Chapter 14

I was happy to tell him that it was all down to me from here on.

“The legal responsibility really lies with the people who inherited the house, but I suspect they don’t want to know anything about this stuff, officially. They will be glad to let the estate agency clear it away for them. The agency can make a charge for this service, as well. We can dispose of the old radio at the same time.”

My boss frowned at this obscure reference. “You mean give it to the Scottish Record Office?”

“No. We can just dispose of it in the direction of the antiques market, for Phyllis to sell it, on the basis of the family wanting rid of it.”

“You have that confirmed? You need that, to be legally secure.”

“I’ll check with Georgina. She was going to ask the heirs about it.” I did that, and she had a reply letter, telling the agency to get rid of the old radio as unwanted, so we were covered. Next time I was at that house, I would remove the old radio. As I would be there on my own, I would probably need a large canvas sack that I could put it in, for lowering by rope down through the hatch to floor level. I made that call from the office to the SRO, and explained that I worked for an estate agency and during a detailed inspection of the house, I discovered a blanked-off room in the basement. Inside the room I found a quantity of boxes of files, and they were all marked M.O.D. so must be military records. A quick glance inside revealed the letters TEE, and after some research I knew that they must refer to the Torpedo Experimental Establishment.

The person I was speaking to was calm but his voice conveyed an underlying excitement and asked if I had any idea of how they had got there. I explained that my agency’s research had revealed that the house had been owned by the widow of a Commodore who worked at the torpedo site at Greenock. I surmised on the phone that he had arranged to move them to this spot for safekeeping, but had died before he could have them transferred to the public Records Office.

My contact asked acerbically, “And why did he take them out of the TEE in the first place? Keeping them safe from what or whom, I would like to know?”

I expressed surprise very forcibly that he should ask that. “How the hell should I know? They may have been in a leaky or unsafe room, or being attacked by mice, or something. I only know that I discovered them in this house and am trying to hand them over to the correct authorities. Apart from that, I know bugger all!”

“Apologies, Mr McIntyre. It was a natural question to arise, due to the unusual circumstances. So, I am now clear. You have no involvement except as a concerned citizen, and I applaud that.”

“Well, I have assumed that the heirs of his widow’s estate would not dare lay claim to ownership of what might turn out to be purloined documents, from what you suggest. I assume that you, on behalf of the PRO, are laying formal claim to them?”

“If they are what you believe, Mr McIntyre, that is correct. When can I or someone from my department, visit to examine them and if they match your conclusion, to arrange for their uplift to Edinburgh in the first instance.”

“I have to check with the estate agency as to what properties I am expected to attend in the next few days, but if there is nothing that cannot be postponed, or handed over to another representative, then any day other than tomorrow will be suitable for our meeting.”

“I see; thank you. I take it that you are an employee of the estate agency?”

“A trifle more than that. My wife owns the agency, so I am not truly an employee; more a free agent, able to act on her behalf.”

He sighed happily, and commented, “Thus your freedom to investigate odd surprises. Now I understand your position much better.”

“Thank you. If you call my boss’s number about the appointment, we can fix for you and I to be there together.”

“The agency you work for?”

“Sorry, no. The solicitor you rang before. I also work for him, part-time.”

“You are a busy man, Mr McIntyre.”

“Not really, as he is my father-in-law, so I don’t get overworked.” The man laughed at my fortunate position. “What pays more? The lawyer’s office or the house sales?”

“The house sales bring in much more; that I can say without fear of contradiction.”

“Then the sooner we can get these records out of that house, the sooner you can sell it to someone? Is that it?”

“That’s it, more or less. I don’t do the actual sale; just convince the client to buy it. So, yes, for your appointment, the sooner the better.” We left it at that, and I warned Mr Thompson that I would have to fit in with the SRO man as to when I met him at the country house, and that I would also have to make the same arrangement with the agency, but that Georgie should be able to fix that for me.

He murmured, “Georgina, yes. I still find it odd that you have actually married both my girls, but they seem to be happy with that ... arrangement ... is the best word. Martha and George are both lovely grandchildren for me, and for that I am content. Tom is going to have a sibling before long, I believe.”

“Indeed so, sir. Sandy is bearing up; just a bit of morning sickness to put up with, much later than is usual in a pregnancy. She is still talking of making it three children, by the way.”

“As long as it doesn’t interfere with her business, Robert. That is her true baby, in my estimation. She loves her work, just as I love mine.”

“Not a problem, sir. Our babysitter, Naomi, is good with our children. She looks after all the nursery duties, and Jennifer helps out as well.”

“Jennifer, eh? Who is she?”

“An old school friend of Carol’s. They got back in touch recently and have resumed their friendship.”

“Ah, Carol ... yes ... another liaison, was that it?”

“Some time ago, sir. She had been raped at 14, and we rescued her from a miserable life of being afraid of men. She has blossomed now and is running a group of beauty salons. Sandy is proud of what we have achieved with Carol since we took her in hand.”

