The Noon Lady of Towitta (21 page)

‘Only Gustave and the women in the Adelaide Gaol knew I was expecting. The women were helpful. One of them, Melissa, was very helpful. When we got together for our sewing afternoons, we would tell each other of our supposed crimes. She told us that she had got caught after one of her special operations had gone wrong. One afternoon she whispered to me, “Tell me, dearie, you're in the family way aren't you?” '

‘Well, I broke down there and then partly from the relief of having a shoulder to cry on. My clothes were tightening around my waist and I'd already let out the seams once. It was only going to be a matter of time before this news leaked out.

‘ “Look, I can help you,” she told me. “I know what a desperate state you are in and I'm quite experienced in situations like this. Your trial's coming up soon and believe me, you'll have even less hope of escaping that noose once everyone knows your true condition. Even if you get off, you'll still be having a baby out of wedlock and you'll be just as damned. Further, if we don't do this little operation soon, it will be too late for you to have one at all. I can do them easily and quickly but not if you're more than three months gone. Would you like me to help you?” ' ‘

“Please.”

' ‘ “It's quite easy, we'll do it tomorrow afternoon. As you know when we're all together in the sewing room we're watched by the warden like a hawk. However, there is about ten minutes when she takes the repaired overalls from us and takes them back to stores. She must trust us but I don't know how she gets away with it. In those few moments we are unsupervised I'll be able to help you.” '

‘So the next day when the warden walked away with the load of repairs, the women laid me out on the table and Melissa swiftly performed her operation with a knitting needle, the same one used by the women who knitted clothes for babies and children so Mrs Maughan, the clergyman's wife, could give to the poor in the West End of Adelaide. You can see there were no secrets there.

‘Melissa told me to expect the results of her handiwork about the next day or so. And so it happened. We were in the sewing room two days later when I started to feel things start. I asked to use the privy and everything happened without a fuss. It was a rough few nights for me; that's when I had some of my worst nightmares about being hanged. I had a fever for a few days but then it passed. Following the miscarriage I felt a bit down for a few days but the women kept my spirits up and protected me from any possible exposure.

‘About a week later when we were at our sewing one afternoon, a lawyer came into our sewing room with one of the wardens. The warden shouted out, “Madam Harpur, sorry, I mean Missus Melissa Fairbairn, you have a visitor.” At that moment my blood ran cold. I realised my operation had been performed by none other than the woman who had killed Rebekah.'

Sister Kathleen didn't bat an eyelid and I don't think she really understood the full impact of what I had been telling her for she said, ‘Look, I'd better get back to the ward. I'll help you back to your room because the sun is going down and it is cooling down quickly.'

So Sister Kathleen assisted me back to my room and saw me into my bed before she said, ‘Mary, that was one of your best stories, seemingly so believable.'

‘But, Sister, it
was
a true story, you must believe me.'

But she laughed in response and as she left the room she repeated, ‘Yes, that was a good story, Mary.'

And I was left alone with my first and only confession.

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