Chapter 22

Penny was startled, and replied, "No. Why should you think so?"

"It is just that if you were a married woman, I would have thought you had just found out you were pregnant. You have the same dreamy and satisfied look about you."

"Do you think so, Carol? You are very perceptive."

"It comes from being pregnant myself. Don't tell me you got yourself knocked up?" She looked at Penny's expression. "You have! That was careless, Penny."

Penny gave a light carefree laugh. "Nothing careless about it, Carol. It was my own decision."

"Wasn't that a bit stupid, without being married? Are you trying to pressure a boy to marry you, by getting pregnant?"

Penny grasped Carol by the arm, saying, "You are closer to the truth than you have a right to be, but it is not a boy, Carol. It is John Wells."

"The Governor? But he has two wives already. Why would he want to marry you?" She put a hand to her mouth, and rushed to say, "Sorry, that sounds unkind, but what I meant was, why would he want a third wife, a girl who is still a teenager? See what I mean?"

"Ah, yes, I see that. I wasn't offended, Carol. Muriel and Gloria are fine with the idea, but John thinks I need to complete my education before considering marriage – to him or anyone else. He is trying to put me off."

"It didn't stop him having sex with you, did it, Penny?"

"Oh, that was my own desire, Carol. I pressurised him, to give me some experience at making love to a man. Gloria encouraged me, and put me on birth control. Recently I stopped using that, quite deliberately. John knows nothing about it, so far." She grinned.

Carol was still a trifle bemused. "But why now, Penny? Why did you change your mind?"

"A couple of reasons, Carol. One was you. You showed me it was possible to be married and pregnant, and still study for qualifications. The second was another girl, who recently got pregnant. The father of her child asked her to marry him, and his wife was happy for that to happen.

"So all the signs were that I can be married, pregnant, and happy, and still study economics - simple!"

Carol looked at her in amazement. "Penny, I have never met anyone so single-mindedly stupid in my life. You never seem to envisage that anything will get in your way, to prevent things going the way you want. You need to get real, girl."

"How do you mean, Carol?"

"Quite simple, Penny. You have to allow for things NOT going the way you expect! For example, did you expect John Wells to simply say, 'Yes, I will marry you.'?

"Hmm ... I suppose I did, but he put me off, saying I was too young."

"He was right to do so. You are headstrong, and need to rein in your expectations."

"But I am pregnant now, Carol. I can't go back to not being pregnant, and even if I could, I wouldn't want to. I want my baby!"

"Okay, but I would advise you to speak to John's wives before you mention this to John. It will be quite a shock to him."

Penny was thoughtful. "Okay, I'll play it your way, Carol. I have always seen you as a sensible woman."

"That's good, but I wish you had spoken to me first, before you burned your bridges."

"Burned my bridges?"

"Yeah. It is an ancient military saying, where once an army had crossed a river, and burned the bridges they used, they had no way back, and had to go onwards. It became a military necessity to move on, and not look back."

"Oh. I see. I have to go on, having got myself pregnant, don't I?"

"Yes, Penny. Good luck. You are a clever girl academically, so don't mess up your life in other ways."

Getting home to the Governor's mansion late that afternoon, Penny wandered in, a glum look on her face. She met no one at the door, so went searching for Gloria, finding her in the nursery with the children.

"Gloria, can I have a serious talk with you, and some advice?"

"Of course, dear. Did something go wrong at the college?"

"No, not that. It is me."

"Is that so? What about you, then?"

"I decided to go off the birth control, Gloria."

"What? You did that? That was a major step to take, wasn't it, Penny?"

"Yes. And now I'm pregnant, and I don't know if I made a mess of things."

"You're pregnant? My, my. You have made an important decision, Penny. Did you not want to finish your education?"

"No, I want to continue at the college. There's a married girl there, who is pregnant, and she is continuing her studies."

"Oh. And you decided to do the same?"

"Yes. I thought it would be all right. And when Roxanne got pregnant, Hasan married her, with Tracy's approval. I thought the same might happen with me and you, Muriel and John; you see?"

"I do see. Penny, just because things happen in a sequence in one family, it doesn't mean the same sequence will happen in another family. In fact, often you want the opposite to happen, as it did with me and John. My father used to get drunk and hit Mum – Muriel – quite a lot, and he started beating me, too. I can't tell you how nice it is to be married to a man who treats you with respect, all the time! Mum would say exactly the same.

"I tell you this to point out the differences between people, and between families. That is not to say that John won't do as Hasan did, but there is no guarantee he will act the same way. If he feels that you did it to pressure him, he is just as likely to say 'No', and say 'we will take care of the baby while you continue studying as a single woman'."

Penny stared at Gloria, horrified at the possibility.

"He can't do that, Gloria! I love him."

