"Ohhhhhhhh," Pip gave a bit of a pause after that. She needed some time to visualize this. All those children and grandchildren and girlfriends.

Hee. He said girlfriends. Not mistresses or concubines or anything like that. /Girlfriends/!

And a downright lordly number of them besides. If she ever got to tell Duckie's dad this story, he was going to be so jealous.

"So, that's almost thirty people. Do you have all of the birthdays for one month onna weekend? Or is there cake every twelve days?"