I had a great time on the Feast Day of Saint Wite but unfortunately so did Harry. I was conflicted. He didn't tell me that he had joined the Wheaters. I couldn't prove it, but I suspected that he had revealed the secret of my issues with coffee. But I felt marvellous.
In the end I decided to hang loose but to carry on keeping his tackle under lock and key. Everything in the pub returned to something approaching normal.
One evening I made my usual entrance into the bar, smiled and looked around. Most of the usual suspects were there. Sitting with Ted was a woman. She was quite a bit younger than him, but slightly older than me, with blonde hair much of which showed the start of turning grey. Her face was sun tanned and had the apple round shape that you often find in these parts.
While it's not unheard of to have a woman in my pub but it was very unusual. It's not something I encourage. When Ted saw me he smiled broadly and gestured for me to join them.
"This is my wife, Volet," said Ted proudly.
"Vi", the woman said in an accent not quite Dorset and not quite Australian as she reached out to shake my hand.
"You got married again, Ted?" I asked.
"No, this is my wife who went to Australia."
I stopped myself saying any of the first ten thoughts that went through my head.
"Ted has spoken about you but I never thought that I'd meet you," I said.
"What brings you back here after all this time?"
"There's no need to be polite, dear. I know what you must think.
"I needed to see Ted and the farm again but mostly I wanted to talk with you, dear."
"Me, I can't think why."
"I wanted to tell you a lot of things that Ted never could or never would.
"I have no right to ask but do you think that we could speak privately?"
I don't know why but I felt like I knew her from somewhere and that I liked her.
"Shall we go upstairs? I'm sure that my husband, Harry, can manage without me for a while."
When we were seated in my lounge, I asked if she would care for a drink. She said that she would take a dry sherry, if I had one. I remember thinking how old fashioned it sounded.
She started to recount her story.
"Although Ted and I have been separated for a long time now we have always kept in touch. I really hope that you don't mind but Ted told me that you and I are the only two women alive who know the secrets of Yew Tree Farm. The deeper secrets, I mean. If I may, I would like to share some of my history."
I was intrigued but I said, "Only if you'd like to."
Violet started her story.
"Whitchurch Canonicorum is where I was born. At birth I was given the name of Candida, which is the latinised name of Saint Wite, but I preferred to be called Violet.
"When I married Ted I took to the way of life at the farm straight away. I'd always been a physical girl, if you know what I mean, and I really enjoyed the ceremonies. It made me feel it was perfectly proper and normal to be had by lots of men. There was never any feeling of guilt. I just felt a connection with all the women who had ridden The Hoss before.
"As the years went by it was obvious that I was never going to have children. If one man didn't get you pregnant that was one thing but if six men were having a go on a regular basis that was another. I didn't mind, it meant that I could just carry on regardless."
I butted in, "Before that, what happened when the farmer's wife got pregnant?"
Vi chuckled and said, "In the book there is a list of Wise Women in the district. They always knew couples who had tried for babies without success. Wives would just appear in disguise. I'm sure that their husbands thought that they were being given some sort of magic potion and, in some ways I guess, they were. Ted's mother told me that the 'Wise Woman' herself would temporarily step in if she didn't have anyone else. Very noble, she thought."
She went on, "Gradually, the farm changed. It wasn't anyone's fault, Ted did all he could to resist. His mother died which didn't help. Farming became more mechanised. Slowly the number of farmhands was reduced and eventually we had to let the last four go.
"I felt as if my world had ended. Ted tried, but I don't believe that one man can approach The Hoss successfully. God knows he did his best every night. I enjoyed it but I was always left feeling disappointed. We both knew that the other one wasn't happy but we tried to keep it to ourselves.
"Then Ted started to scour the local towns and villages at night. Sometimes he would return with one or two men that he had persuaded to fuck his wife. Often he would come home battered and bruised when he had approached the wrong man. I know I sound ungrateful, but it just wasn't regular enough for me.
"One morning things changed. Two Australian backpackers stumbled across the farm. They were hiking around England picking up employment where they could. They wanted to know if Ted had any work for them.
