Chapter 35

“May I correct your assumption, Mr Thompson? Sandy is the arbiter in this family. Not one woman passes my lips without Sandy’s prior approval. She is my mentor in all matters of love and life, but she appears to be also of the nature of a mother hen gathering frightened chicks about her. Each of the girls had a man problem that she solved for them. I went along with her advice, and all of us are happy with the outcome.”

“However it may be, Robert, I remain puzzled, but as long as my own girls are happy, that is what matters to me in the long run, and you have mastered that task admirably. I can go on honeymoon with a light heart.” He turned again to face Carol, “Thank you again for that dance, Carol.”

Carol brightened at the compliment. “Thank you, Mr Thompson. You dance divinely. Julia is lucky to have you as her husband, and likewise me with Bob as my husband.”

She smiled brightly, and headed back to the others of her group.

“Amazing!” muttered Daddy Thompson, shaking his head as went looking for his new wife. He found her dancing with Fergus, but as soon as she saw her husband coming over, she spoke to Fergus, kissed him on the cheek and glided smoothly over to her man. It appeared she was thinking of an early departure, and I wished them well in that escape attempt.

I checked round my own small pack of females, and we were only short of Georgie. Janet spotted my questioning glance around and discreetly pointed to where Georgie was dancing with the minister. She grinned at my raised eyebrows as I saw this, and tried to whisper but I could not hear her over the noise of the band, so she raised her level.

“Georgie and I were chatting when the minister came past and Georgina spoke to him. Whatever was said, they smiled at each other, and the minister asked for a dance.”

“Thanks, Janet. Miracles seem to happen around here!”

I waited until Mr McAllister had escorted Georgie back to us.

“Thank you for that dance, my dear, and congratulations on your happiness.”

He nodded to me and departed. I was over to Georgie like a shot.

“What happened, Georgie?” I demanded to know.

“Mister McAllister spoke to me as he was passing, and asked how I was, so I said that I was extremely happy with Sandy and Bob accepting me into their family and allowing me to live with them. I didn’t say any more than that, so he took it as a family reconciliation, and asked for a dance. That was all.”

“Wait until he hears that you are pregnant! He may change his tune then.” I suggested with a worried grin.

She shrugged, and said cheerfully, “I am not too sure that he is really a stickler for convention or formality in living. I get the impression that happiness counts more with him as a man of the cloth than the social rules of etiquette. Having seen you with all four of us, he may have drawn his own conclusions and is waiting to see what happens next with us. That could be a wise move on his part. If anyone mentions us to him, he can truthfully say he has nothing specific to act on at present.”

I quipped, “That is an accurate statement, as no-one has any evidence of anything at all, except that you girls decided to adopt the name of McIntyre. In Scottish law, you can change your name just because you want to. The only restriction is that there must be no intent to defraud, so you have an obligation to inform any creditors of your change of name so they can still find you if you default on a debt.”

“Oh, you have learned that from Daddy?”

“Learned it in the course of my work with your father’s office, certainly. I pick up facts about the law from everyone else in the office. The English route of Deed poll doesn’t apply in Scotland, and a statutory declaration signed by a notary public is sufficient evidence for most purposes. You can still go through a legal formality to register your new name via a certificate from the Lord Lyon’s office, and that certificate registering the change as legal proof makes all future registrations of children, etcetera a lot easier.”

“I think Daddy is also a notary public as part of his job,” Sandy informed me.

“Yes, you have to be a practising solicitor to be granted notary public status by the Law Society of Scotland,” I agreed with her. “Many solicitors, probably most of them, are also notaries public.”

I paused at looked round at the ladies before asking, “Ready to think about going home, girls? Or do you want to try more dancing partners? I am almost useless as Sandy will tell you.”

They all looked happy to leave, except Sandy.

“I would like a dance with Daddy, if I can catch him before he and Julia abscond for pastures new.”

“Go get him then, darling. Wish him and Julia well from all of us.”

