Chapter 1

Moving the family around had become awkward. With five wives, two ... well, mistresses one should perhaps call them, and eight children, going on a family trip had become like planning a major expedition. Then there was his pregnant more-or-less wife Jessica plus her teenage daughter Sidra, and Sidra’s teenage friend Elizabeth who was almost another daughter to the family; the numbers were stacking up.

The profitable business activities of the company had to be put on hold as far as was practicable; all the young children needed to have supplies prepared for nappy changing, breast or bottle feeding during the rail journey; and changes of clothes packed in case of accidents such as a baby throwing up not just on itself, but on its mother or father.

As there was no guarantee that food would be supplied from the transportation system, packed picnic baskets would also be part of the stores, apart from medical and other ancillary items.

This led to a stack of suitcases bags and baskets holding everything from clothes and toiletries to cream for nappy rash, baby powder, teething gel, and so on, and medical supplies for the adults; ranging from migraine treatments to creams for this and that, and blow-up rings for the recovering recent mothers to sit on; it was surprising how long it takes for a vagina to heal from childbirth, stitches or no stitches. The addition of these few soft rings added bulk but not weight.

It was a complicated task, packing for such an extended family.

With the LeBrun twins now married, there was no concern over leaving them alone, and Mr LeBrun would arrange for one of his staff to call round to the building every couple of days to check all was fine, despite the known competence of the twins, his own nieces. Frances was sure it was really for her father’s own peace of mind.

Booking a small bus as a taxi to whatever rail station they fixed on for the family was fairly straightforward, but buying rail tickets for the group meant making a block booking of seats on a train. Have you ever tried to book a dozen seats as a block of consecutive seating, allowing space for nappy changing and so on for a flock of babies, without causing blockages in the passageway? The train operator doesn’t like the idea.

It is almost impossible unless you book weeks in advance, and how many people are going to know their movements weeks in advance, unless they are going to a conference, pop concert or some such pre-arranged event? Even business meetings seldom have advance warning of more than a few days; and none of these examples include babies. Reginald knew it was not going to be easy, so he was prepared to make concessions on which train on which timetable they used, and from which station, and how many changes en route. Changing trains would be a real nuisance, so the rail company’s helpfulness would be the deciding factor.

It was all the fault, if you could call it that, of his mistresses: the Robson sisters.

Hermione and Jemima had begged Reginald for a trip back to Scarborough to visit their parents at the farm and show off their babies. They did not want to go without Reg to back them up in that visit.

They had informed their parents over a year ago that as well as doing well at the Robertson family, they had secured jobs with a new company, Recovery Enterprise Group, and were earning quite good money there. They had not informed their parents of their surprise pregnancies, and thereafter the births of their babies. That negative decision was deliberate, so as not to cause any angst for their mother and father.

The girls were quite happy with their babies, but didn’t want their parents rushing down the coast to see their grandchildren. For a start, the Robertson building was awash with the noise of babies and young children, and these were not the best surroundings for such an emotional reunion.

The building had been renamed Robertson Heights once Mr LeBrun, Frances’ father, had donated it to the family, and Reginald was quite proud of this new appellation for their home.

However, after a few months, with their babies now more settled in the communal nursery, the Robson sisters felt on top of their jobs and happy in the family, and began to feel guilty about depriving the parents in Yorkshire from meeting their grandchildren.

The girls worked out how to break the news over the phone. The story they concocted was that the two of them had gone on a night out and had unwisely partaken of some offered ‘highs’ that were promised to make them feel good. The trouble with these illegal pills was that they sometimes left you unconscious for hours afterwards, and only much later did they discover that their unconscious state had been taken advantage of. They found themselves pregnant with no way of identifying the culprit or culprits; at least that was the tale that they agreed on.

The girls told their mother and father an extra story of how Reginald and his family, going beyond the earlier promise they had made to the farmer and his wife, had offered all the help they needed, both during their pregnancies and afterwards, treating this as a perk of the job. Reginald had even offered the girls the use of his surname for their children. The way he put it, “What’s another two among so many others here?” made them accept gratefully, to avoid the children’s names and birth certificates indicating unknown paternity.

They had felt so guilty, they claimed, at what had happened that they dared not tell their parents about this lamentable episode, but now after a long period of reflection and recovery, they felt that the healthy babies ought to be viewed by their grandparents. When Reginald heard about their plans to visit their parents, he decided that his own family deserved a holiday at Scarborough, and all his ladies had agreed to this suggestion, so they would all go on the trip.

That was the cover story, and all agreed to stick to that scenario.

