Chapter 18

Jess and I spent the rest of the day holding hands and talking, I noticed Sheila giving us a wistful glance every now and then. Later that evening, when all of us were stuffed with food and drink, Charlie wished us a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New year, the party soon broke up and Jess rounded up Ernie, who by now was half tanked and happy.

"You drive Tony, her slurred, just keep your eyes on the road and stop making goo-goo eyes at my daughter."

"Daddy, don't be so mean, Tony's a good driver, aren't you Tony?"

"Yes Jess, I think Ernie's just teasing us."

We arrived back at camp in one piece and Jess escorted Ernie to his billet. When she came back she had a big smile on her face.

"Daddy told me that he loved me and wanted the best for me ... he said 'you' were the best."

"Wow, the old saying "wine in, truth out" must be true."

"Don't get a swollen head Tony, he was pretty full."

"Thanks, I think."

...

I was getting into bed when Jess slipped in beside me, "This is my place from now on Tony, we might not do any thing but I want to always sleep with you."

"I just hope Ernie doesn't pay us a snap visit during the night."

"When he went to bed he was feeling no pain, I doubt if he was awake when his head hit the pillow, so relax"

"Jessica Watson, please do not take anything for granted. We have promised to behave and we will."

"I don't think for one moment that Dad expects us to be chaste, we have promised not to do 'IT', that promise I will try to keep but I want to do all of the other things that lovers do. For a start I think we should get naked, I want to feel skin on skin, now's the time."

"Darling Jess, we have the rest of our lives to get acquainted, but I must admit, getting naked with you is more than tempting. Tell you what, you undress me and I'll ... Jesus you're already starkers. Oh Jess you look beautiful, I'm one lucky man."

Skin to skin we kissed and cuddled until we fell asleep. All to soon the damn alarm rang. "Time to get moving Jess, breakfast waits for no man."

"I just want to sleep in Tony, Christ it's the middle of the bloody night, what are you, a flaming masochist?"

"Remember our promise Jess, don't shit in Ernie's face, he may be OK with us but don't put him in a position where he has to bring down the curtains on us."

"Yeah, I know. OK I'll go into my room."

I started breakfast, soon there were stragglers drifting in. Seems like there were a few hangovers amongst them. Why didn't I feel sorry for them?

Ernie arrived looking worse for the wear. "Stop you're smirking you young bastard, I sat up all night worrying about my little girl being with a letch like you."

"Bollocks Ernie, Jess told me you were asleep when your head hit the pillow and I'm not a letch, just a pure and simple country lad." We both had a chuckle over that remark. Jess chose that moment to come into the mess hall, "Good morning Daddy, merry Christmas. Did you enjoy yourself at Charlie's barbeque?"

"Too much Jess, too much. I think I might live but have pity on your dear old dad."

"To quote Dom, when I had a hangover, "Each of us are responsible for our own actions" that's right isn't it folks?" There was calls of agreement and quite a few groans. Ah to be pure.

...

After breakfast Dom and Cheryl drove up. "We're going over to Bairnsdale to see my folks tomorrow Tony, do you and Jess want to come with us? We're going to stay overnight, there's plenty of room for you, the folks have a big sleepout at the back of the house."

"Sounds good Dom, but we would have to check with Ernie first, he might not want Jess to go."

"I'll go and ask Daddy now" said Jess.

"Hold on there Jess, this is an 'us' thing, I don't want Ernie to think I'm hiding behind your skirts."

"OK, then let's ask him now, I hope he says yes." Ernie was quite agreeable although he did cast the evil eye on me.

...

Lunch was a success, the cold spread went down well. It was ninety two degrees in the waterbag, anyone demanding a hot meal in the temperature would be a nut. The meal over and the boys commenced to enjoy themselves, out came the squeeze box and fiddle and we were treated to songs in their own language. Surprisingly, some of the tunes were familiar.

Jess spent a lot of time with Ernie, something I was glad to see. This Christmas would be the first without his wife, I'm sure he was feeling a bit low, though with Jess there he seemed to be coping quite well.

With the money I saved through my careful buying I was able to provide an abundance of finger foods and no Christmas is complete without that Christmas pud. Jess was as pleased as Punch when I gave her the credit for making it, after all she did do most of the hard yakka.

"Just be careful of the trey bits fellas, there's one for each of you; they are supposed to be lucky."

"What's a 'trey bit' Jess?" asked one of the Polish lads.

"Thipence, three penny bit, haven't you learnt our Aussie lingo yet?"

"Trying to learn the proper language is bad enough without you buggers chucking in slang." There was a lot of laughing agreement with him.

Dom and I had made a brandy custard to go over the pudding, she was a ripper, more than three quarters of a bottle of brandy in the mix. The remaining quarter we poured over the pud and lit it up. Everyone agreed it was the best pudding they had ever eaten. Jess was chuffed.