Chapter Nine
Alignment
Over time and with permission from the local government, Casco renovated the fort’s ancient structure, reinforced the walls and then proceeded to design and build what was to become his home away from home; a pleasant historical retreat with no neighbors in a quiet area designated by the province as a game preserve. Because his fortress was build long before the game preserve was even thought of, he was grandfathered in as the sole tenant with perpetual rights of occupancy and access, all for an annual tax that was supposedly for the access road to be maintained but was, in fact, a bribe to keep the local bureaucrats at bay. But that’s another story.
On the day he summoned his women to the great room, he sat in a comfortable chair with a long carting whip by his s