It fitted together so well, that Reginald’s ladies proposed the Robson grandparents as honorary grandparents to their own children. This brought smiles to Hermione and Jemima, when they had made this tentative call to their parents, for the Robsons felt honoured by the idea. Their opinion of Reginald was that he was a nice boy who had been good for their girls, getting them straightened out and arranging jobs for them, even helping them in their hour of need.

The smiles on Hermione and Jemima became even wider later on, when Frances suggested, “Reg, while we are visiting the Robsons, why don’t you suggest to them that their Hermione and Jemima might join our Commitment, and effectively become part of the Robertson family? Put it, that it would enable the girls to each call themselves Mrs Robertson, and that would then make the presence of a baby less intrusive or obstructive in their working and social lives. The babies already share our nursery, so it would not be an imposition on us.”

The two Robson girls looked at each other, and a grinning Hermione proposed to Frances, “So that would mean it would be perfectly normal for us to officially have more of Reg’s children in the future? - sorry; I must make sure not to say ‘more’ if I am talking to my Mum. She is too sharp not to notice.”

Frances viewed Hermione with pretended exasperation. “Dammit! More kids? I knew there was a catch somewhere,” then giggled, spoiling her pretended annoyance. She looked at Hermione’s grinning face. “Why did you have to turn into such a nice person, Hermione?”

“Not my doing, Frances. It was all the fault of Reginald and you girls in setting us straight. That was the first step, on the way to now.

I just loved the way Reginald finally fucked us both, that first time; he was so masterful. I suppose it was weird in some way, but it all seemed so natural and logical at the time. I had already mentally prepared myself for becoming part of his harem, but I was not sure what Jemima’s feelings were; that was a surprise when she so willingly accepted Reginald’s advances.

It shouldn’t have been, for she was slowly coming out from under my influence and going her own way. The fact that her own way was being fixated on Reginald; that was what threw me. It was so unexpected.”

Frances admitted, “As I told you later, blame me for that imposition of sex. I set it up and got Reginald to strip you and fuck you. You were mesmerised by him, I could see that, but I wanted to be in control. It was like setting my brand of ownership on you girls, for you were wildcards in our household; the only ones there not of your own volition, and I subconsciously wanted to get you committed to staying.

In truth, I did not fully understand what I was doing. I was exerting control, as Reg’s Chief Wife, and I shouldn’t have behaved like that. That was what I was actually doing, but not admitting it even to myself at the time.

As I said, I shouldn’t have done that, and I apologise, but in retrospect, it was what you girls wanted to happen, or something like it. You were jealous of what we had with Reg, when you and Jemima seemed never to have a man of your own who you could lean on when you wanted male support.”

She continued, “The personal braggadocio you exhibited when we first met you was a front for your own insecurity, and you had taken that pretence and imposed it on Jemima, making her your junior follower, thus additionally hiding your doubts about yourself. Now that you are a woman with responsibilities, both at work and at home, you have settled in, accepted your new position with its attendant security, and are enjoying life. Am I right?”

Hermione gave her a beaming smile. “You are always right, Frances, in what you see in people, and how you plan for the family in the long run. I am very happy to be part of this family unit, and if we could make it more formal, that would be even better.

If you can manage to raise it with Mum and Dad, Frances, it will appear to be all your own doing. Don’t involve Reg in bringing it up: make it appear to be a surprise to him too.”

Reginald was still having trouble getting a block booking. Train operators had their rules and regulations, including track time, and every customer had to be fitted into these parameters. The person on the other end of the phone said, in exasperation, “Sir, the number you want as a block booking is a problem in the short term. Booking several weeks ahead is easier. However, if you wanted to book an entire carriage, we could do a deal, for it would simply mean adding an extra carriage on the train, but with no attendance by our staff. Some rail companies offer luxury carriages for very rich people, with full staffing, but our company doesn’t have that option for normal travellers. Even if you could afford that, we would have to hire one of these carriages and staff from another company: damned awkward for a booking like yours, which is neither a small group for booking weeks ahead nor a preplanned conference booking.

If you are willing to take an entire carriage, you would be entirely on your own; that is why we can make it a good deal for you. You would have to see to your own food and drink arrangements. The best we can do is include a microwave oven for you to heat supermarket-bought ready meals, and we can provide with our compliments a large pack of soft drinks for the adults; no alcohol. For our benefit, there would be no problems of clashes with other seat bookings, you see.”

“So, how much more for booking an entire carriage?”

