Chapter 5

Jenny stood with her mouth open, taking in the ‘nothing special’ declaration with everything else the opposite of these words. She recognised it as emphasising the specialness with that derogatory ending that meant nothing. She had to expand this farther.

“What about the other girls? What do they say about him?”

Carol smiled as she pointed out, “You will have noticed that they are all happy to bear his children? What does that tell you? Add the fact that some of us working on our second child, and you can make your own decision, Jenny. We all were suffering from men or families when Bob and Sandy found us, and now we are happy women in a loving family setting. What more do you need to know?”

Jenny was unclear about what she needed to know, but started with, “What about money? Who paid for this huge house that you live in, for example?”

Carol shrugged.

“Bob and Sandy have access to loads of money, it turns out. They bought the original house and built the massive extension to make it the size it is now. They produced the money to buy the chain of estate agents that Georgie runs and Bob works for. They also bought in to the construction firm that built our extension and now own a majority share of it. More recently they bought another construction company and have the two running in tandem, each helping the other with contracts. If you ask Bob about finance, he just refers you to Sandy. She is the money person in the family, as she runs her own business advisory service. If you wanted to employ her yourself, you couldn’t afford her. She is looking into your family finances as a favour for me so that you and your Mum don’t suffer for what your father did. I expect your mother will want to divorce him now; is that right?”

“She might, but money is tight. It may not be to her advantage.”

“From what little I hear, you may be wrong on that, but it is up to Sandy to tell you what she has found and what it means for you and your Mum.”

“Really? Sandy is that expensive?”

“You can bet on it. She mostly works for companies that want her to save them money, and she works out how to do it. She earns her fees, for the companies do well when she works on their finances. They queue up to ask for her help.”

“So she is the one with the money to pay for everything?”

“What? No. It started with Bob. Somehow he inherited a great deal of money and assets. But Sandy administers the whole shebang. Bob is happy to have her running things.”

Carol sounded peeved that she had to explain what to her were simple things. Jenny backed off hurriedly.

“Sorry, Carol. I was just trying to get my head around your family and how it works.”

“Okay, but leave it for now. I have to get back to the nursery before Brenda causes ructions.”

Jenny giggled at the thought, but followed Carol back to the nursery. Over the next half hour of playing with young children, several other women drifted in to see to or collect their offspring, and be introduced to Jenny. Finally Bob opened the door and entered.

“Hi. I was told that our visitor was here. You must be Jenny. Welcome to our chaos! It is not usually so bad, but it is Naomi’s day off, so we have to muddle through without her.”

He offered a hand, and when she responded, to her surprise he took her hand and kissed the back of it, in an old formal mark of respect.

“Feel free to join in, or stay aloof if you prefer. We work on being happy rather than right.”

“Thank you, Mr McIntyre.”

“Please call me Bob; everyone else does. Oh, and please stay for our evening meal. I think we are having it at home. Is that right, Carol?”

“Yes, darling. The girls have thrown together a lamb hotpot that is in the oven. There should be enough for everyone, for the kids prefer things like fish fingers and suchlike easy foods. You okay with a hotpot, Jenny?”

“God, yes. I’d love some.” She didn’t want to say that her Mum made things like mutton broth, tripe, and haggis, which were all cheap foods. Her mouth was already watering. “Ooops. I didn’t say to Mum that I wouldn’t be home for dinner. I need to go home, sorry, Carol.”

“No problem, Jenny. What we’ll do is get Bob to run you home in the car and let your Mum know you will be here for dinner. Come to think of it, why don’t we bring your Mum here and she can have the hotpot too? I get the impression she would enjoy a meal in good company.”

“Oh, my, and how! But can you feed us both, on top of your family?”

“We usually do extra, and have leftovers for anyone who doesn’t fancy what we are having next day for the main meal, so she is welcome to come and meet us. She will see that we are normal people. Bob, can you take Jenny home and collect her Mum? Jenny’s bike can stay here for now.”

“Sure. It is just a few minutes from here, I think. Want to show me?”

“Dammit, Jenny can direct you, Bob!”

“Oh, yes. I should have thought of that; silly me. Right, come on, Jenny, jump to it, girl!” I ended with a grin.

Jenny chuckled at my banter. She was assimilating with us, encountering our activities and taking them in quite well despite all the social shocks she had been hearing about our lifestyle. It was probably a sign of relief from the depressing family news she had been experiencing recently.

It took more time to convince Jenny’s mother to come for a meal than it took to go there and back. Jenny was able to push her, as Carol was a former school friend of Jenny, to come along and meet Carol’s little girl, much though I guessed that she might not appreciate our Brenda.

