says, then bites her lip, knowing what Runche will say next.

  ‘Doctors wrong? Three separate doctors? Experts in their field? Does it not occur to you that the one doctor who Jessica told you examined her in the first place might have been wrong?’ He looks at Hester. ‘Yet you were perfectly willing to allow him to commit her, to sign the papers involved, despite the fact that Jessica told you in her letters that he’d been drinking and was clearly overworked. One drunken, overworked doctor is right to commit Jessica but three sober experts may be wrong? Is that it?

  ‘You never once inquired after Jessica’s welfare, in fact you made no attempt whatsoever to contact her. You were quite happy to allow her to rot forever in that ghastly place. Is this really the act of a loving mother and a caring sister who laments the absence of a kind and loving aunt for the baby she claims as her own?’ Hester’s tea cup rattles as she places it down on the table again. ‘I think you’ve said quite enough, Mr Runche. We shall contact our own lawyer.’ She raises one eyebrow slightly. ‘Perhaps you know of Major General Septimus Cunningham-Thomas, who is also a noted Sydney barrister?’

  Richard Runche leans back and chuckles. ‘A fine advocate, madam. None better in both war and peace. Perhaps we can show him this?’ The barrister puts his hand into his jacket pocket and withdraws the little Chinese silk baby dress.

  Both women give an involuntary gasp. ‘Ah, you’ve seen it before. Pretty little dress, isn’t it? Mary Simpson liked it when she gave it to Jessica for her child. I believe some sixteen of what she refers to as “aunties” went shopping for this little dress.’

  ‘So?’ Meg turns to Hester. ‘Mother and I have never seen that dress.’

  ‘All the better, my dear. The testimony from Mary Simpson and her aunties will then bear out the truth that, unbeknownst to you, the dress was bought for Jessica’s baby.’

  ‘They’re blacks, the court would take no notice, not against the word of two white women,’ Hester snorts. ‘It’s their word against ours.’

  ‘A very sound point, Mrs Bergman. I admit, the courts are somewhat biased against our indigenous people.’ He pauses. ‘But I don’t think Mr George Thomas, your late husband’s father, will see it quite your way. And I dare say there will be others. There is nothing like a questionable will attached to a large inheritance to bring relatives out of the woodwork. In my experience, where money is concerned, families have a nasty habit of ... well, turning thoroughly horrid to each other.’

  ‘You don’t know what was in Jack’s will, Mr Runche.’

  ‘Oh, but I do, madam. The will has been published for probate. I am aware that a great deal of money and property is held in trust for the son of the late Jack Thomas. I imagine your late husband’s uncle, Major General Septimus Cunningham-Thomas, will be a very interested party should it be suggested that Joseph “Joey” Thomas is not legitimately his nephew’s son. What do you think?’

  Meg suddenly rises and brings her hands up to her face and £lees from the verandah sobbing, leaving Hester with Richard Runche. Meg’s previous confid
ence has dissolved and she has reverted to her old panicky self. Hester is back in control, though now she is more cautious with the scruffy man seated in the wicker chair, nibbling on an oatmeal biscuit.

  ‘What is it you want, Mr Runche?’ she asks.

  ‘A very sensible question, Mrs Bergman, and the answer may well be less than you might suppose.’

  ‘I must warn you, Mr Runche, that we will fight for my daughter’s child, if it costs us every penny we’ve got.’ Hester can’t help herself and she realises once again that she has overstepped the mark with this sharp man, who seems to know what she is thinking.

  ‘Well then we are agreed, madam. I too shall fight for your daughter Jessica’s child with all the sensibility at my command.’ He pauses and his voice grows hard. ‘Unless we stop this nonsense.’ He shrugs and then in a perfectly modulated voice says, ‘Please, madam, no more empty threats. I think we should sit down and talk sensibly, don’t you?’

  ‘Mr Runche, Joey is the light of our lives. Please, I beg you, if some terrible miscarriage of justice should take place and you are skilful enough to take Meg’s precious child from her, how do you imagine the boy will fare in Jessica’s care? Do you for one moment think she can give him the advantages he will enjoy as my eldest daughter’s rightful child?’

  ‘Mrs Bergman, I am a bachelor, but I do know that Jessica is a young woman of outstanding character. She would love her child and care for it with all her heart and soul. While the boy may not enjoy the privileges your daughter Meg may bestow on him, I do have some experience of a privileged upbringing without love and I can tell you that a mother’s love is a fortune far greater than any other. Do not for one moment suppose that Jessica would disadvantage the boy in this regard.’ ‘Yes, well, we shall never find out,’ Hester says crisply. ‘He is not her child and we have a birth certificate to prove it.’

  ‘Oh dear, I see that you persist, madam. And I have a little silk dress and the evidence of seventeen people.’ ‘Aboriginals, itinerant blacks,’ Hester snaps. Richard Runche KC smiles and in a soft, reasonable voice says, ‘Well, let me tell you how I might go about the case, Mrs Bergman. That is, of course, if the Thomas family don’t pre-empt me, with Uncle Septimus and your daughter’s late husband’s father, George Thomas, leading the charge.

  ‘I will attempt, of course, to present all the salient facts, much as I have done to you today. I will go about discrediting your character and that of your eldest daughter. We have seen from your response to Jessica’s seven letters how easy this might be to do.’

  ‘Oh, but we shall deny that we ever received any letters,’ Hester says smugly.

  ‘Then you are unaware that it is standard practice for a copy to be made of every letter sent from a lunatic asylum?’ the lawyer lies. Pausing meaningfully, he then continues, ‘I am sure we will find other instances as well, all of which indicate a cruel indifference to your younger daughter’s suffering.’ He now holds up the little silk dress. ‘I would use this and the evidence of the aunties and of Mary Simpson.’

  ‘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.

  In return for agreeing to all of these conditions, Runche explains that Jessica will undertake not to attempt to make any claim in a court of law concerning the parenthood of ‘the child in question’. She will effectively not be able to see the child and will allow Meg the undisputed claim to be the natural mother of Joseph ‘Joey’ Thomas, born on Christmas Day in the year of Our Lord, 1914.

  It is the best deal Richard Runche believes he can make under the circumstances. He comes away from Riverview Station not knowing if he can persuade Jessica that she has almost no hope of ever regaining her child. If she refuses to sign the agreement, the alternative is the likelihood that she will spend the remainder of her life incarcerated behind the high stone walls of a lunatic asylum.