Chapter 17

“All the more reason for not getting pregnant, Flora. Looking after a child is a life-long commitment. They say that a puppy is not just for Christmas; well a baby is for life, if you intend to nurture it. Why do you think your Dad is still looking after you at the age of eighteen? You are his babies that he loves, that is why. Eighteen years of looking after you as a father, and he still feels responsible for your well-being. That is parental love, girls. That is fatherhood. Mothers should be no less, and in fact more mothers end up looking after the children than the men.”

“Have you finished, Jimmy?” asked Lily politely. “We didn’t ask for a sermon, you know. We are big girls and can work out what we want and pursue that target, knowing the practicalities and possibilities involved.”

“Sorry, Lily. I did not intend it to appear as a sermon or lecture. I am concerned for your welfare, and want you to make good decisions about your future. Am I not allowed to offer advice in that spirit?”

Lily smiled gleefully as she replied, “Why should you be so concerned for our welfare, Jimmy? You are no relation to us, have no responsibility for us.” Pause. “It is almost as if you love us, the way you are trying to protect us from ourselves.”

Charlotte’s voice came from the kitchen door, “What is this about love, Lily? I missed whatever you were talking about, but I heard that accusation of Jimmy loving you, not that it is hard to love you girls.”

Lily backtracked a little.

“I was just referring to how Jimmy tries to protect us from ourselves, warning about sex and its consequences. He sounded like my father in a way.”

Charlotte chuckled, “God, he doesn’t look on you like a father, Lily! Not at all! The poor man is trying not to fall in love with you two. He is besotted. He was quick to fall in love with us, his wives, despite our past reputation as sluts, so to fall in love with a couple of well-behaved, well-brought-up girls is so much easier.

I am continually surprised he was not married long ago, for he was always good husband material for any girl wanting to move up in the world. He claims it was his long-term plan to not get involved with a woman until he was in a position, financially, to look after her and their future offspring, but I think he was being too picky and no single woman he met measured up to the standards he sought.

He was then faced with us, a wild unpredictable trio, naked with him for weeks on end while he tried to train us, and his experience with us forced him to review his standards compared to our starting level, then he had to bring us up to what he regarded as an appropriate standard for him, before he finally was able to fall for us.

With you girls, he is revising his standards upwards even further, in an attempt to put you at a level that he wouldn’t expect to be able to match.

He is most likely solidly in love with you, but doing his damnedest to avoid getting involved and doing something about it. Thus his efforts to get you to elevate yourselves beyond his reach.”

Flora said, wonderingly, “You mean, he loves us as he loves you, but is afraid to do anything about it in case we reciprocate? Despite us being naked in front of him all the time, and doing our best to attract his attention, man to woman?”

“That’s it, Flora. In the end, it will be up to you as to whether you go off again, unsullied, back to your father and home; or take on the task of being more wives to him.” She paused before continuing, “And based on how he dealt with us, pregnancy is to be expected if you respond positively to his love.”

“Oh, my God!” Lily almost exploded. “If we wanted, we can just ask him to fuck us and make us his wives and give us his babies? Is that truly what you just said?”

“Well, that is the only way to become his wives, as none of us want him to have a single legal wife. All his wives have equal status in his eyes - our eyes as well, for we are now a team - and as long as you can put up with being a wife in every way except a marriage certificate, you are welcome to join us in that endeavour. That is what the three of us wives have decided. Jimmy didn’t get a vote by the way, poor sod.”

I stood there, mouth agape, stunned by this revelation. I was being farmed out, without any say in the matter. As I stood there, mind churning, Charlotte came over and hugged me.

“Jimmy, don’t resist. They are as old as I was when I accepted you as my husband. What has changed, apart from them being from another family? Think about it, you numbskull. You love them, and if they want to love you back, just accept that as the best for you and all of us.

At worst, or best, you end up with five wives and more children than you could shake a stick at, but you are quite capable of making them happy women, much happier than they were at home with an alcoholic mother and a predatory uncle.”

All I could do was stammer, “But ... but...”

“But nothing, my darling man. Putting up with love is never a problem, especially if you are a man. I recall a story from the medieval erotic classic, Boccaccio’s ‘The Decameron’, of a man who pretends to be dumb and gets a job as caretaker at a small nunnery. One by one all the nuns take advantage of a man they think is unable to tell the mother superior about it and get him to fuck them for their pleasure, until the Mother Superior does the same. He rebels and complains volubly that he doesn’t know if he is coming or going with their demands, when even the mother superior makes use of him. His life is described as like a cockerel having to serve a whole flock of hens. The women, seeing him with his speech recovered, reassess him as now being able to speak, proclaim it to be a miracle, then organise a rota system to reduce their demands on him, and it settles down. By the time he is ready to retire, he has fathered many children and kept all the nuns contented over many years.

