She read:
“Dear Madam:
“I am writing because I knew you would be interested in the details of Jason’s death....”
(Jason’s death! Jason dead!)
“He died a month ago on board ship coming home....”
(Coming home! What did it mean—coming home? This house was Jason’s home!)
“He died from a fall down some steps. I guess he had been taking a drop too much. You know how Jason was. And he hit his head where he had fallen once before. You remember the scar he had. Well, that’s where he hit himself. He didn’t ever become conscious again, and died two days later.
“I know you will be wondering about the postcard. Well, it is me and Jason and our five children. No, Jason was no bigamist. We was never married. He came to my father’s ranch looking for work twenty-four years ago. The eldest, Jason, is twenty-two come Michaelmas. He wasn’t much good as a worker, but he was good company and the ranch was a lonely place, so Pa kept him on. He told such good stories. And the following spring—I was eighteen then, but developed like a woman of twenty-five, he seduced me. I guess I wanted to be seduced. You know what a way Jason had with women. My only complaint against him as a husband was that it was hard to keep him in order. Well, when Pa found out that I was in the family way, he was hoppin’ mad, and I didn’t care, because I was off my nut about Jason. Pa said he had to marry me, and Jason said he couldn’t, because he already had a wife. So then when Pa had cooled down a bit, he said we was all to go to Sydney, and pretend we was married there, and if Jason ever deserted me he’d go after him with a gun and shoot him. The way it was about here then, it didn’t make much difference if you was married or not. It was kind of wild. So we pretended we was married because Pa was a believer and a Primitive Methodist.
“Well, at the time Pa died, we had four children, and he left everything to me, I being his only child, and heir. Emma was born after he died. Maybe you’ll think it was funny about her name. It was Jason who wanted to call her Emma. He said he’d like to because it made him think of old times. I said it was all the same to me, though I wanted to call her Opal.
“Jason must have told you that he was rich and owned a lot of land. He was always a liar. Well, it ain’t true. He didn’t own a square foot of land, and he never made a ha’penny in all the time he was my husband. I even gave him the money to go back to America to see you. He wanted to go so bad I couldn’t say no to him. I guess he was curious about that son of his in America, and maybe he wanted to see you, too. I just wanted you to know this, so you wouldn’t think there was any money coming to you or your son.