Chapter 4

“You mean our gold assets?”

“Gosh, I had forgotten about them, but they are better left as a hedge against bad economic conditions. No, I was thinking more of our government stocks and bonds, of which we have a large amount, though you probably didn’t know that. These bring in a consistent return of around seven per cent with complete safety, as they are guaranteed by the UK government. I’d hate to lose that reliable income stream just to pay off the camera group debts faster.”

“Really? I had no idea, but a return like that is certainly worthwhile. I’ll leave it with you to decide, Sandy: you are our business brain.”

“Oh, I forgot to mention. Mr Reddix has his job confirmed secure. I made a group executive decision to be implemented by the new manager, to let the manager know that Reddix has friends in high places, so don’t bother him overmuch. I made sure my name was not mentioned; simply had an instruction come from head office.”

“Good. Mrs. Reddix will be pleased.”

“She was, when I told her that his problem was now solved permanently. She asked what fee I wanted for my business help, and I told her that this was for a friend and neighbour, so there was no charge. I didn’t refer to the fact that we now owned the camera group, and that financially we will be better off in the long run.

So I think we have a staunch friend if we ever need one.”

“Sandy, you always manage to make a decision that has a range of benefits for us, as well as solving the immediate problem. I am glad I married you, my love.”

“Yes; me and Georgie and Janet and Carol, and I suppose Phyllis. She probably merits the marriage status with us, love. She has done enough in over three years to prove she is with us all the way. One child and another on the way are fairly conclusive indications, and she has learned to fit in with our unusual family dynamic. She felt comfortable enough to mount her own antiques business without us financing her.”

“Suits me, Sandy. Ask her if she wants a private marriage ceremony, or just stay as she is. There is no practical difference; it is all in how we view her in future. You will add her to your will, won’t you, so that she is guaranteed enough to keep her in comfort the same as the other girls, if I pop my clogs? You will remain the main beneficiary in my will, Sandy, with the assumption that you will look after the others in the case of my passing before I am an old man.”

“Of course. I care for them as much as you do, love. They are all mothers of your children, remember.”

“And I know that to the full! They treat me as their husband just as much as you do, my darling wife. I am hen-pecked in the extreme, but I am happy to be with all of you, and that is all that matters.”

Sandy threw up her hands. “Hen-pecked? You are loved to death every single day, Bob. You just enjoy being loved like this, over and above having five adoring women to fuck regularly, and a pack of youngsters who think you are the bee’s knees!”

Bob replied, “The bee’s knees? I know of it, and what it means, but why the bee’s knees? Where did that saying come from, do you know?”

“Not really; I’ve always known it as meaning being great or admirable, but the source? No idea of where it came from, I’m afraid. It sounds to be the same as ‘the cat’s pyjamas’.”

“Not to worry. Sometime I must check the reference books in the library and see if there is a known origin. Some sayings are just things that developed and nobody knows how. Hey, that would be a great answer in some quiz show: nobody knows!”

Sandy suggested, “Perhaps University Challenge would be interested in the idea of a question with that answer. That would make some of the clever contestants look stupid, and occasionally that would do them good.”

Her young son had been fascinated by his parents’ conversation, and now asked, “Mummy, what’s a nobody nose? A funny shaped nose?”

We both collapsed with laughter, and at his hurt face she quickly told him, “We are not laughing at you, Tom, just at your hearing a word that has two meanings when spoken. The word ‘knows’ in one spelling is understanding, and ‘nose’ in another spelling means the sniffing thing on your face. Our language has a number of cases where two words sound the same but have different meanings, like ‘your’, meaning belonging to you, and ‘you’re’, which is short for you are. You’ll learn them all when you get older, my darling son.”

“When will that be, mummy?” Tom asked innocently.

“As soon as you feel up to it, my boy. There are lots and lots of words to learn, so you can do that a little at a time. It is easier that way.”

Like everything else, I thought. We all learn things little by little. As a boy I learned first that short pants were for boys and long pants were for men. Then I saw pictures of German men from Bavaria wearing short pants called lederhosen. The difference was that these ‘men’ short pants were made of leather, but the old notion of shorts for boys and long pants for men was gone for me. I later saw pictures at the cinema of young men on a holiday, and most them were wearing shorts. And apparently our soldiers when fighting in the Middle East and Far East wore shorts because of the hot weather.

Enough about my short meanderings.