The other consulted some records and came back to the phone to say, “Actually, to book an entire carriage without any staff presence would be only about fifty percent more than the numbers-based party booking we were talking about before. There would be another imposition on you, of you want this deal. The carriage can only be added at certain stations suited to the link, for there are operational problems with need to have a shunting engine available to shunt your carriage for attachment to the train, but this means the main part of the train does not need to be moved, and so normal passengers can come and go. From your location, I think this will have to be at Luton, and if you want minimal changes, it probably means an overnight trip with a long stop at either Leeds or Sheffield.”

Reginald let out the breath that he had been holding. “I can live with that, if the connecting door can be locked; as it will mean we can do things in our carriage that would be awkward otherwise.” Before the man on the other end of the line could say anything about that startling statement, he added. “I am talking about the ladies changing nappies on babies, and breast feeding, and getting some sleep while stopped. We would have no-one coming through the carriage, which will suit us. Of course, our carriage would have to be the last on the train, to achieve that isolation.”

“As an extra carriage, it would be normal to have it at the end of the train, sir, and nowhere else,” the booking clerk assured Reg, “So can I make that booking now? I need to make a confirmed and paid-for booking ahead to get that carriage added.”

“Go ahead,” said Reginald. “Here’s my card details:” and read off the number, plus the security code from the back. The booking clerk was pathetically grateful on the phone.

Concluding the call, Reginald closed his phone, still finding it unusual to have a mobile phone of his own in his pocket.

From over his shoulder, Frances asked, “Have you managed to make a booking for us on the train, darling?”

He turned, and was presented with one of his sons. Frances instructed, “Hold Jimmy for a while until he falls asleep. He is full, and I am empty.” As soon as the child was transferred, she fastened her dangling nursing brassiere. Once his son was in his arms, Reginald told her, “I ended up having to book an entire carriage for us, but it cost no more than I expected for a special booking for us, and it is not often we have a family break like this, so I agreed the price. We get free fruit juices and a microwave oven, but we have to bring our own food to heat up.”

Frances smiled sweetly. “That is what I like to see: my Reginald happy to spend some of his money. The date we decided on?”

“Yes. They will add our carriage to the end of the train at Luton, so we can have complete privacy on our overnight trip.”

She chuckled, “Cheeky blighter! But I know you meant for the babies, not for extra sex. You get enough of that as it is, my man, even allowing for those who are still healing.” Her voice sobered, “Actually, it will be a great help to have a carriage to ourselves. I trust we also have a toilet in the carriage? We still have to go fairly frequently, including Jessica now: she is getting big in front. The cost was not too much, I hope, dear?”

He continued to rock Jimmy gently and lovingly, and the little boy’s eyes closed. “No, just fifty per cent more than I was quoted for a standard party booking for eleven minimum. That was worth it for what we will get, and all the carriages have a toilet at one end; some have one at each end, depending on the seating numbers. I made sure of that.”

He was indeed aware of how often his ladies still needed to relieve themselves. It had begun as soon as their expanding wombs started pressing on their bladders, and would continue for a while yet as their bodies slowly returned to normal.

“With all that space in the carriage, Sidra and Elizabeth can come along with Jessica. The Sadafs liked Scarborough last time, except for their holiday being cut short by my ‘accident’.

Frances nodded her agreement, but had most of her attention on her son.

“Oh, look, Jimmy has drifted off. He likes his daddy holding him. Keep rocking him for a minute or two more, dear, then we can get him to his cot. He will be out for a couple of hours. That will give me some time to get back to my studies. I am amazed how easily I can fit in studying while looking after our boy.”

Reginald told her, “Planning your life properly makes it simpler, Frances, and you are good at that. I have just thought of something else in that respect: our babysitter. If we have an entire carriage, we could take her along as well, assuming she has no other plans for the weekend. That would free you girls for more time to explore Scarborough, or even some sunbathing time on the beach if the weather allows it.”

Frances waved his concerns away. “Leave me to deal with her, Reginald. I think I can swing it. She can’t have her boyfriend along, though, even if we have plenty of space. We don’t want her having sex in our hearing when most of are still having to refrain from that pleasure! With Jessica so far along, I think Fiona is the only one cleared to have sex; lucky girl.”

Reginald was perfectly willing to accept that each mother after childbirth was off limits for up to two months, so he was pleased that Fiona was again available to him. When they got into bed that night, she told him that she was ready to start work on her second child. Startled, he asked her, “Are you certain, Fiona? There is no obligation on you to have more children, my dear. I am not short of offspring, you know!”

Fiona told him, “Reginald, I find that I am happy to be part of your life, and I couldn’t ask for a better man to be my children’s father. With the communal nursery available to us, looking after my child is a doddle. Remember, I am years older than the others. I know what I am doing: give me another baby, please!”

