Chapter 11: Decisions

I was amused to be seated at the head of the table.

Greta was on my left and Cavil had the other end of the table. The Bellows may have been wondering what was going on, but I wasn’t in any hurry to tell them. Dick had been seated beside Greta and his sons interspaced with Cavil’s three main spouses at my request.

I had invited only one of my grandfather’s people to be at the main table. I was interested as to why my sister Jose had been part of his entourage. She had been seated on my right.

“So, why are you here, Jose?” I asked her after the wine and entrees had been served.

She looked down and blushed. “I was to be swapped for you,” she said.

“How generous of grandfather,” I commented. “Why are you even still at home?” I asked. She was nearly seventeen.

She blushed more deeply and mumbled, “He wouldn’t sell me.”

“So he just used you?” I asked softly, this time not really wishing to know the answer.

She nodded and left her head down. “What about Rona?” I asked. “Not yet. He has been waiting until we are sixteen.”

I frowned, “Has he sold any of the granddaughters over fifteen since me?”

She shook her head and replied, “He hasn’t sold any of us in the last three years since Grand-dame died. Only you.”

I’d not paid much interest in what Warh did with his herd since he gave my son away. His first spouse who we all called Grand-dame had died when I’d been riding the herds. All I remember was that she didn’t wake one morning.

The vet said that she had a bleed in her head. She was one of the few people who’d had any influence on Warh. But I believed that had waned over the years. She’d been having a lot of headaches, so no one was surprised that she had died.

His second spouse Paula hadn’t been in his bed for years that I know of. Once one of his spouses couldn’t produce a child after four years, he stopped using them, and he ignored them. Some he stopped using even sooner once he lost interest in them. He’d had a thing for younger flesh as long as I could remember.

“So theoretically, how many spouses did I gain?” I asked Jose.

She shrugged, “Forty or so plus about a hundred and twenty calves and thirty odd other relatives.”

“Do you know how many are actually registered as spouses?” I asked.

“Yes. For some reason, Grand-dame gave me the book before she died. She said I was to hide it and give it to you when I could. I was shocked when I read only ten names. Did know you the old laws say that Bulls are supposed to only have as many as ten spouses at one time?”

“That’s a lie,” Dick said slamming his fist on the table.

“Actually, it isn’t,” Cavil said mildly as he placed his eating utensils on his plate and turned to look at Dick.

We all looked at him. “While Bron was away he got me thinking about how laws were changed. I found all the books in my library that have been written by my Ancestors. Many believe that a Hind had always ruled this Herd and a Horn your grandfathers, Bron.”

“We all know many of the southern Bulls have swapped titles over the years, but it is said that our two herds never have. This is also a lie. Several times in the history books our two herds have actually owned each other’s provinces or even both at the same time.”

“So Bron owning both is not new. A Hind once owned five of the provinces, and so has a Horn. A Black has owned three at one time and the three most southern provinces Gray, Roan and Tanner swapped so often I lost count.”

“What about the Bellows? My grandfather said we have always been there,” Dick said.

“Well, there may have been Bellows living there for some time but not ruling there. The Horns have ruled that province many times. The Bellows are a more recent addition to the rank of Bulls. It has only been the last two hundred and twenty years that a Bellows was in charge.”

“For the first thousand years after settlement, it was mostly owned by the Fetlocks. They died out, and the Horns owned it for a several hundred years. Your ancestors actually came from Federation about three hundred years ago.”

“So when did the law change?” I asked with interest since this law was one I wished to change.

“That is a good question. I can’t actually find when it did. For a law of that magnitude to change it must be agreed upon by all ten Bulls. I can find several instances when it came up, but none where it was agreed upon and written into the law scrolls.”

“The closest the vote came to was eight to two. That was about two hundred years ago. Coincidently that was not long after a Bellows took control of a province. It had been in the hands of the family called Low for a while.”