Sandy had to spend a couple of days in Glasgow collaborating with her broker there, and sorting out what could be done in the U.S.A ... about our holdings there, and using University accommodation for her overnight stay, to cut costs. The university were not daft either, as in return for free accommodation they got her to agree to give a lecture in the near future on practical business activity compared to theoretical assumptions. She was happy to be able to talk of her experience of dealing with people while trying to run a business, and titled it: ‘Theoretically... ‘

By the time she returned to us, she had an American market strategy developed, so that the US broker could act without additional direct orders, and report once a week to our Glasgow broker on their activity on our behalf. She made a formal deal with them: Sandy had the Americans sign up to an agreement that should they improve our financial situation, they could get 5 per cent of the gain as a bonus, but if their efforts resulted in a loss, they had to absorb half the loss suffered. Sandy showed them that she was a tough woman to deal with.

Carol had gradually grown into a strong woman once she was part of our family, and applied her own fear of men to the business world. She set about expanding one aspect of her boss’s hair and beauty shop into a chain of specialist beauty salons up and down the Clyde coast, deliberately targeting female visitors at the resorts by offering special deals through adverts in local hotels, aimed at providing beauty enhancement to visiting ladies. We offered to put investment into the start-up costs, but her boss was happy to expand her operations in this way, and appointed Carol as her technical assistant for the chain, for which Carol coined the title: Extras. The shops provided beauty extras of all kinds, from facials, ear piercing, and hair extensions, to eyebrow plucking and mole removal. The chain’s policy was to treat freckles as a natural beauty feature and advise them to remain untouched. That boosted their public relations amazingly, for local newspapers happily wrote stories about the chain’s love of freckles on the face.

All this work meant that Carol was busy and so for much of that time her child lived back here while she was visiting the chain of beauty shops. It didn’t matter to her offspring, as all the kids felt at home here; after all, it WAS home, living among their siblings, their brothers and sisters.

Today she arrived back from her latest tour of the shops. She had a smile on her face as she hurried to the nursery to pick up and cuddle her daughter Brenda. I got a quick peck in passing, and chuckled as she showed her priorities.

Her next priority was food after her long journey, so a meal was hurriedly prepared by the other girls and they sat down to hear how her beauty shops were getting on. I was excluded, fortunately, and sat on the couch to read the current Investor’s Chronicle, wondering how much of the financial opinion offered was accurate. I certainly did nothing more than peruse it. I had no intention of following their pundit’s advice. Our own broker was on a bonus if his advice led to good results, so it was in his interest to give us worthwhile advice. The pundits got paid by the magazine whether or not their advice was merited, as far as I could make out.

After a while, Carol joined me on the couch, carrying yesterday’s Greenock Telegraph, to catch up on the local news. She edged up close beside me, and we swapped a gentle kiss before she turned her attention to the local newspaper. She was quiet for a long while, then gave a gasp.

I asked, “What is it, pet?”

“In the news, here,” she pointed to the paper, “He has been charged with rape. At last! About time, too.”

I frowned.

“Who has been charged with rape? Anyone I know?”

“My school friend’s father; the one that raped me, all these years ago. God, I had almost forgotten, what with loving you, Sandy and the others, and with my Brenda as well. They have caught up with him at last.”

“Any mention of his family in the story?”

“Just says George Smart is married, nothing more.”

I ventured, “Your school friend is going to be devastated, to have her father arrested for rape.”

“God, yes. Poor Jenny! She had nothing to do with it, back then. I didn’t even want her to know about my rape, if she loved her father, and I think she did at the time. We were naive girls back then, believing that everyone was nice. It would have been terrible for her to know it had happened. She must now feel terrible!”

I suggested, “Do you want to go speak to her; say something to help?”

“Would she even recognise me, or me recognise her? It is seven or eight years since my violation, as you know, my love.”

“I could go with you, if we used the car; and we can work out what you could say for her to know who you are. You are much taller than you used to be, and I think better looking as well, but maybe that is just to my eyes.”

“You always say the nicest things, my darling! But yes, it might help to have my husband handy as back-up to prove who I am.”

“Do you remember her address? You know, she might not live there any more.”

“True. She may be married by now. Well, we can ask her mother whether she is at home. And yes, I remember the address; I went there so often.”

“Let’s go tomorrow, if you don’t have to report to your boss. I can say I am not currently available for client visits to properties. Daddy Thompson isn’t too bothered if I don’t appear at his office. You know the score on that arrangement.”

“I should report back to my boss in the morning, and that may take a while to go over all the salons, so can we make it after lunchtime?”

“Fine. I can do a few client visits, if there is anyone in a hurry to see a place, and leave the afternoon free.”

So that is what we did. I was late back home after a successful visit, so I skipped a proper lunch and just had a quick snack before we went off to Jenny’s home, or former home, as the case might be.

When she drove into the street, we found a policeman standing on the street in front of the house, so I advised, “Draw up close to the gate, and I’ll stay in the car while you find out what’s what.”

