Chapter 25

“No. I have concentrated on her recent experience and the medical aspects of it; physical and mental. Her background is best brought out naturally as she feels more comfortable with talking of it. When do you expect to be able to see her?”

“It has been suggested that I might look at Jenny from outside one of the rooms, while she is talking with the others and not looking towards the door. That way I will see her and know what she looks like for the future. I gather that she is pretty skinny at the moment.”

“And likely to stay that way until she is eating better. We treated her medically for the rape, so that there is no chance of her getting pregnant as a result. I have assured her that she is safe in that regard. Her recovery is likely to take months of careful tenderness. When she will feel safe to look on another man such as yourself, is problematic; there are so many variables in recovery from a vicious rape. You must give her time. You are the one who should be secluded, not her, you will appreciate.”

“Yeah, I know. Sharl made that clear. I would love to be able to give her a reassuring hug, but that is not to be for now.”

“This is the main reason for me seeing you; to be certain that you understand the full circumstances and what they mean for her, for you, and for your ladies. I was told that a fund will assist you with your costs in looking after Jenny, but if there are any unexpected extras, let me know and I will see what sources might be available to me or to the hospital. I cannot promise anything, but I am willing to try, if you and your ladies are willing to try to help Jenny get better.”

I offered my own promises.

“You have my word that we will do our best for Jenny, but if she gets too upset or anything like that, can we call on you to intervene? Can you leave us your number for that?”

“I have already given Mrs Hargreaves - sorry, I should say Sharlene - my phone contact number, so you have that fallback position if anything goes wrong.”

“Thanks, doctor. Anything more?”

“No. I am happy with your family looking after Jenny; they impressed me with their empathy. Do your best to get her to open up a little. I can tell you that I am in no mood to send her back where she came from, but I’d also like to do something for her against whoever caused her to run away. If it was a children’s home as I believe, I want to stop any others from being harmed. If it was a family member, I can get her story back to the local cops, so that they can have strong words with the family and look for more cases of abuse with the perp that caused all the trouble that has resulted.”

“We’ll do what we can to help, doctor. What about your fee for coming out here?”

“The hospital regards this visit as a follow-up on treatment, to check that there is no problem persisting, so to you, it is pro bono for now. Later visits, I can arrange with my colleague to have the fund that supports Jenny pay the fees. Personally, you’ll have no additional costs, I assure you.”

“Thank you, doctor. That is nice to know.”

“I like to be able to help in these cases. Your ... ladies ... all seem to be healthy.”

“Yes, our gynaecologist was happy with them, and Sharl is carrying our only set of twins. She was shocked at that discovery, but her father knows of twins in another part of the family line. Neither of her sisters shows signs of twins, thank God.”

“And they are genuinely pleased for all three of them to be having your babies?”

“They are. As part of their educational improvements, I taught them to respect their bodies and only allow what they really want to happen to them, not what others might want. They chose to have their children, pushing their father to accept all three being my wives, plus reinforcing their stated desire to be my wives, and they were also the ones who encouraged Lily and Flora to join the family. I fended off the twins until Sharl, Cherry and Charlotte told me they approved of these girls joining us. I did not push them, doctor, I never do; they push me, and I am happy with what has come of it. If in doubt, ask them yourself.”

“Very well. I accept your word and I wish you all the very best. I must get back to the hospital before they start calling me with another problem.”

“‘Bye, Shirley.” I spotted Sharl standing by my study door, and waved to her and pointed to Shirley. “Sharl will see you out, doctor.”

Off they went, and I was hungry for my evening meal, but I could not remember which table sitting I was down for. I had to call my nearest lady to be directed, but once there, the meal went well. I was told that Jenny was going to help clear up in the kitchen, so I was to stay well clear of the kitchen for the following half hour.

That meant back to my study, then I was joined by Marjory who told me, “I am not needed for the clearing up, so I get to play with you here, my love.”

“Nice one, Marjory. Can we go to my or your bed, or do we have to do our best in here?”

“If we are quiet, we can sneak up to my room once Jenny is in the kitchen. It feels almost like trying to take a boy to my room back home when I was a young girl. That never actually happened, but that is what it feels like to me. Did you ever sneak a girl to your bedroom when you were a teenager, my love?”

I laughed, “I tried, once, but my mother must have heard two sets of footsteps on the stairs, and yelled at me, ‘Jimmy Hargreaves! Bring your friend into the kitchen for a soft drink and to meet me.’

That was the first and last time I tried that maneuver. Now, though, I can take you to your room and ravish you thoroughly, my girl!”

Marjory giggled at the plan, and we hurried upstairs as if it was an assignation. The lovemaking that followed was all the more fun, and she managed to keep it fairly quiet as well. I got the impression that the instruction for all was to avoid Jenny getting any hint of my attention to the womenfolk, in case it upset her.