We were back home well before the hotpot was ready to be dished out from the very large casserole serving vessel in the centre of the table. I was expected to ladle out portions for each person. I normally was meticulous in giving everyone the same size of portion, but tonight I gave larger portions to Jenny and her mother, guessing that the food would be fully consumed. Sandy observed my tactics critically, but said nothing, and once everyone had cleared their plates, we were able to move to the dessert, bowls of mixed fruit topped with ice cream that we got delivered from Nardini’s in Largs twice a week as a special treat. It was certainly special, as we paid handsomely for the delivery, but all of us, adults and children alike, liked the taste from the high quality ingredients they used. There are useful advantages in having some cash to splurge occasionally.

Fortunately Jenny and her Mum didn’t recognise the ice cream as Nardini’s but appreciated that it was high quality. Janet commented we had to order it, but the supplier was happy to have our business as we were regular customers. No shop identifiers were mentioned, but during our general conversation Janet let slip that she worked at the Cafe Continental down on Kempock Street. That sufficed for now as an acceptable explanation of the creamy confection.

Jenny’s mother told us her name was Patricia, and that she had been married for 26 years. Most of that time she had lived in their present house, she said. “We are still paying off the mortgage, but I think we are getting there; at least we were until George was arrested. The police said the magistrate remanded him in custody, which I think means he stays in jail until the trial.”

Sandy interrupted to inform her, “Patricia, your mortgage was paid off five years ago, according to your building society records. You obviously didn’t get to see them.”

“The mortgage cleared? Then what have we been paying for? George said the payments were continuing.” She tailed off as realisation set in. “You mean it was not true?”

“Not true,” Sandy confirmed. “That explains why money is so tight in your household. The continuing payments have been going to a broker in Glasgow, for what purpose I have still to discover, but your house is paid for. I hope it is in your joint names.”

“That I know, for I saw it when we both signed the mortgage to buy the house, all these years ago. George said the length of the mortgage varies according to interest payments, so that you always pay the same per month but the number of years can be longer. I didn’t follow entirely, so I left it to him.”

“Really? Normally the monthly repayments include the interest due, so it is only if you default in your payments that the term is extended. It looks as if George was telling porkies to you, even back then.” [note—British rhyming slang: pork pie/lie, so porkies = lies]

“He was? Why would he do that? Jenny, do you believe this?”

Jenny carefully let her mother down gently.

“Daddy was never the best of men, Mum. You loved him, so you didn’t expect him to behave like that. You have had a faulty expectation ever since. I was like that for a long while as I was growing up. He was my Dad, so he could do no wrong; then I started to see him telling lies and being domineering to you and to me. You were blinded by your love for him, so you didn’t see that what he was doing was wrong.”

“Oh, dear; l, oh, my ... Did he ever do anything to you, Jenny? You know ... anything sexual?”

“Never, Mum. He restricted his nasty activities to outsiders, and acted as a normal respectable college lecturer most of the time.”

“Thank God for that! Not for doing his nasty stuff to other girls; that was unforgivable! I am just glad he never touched you, dear.”

“Not only never touched me; didn’t let any boy near enough to touch me, and damn few girls were allowed into the house once I was out of primary school. He acted as if he was protecting me, but it was all about making a protective ring around him so that his proclivities would not be noticed.”

Georgie intervened to make a suggestion.

“Ladies, as an outsider it appears to me that you, Patricia, should be thinking in terms of a divorce, so you can get access to whatever family money has been salted away by George. Treat this as a suggestion to be considered seriously. Daddy is a solicitor, so he can either help you himself, or find you a good divorce lawyer who can act in your interests in court and give you excellent advice.”

“George can’t keep it for himself, if I divorce him?”

“Not at all, provided it is a family asset, but first you have to identify any such assets he has hidden from you, so your lawyer can tell the court about them and the judge can make an order that gets you at least half. This is what Sandy is working on.”

“I see. Sandy, what will you be able to do, if the money is hidden?”

Sandy raised her eyebrows before answering.

“You don’t really want to know how I work, Patricia. I sometimes have to sort of ... persuade ... people to be helpful and it can skate close to being illegal at times. It is better if you leave it to me to find out what you will need to know in order to get a fair deal out of the divorce settlement. Jenny is an adult, and not a dependent by disability, so she can’t be included in the settlement. She is her own person in the eyes of the law.”

Jenny became suddenly interested in the divorce discussion and asked, “What about the house? Does Mum get it for herself, or does it have to be sold to give Mum and Dad half each of the proceeds?”