What we are suggesting is that you, Jimmy, should be able to satisfy five wives, and we will hope to have enough children to make us all happy and contented as mothers, as long as you lovingly commit to us for life as our husband and their father. You will do that, won’t you, Jimmy?”

She gave me only a second to think, then went on, “You have already committed to three, so why not to five?”

I sighed ostentatiously then said, “Well, perhaps it is possible, but I can’t instigate any such action. It must be only if Lily and Flora ask me to be their husband; nothing less is acceptable. It must be their own decision, and not any pressure at all from me.”

Lily grabbed me and planted another kiss on me, before stepping aside and watching Flora do the same.

Flora ended by saying, “So you will make love to us today? From what Charlotte and the others tell us, it is worth it; well worth it.”

I challenged her, “Even if we start a baby in you?”

She stared me in the face, and challenged, “What is a husband for, if not to make babies with?”

“Cart before horse, Flora!” Charlotte told her. “You have to ask him to marry you, without benefit of a legal wedding. Tell him that, or no lovemaking, girl.”

“Very well. Jimmy Hargreaves, will you marry me, knowing we cannot do it in a legal manner? I want you as my husband, any way I can have you.”

I replied, cautiously, “Flora Yeats, I will accept your proposal of marriage without benefit of a legal ceremony.”

Lily pushed her aside to ask, “Jimmy Hargreaves, will you take me as your wife, without a legal marriage ceremony?”

“Yes, Lily Yeats, I will accept your proposal of marriage on the terms you state.”

Immediately thereafter I had both twins in my arms, cuddled tight against me and in tears of happiness. I was intensely conscious of four breasts pressing in to me and my hard penis protruding between them.

We were still in the same position when Cherry and Sharlene walked in, rubbing sleep from their eyes.

“What’s going on, Jimmy? Why are you cuddling the twins so close?” demanded Cherry. Sharl had a knowing smile on her face, so I suspected the twins had been coached by her.

I admitted, “These two Yeats hellions have asked to be my wives, Sharlene and Cherry. Can you believe it?”

Sharlene calmly accused Lily and Flora, “What took you so long, girls?” while Cherry burst into tears herself.

“Oh, how lovely! Lily and Flora; we get you for ever! Girls, you did the right thing, for he would never dream of asking you himself, in case he upsets us. Our man is such an upright guy that he hates to impose himself on others, except of course, where such a measure is required by their own stupid actions; a story I can tell you about some time in the future.”

Despite their definitive request to become wives, I did not take them to bed that night. I wanted to examine all the ramifications of the decision before embarking on that irrevocable event. What would their father think? Who would tell him? When would he be told? What about their alcoholic mother? How would this affect my working relationship with Chairman Yeats? I needed to discuss all this and more with Sharl, Cherry and Charlotte. On this special occasion I required their womanly advice.

I explained to Lily and Flora that before I took their virginity I had to talk it over with my wives, for there necessarily would be changes in our family from now on. They agreed to wait, provided I kissed them well, in a husbandly way, whatever they meant by that.

They showed me how they wanted to be kissed. Wow! Skin-to-skin all over, sort of body kissing, basically.

My discussions and deliberations lasted most of Sunday, and I again reluctantly put off the twins.

My wives advised no precipitate action on my part, but to leave it to the twins to break it to their father that they had decided to join my family; and they suggested using these words, thus not overtly implying sexual congress and all that was involved; just ‘joining’ our family group. They also suggested getting the twins’ collection of clothes transferred to our house beforehand, so that their wardrobes were with them by the time the news was revealed to their parents. They also told me not to mention anything about the new wives to Daddy Emerson.

Sharl said to me, “Daddy doesn’t need to know anything about it for now, and probably not at all unless the Chairman asks him about it. If Daddy brings it up at work, you can simply say you left it to us, as his daughters, to make him aware of the surprising changes being imposed on you.”

That sounded like good practical wisdom to me.

I spotted a move I could make on Monday as a diversion. Needing comparable sales data, I wanted to visit another company in our group so that I could look into their sales advertising costs per ad using various media. It would take me out of reach of both fathers for most of the day, and if I could spin it out, for another day as well. I had no idea how long the twins wanted to wait before informing their father. Then there was whether their father would turn up at my house unexpectedly, seeking to take them away. We would need to have for all of us a set of quick-dress clothes handy for such an eventuality.