I didn’t like that idea, for when one of my wives wants to squeal during the act of sex, I expect her to be able to do so without being scolded about it, or me for causing it. That point would be the next family matter to be aired as soon as possible.

I also told Marjory that the doctor’s visit was pro bono, so we had no bill to pay for that.

“Thank God for that!” she exclaimed. “Doctors’ fees are exorbitant.”

“Here in the U.S., that is so. You heard that I was brought up in Britain, where my father worked in the North Sea oil industry?”

“Yep, I recall that. Why?”

“Britain has a socialised medicine system, the National Health Service, which provides free health care to the entire population. Well, it is not exactly free, for everyone is automatically enrolled in a national health insurance scheme that covers much of the costs. The government pays the remainder out of taxes, and the population regards the NHS as one of the best aspects of living in the UK.”

“Everyone pays the same insurance?”

“Nope. You pay according to which income band you fit into. The richer folk pay more into the scheme than poorer folk.”

“Does that cover all health treatment, including doctor visits?”

“Not quite. The medical staff are paid by the NHS, but each doctor decides what he should do for his patient. You pay for the medicines prescribed by the doctor, but that is fixed with a reasonable upper limit that most people can afford. Each country in the UK decides on that fee limit, and Scotland, where Dad worked, abolished it completely. They save a fortune in reduced administration costs, I am told.”

“Does that mean the people get expensive medicine on the cheap? It doesn’t sound fair.”

I laughed and responded, “It depends on what you mean by fair. I was talking to a guy recently whose daughter needs insulin for her diabetes, and pays 300 dollars per shot. He worked out what it would cost him if he bought health insurance, and discovered that the insurance company would demand that he had to spend $7000 before they would start paying out, so he reckoned that paying direct for the insulin was cheaper.

I was astonished at the 300 dollars per shot, and checked online on what the NHS in Britain paid for insulin. Want to guess what I found?”

Marjory waved a hand vaguely.

“Oh, if they were buying in bulk, I would guess at around a hundred dollars.”

“Nope. They did a very large bulk deal for the total population with the US manufacturers and pay nine pounds for two shots. That converts to just over six dollars a shot. That’s the sort of deal you can get by buying for a whole country’s population. All they have to do later is organise the distribution to where it is needed, and usually the supplier will deliver direct to a local hub and the NHS takes it from there.”

Marjory was blown away by the difference.

“There must be some bad sides to that socialised medicine, Jimmy.”

“Oh, there always are. You can never make a perfect system, whatever the system is. Delays are the main drawback. You join a queue for operations at each hospital, so you might have to wait a while to get an operation but you eventually get your operation. There is no priority for the rich, except that there are a number of private hospitals where if you can pay the huge costs they charge – similar to the US hospitals – you can get immediate attention there. Thus the rich can get the priority if they can afford it, but the bulk of the population are satisfied to get their treatment when their turn comes around. After all, it was free at the point of delivery.”

Next morning was a surprise, as I found that a procession of vehicles was arriving at the Top Flight Industrial Estate. I presumed it was all the Group staff moving their business into the new premises, but when I spotted one or two large trucks moving farther into the estate, I guessed that the distribution firm was also moving in.

Seeing what was happening, I phoned Mr Emerson to check if I should come into the city or stay out here and find my new office. He told me that he would stay back until all the moving had been completed, but that I should go find what office had been allocated to me in the third hangar. It seemed that the computers had now been transferred both for the Yeats Group offices and the Copies warehouses. The other Copies’ business functions (the manufacturing side) had been absorbed into the Yeats Group operations for greater efficiency.

Clearly I had not been kept abreast of all the other things occurring while I was attending to the tasks allotted to me. Emerson and his colleagues had been busy with their own responsibilities. Shrugging my shoulders, I drove down to the main gate to see what action, if any, was taking place there.

Our local guard, George, was in his usual place, with a new larger sign above his booth: ‘Guarded by Plummer Security Services’. On both sides of the roadway there were labourers digging post-holes for the expected signs which had yet to be made and delivered. Our architect had been quick in getting the operation started, with the groundworks already being prepared. I presumed that the posts would be concreted into place once the signs arrived and measured against the metal posts that would support them. It would be crazy to concrete the posts into place, then discover that the sign fixings were an inch adrift of the holes.

Instead, the signs would arrive, be fixed to the posts, then the completed structure on the posts would be erected into position and concreted in, presumably with temporary wooden angled supports holding the signs solidly in their desired position until the concrete had set.

I left them to it, asking the guard to let me know when the signs got here to be installed, and headed to the new Yeats Group building: hangar three. Once there, I sought out a harrassed-lookingguy who looked to be organising things inside, and asked him where my office was in this maelstrom of work.