She headed off towards the ballroom main door; probably hoping to find him and Julia talking about their departure. I turned my attention to my other women and praised them for their physical appearance and their perfectly judged actions at the wedding and reception. They all smiled sweetly at the compliments, but Georgie spoiled it by saying, “I bet Sandy told you to say that, darling!”

I rounded on her, “Georgina McIntyre! I will have you know that this praise came from me only, and from my heart. I love you all and am proud of how you all acted at this event.”

“Goodness! This is a fine improvement, Bob. Remember to keep it up, my love, and also congratulate us on any sign of pregnancy in the future.”

I spoke again, more evenly, “I think we all have done well here, but especially Carol being able to dance with the bridegroom, being all on her own. That was a phenomenal achievement, Carol.”

The tall girl came over to hug me, then resumed her seat, speechless but happy.

A few minutes later, Sandy returned alone and reported, “I caught them just as they were going upstairs to change from their wedding clothes, so I passed on our good wishes to both of them, and called Julia ‘Mum’. She almost teared up, but hugged me and wished me and the rest of us good luck. Then they hurried off.”

That was a good point to end on, so we pulled ourselves together and made our way towards the ballroom exit as a group. My ladies having identical dresses but in different pastel colours again attracted attention as we swept past, but all we got was cheerful goodbyes; no snide remarks. I was pleased.

Sandy made the phone call from the public phone in the vestibule for our taxi home, and the firm must have been geared up for this wedding event, as she was told a driver would be on his way immediately. It was only five minutes before the taxi arrived at the hotel door where I was watching for him. He confirmed for me that it was for the McIntyre party of five, and so we boarded at once, thankful that there was no rain to worry about, and we were at our rental house door within fifteen minutes.

I paid the driver while Georgie went ahead to let us in with a key, then I hurried to check that the heating was on; I had established how this house’s heating system was controlled. It had already switched on with the timer, so we simply had to wait for the house to warm up more after being empty most of the day. I found each of the girls coming to me for a warming cuddle, but I asked Georgie to be Mum and put the kettle on and get us a cup of hot tea. Sandy went to a hall cupboard and extracted several rubber hot water bottles to warm up the beds before we thought of heading to bed. It was not late, so I was in no rush to get to bed anyway, but most times it was not my privilege, and I had to accept what was decided for me. I also remembered that I had another driving lesson in a couple of days.

Sandy waited til we all had our cups of tea to hand, then announced, “As Daddy has married again, I have decided that, in celebration, tonight I and my husband will spend the night together – alone. You girls have had your fair share of Bob recently, and probably more. Tonight is special for me, give me some space with Bob.”

The others gave their approval, knowing how important Sandy was to the family dynamic. We returned to our chatting about Daddy and Julia’s wedding, and Janet spoke to Georgie about a comparison.

“None of us girls, apart from Sandy, had a wedding and a wedding reception, Georgie. Any chance of us arranging one for ourselves?”

Georgina looked thoughtful for a moment, then commented, “We all had a private wedding, conducted by Sandy, so all we really missed out on was the reception; and that event is designed for the couple to show themselves to all their friends and family. I don’t think we want to do that. We want to keep things low-key, but I have another idea that might work instead.”

“Oh? What’s that?” Janet asked.

“When the extension is complete, we can have an opening ceremony to formally celebrate our new house. To our friends and relatives that we choose to invite, it is a celebration of the building, but for us girls, it will be a reception to celebrate our marriage to Bob. What do you think of that proposal, Janet?”

Janet looked to Carol to see what her reaction was, and found Carol nodding enthusiastically. “Good idea,” said Carol. “It means we can pick and choose who we think we can rely on to not point out that Bob has several women standing beside him and being familiar with him, over and above Sandy.”

Janet said to Georgina, “I am inclined to think the same as Carol. We can send out invites saying, roughly, ‘Robert McIntyre and family invite you to join with them in celebrating the opening of their newly extended house.’ Something along that line would make it clear we are a family, without specifying anything. They can make their own assumptions about legal niceties or whatever.”

