Jessica (15 page)

She takes a skillet pan from the hook above the stove and drops a generous dob of dripping into it. She puts the skillet on the back plate of the stove to heat up slowly. Then Jessica takes down the leg of bacon hanging in its muslin bag and places it on the butcher's block where she slices an inch-thick slab from the side. She cuts it up into tiny squares so Billy can manage it with no teeth, and soon it's bubbling and sizzling in the pan. It is more than she could eat in a month of Sundays, but she's seen Joe tuck in after a day's shearing, and she supposes Billy will be the same. God knows when he last ate. Then she takes six eggs and puts them into a bowl beside the stove and places a tin spoon and a bowl for the soup on the table, the familiar movements calming her. The bread is still hot to the touch, so using a cloth she lifts a loaf and places it on the window ledge to cool, covering it with cheesecloth to keep the flies away.

If she did shoot Billy, Jessica thinks, she could always claim she was protecting herself and no one would disagree. A young girl alone on a deserted farm with a madman who has killed three women on the loose. What's more, when she tells the story of how Billy killed the dogs, most people would feel she'd had every right to shoot him. A good working dog is worth its weight in gold and people have said Red was good enough to compete at the Sydney Easter Show. He'd won at the Narrandera Show three times and once at Wagga Wagga. Everyone knows Joe Bergman has three dogs second to none in the district and Red the best of them all.

Jessica hears a yell from the yard, ‘Jessie, Jessie, Billy clean boy!' and she puts all these thoughts to the back of her mind for now. She takes Joe's moleskins and hat, leaving the faded flannel shirt on the stool together with the ointment, then she grabs a small towel from behind the stove and walks out into the yard and towards the windlass.

‘Billy, I'm coming!' she calls. ‘Now you sit still, ya hear? In the tub. And turn yer back to me. Tell me when you're ready!'

‘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?'

‘Kilt, kilt, kilt!' Billy repeats happily. He balls his fist in front of his face and his forefinger shoots up. ‘A-da!' He looks at his finger proudly, then the second finger follows, ‘Win-fred!' and then he wiggles his thumb, ‘Ga-wen!'

‘You killed them? All three?'

Billy looks at Jessica and nods his head vigorously. ‘One, two, three, Billy caught a flea, flea died, Billy cried, one, two, three!' He recites the nursery rhyme perfectly and then claps his hands.

Billy stops clapping when he sees Jessica isn't responding and hangs his head and then sniffs.

‘Billy, why did you come here?' He sniffs again but doesn't look up. ‘Look at me, Billy.' He raises his head slowly and looks at Jessica as she asks again, ‘Billy, why did you come to Jessie?'

‘Billy bad boy!' He looks slyly at Jessica. ‘Jessie hide Billy.'

Jessica shakes her head. ‘No, Billy, can't be done, mate. They'll be after you, they could be out looking for you already.'

Billy Simple looks over his shoulder as though he expects his pursuers to come through the kitchen doorway at any moment. ‘No, no, Jessie hide Billy!' he cries again.

Jessica remains silent for some time, looking down at her hands, then she raises her head and, sighing, looks at Billy. ‘Billy, someone will have found Mrs Thomas and the two girls. They'll see you're missing and they'll come after you. Look, if I hide you they'll find you soon enough. And if you run away, they'll run you down, find you in the bush.' Jessica pauses, then adds, ‘They won't be good men, Billy, they'll shoot you down like a mad dog.' Jessica's heart skips a beat as she realises what she's just said, but Billy doesn't seem to notice.

Billy crosses himself. ‘Hail Mary -'

‘No, Billy, don't!'

But this time he ignores her. ‘Hail Mary, Mother of God,' he repeats, ‘would you like to see the big cock Jesus gave me?'

Jessica can see he's getting upset again and she changes tack. ‘Billy, would you like to sleep, have a good kip, eh?'

Billy nods his head slowly as though he's thinking about this idea.

‘Did you sleep last night?' Billy shakes his head.

‘Where were you all last night, you poor bugger?

C'mon then, you can use Joe's bed, it's nice and long, out the back in the sleep-out.'

Billy looks suspiciously at Jessica. ‘Men come shoot Billy like mad dog.'

Jessica sighs. ‘True enough.' She shrugs her shoulders. ‘But if you won't come to Narrandera with me you might as well have a good sleep.' She continues with this peculiar logic, ‘It's a bloody sight better than sitting on yer arse shittin' yer britches, waiting for them to come and get ya. Ain't it now, Billy?'

Billy looks up, surprised. ‘Narran-dera?'

Jessica remembers that Billy is afraid to ride a horse. ‘It's near twelve hours by sulky. They won't think you'd head for Narrandera, they'll expect you to go bush, into emu country,' she says, knowing it's a lie, that he'd be dead of thirst and the sun in a day and a half. Billy would be driven back towards the river if he were on his own without water.

He suddenly removes his hat and drops his head and parts his hair with his hands, exposing the scarred pathway. ‘Narran-dera Hos-pit-al fix me ‘ead, Jessie.' He removes his hands from his head and looks up at her eagerly. ‘Narran-dera good! Jessie take Billy to Narrandera to fix me, eh?' He takes his hat and pulls it back over his head.

Jessica can't believe her luck. ‘Yes, Billy, someone there will know what to do with you.' ‘Jessie come too!' Billy says in sudden alarm. Jessica nods her head. ‘You won't make it alone, mate.'

She now realises she's been on the edge of panic, worrying that someone may already have discovered the murdered women at Riverview and be heading straight over, Joe's place being the nearest property to the Thomases' station. But she knows that their cook has Saturday afternoon and Sunday off to visit her sister, the cook at North Yanco Station, and won't return to Riverview till this Sunday evening. And she figures it can't be much past nine o'clock, still a little early to expect callers. With Jack and his old man out mustering, there's just a chance there'll be no one at the homestead and the bodies may not yet have been found.

Although if a stable boy comes in to groom the horses or to harness the Thomas sulky for church, he'd be sure to raise the alarm.

Anyone going for help would probably ride to one of the bigger stations to report the murders. Narrandera and Whitton are both too far, a good nine hours on horseback. They might go looking for Jack and old man Thomas in the bush but they'd be lucky to spot them inside a couple of hours, or more if they're working one of the more distant runs. They'd know Joe's the nearest male to Riverview and might sensibly decide to begin recruiting a search party by starting with him.