When she did, and got out, the policeman on duty asked her what she was here for and who was she. I had the car window down, so I heard the discussion.

“I am an old school friend of Jenny, and I want to see if she is at home and needing my support.”

“Jenny? Is that the adult daughter?” he asked.

“Yes. She is my age. Is she still living here?”

“So I understand. I’ll come with you to the door, for you to introduce yourself. The mother may not want to see visitors. She is quite upset.”

“Oh, that is sad, if it is so.”

They walked up to the door, and the policeman rang the bell. The door was answered by a woman about Carol’s age, who asked, “Yes?”

The policeman said, “Miss Jennifer? This lady says she was a school friend, Miss Jennifer, and asked to see you.”

The woman peered at Carol, confused.

“Do I know you? I don’t think I recognise you.”

“I look different now that I am grown up, I accept. Jenny, don’t you know my voice? Carol. Remember I suddenly left you and school without explanation?”

“Carol? Oh, yes: I thought you had abandoned me. God, you have grown up! You are a lot taller, but I remember the voice.”

“I’ve indeed grown a lot in the last few years, Jenny, and am now happily married with a daughter of my own. That’s my husband in the car, waiting for me. He is such a dear.”

Jennifer looked over at the car, and I raised a hand in acknowledgement. She smiled at me and turned back to Carol.

“Lucky you. Daddy kept putting off any boyfriend I brought round, simply by being obnoxious. He didn’t seem to want me to get married and leave home. I have an inkling of why, now.”

The policeman made an unobtrusive departure to his post at the gate, to fend off unwanted visitors such as the press.

Jenny watched him leave, and Carol spoke softly to her now that they were alone.

“Ah, yes. His arrest. He was why I vanished, Jenny. He raped me and I didn’t dare tell you and spoil your family life.”

“You were raped by him? Oh, Carol! I am so sorry.” She stopped to look at Carol more closely and gave a wry smile. “You seem to have got over it. You look great.”

“I have now, thanks to my lovely understanding husband. Bob is a darling man. He knows all about it. He rescued me from my funk and told me that he would never hurt me. He has kept to that promise.”

“How wonderful.” Her face took on a wistful look. “He must be someone special.”

“He is. Now, we were wondering if you or your Mum needed help or assistance of any kind, given the circumstances.”

“How kind of you to think of me that way. I just don’t know. Mum is in a bit of a pickle, as Daddy insisted on dealing with all the bills and house costs like mortgage payments and insurances and so on. I didn’t get to be involved, either, as Daddy and I did not see eye to eye for most of the time. As a lecturer, he was away most days from early morning to evening; but raping girls? I never knew!”

“Well, tell her we can help. We have a business adviser in our house, one of Bob’s relatives. She is good with financial matters, so she may be the answer to your needs. Will I get her to call?”

“If she doesn’t mind. Carol, I feel so bad about what you must have gone through, and here’s you offering to help us instead!”

“I’m a big girl now, Jenny, a mother, and happily expecting again.” She patted her tummy as if to prove it. “If we can help, we can. My husband is not short of a penny or two...”

“Eh? You are offering financial help as well? I have no idea of what our finances are. If I need new clothes, I ask Mum, and she gets the money from Daddy ... or that is what used to happen. Now, I don’t know. I should invite you and your husband in, but I don’t even know if Mum has enough in the store cupboard apart from tea and biscuits. Money is always tight.”

“Calm down, Jenny. I am only here to find out how you and your Mum are coping, and Bob is waiting for me in the car, patient as usual: I love that man! I’ll ask Sandy if she will call on you and look over your accounts and see what needs to be done in the short term; Council tax, outstanding bills, and any regular payments that might be accidentally missed. She is worth listening to, Jenny; she is that good. She takes care of all of Bob’s investments.”

“In that case, yes please. Sandy you said. What is her second name?”

“McIntyre, the same as mine is now. I told you she was a relative.”

“Oh, yes. Thanks, Carol. You must think me a ninny for not thinking straight.”

“Not at all; you are upset, Jenny, so it is to be expected. I’ll get Sandy to call round as soon as she is available. Are you still staying here with your Mum at the moment?”

“I am here all the time, Sandy, apart from work. My father doesn’t like the idea of my living away from home. Thought it would not be safe for me! Coming from him...”

“Quite. If you need a break, you can come visit us, Jenny.”

“Damn, yes. The papers keep coming to the door looking for another story; as if Daddy being arrested wasn’t enough.”

“Speak to Sandy about it. She is the organiser in our family; has her own business. Bob works part-time for a solicitor, so if you need legal help, he could perhaps get it for you.”