"For ten days they would do tasks around the farm, I would prepare meals for them and, at night, all three of them would strap me to The Hoss.
"They raved about my cooking and my fanny but eventually they talked about moving on. I guess they knew how devastated I was.
"Then one of them had an idea. He said that last year they had been making their way around Oz. They had worked on a cattle station for a while. The guys there had taken it in turn to do the cooking and it was always rank. The bloke that owned the place wanted to get a proper cook in but could never find anyone.
"He thought that both of us could get a job there. Before they left they gave Ted the address.
"For about a week me and Ted talked it over. About what we wanted and what we didn't want, our pasts, our feelings, and everything.
"In the end it was obvious that Ted couldn't leave the farm and that I couldn't stay. He really didn't want to lose me but he knew what was best for me.
"Ted helped me write the letter. I told them about my cookery and my farming experience. I insisted that they knew up front what I was hoping to get from the job so I put down my hobbies as 'Being Fucked'.
"I got the job.
"Ted gave me money for the flights and enough to get home again if it didn't work out plus quite a bit more.
"The parting was awful.
"The journey was so stressful. It took days. Three flights and then a day's trip overland. I couldn't believe the contrast. I knew it wasn't going to be like Dorset but I wasn't prepared for the dryness. How did they ever raise cattle there?
"I was welcomed warmly by the stockmen at the Sundowner. Everyone was so friendly except the owner; he was drunk and unpleasant all of the time. The boys were grateful to have good food and wolfed down everything that I put in front of them. It was mostly beef.
"After three days of full bellies their thoughts turned to other things. I was glad but nervous.
"I couldn't believe there was no ceremony, no structure. Everyone just did what they wanted. The owner went first. He wanted me to lay on a bed. He got on top of me and as he came he pulled his dick out and sprayed all over me. Then someone else did the same, he tried to get my ankles next to his ears. Spunk was going everywhere but the right place. I had a prick in my mouth which ended with cum getting in my hair. Why someone would want to put their John Thomas in my bottom, I really don't know. He decided that was a good place to shoot. I had five men and I hardly shook once and it was the shaking I liked best.
"I stopped them before anyone else could fuck me in another silly way. I sent everyone out of the sleeping house except for the two oldest blokes. I told them that I thought it was disgusting. I told them how we did things back home. One of the men, Bruce, said he had an old stockman's saddle, some harness and lumber. He said he could build something like what I had described if it would make me happier. I said I would like that but only if I could pay him for it. He was OK with it. Part of the price was him having first go.
"It wasn't The Hoss but at least it was civilised. I limited the number each night and once they got used to the idea I think that the boys preferred it.
"After about a week the owner became more difficult, his drunkenness had increased, and he seemed to think he had some sort of rights over what I did in my spare time.
"Bruce, who had built my contraption for me, said that I was silly to carry-on with it. He thought that if we loaded it onto his truck we could go from station to station and make real money.
"He offered to pay me to work for him. I may be a simple country girl but I ain't wooden headed. So we arranged that he would work for me.
"It wasn't until we reached the first cattle station that I realised that the one we'd been working on was very small and badly run. Some stations are huge.
"We soon got a routine going. We would pull into each new station. I would announce what was going to happen then we would auction ten numbered tickets. I would get strapped on while the ticket holders each had a turn in order. Everyone else who wanted to watch had to purchase a ticket for the show. Then we'd move on. Sometimes it would take a day or so to reach the next station.
"After 18 months I had made enough money to go back and buy the Sundowner. By then the owner had slipped so far into his drunkenness that he had no interest in the station. I got it for a good price.
"I put Bruce in charge of the cattle side of things and I concentrated on getting the homestead straight, cooking, and looking after the welfare of my boys. There were only eleven of the stockmen left on the station. The others had just drifted away over the last year or so. My main priority was making sure that no more wanted to leave. I saw to it that they were paid on time and that there was a good hot meal at the end of the day. As an extra incentive I put a brass token into each of the wage packets every week. After supper in the evening I would go out into the mess room and get strapped to the contraption. The boys could choose to redeem their token at any point during the week. That way the fucking got spread out more evenly.