“I believe some confusion can make it seem that the law was passed then because it has been since then that the Bulls started to claim more spouses and sell off who they pleased.”

“So why did they want to change the law?” Beth asked. Cavil had us all enthralled in his tale. We waited while the dishes were changed. I don’t think any of us were paying much attention to the food.

Cavil continued, “I believe it had to do with population control and costs. They had too many unmarried calves. It was considered a good way to increase the population of the herds and strengthen the control of the herd by the Bull.”

“One thing you must remember. Calves were no good to a Bull if they couldn’t be married off or exchanged. There is another law that they stopped abiding by. It had been written that if a Bull couldn’t marry them off by the time they were twenty-five, then the calf could select someone else. They then they had to move to one of the townships or become hired hands.”

“Well that hasn’t happened in my lifetime,” Beth said.

“Exactly, my love,” Cavil replied. He then added, “You see the calves increased the populations in the towns and gave them more control. They were making more demands on the Bulls.”

“If the Bulls kept them as hired hands, they had to be paid wages and could still leave. As spouses, they had no choice but to stay. By acquiring more spouses, they kept a steady workforce and didn’t add as many people to the population of the towns and kept costs down.”

“So is that when the practice of marrying their daughters started?” Greta asked her father.

“No, we could always do that. Females have always died while birthing. Up until about twelve hundred years ago, our populations stayed small for a long time. They had fewer calves to start with. It was common to have five years between children and a woman only had four or five.”

Cavil finally got some food into his mouth and we all ate, thinking of the conversation. Then Robin asked, “So why did the populations start to increase?”

Cavil smiled. I got the impression he was a consummate story teller and was having fun retelling us our history. “About eight hundred years ago we started building better ships. We also learnt that shifters and other people from the home world had successfully landed on this planet on other continents.”

“For the first couple of hundred years not enough of them moved here to worry our ancestors. Trade increased, and they could increase the herds of bighorns and make more profit, so it wasn’t seen as a bad thing. The fact they could add some new blood into the herds was also good.”

“However, by the time they seemingly changed the law, it had begun to worry them because their way of life was being threatened. More people were moving here, and the population had grown. They had more calves to run the bigger herds.”

“The Bulls were content with having their little kingdoms and didn’t wish to adjust to the changes in the world at large. They liked the profits but not the costs of achieving them. They had more calves to manage as well.”

“I think that is the biggest problem with how we currently do things,” I said. “Our people have been unwilling or stifled when new concepts and ways of doing things are required.”

“I don’t believe our fore-parents did us any favours trying to keep control the way they did. It was greedy and wrong. They must have known that the way of life they had adopted wasn’t sustainable in the long run.”

“It has worked for thousands of years,” Dick blustered.

“No, it hasn’t. They wouldn’t have tried to change that law if it was working. The moment the outside world intruded on the island their houses of sand came tumbling down. The only reason it seemed to work for so long was the population control they originally maintained and being isolated.”

“I agree, Bron. That was my assessment as well,” Cavil stated.

“Then why don’t we go back to the original controls?” Gay asked before tucking into the deserts we had been served.

“Because the only way to do that is to cut ourselves back off from the world and that isn’t an option,” I answered.

“We could move,” Dick said.

“Were? For how long would you stay hidden? This planet once supported billions of people. Our ancestors were lucky. They arrived here after a great war had raged. The local populations had been decimated.”

“We were left alone only because of where we were located. We are not alone anymore. The world is recovering. More people from other countries will find us as well. Shipping is becoming more common. If we don’t adapt and change, something or someone will force us to.”

“So you’re going to give up ruling two providences,” Dick sneered.

“Don’t be silly man. I have every intention of ruling, but I don’t intend to rule by fucking every female I can and making her my spouse. That solves nothing.”

“A lot of this island is poorly managed. We have a lot more resources that we realise, and there is no reason we can’t share the wealth. The Bulls screwing everyone and trying to control in this manner is adding to the problem not fixing it.”