Reg did his best to oblige, and by the time Frances arrived to join them, he was sated. Frances commented, looking at a smilingly satisfied Fiona lying beside a tired Reginald, “I suspect we are going to have a large family, Reg, if Fiona’s enthusiasm is anything to go by. I will check with the other girls, but I am fairly certain that they all want a second baby, once their bodies are ready for it. They were especially pleased that their babies all are beautiful; there was some trepidation that plainness would run in the family, but they were wrong, or perhaps your genes are the dominant ones. Recent studies suggest that more DNA from the father affects the child.”

Frances told herself not to lecture anyone, and switched to domesticity.

“Having a babysitter to help with our children, and the nursery, makes it easy to concentrate on our studies during university semesters. Helping out with the business is no great problem either. My Mum says she wants a turn at looking after our children, though I have put her off so far, in the nicest possible way. I want our kids to bond with us and with you, before we introduce a bunch of grandmothers wanting to take over our babies with lashings of love.”

Reginald asked, “Are the twins doing what we suggested, and treating their new husbands joining them as an excuse for a honeymoon at home? With us being away, they will have the run of the house and no workload requirement to prevent them having fun with their men.”

Frances expressed her satisfaction. “They are. The men recognised it was a cheap option while getting to know not just their new wives but their new residences with us. Once we are away, they can lock the door and learn what being married is all about. It is not just sex; it is learning to live together amicably as a family unit, which is not always easy.”

“True. We ourselves may not be legally married, but we have our Commitment as the next best thing.”

“Yes. I view it as a life-long contract with the man we love.” Frances pressed herself closely against Reginald, stimulating him in his pants. She grinned at this result, commenting, “A couple of weeks yet, Reg, before I can do anything with that beast, but meanwhile, if Jimmy does not drain me every time, I may allow you to suck some of my milk in compensation.”

“I shall look forward to that, Frances. Some of the others have also offered that sweet option, but the children’s needs should always come first.”

Frances informed him, “I forgot to tell you, Reg, that the latest business request for our help has been successfully put on hold. I got Hermione to claim that there was a Health and Safety issue at our offices, and all our active staff have been instructed to stay at home while the matter is sorted. I gave a snide remark to the client about asbestos being a nuisance without actually saying that asbestos was the problem, so if they took that meaning, it is not my fault!”

Reginald was perennially worried about telling lies to clients. He wanted to establish a reputation for always telling clients the truth, no matter how unpalatable.

“I hope you did not clarify in that way what you meant by a Health and Safety issue?”

Frances quickly reassured him, “Naturally; I have learned from you to be quite specific in my wording, and nowhere did I claim that we had a problem. As far as the law is concerned, our staff require to have holiday breaks as full-time staff to comply with employment law.

The way I view it, taking a short holiday break is for our health; therefore it is a Health and Safety matter, Q.E.D.[editor: quod erat demonstrandum (that which is to be demonstrated)] Any remark I may have made about asbestos – I think I said that asbestos can be a terrible problem if found in a building – is perfectly true. It just doesn’t happen to affect us at this time.”

Reginald laughed. “Perfect! True statements, but completely misleading at the same time. Just what I would expect to hear from you, Frances my love. Does the enquiry look interesting?”

“I think you would say so. It is a national charity organisation. They have been told by an anonymous whistle-blower that someone is stealing from them. Their problem is that the whistle-blower refuses to be specific, for he (or she) works in the same department as the unidentified thief and doesn’t want to be revealed until the culprit has been arrested. The leaker is afraid that the thief will try to blame the whole staff of the department if he gets wind of this investigation. No name has been offered for the thief. All we know from the information is that the whistle-blower called the thief ‘he’, so logically the thief is male.”

“I see the problem, and it is tricky to investigate with such extremely limited data. No wonder the charity has come to us for help.

I expect we can pretend to be auditing the charity and claim we are looking at every department that deals with finance to prove that all is being done in accordance with auditing’s legal requirements. That is no real threat to the thief as a proposition, for auditors look at processes, not amounts. That is why some companies were given the all-clear at their annual audit, yet collapsed months later with huge debts. Their processes were not at fault, just the figures were abyssmal!

We must narrow down the department involved. I would be inclined to the view that it is either their finance department dealing with recording expenditure, or the fund-raising side diverting donations before they get recorded as arriving. Most of the spending departments will be closely monitored because of the P.R. aspects of their task, but they only authorise the spending, while the finance department sees to the actual transfer of cash.

