Chapter 33

“If you are trying to find out how committed I am to this family, to Bob, and to having his children, then I am entirely devoted to that course, Sandy. I feel immensely at home with you. Once inside this family, I will be protected from scary men and can give my entire devotion to Bob and you ... and your wives.”

“Very well.” Sandy moved across to inform me. I was chatting at the time with Georgie about babies and their needs. “Bob, we take Carol home with us tonight, to give her some family comfort; in the short term only, for now.”

I nodded but raised a question, “Does her landlady have to be told? If Carol doesn’t arrive, the landlady might think something bad has happened and report it to the police.”

Sandy agreed, “Good point. Carol, phone your landlady and tell her you’re spending the night with friends.”

“She doesn’t have a phone, Sandy,” Carol confessed.

“Then we make a detour and you tell her you have been invited out by girlfriends and so won’t be home tonight. Say that you didn’t want her to worry about you.”

“Okay, I can do that. Can I suggest to her that there might be other nights I could be away?”

“No, Carol. That is getting ahead of yourself. Wait until, as and when, I have made up my mind about you. I cannot allow myself to be pushed.”

“I am not trying to push you, Sandy. I am just excited about how my life is improving.”

“You view possible pregnancy as your life improving?” Sandy challenged her.
Carol was not to be put off.
“Why not? Georgie and Janet seem to be happy about becoming pregnant.”
“But they are already Bob’s wives, and wives being pregnant is not unusual. You are different.”
“If you and Bob can see your way to marrying me, then I will be the same as Georgie and Janet?”
“Maybe, but that is a bigger decision than if you are pregnant. You have no idea of that yet, having just been fucked once by my Bob.”

“That is why I want to be fucked more by him, to do my best to ensure pregnancy in the near future.”

“Again, don’t push me, Carol. That is all I ask. Let me make my judgment on the facts as I find them, and not on your personal opinion.”

“Oh, Bob said something like that to me, about facts and opinions. You must have the same approach to life.”

“I do. My university experience points me in that direction: go for facts and not what you might assume to be correct, based primarily on what others say. I am learning to work on evidence; from what actually happened in the past.
In medieval times it was a general belief that the body made blood continuously; there was no conception of blood circulation, but then an inquisitive scientist pointed out that a person dying of blood loss showed there was a finite amount of blood in the body, and so during life it had to be circulated somehow, used over and over again. Facts rather than popular belief, you see.
Racial beliefs were another example, where in World War One black Americans were recruited to the US Army but were officially kept from front line action by the white leadership’s assumption that black soldiers did not have the ability to fight like whites. When they got to France, their rifles were taken from them and they were used as a labour battalion, despite them wanting to fight Germans, and saying so. Their voices were ignored.
Eventually the black battalion managed to get itself attached to a French battalion and so got to the front line with the French. One black soldier performed so well there against the Germans that he was awarded the top French medal for heroism, the Croix de Guerre. When the US press got the story of this heroism, they had to recognise by this example that colour had nothing to do with your ability as a soldier, and that was an initial step towards the long journey to true emancipation.
The black soldiers remained segregated within the U.S. armed forces though. In World War Two an all-black artillery unit was one the highest-performing artillery units of the American forces and fought the Germans at the Battle of the Bulge. Eleven of their men were captured by the SS, tortured and killed by the Nazis, yet this massacre was ignored by American war investigators and forgotten for many years except by the local French villagers who put up a memorial to them.
Aside from that, blacks have been in Britain for many hundreds of years, often brought back by navy ships as natives representative of the country they visited. Merchant ships even recruited black sailors to replace losses through tropical diseases. The Brits were used to blacks and whites working together.”

Carol said in surprise, “You also seem to have an amazing amount of historical knowledge Sandy, certainly for the past few decades. Is this all due to the university?”

