“See. I told you it was good.” Carl had a smug expression on his face.
“I bow to your superior wisdom,” I replied, with only a trace of irony. Indeed, I had learned something new, and quite unexpected.
Now that Carl had established a routine of mating me once a day, the bookings picked up remarkably. Suddenly Carl found that yes, we could arrange an appointment today after all as there’s been a cancellation.
So in choreographing the whole thing, Carl had proved to be a lot smarter than I’d given him credit for.
Chapter 11
Marriage is our last, best chance to grow up.
I was now forty-one and officially retired from the Ministry. The pension for life was not lavish, but adequate. But then nothing about the Ministry is extreme, all aspects could be properly described as merely adequate, so it was not unexpected that retirement should also fall comfortably into this mindset.
How I would spend my retirement had been decided years earlier by Juicy Lucy, now a handsome woman my own age. We would live in the farmhouse, which over the intervening years had been slightly enlarged and significantly redecorated, a suitable home for Lucy and her seven daughters. Gretan’s grave had not been marked and had long since ceased to carry an overtone of that dismal time. Further trees were planted and the fields carried cattle and a couple of young mares for the children to ride.
That was another thing. Each year or so when my tours of duty returned to our hometown I became better acquainted with my growing retinue of daughters. In the beginning and in my conversations with Lucy it was always her daughters, but as time went on, slowly and in subtle ways it became our daughters. Of course in a strictly physical sense it was true to say our because they were as much mine as hers. But Lucy, both astute and patient, had the future mapped out long before I was even dimly aware of it. So by the time the word our took on its full and proper significance I was already reconciled to the fact that living with Lucy and her seven daughters was the only feasible option, anything else was unthinkable.
A casual observer might wonder how a Stud would manage the transition from impregnating fifteen hundred or more women a year to sudden retirement. In fact the difficulty is largely illusory. Unlike ordinary males, Studs are seldom bothered by hormonal urges alone, apart from the intense teenage years, and most are perfectly content to lead a celibate life if circumstances require it. Yet wherever females exist in their proximity there is always a low level of latent interest, ready to respond at once to the appropriate signals.
Lucy, aware of this, was discussing this with me just the other day. I said, “You have given no indication that you want to retire from intimacy with me, yet surely seven daughters is enough for anyone. Maybe now is the time to withdraw those globes back inside so that freedom can be expressed with safety.”
“Not so fast,” Lucy countered, “the older girls are at the right age to breed and that was my intention from the beginning.”
I must have looked surprised because she went on, “Incest has always been acceptable in the families of Studs and today is becoming increasingly fashionable amongst the families who consider themselves the upper-class. For the families of Studs, it’s one of the attractions of marrying one when he retires. Women still greatly outnumber men and the chances of our girls finding a suitable husband are not high. There is also competition for mating with a Stud through the Ministry so who would not jump at the chance to give their daughters a head start? And for the famililies of the so-called upper class who favour incest, this has arisen largely because the husband is often sterile and perhaps for this reason it is a statement of virility as much as anything else. Still for whatever reason, it’s become quite widespread.”
“What do our daughters have to say about this?”
“They are enthusiastic. Behaviour that is considered ‘acceptable’ in a society is after all, largely a matter of custom and conforming to rules that one’s peers accept also. It is also very much a matter of how children are brought up in the home. I have taken great care to encourage intimacy with the girls and between each other. They learned very early in life, the comfort and delight that a loving kiss and especially a prolonged kiss in intimate places could bring. So this behaviour is not only natural to them, but something they have adopted unconsciously as the right and proper way to behave at home.”
“I was not aware that you had prepared the ground so thoroughly. Was this only for the purpose of getting them accustomed to the concept of having children by me?”
“Not at all. The purpose was always to ensure intimacy and sexual pleasure as their birthright. It should be the birthright of the members of every family. But in patriarchical societies this natural loving instinct has been corrupted as a means of control, especially by religions.
At the risk of getting on a soapbox. It’s about power. Male power. It’s the way men control us, by demeaning, frightening and repressing us so that our natural instinct to love is subverted by threats of eternal damnation etc. You can guess the rest. Anyway, in this household feminine love rules supreme and for no other reason that to celebrate this natural state for its own sake.”
“Well then. That seems fairly definite. At the same time, I am no doubt very much a stranger to the girls, with visits fewer than once a year—how can it be otherwise? So don’t expect they will be falling over themselves in demonstrations of affection.”
“There you may be surprised. I have built you up in the girls’ eyes as a father of many desirable qualities—then of course there is the fascination of your being different from an ordinary man. No, I don’t think you’ll have much trouble in getting to know the girls, more likely you’ll be hard pressed to settle competing claims for your time.”
“You seem to have thought of everything. But have you considered the increased likelihood of defects arising from inbreeding?”
Lucy smiled. “There is a very small chance of that. I’ve already studied the literature. With Studs such problems are hugely diminished, and if it’s only one generation we are talking about then the risks are so small as to vanish as a practical concern. There is also another thing,” Lucy looked slightly coy.
“What is that?”
“You may as well know if you have not already suspected, that not all of my daughters are your daughters.”
“Ah, a suspicion confirmed. I thought some dates unlikely, especially dark-haired Tansu with the latin temperament. Who was he?”
“Another Stud who had also taken the trouble to favour daughters.”
“So let me see, there is Natasha, nineteen, nearly twenty. She seems a prime candidate for your plans, am I right?”
“Exactly so,” Lucy responded, “Natasha is at the peak of readiness you might say, and would welcome a boy, so you might find that mating with her to be very congenial.”
“A good point and a valuable one in her favour. Then Elise. She is now eighteen, right? I was just twenty-two at the time. How time has flown. Are you hoping to include Elise in your plans?”
“Of course. All the girls actually and although Kseniya, Tansu, Elva, Fawn and Gina are too young to be impregnated yet, all are keen to experience the joys of family intimacy.”
I was impressed at Lucy’s dedication to her ideals but asked, “Does this viewpoint sit comfortably with your family? I mean, the Major seemed to have definite ideas in earlier times and your mother also if I recall correctly.”
Lucy smiled, “Our family,” and here she meant her family, “consider ourselves to be very much the upper class, or at least the Major does.” She laughed at the recollection. Thing is, you weren’t family at the time which accounts for his discomfort.”