“We need to go back to the law that reduces the number of spouses and letting our calves marry the person of their choice. If we have to hire people, then we hire them or even better, we lease parcels of land and let them do the work for us.”

“We can lease land to be mined, but we control how they look after the land. We can lease our forests for culling but control how much they can take and put back, just as Cavil does now.”

“We can put a lot of controls in place to preserve our island and our livelihoods but still let our people make reasonable livelihoods and live their own lives. Why can’t they have their own calves and spouses?”

“I don’t want to be bothered with all of that,” Dick said in disgust.

“That’s also part of the problem. Bulls don’t like to delegate. Well if you don’t want to do it, and you only want to run your herds and screw your spouses’ then hire someone to do it.”

“Even better, marry people who would be good at looking after your businesses. You could even set your calves up to take some control and keep it a family concern. For example, Gay could look after logging. Ray could look after your mine. Let them have a partner and their own calves.”

“Build them their own house on the property or even create a little village, and then see if they have the balls to make something of themselves. They will still be working for the Herd, for the good of the family. However, they will be a lot happier being their own person and having some control of their lives and who they love.”

I’m not sure who was more shocked Dick or his daughters. Dick looked at Gay, “Would be interested in doing something like that? Take over the logging?”

Gay looked at me and then back at her father, “I sort of do it now.”

“Yes, but not how you would like to do it, huh. You’d have to hire the workers, feed ‘em and organise the contracts. Maintain the tools and get your contracts in on time,” Dick warned her.

“I’ve got to do some replanting too. We’ve got an erosion problem were that last lot were cut down that I told you about,” Gay said already thinking of the problems she had.

Dick smiled. “I have a feeling we need to have a family meeting,” he said. Gay and Ray both nodded at him and grinned back. The girls had surprised me with their contributions. Maybe there was hope for them and the Bellows Herd.

“So Dick will you support me when I take my proposals to counsel?” I asked.

He looked at me thoughtfully and then looked at Cavil. “You’d have voted his way if you were still a Bull wouldn’t you?”

Cavil nodded and replied, “Yes, and just so you know, he influenced my ideas, not the other way. Bron looks at the big picture and then looks for solutions.”

“His grandfather was more of a go-getter when he was younger, but he got disillusioned along the way,” Dick said.

“I don’t think Bron will. He has already picked four very strong partners to help him,” Cavil said.

I had to smile when he included himself, and he had used the word partners and not spouses. I did consider him my partner in a business and family sense. He was a relative after all. So he was part of my herd.

Dick nodded and said to me, “I still need some help with my bighorns. Any chance that you can come and look over my operations and offer me some suggestions on how we can improve things?”

We were all relaxed, and I was happy with the outcomes of this dinner. I believed I had won Dick to my cause. His daughters were keen to take up my ideas, and I had a feeling they will encourage Dick to run with them if he wanted peace at home.

“I’d be delighted to, but I may need a few days to get my herd under control. I’ll come as soon as I can. In the meantime, buy more salt. I believe any of the animals that have lowhorn or shorthorn blood and especially if you’re milking them need more salt that we have been proving them.”

“Make up some grain mashes; I’ll give you my recipe. Give each sick animal half a bucket a day and plenty of clean, fresh hay and water. It won’t hurt to wash the animals down with the ash soap and check for those pesky little bloodsuckers.”

“Make sure that the enclosures and troughs are cleaned and kept clean as well. Check the hay doesn’t have mould, and the barns are well ventilated. Add extra shade areas to the paddocks and check their water more often for cleanliness and that it’s available.”

“One of the people I met in Federation also mentioned washing udders before and after milking, so we don’t infect the calves. She just used a warm salty solution and said it makes a difference.”

Dick and Gay both nodded. I think Gay was telling me she would make sure it would be done. Ray just grinned at me. I got the feeling the Bellows family meeting would be an interesting affair.