“Good, good. Glad to hear Sandy has done her bit to help others.” He refrained from asking more about Carol and Jennifer; he didn’t want to hear that.

When I got home that evening, Sandy was not alone. She had brought Alice along with her. I wondered about this, but said nothing except to welcome her again. She responded by giving me a kiss on the lips then turning to Sandy to say, “Tastes the same as the other day; quite attractive, for a man.”

I went to stutter in shock, then gave up and laughed out loud. “Only ‘quite attractive’, she says!”

Sandy chuckled as well, saying, “Just testing, I presume. I know you are more than that, darling.”

Jennifer intruded to say, “Dinner will be ready shortly, Janet says. Wash up, folks.” Dinner was not just ready; it was delicious, as was the sweet that followed: her own Black Forest gateau. It was a little spoiled by Jenny rushing to the toilet to throw up afterwards. Alice raised an eyebrow and asked Sandy, “Something wrong with the food?”

“Not at all. Just a touch of morning sickness, is what it probably is.”

“Pregnant? She didn’t look it.”

“Only into her second month, but that ailment can strike at any stage. Some girls never get it at all; others are truly afflicted for most of their pregnancy.”

“Father not around?” Alice asked. “Or is that an awkward question?”

“No, he is here: Our one and only Bob.”

“Eh? But...” She sounded confused, despite knowing that we had a large family. Sandy looked her in the eye and said, “Alice, listen closely: We are all Bob’s wives, and we are all having children by him. Okay?”

“But Sandy ... all of you having his children?”

“Yes. We have seven children so far. That is why we need a nursery nurse for our brood.”

“Oh. I had assumed some of the girls had arrived with children, or arrived pregnant. Wives, though?”

Janet interrupted, “Yes, Alice. We are Bob’s other wives by choice, and he treats us as esteemed wives. We are one happy family, dear; ask any of us.”

“This clarifies things somewhat, but muddies the waters in other ways, Sandy. Why were you so keen to have Bob kiss me?”

Sandy replied, “For the same reason as some of the other girls here: learning that not all men are nasty brutes. Some can be gentle souls, only interested in your welfare, not his. As a result, Bob has amassed a collection of women who appreciate him and want to live with him; but, but, I am still his only legal wife, so I am the lead woman in this clan.”

“Ah, the boss lady of the harem!”

“Not harem, Alice. They are wives once they have proved themselves, so not a harem, which would mean only there for sex. All these ladies have freedom within our family, and live normal working lives at jobs they like. Bob has enough wherewithal to keep us solvent without working, but having a job or career outside the home gives you more freedom. We all know that if some financial worry should appear, we can cope with it.”

“So Bob is wealthy?”

“You might reasonably assume it so; but by the way he usually dresses and acts, you might think he is a normal working man. And indeed he is a working man, selling houses for the estate agency group that is owned by Georgie. He also has a part-time job working for my father at his solicitor’s office in Gourock.”

“Eh? A wealthy man who has two part-time jobs to keep him busy? Weird.”

“I’ll tell you what is weird, Alice: Bob has no idea what amount of wealth he actually owns. He just knows he has a lot of inherited investments and that is all. He knows it is a lot, but how large a lot, he has no conception. He recognises I have the appropriate expertise, so leaves the financial management to me, as the best person to handle his holdings. I concentrate on increasing his wealth in company and government holdings, and making sure that there is enough annual income from these investments to cover all our costs for this house and our cars. There is an unexpected bonus from that wealth: we are the largest single contributor to our local church, so the minister makes no awkward queries about our household structure; just accepts us as Christian souls to be cared for. He makes no comment on the number of successive christening ceremonies with Bob standing there as the father.”

“Sandy? This tells me about you and Bob. It doesn’t tell me what your intentions are towards me; nothing.”

“My intentions? My only intention is to help you get over your fear of the average man. Most of them are quite amenable to improvement; some of them are willing to adapt their lifestyle to your preferences. Only a relatively small number are best avoided at all costs. You and some other ladies encountered the wrong men at the wrong time.”

“So, what do you hope to do about this situation, Sandy?”

“To begin with, get you and Bob to exchange kisses as friendly interactions. It is up to you whether you take it further. In the case of several of Bob’s wives, it moved on to topless interactions, where the woman and the man are both stripped to the waist before indulging in further kisses. This gives the woman some valuable experience of woman-man touching, but she is the one in full control of how far it progresses. Bob never instigates anything untoward, but merely invites the girl to do things that she might wish to try.”

“So if I wanted to go to another stage, it is up to me, and me only?”

“That is so, Alice. You decide; you. You are never pushed in any way.”

Alice looked round at the other women at the dinner table. They all seemed to be waiting for her to make up her mind, but their smiles appeared to be friendly enough. Instead, she engaged them in dinner-style conversation, probably so that she could judge what they were like.

I left them to it, and excused myself to go check my new-fangled computer and see what it could do. Despite all the promises, it was pretty limited, in my estimation, but it could be used to write letters like with a typewriter, but you could go back and make edits without using correction fluid. That was a godsend for me.