He looked at his hand-held computer, and asked me my name. When I told him “Hargreaves”, it only took him seconds to look it up and inform me that I was sharing side cabin number 21. The rooms had been numbered 1-10 in Warehouse One, 11-20 in Warehouse Two, so we were in the first cabin in this hanger. He pointed out the location of the designated office, and I trudged over to it, passing forklift trucks, avoiding piles of transit boxes presumably holding staff materials or already emptied of such materials, and side-stepping people passing back and forth around the huge open building. Presumably they were either lost or trying to find colleagues or something.

I finally reached my new business abode and opened the door. The interior had been adapted into three offices by temporary vertical dividers, floor to ceiling. That would not prove very effective at cancelling the sound of raised voices, I surmised.

Looking into each of them, I found desks with triangular nameplates standing on the desk to identify the occupant, the letters of the name slid along groove in the plate into position. One was marked Emerson, the next was marked Secretary, so I presumed the third office was mine and looked into it.

Sure enough my surname was emblazoned on the desk. I checked, and all my stuff, what little there was of it, was in the desk drawers, while a spanking new white monitor screen sat next to the computer case with all the active parts; the keyboard and mouse waiting patiently for the attention of my fingers. It had not been switched on yet, but I noticed the power cord was plugged in, and the router was also in place, so I should be set to go.

Clearly Emerson and his secretary were still working at the old building. I guessed that Emerson had the ultimate task of closing down the old building, except for the restaurant which now had its own front entrance in place.

Thinking about that, I retreated to my car and drove to the old air base kitchens to see if anything was in train there. It was.

A crew was inside, stripping out most of the old kitchen equipment, plumbing and electric cabling. A plumber was busy replacing the plumbing with new pipes and fitting in new sinks and faucets.

An electric works company was stripping the power cables up to and including the main meter board. It looked like they had brought along a technician from the power company to install and connect a new fuse board and meters, so that everything could be done at once to the latest standards. Someone had insisted on fast work.

The technician would supervise the new cabling being installed in the kitchens and give his approval of the work as soon as it was completed, it seemed. There was no sign of any arrivals of new kitchen equipment, so I asked one of the crew about that.

He told me, “They will be along with the new stuff as soon as we get finished here. They don’t want their new gear getting damaged before installation, by tripping over pipes and cables lying on the floor. Even the lighting installation has to be replaced to the modern lighting levels required by a commercial kitchen, so that is even more cables and packing to be removed.”

“Who ordered all this work?” I enquired.

“The new restaurant in town. The Manager, a Mr Craigmile, is aiming to get this place in operation within the week for staff training, then have it open for its clientele the week after, I was told. That is why all the rush.”

I was astonished that Craigmile had all the finance in place to have all this preparatory work done so fast and so completely. We must be talking of many tens of thousands of dollars. Where was he getting all this investment? Was Chairman Yeats supporting this new venture? I remained puzzled, as I did not see this branch restaurant as part of the Yeats Group transfer, so I went back to see if I could find our new Reception desk and my Marjory.

Reception turned out to be a new portable cabin slotted within the hanger, near the door I had entered, as would most visitors. I had walked past it in my hurry to find my own office. It looked newer than anything else in the place except the new Boardroom.

I soon found Marjory. She was rearranging her staff and facilities to fit in with the new premises. I waited until she had finished with her latest instructions, then asked if I could borrow her for a few minutes.

“Certainly, Mr Hargreaves. Just let me have a last word with my girls, so they know what to do next.”

She came out with me, and I took her outside the building to have a word in private.

“Marjory, I have found that the base kitchens are being completely renovated to become a second restaurant within the week, with plans to open for business a week later when all the staff are trained to work here. Had you heard anything about this? It doesn’t seem to be part of the transfer of Yeats Group to the new industrial estate.”

“Sorry, Jimmy. What with the upset with Jenny and a few other things, I haven’t got around to speaking to you about that. My fault entirely.”

“How do you mean? It is the Board that decides on spending your investment monies.”

“Quite so, but the restaurant is a distinct commercial entity now, and I had a discussion with Mr Craigmile; a lovely man, dear. So efficient, but charming with it. I decided he was in the right position to take things further, so I did a deal with him for the restaurant on the base. I finance the cost of conversion to a nice restaurant, and he takes on responsibility for running it. With the transfer of so many staff here from our group, plus the arrival of staff from the distribution company, he can offer two styles of service during the workday. The daytime service is aimed at employees of local businesses, plus any outsiders who want to make use of the facility; then the evening is devoted to the high-end clients as a five-star style of restaurant, such as he is now offering in town. He has engaged a publicity firm to make a splash in the media about the two new top-class eateries, one in the city for busy executives and one in the quiet country setting for a more leisurely meal for the discerning diner. He thinks they will complement each other, and I agree.