
I feel the game wants me to have a family in each town. When you settle down, you gain renown and the town trusts you more. They don't know about the other towns, and your other wives. Mark had multiple wives in the same town. The wives complained some, but as long as you don't flirt with any of them in each other's presence, they settle for peaceful coexistence.
In my terrible achievement run to gain 25 hookups, I would flirt with anyone while the wife/husband was there. The wife/husband would go all crazy on me and run from the room. It was funny.