Sandy told her, “That is up to the Sheriff who is hearing the divorce petition. At a guess, as George is likely to be in prison for a long time, you are probably going to have the house handed over to you as the wronged spouse. With that benefit going to you, it is improbable that you will get any more than half of any other assets that are found to be in his name. This is all supposition on my part but most Sheriffs in Scotland (the word for judges who preside in a Sheriff Court) try to be fair and give the wife the best deal possible, usually centred on the home if she doesn’t have any earned income to support herself.

Having a spouse in prison makes no difference, except a process server may need to be employed to serve the documentation to him in prison if he wants to contest the petition. If he refuses to accept the service in prison, the Sheriff may dispense with this part of the procedure. I checked with Daddy on this point before I brought it up today.”

Patricia frowned.

“I am confused. Who is this Daddy that both you ladies mentioned? Whose father is he?”

I jumped in to say, “Daddy Thompson is the father of both Sandy and Georgie, and he is also my employer. That’s all you need to know, Patricia.”

“But...”

Jenny intruded, “Listen to what Bob said, Mum. That’s all you need to know; full stop.”

Patricia was unfazed.

“I am just curious; nothing else. There are all these women and girls in this household, and just one man, Bob. What is going on, Jenny?”

“Mum, you are a guest here, tonight. Remember that and don’t ask awkward questions.”

“Awkward? Me?” she spread her hands as if in innocence. “I am not complaining about anything, just wondering about the relationships.”

I glanced at Sandy for approval, and she nodded to me, so I spoke to Jenny’s mother. “Patricia, Jenny, allow me to do the formal introductions. Sandy here is my lawful wedded wife, my abiding love for ever. George here is her big sister, and also my wife, though not legally. Janet is also my wife, though not legally. Carol is also my wife, though not legally. Phyllis is also my wife, though not legally. Yes, Phyllis, we can do the ceremony whenever you want to.

As my wives, they are also the mothers of my children, all seven children and more on the way. I love them all and they have proclaimed their love for me, so everyone is happy. Do you want to spoil our family pattern, or are you okay with accepting us as we are?”

I stared at Patricia, challenging her to raise an objection, but instead she relaxed.

“That explains why they all seem so happy to be here in this house, and they all are at ease with you, Bob. What did you do to attract all these lovely ladies? What is your secret?”

I pointed at Sandy.

“Sandy is my secret, Patricia. She is the one who started this by wanting to help her big sister to be happy again, after an abysmal experience with a former boyfriend, years previously. That led to us meeting Janet, who had her own family problems, and then that in turn led us to Carol, still suffering from being raped at the age of fourteen by a gentleman we all know. Phyllis was a late addition, after we rescued her from an abusive husband who punched and beat her. He then managed to get himself killed by a lorry one dark evening, so we had to comfort Phyllis until she recovered from the shock. She volunteered to join us part-time, and more recently has earned herself a place as a wife.

Now that you know all that anyone needs to know, how do you feel about us?”

Patricia looked around at all my ladies, took another appreciative sip of her percolated coffee and ended by staring at her daughter.

“Damn, Jenny, do you not see? All these women were rescued from men or families that were nasty to them, and through Bob and Sandy have become loved and appreciated ladies once more. What I notice is that you fit in to the same pattern: a father who has not been nice to you or me or other women and girls.”

Jenny sat there, stunned. Her mother had noticed and taken farther what this family had become; then she compared the actions of her own domineering father, the rapist, to the background stories of these women.

She didn’t know what to say, but Sandy had a few words to place into the quietness.

“Jenny, there are many women throughout the world who have backgrounds much as you have heard. Bob doesn’t expect to solve all their problems by marrying them, nor should he. Most will find their own solutions. For years Carol managed to cope by avoiding men entirely for years, getting a job in a female-only profession, and keeping herself to herself, socially. It worked for a while, but Janet observed that she was hiding rather than solving, and suggested to Sandy that Carol could be helped by meeting Bob.

After a variety of social meetings with us girls at the house, Carol eventually agreed to meet Bob in that context, and found that not all men need be humans to be scared of. There are some whom a girl can trust with anything, and she soon found that Bob was one of these trustworthy men. One thing led to another, and Carol found that sex with a man who gave you complete control, instead of the reverse, was what she needed and wanted, and that led to her becoming part of the family. You have seen what Carol has become: a confident businesswoman, wife and mother.”

“Umm...” Jenny was tongue-tied, but her mother wasn’t.

“Jenny, I remember Carol when you first got to know her, and I liked what I saw. What she is now is even better, despite what your father did to her back then. She was more concerned with how you would be affected if she made a formal complaint, rather than with her own situation. That took real bravery on her part.”

“What are you saying, Mum?”

“I am saying that if you want to get to know Carol’s family better, I think it would be a good gesture on your part, and might help you to get over the brow-beating treatment by your father.”

“Oh.”