“To a great extent, yes. We are encouraged to read widely, and our lecturers have an astonishing versatility in their own and other subjects. They seem to be able to link together scientific topics, social history, and medicine when one of them talks about the Black Death of 1348 in England for example. That was a great social leveller. Learning is so stimulating, university much more so than school was, as you have more control about how much you learn.”

This got Carol stymied as she knew little about the Black Death except it was a massive and frightening plague event. Even the ‘flu of today was scary, as some people died from it. She had a vague memory of it being very bad at the end of the Great War.

Thinking, she went quiet until she had to speak with her landlady at the door, apologetically telling of being dragged off by girlfriends for an all-night party, and not wanting to have her worry about her absence. The landlady accepted this but acerbically pointed out it made no difference to her weekly rent.

Carol agreed that was fine, returned to the car and we left.

Once she was in the car, Carol sighed in relief, saying, “I’m glad that’s over. I was afraid she might say something nasty but she was very kind to me apart from pointing out the rent would be the same. Possibly she was kinder because I didn’t mention the presence of Bob in my life and he wasn’t in sight.”

Georgie drove carefully in the dark, using the screen wipers, for by this time a light drizzle had started and the street lights were not very bright in these conditions. She got to the house and parked on its driveway. From the car we all rushed to the rental house door with Georgie last, then Sandy unlocked the door and opened it. From the switch on the wall just inside, she flicked on the hallway light and we could finally see what we were doing.

“Damn! We should have brought our brollies with us,” Georgie complained as she got to the doorway, shaking her hair to dislodge water drops before stepping inside; her head having got damp while she was locking the car.

I responded that I didn’t have an umbrella I could use, as mine was packed away.
Janet chipped in with, “Surely we could have shared a brolly if someone had thought to bring one?”

Sandy reminded them that we had come by car so we had no real problem with the weather. “Georgie parked as close as she could, so we have no real complaint.”
I noticed Carol had said nothing, but then neither had I.

“You are quiet; you okay, Carol?” I asked her and she swung her head to face me.

“You care about how I am, Bob?” she seemed surprised at my consideration for her.

“Of course. I care about all my girls.”

“Uh, then thanks. I am fine, Bob, if I am one of the girls you care about. A little rain never hurt a person.”

Janet and Georgie looked at each other with surprise at my words, then at Sandy.

“He does, doesn’t he?” Janet said, as if she had just thought of it. Georgie and Sandy said together, “Yes, he does. He cares about us all. He cares for us all, as well.”
As she stopped, Sandy went on, “He loves us all too. That is the strangest and most interesting fact about Bob. He loves me; he loves Georgie; he loves Janet. He has the capacity to love you too, Carol, if you give him half a chance.”

Carol was again lost for something to say, but she produced a cheerful smile.

I followed them inside, feeling that I was best advised to stay quiet during this exchange. I had learned a few things since I married my wonderful Sandy. She knew what my silence meant, and smirked cheekily at me.

The girls were quick to decide to get their damp clothes off, and we were hardly inside for five minutes before I was faced with a bunch of naked and desirable women, and I was naked also. This was somewhat unexpected in its speed and impact on me. I was immediately erect in front and a little embarrassed at this effect.

Now I was the one who had nothing to say. I did not want to get into trouble by approaching the wrong woman, so I came over to Sandy and ran my palm over her nearest nipple.

“Sandy? What do you want to happen tonight?” I asked petulantly. She knew my dilemma, and told me, “Take this wet and pregnant Georgie to bed and fuck her, and then do the same with Janet. Later, a lot later, you will make love to me using a position I want Carol to watch and learn, as it puts the girl in charge; then as and when you are up to it, you and she will try it. Think you can manage all four of us this evening?”

I was not put off, merely fearful of my ability to perform to that extent.

“I will do my best, darling, if that is what you want. Carol might have to wait, if I am too slow in recovering.”