After a slightly restless Sunday night, I got up as early as I could manage and prepared for a quick entry and exit from the office before Mr Emerson got in. I left my women an apologetic note about abandoning them to make breakfast by themselves.

Getting in before most of the staff, my almost immediate departure went without a hitch, and in my rush I deliberately ‘forgot’ to mention which company I was visiting, so that I would not be chased to come back. I had a ride across town and out to the company I wanted to check out. I parked and found I was arriving just as most of the staff were getting in. With my company identity card for security purposes I was able to assure the reception personnel of my identity and bona fides.

I was directed to the sales department and told Charles French, the head honcho there, that my need for data was for comparison purposes only.

“I am not investigating how you work, sir. I am currently checking over all aspects of our own company and the sales figures there are not clear enough for my needs. I am hoping your sales records will be more explanatory for me to get a handle on how each type of media works for you as an advertising channel. I expect to find a similar performance record in both companies.”

“Oh, yes. I see what you mean. I do an annual check of our sales performance figures as relating to each type of media. We do an annual survey of online customers, asking which form of advertising directed them to our website. Some of them find us quite simply by an online search, but many find our details elsewhere and so come to our website. One of the options is word of mouth, so we cannot tell from that what the person suggesting us started from, but most of the others are very specific as to source.”

“That sounds most useful, sir. Do you have similar survey results going back several years?”

“Yes. We have them for the last five years on computer data files, but prior to that, it is all paper records.”

“That is fine, sir. If I can work with the digital figures today, I can come back tomorrow to look over the paper files. Is it your impression that the data does not change much; unless new products have been introduced?”

“More or less, going from memory. I scan our sales data in hopes of finding improving results every year, but you get minor glitches relating to external events which can affect demand for our products. Even extreme weather can have its effect, so sales in that part of the country can have a sudden temporary slump. You can usually spot the correlation and allow for it in the reporting.”

I accepted this, and was directed to the computer-literate employee who could best call up the data for my perusal.

My examination showed that Mr French’s estimation was pretty well on the ball. I was able to get the computer guy to turn some of the figures into graphs and tables for each year, and later for a year by year comparison, all as printouts for easy examination. This was completed by lunchtime, so I took French out for lunch at a restaurant he recommended, a small Italian bistro attached to a local hotel owned by the same family. The hotel kitchen staff doubled for the bistro, so the bistro got high quality hotel food. The meal was excellent, so I obtained a card for the restaurant to put in my wallet for later use in a family outing – with clothes on, of course – sometime soon.

In the afternoon, it was a case of dig through filing cabinets for old paper files, looking for similar data. Finding the reports was less easy than I expected, as some had been placed by the filing clerk under Accounts, and others with Advertising, but I at last located what I wanted. It was unfortunately not consistently presented, so I had to do some calculations of my own to make the information match up with the more efficiently organised digital records. That took a lot more time, so I also asked for photocopies of the printed records for double checking my workings when I was back in my own office.

By late afternoon my eyes were objecting to the close working with pen and paper despite the help that the calculater in my mobile phone gave me. I confess I still preferred the older digital desk calculators, through their ease of use. I thanked Mr French for his help, and said that as and when I got sent to check his company I would have a head start thanks to his invaluable assistance.

“Glad to help, Mr Hargreaves,” he told me with a smile, and I could see he meant it. He was not simply going through the motions. He clearly had nothing he wished to hide.

Thus I was back at the office the same day, much sooner than hoped for, but just in time to sign out and go home. All I had to do tomorrow was check my calculations, then combine the paper data with the digital data and see what it told me.

I was glad to be back to my harem of females. The ladies, or as I still thought of them, my girls, rushed to welcome me in all their naked glory as soon as I had let myself inside the house. This time they lined up formally to do so, which was a new departure: Sharl, then Cherry, then Charlotte all kissed me and teased my trousered pecker. They were followed by Lily and Flora who did exactly the same thing. I expressed my surprise.

“To what do I owe this honour, my dear wives?”

Sharl took the lead as team leader; the eldest but no longer the tyrant in charge.

“Darling, we made a decision today that as soon as Lily and Flora get their wardrobe collection delivered here, your other wives want to go shopping for more clothes. We don’t have very many, even though what we have doesn’t get much wear these days!”