That is why I tend to think of finance hosting the culprit, where there is expertise in manipulating money. Think of some recent examples, where expenditure was being channelled through another organisation to disguise the expense from the auditors. If the cash can be claimed to be payments to another organisation for named services, it can legally vanish into the coffers of the other organisation, and be lost among other accounts there, if the finance department of that organisation has been previously suborned.”

Frances saw Reg was in his lecturing mode, and let it proceed to its natural end. She had seen this trait before and viewed it with equanimity. It might be a nuisance today, but at other times it can be helpful in seeing through to a solution.

“The trick is to make the money disappear as apparently legitimate payments to a known organisation outside the charitable body, so that there is no obvious indication of theft, even though the cash was clearly removed from the system. It is like your statement to our own waiting client: What you said was true, but the full facts were not as might naturally be assumed by those hearing your statements. They had expectations of a confession as to the problem, and took your words to allude to that admission.

Unless someone was carefully watching payments to an outside body, it will seem perfectly normal. All it needs is for the payments to be made for a slightly vague purpose that the outside body has a remit for, and a record of authorisation in the files to bolster the payment. Many officers in a busy charitable body will quite normally be presented with a pile of authorisation slips to be signed for the audit trail. If the slip appears familiar in who the payment is to, it will be signed without another thought, and be consigned to the files, where it becomes the authorisation for any future sum passed to the same organisation under a similar guise. The difference will be in the bank details of the receiver. It will be an account under an almost identical name to that of the genuine organisation, who of course know nothing of the payments and so will not miss them.”

“How do you know all that, Reg?” Frances urged him, to get him to finish.

“A lot of time spent reading annual reports of charities and companies, and watching programmes about fraud. These documentaries often tell you how the fraudster made his fraud work, and the reports admit things in passing that they would not normally talk about. It would astonish you how many people receive these annual reports and never read them, for they seem dry and boring – which they are intended to be!”

To Frances’ dismay, he moved further on in his lecture.

“Take the motions for an AGM: there is usually one for ‘reappointment of auditors’, and that gets passed without comment or query. That is stupid, for if the auditors missed something last year, they will probably miss it next year as well. A newly appointed auditor will be more assiduous to the task, and be more likely to find such errors in procedure.”

Frances tried to get him back on track.

“So while we have put them on hold, we say we think there is a possibility of a successful resolution of the case?”

“Go with that, Frances. Collect as much data from them as you can about the operation and how they run things. There may be clues in the detail. And remind them of our scale of charges.”

“Huh! That was the first thing I told them, so they couldn’t say they weren’t told, later; it is recorded with the rest of the call. They blinked, thought about it, then recognised that they were not being ripped off. They will wait for us, and collect more data for us to work from. Everyone seems to imagine you have to be present to do your investigation, when what we work from is the accumulation of facts. It takes a lot of time analysing these facts to get to the truth, but the clients never seem to be able to devote enough clever people to work on the available facts. We do. However, I suppose they simply don’t recognise which facts are the pertinent ones. We have learned what to look for.”

Reg was sanguine about this. “Given a choice, most people and leaders in companies and organizations will take the easy route to solving a problem. In many cases, the easy route is to employ a consultant ‘who knows about these things’, or a company like ours that specialises in such tasks. Consultants are expensive and still leave the company to finally deal with the problem that is identified, whereas we do everything except nabbing the culprit. That is more satisfactory for the organisation employing us, as you know, Frances, for they can claim the honour of stopping the thief and having him arrested.”

“Yes. Thank goodness we don’t have to go through all the whys and wherefores. We just demand that they give us the facts, answer our questions, and let us get on with the job. That makes it easier for us as well.”

Reginald wanted to know, “Does everyone have their diary cleared for the holiday plan? Anything I need to help with?”

“Reginald my love, if we need you, we will let you know. Most times we would rather you stayed out of the way while we women sort things out. You are a loving and generous man, but thank goodness you understand that there are times you should simply do as we tell you. This is one of them. You sort out the travel arrangements and we will do the rest, darling.”

“I take it you have notified all the parents that we will be away?”

“Yes, dear, so shut up. I have just told you we would sort out these matters; including informing your mother in case she gets into a paddy and rings up for help when we are away. The others are just getting on with their lives. Daddy gets a surprise from time to time, when one or more of our finds finally makes some money for him when it finds a buyer.

That drug baron could have been a rich man if he had stuck to collecting antiquities and selling them later. Daddy – and us too – we are all gaining the benefit, for Daddy still insists on giving us a cut each time.”

Reginald was grateful but not excessively so, and said plaintively, “My own finds with the metal detector were significant for our family fortunes as well, Frances.”