I eventually gave up wrestling with this machine and resorted to my book, a description of dinosaurs many millions of years ago, and how they had all died in some sort of cataclysm. Apart from the massive fossil bones, the searchers were finding more and more dinosaur tracks, and some of these were illustrated in the book. I was fascinated by what I saw, but was puzzled by the three-toed feet that they indicated. The author rhapsodised on the tracks and how their spacing showed how large the beasts must have been.

That was not what I read into the tracks. What I saw were what appeared to be bird tracks, like a chicken, goose or seagull, for instance. These birds all had three-toed feet, unlike mammals who normally had five toes. Even the ungulates like horses originally came from the mesohippus that had five toes, which over millions of years had fused into one: a hoof. The point was that the only modern animals I knew of that had three toes were birds, though I may be generalising through my limited knowledge. If dinosaurs had three toes, then possibly this could perhaps mean that birds had evolved from one or more dinosaurs that had survived the dinosaur wipe-out sixty million years ago. On the other hand, if a dinosaur had a rear toe that didn’t appear in the tracks, then that ruins my supposition. My reading of the book so far made no reference to other toes, but lack of written reference is not proof that they were not there. Oh, well, it was a talking point an any rate.

I thought it was time I went back through and discovered what the girls had been up to in my absence. I find that they often talk more among themselves when I am not there to be embarrassed, as I might be at times over women’s issues. I wandered through, hearing the chatter of excited voices as I went. What were they up to? As I entered the dining room, I found out: they had all stripped to the waist! “Hey!” I exclaimed with an accompanying smile, “What is this treat in aid of, girls? An exhibition for me to enjoy?”

Georgie was the self-appointed spokeswoman. “We want you to kiss us all, darling; each of us in turn. But, you have to strip to the waist as well. Any objections?” “None at all!” I agreed, rapidly peeling off my shirt and vest. “Who’s first?” Jenny stepped towards me. “Me, Bob. You knocked me up recently, remember? So I bag first dibs.” “Certainly, Jenny. Come here, girl.”

She moved to me and I swept her into my arms. She pressed close and we kissed happily. By God, her breasts were as lovely as I remembered, and cosy against my chest. She stepped back reluctantly, and made space for Carol and her swelling belly. One after the other, the girls came for their smooching kiss, until I found myself facing Alice’s bulging breasts and her grinning smile.

“Surprise!” she said softly and pushed herself against me. These large breasts were impressive to behold, and delightful to be pressed against my bare chest. Her lips turned out to be just as delightful as my wives’ lips, so I treated her the same as the others. We lingered a little longer than the others, and I absently noticed they were cheering us on with a gentle ‘heeeyyy, Alice’. At this, my mind slipped into gear and I pulled away from Alice’s questing mouth to murmur, “Just one difference...”

Her eyes widened and she queried, “What difference?”

I told her, “No baby on the way.”

She stiffened with sudden shock, then relaxed in my arms, and said with a smile, “Not yet, I grant you, but we shall see what man gets that pleasure.”

I smiled broadly at this apparent hint, and patted her shapely bottom. “We shall need to do something about that, Alice, if that is the way you are thinking.”

She grinned back, “Your wives can be persuasive, Bob. You may have noticed that.” “I have. I love them for it, and for everything else they do, so don’t just blame Sandy.”

“Well, I regard her as the ringleader of this mob of women. You are not the only reason I am half nude. Their efforts at persuasion were important. They said I had to learn to face a man with pride.”

“Hmm ... on that point, may I touch, just a little? These are the largest breasts I have ever encountered, even though my girls’ breasts do get larger when they are breastfeeding.”

“As long as you take care with touching. My nipples are tender at the moment, and I don’t know why. I have not noticed it before.” “I would call it anticipation by your female body, Alice; just like a man gets an erection. Let me test your sensitivity for myself.” I slowly swept my right hand over her left breast, caressing the nipple as I did so. She shivered at the touch, the nipple stiffened, and she leaned forward to kiss me tentatively.

“That’s nice, Bob. Do it again.” I did so, and she pushed her gorgeous breast against my questing fingers. As she said to me, “I could get used to such touching, Bob,” I became aware that my wives had clustered round us to watch this after-dinner entertainment.

I distinctly heard Georgie’s voice murmuring in the background, “And another one bites the dust ... Looks a little as if you have done it again, Sandy.”

Then Sandy’s voice declaiming innocently, “Who? Me? Done what?” “Yes, you, sister. Alice is developed a keenness to learn more about relationships; I can see it. She might later want a baby and you want our Bob to do the fathering.”

“Oh? That would be nice,” Sandy accepted this judgment as if surprised, still acting the innocent bystander. “Alice has wanted a baby for some time but was too afraid of men, she told me.”

Georgie frowned at her younger sister. “And you did your best to manage the situation in that direction, kiddo; didn’t you?” Sandy looked at her in pretended shock, and insisted, “I just helped her along, Georgie. She did everything by herself. I was simply there to tell her things she needed to know.”