As it transpired, the timings allowed me to recover sufficiently to be able to satisfy everyone before I finally collapsed and fell asleep between the final two girls. Sandy’s successful tuition plan was for us to use the cowgirl position whereby I lay on my back and Sandy took charge, riding me from above. She demonstrated this to Carol who was watching avidly, that this way the fucking was completely under the control of the woman, and it was she who had to urge the man to action.

Carol was delighted to show what she had learned, a couple of hours later, when I was able to pulse up into her thrusting body with another chance at baby-making.

On Sunday, we drove to church on a cold but bright morning, and sat as a group in one pew. We did not appear to be noticed as being unusual, probably as some parishioners brought along relatives or friends that were staying with them temporarily. That suited us fine.

However, Daddy Thompson must have spoken to the minister about our house move, because after the service, as we had the after-church coffee and home baking, the minister came over to say hello and tell Sandy that he would pop over on a pastoral visit at a suitable time once we were all got home and had lunch. Today was not possible because we had other things to attend to, Sandy told him, and gave him other options, so they settled on a date and time when we would not be going out for our evening meal. I thought nothing more of it, and on Tuesday he arrived at five-fifteen, and was greeted by Sandy shortly before the rest of us straggled home from work, hungry and tired.

He was in the lounge sipping a cup of Sandy’s Earl Grey tea when I walked in, and his eyes lit up in anticipation of something. I soon guessed what it was.

“Mr McIntyre! Nice to see you again. Sandy was telling me you are getting a large extension to your house built, much larger than I would have expected at your relative youth. I didn’t know you were that well off; have you taken on a large long-term mortgage?”

I ignored the implication that if I could afford a large extension, I could afford to make a large donation to the church. Instead, I worked on the size question for my answer.

“The existing house was built to accommodate a single man, Mister McAllister, and it doesn’t even have a real dining room, so the builders are combining two bedrooms in the main house to give us a decent dining room for the future. The extension thus has to counter that loss by incorporating several more modern bedrooms with en-suite bathroom and shower, a study room for Sandy’s academic efforts, a nursery for future children, a new more commodious entrance door and vestibule; then the ground space limitation persuaded us and the architect to go for a two-storey build, so it also needed a staircase; and so the requirements go on and on, but we are treating it as a long-term investment. Our architect has kept us advised on what needs to happen during the rebuild of our existing home. We have to put up with the costs of temporary rental of this house, furniture removal and storage, and specialist cleaning of a couple of carpets which I am told have important historical value. I am at times concerned about paying for all of this, when we don’t know where the final cost will end up. It is a constant worry for our budget.”

This last was to deter him from suggesting a large contribution to the church fabric fund. All churches have trouble paying for the upkeep of old buildings, I knew.
McAllister made an effort though.

“I was surprised that someone as young as yourself should have sufficient funds for such a major project, Bob.”

He had also slipped into using my first name as another ‘friend’ technique, but I recognised this ploy.

I explained, “An inheritance, minister; and as with many inheritances, some of it is in fixed assets, untouchable for immediate cash needs. Awkward at times, unfortunately, as I am sure you will appreciate,. But we will not be stingy with our contributions to the church, just careful in relation to our ongoing costs.”

Foiled again before he had even started, he switched to our residents for information.

“I see you are housing Sandy’s sister under your roof. Kind of you to do that. The other two ladies I am not familiar with. Are they relatives?”
“Gosh, no. Both are ladies with family troubles of one sort or another, and we are providing them with cheap accommodation for now. Georgina is being very helpful, using her own life experience in guiding them through their recovery. Most of their ... aah ... personal difficulties are related to unfortunate experiences with men, so you will see why we have not called on you, being a man, to assist. I leave it to the ladies to work things out. Georgina is in a better position to offer a female shoulder to cry on and help them cope with life’s complications for a woman with man trouble. We do charge them rental, but keep it as low as we can, for we are not really in the rental business. As long as our costs are covered, I am happy to leave Sandy and Georgina to deal with our boarders.”

“So you are financially moderately secure but not at present as secure as you would like to be?”