"Do you think that is what he will think if he is presented with you pregnant, and almost demanding him to marry you? To a degree, that is what you are doing, Penny!"

"I didn't mean it that way, Penny! Oh, I am so stupid not to see what I was doing!"

"It is not all set in stone, Penny. You could have an abortion, and go on as you are, if John is very upset."

"But I don't want an abortion! I WANT to have John's baby, whether or not he marries me."

Gloria smiled sympathetically. "Now, that I can understand, Penny. I was keen to have John's baby when we got married, even though he offered to support me through my studies if I wanted. I think it was the competition from Muriel, as she wanted babies again, before she got too old to conceive. I was too young to see that it shouldn't be a competition, and for her it wasn't a competition, just a natural imperative. I see that now, and I have come to support Muriel in her having as many babies as she wants with John. We both love him, surprising as it may seem. I am having babies now, simply because I want to have my children while I am young, and later take up a career in society.

"You have been encouraged to pursue a career BEFORE marriage and babies, but it seems you have decided to have at least one baby now and continue your studies to become an economist. Do I have it right?"

"Yes, Gloria." Penny was subdued, down-hearted, recognising the truth of what Gloria was saying about her. "Thank you for being so understanding. I would love for us to be sister-wives, but I shall have to see what John says, and accept whatever happens as my own fault."

"Well, tell you what, Penny? Do you mind if I speak to John first, and prepare him for your news?"

"Would you do that, Gloria? I would be so grateful; I am terrified now that he may reject me."

"Right. That is decided. Now, you can help me change Robert's nappy – I can smell it from here!"

John sensed a different atmosphere when he got home. Something was different, but he could not tell what. Nothing seemed out of place, except that Penny was not around; probably in her room, studying. He waited for whatever it was; someone would tell him eventually. He headed for his study, to dump his briefcase with all the papers he had brought home to read at leisure.

He was idly flicking through his home emails, looking for some message worth his attention, when the door opened, and Gloria came in and closed the door behind her.

"John, I need to have a quiet discussion with you about a matter that has come up."

"Is it whatever has caused this change in atmosphere around the house?"

"Could be. Penny is pregnant."

"What! The silly bitch! How could she let that happen? I thought she was protected, so that she could get her education finished."

"Yes, John. Unfortunately, she observed certain events and drew her own conclusions, without consulting others. May I explain?"

John sighed, accepting the inevitable. "I might as well listen. Well?"

"She saw that Roxanne got pregnant, and immediately Hasan asked her to marry him."

"So?"

"Then she discovered that one of her fellow students was a married woman, who soon showed that she was pregnant, through having morning sickness."

"So?"

"Penny added up two and two, and made five, John."

"Oh, my God! She decided that the way to get married was to become pregnant, and saw that a pregnant married woman can still be a college student. Is that it?"

"That is the gist of it. She came to me, I am not certain why, but I am glad she did. She asked my advice. I told her that she had gone about things in the wrong way, and that you could not be pushed into marrying her. She wants to have the baby, no matter what, so I promised that we would look after it to let her continue her studies. I pointed out that she could not be sure that you would marry her simply on account of pregnancy, and I think she has accepted that. You are not forced to marry her now, John. You are free to make your own decision, my man."

"And what do YOU think I should do, Gloria?"

"You have my views already, John. I will accept her as a fellow wife, now or later."

"And Muriel? What about her?"

"I haven't told her yet, but I think she will follow my lead in this matter. As long as she feels she is in charge of running the family, she will go along with whatever you decide about Penny."

"I see. Muriel runs the family, but you make the decisions."

"No, John. YOU make the decisions. I merely advise my loving husband."

"Then what do you advise your loving husband to do about our errant Penny?"

"I think you should give her a fright for making assumptions, then marry her and welcome her into the family."

"I said I would wait until I found I loved her, but this episode..."

Gloria took over his sentence.

" ... shows that you are an understanding and loving man, able to forgive your young wife-to-be her one and only failure. Promise her that she gets no more chances to fail you, or that will end matters for her. She will agree to behave from now on, I assure you. I will see to it, John."

"All right, my love. You have convinced me. How do you think I should deal with her?"

"Come over as the big bad wolf. She will knuckle under to any demands, then accept her, but with strings."

"Penny! Come here, wherever you are!" Shouted John from the door of his study. There was some mutterings throughout the house, as the demand was being passed on. John was upset about something, it seemed.

Gloria had left his study and was climbing the stairs towards the bedrooms when Penny appeared at the top of the stairs. She gave a frightened stare at Gloria, who shrugged. "I've done what I can, Penny. It is up to you, girl."

Penny rushed down the stairs and over to where John was standing at his study door. "Inside, Penny!" he ordered, standing aside for her.

She sidled in, apprehensive, and he closed the door. He looked her over, steely-eyed, and demanded, "Sit." He pointed at the chair.