Georgina noted that Bob and Sandy had been having their own private tete-a-tete, kissing and cuddling, and had not overheard this discussion, so Georgie interrupted them to say, “We girls are looking at turning our house extension opening into a celebration with two aims: one, to announce the completion of our extended house, and two, to act as a reception with friends for the private weddings we had. Only us five will know about the second purpose. That okay with you two lovebirds?”

I looked at Sandy, but gave her a slight nod to indicate my position on the subject. So she said to Georgie, “All of you are in favour of this action?”

Georgie told her, “Yes; unanimous.”

“Very well, I’ll go along with you and the girls. It sounds sensible and appropriate to me. All right with you, Bob?”

I concurred, “Sure; fine by me. I am all in favour of a party with our friends. We can invite the contractor and his foreman, and their wives. The minister of course, but it would be an opportunity to get some of the congregation along as well; let them get used to us as a family group. You and Georgie will know who to invite; those who will not turn up their noses at the girls.”

I then left Sandy to organise it for when the building work was completed and we had the furnishings moved in. I was sure that some time would be required for the selection of invitees. All the invitations could be printed with only the date to be filled in once known. Catering for the event was probably easiest done by professionals; possibly Cafe Continental could arrange the food and drinks, but again I would leave that choice to the ladies. As long as the cash was available, that was fine by me, and I certainly had the cash.

It occurred to me that if you have more than enough wherewithal to get by, you should use part of it to help others in some way. In our family we were helping Georgina, Janet and Carol make a fist of their lives, and that pleased me intensely.

The extension progressed rapidly, and took only two months to get to the point where we could start attending to internal wall decoration, hanging curtains and laying new floor coverings. This ancillary work took us another week of our spare time, but that week was used by the contractor to complete roof tiles, check water supply and drainage at all points, lay concrete slab paths, and finish outdoor painting; there also seemed to be a million and one other things to get to completion.

The concrete slabs were not my first choice, but the cost of getting Caithness flagstone instead was massive, so I went with the architect’s decision. He pointed out that while flagstone gives a smoother and hard-wearing surface, the damper climate of the west coast would lead to moss growing on the slabs and make them slippery to walk on. Safety was paramount with pregnant females, so I agreed to his choice.

The silk carpets were conserved and cleaned in plenty of time to be relaid in specified rooms by the firm that cleaned them; that would give us the best result. The furnishings were scheduled to arrive back one day after the contractors declared the rooms for them to be wind and watertight, fit for occupancy. The biggest problem was getting large items of furniture up the staircase to the upstairs rooms, but the furnishers were prepared for that. To them it was business as usual. We had agreed for an end room to be an upstairs lounge/reading room with a larger window than the bedrooms boasted. Every window in the house was specified as doubled-glazed to help keep the heat in during the winter, and also save us a bit on heating costs. There was no need to waste energy at any time, even if we could afford it. My childhood had imbued me with the frugality mindset.

While the building work continued, we all went on with our own jobs to the satisfaction of our employers, and none of the girls had problems at work with now asking to be known as Mrs McIntyre. It was generally assumed they had married and that was it, and they wore their wedding rings with pride. Janet or Carol, if asked, could easily say the wedding took place back where their parents lived, in another part of Scotland. No-one was likely to ask why they hadn’t been invited, if it was that distant from Gourock. As I expected, no-one ever thought to ask to see a wedding certificate. Why would you?

After another month, Carol had her pregnancy confirmed by her doctor and we all went out that Saturday for a celebratory meal and that night Carol got a celebratory fuck. Sandy took another month before her system was clear of the chemical preventative, and she at last noted her period had been missed. Another week and then another celebratory meal: all my girls were expecting!

Around this time Fergus told the office that he and his Greenock colleague had got engaged, but they were in no rush to marry. They had to decide on where to live once married. Both wanted to continue their careers, so no immediate start on a family either. What they did agree on was to set up in business together as a joint practice once they were fully qualified as solicitors, hopefully with the tacit support of their present employers.