Damme, what's this all about, Alan wondered groggily, still smarting from the kick in the ribs from the otherwise saintly seeming reverend. With his anus full of clothing, he was hustled upstairs in Morton's steely grasp. ’I must beg your forgiveness for striking him, Sir Hugo," the vicar said, gratefully accepting a brandy in the first-floor study. "I've not raised a fist in anger since I was twelve, but the utter audacity and cock-a-whoop gall of him quite overcame me.’

’I understand totally," Sir Hugo said without humor. "Perhaps if I had allowed my temper to break on him more often when he was young, we would not be engaged as we are tonight.’

’You did not strap him as a child?" the vicar asked. "Very rarely. He's a thoroughly spoiled young man," Sir Hugo said, pouring himself a glass. "You are new to the parish, so I must explain. In my youth, before I settled down from serving the King as a soldier, I was more forward than most with the young ladies. His mother was beautiful, my first love, a proper girl from a good family.’

The vicar made agreeable cooing noises, which Sir Hugo ignored. ’Before I went overseas, she and I consummated our love for each other, and then I lost touch with her, my letters returned or never answered. I was heartbroken," Sir Hugo muttered, looking only stem, but not in the least heartbroken. "By the time I had returned, and married someone else, I discovered that she had borne me a son. She had been turned out by her own family, and had died, little better than a prostitute, and that boy a pitiful parish waif. I could not refuse to own up to my sin, could I, Father?’

‘Well.. ‘. ’To atone for all, I took him in, you see.’

’A heavy burden brought about by the lust of the flesh, sir," the vicar said, now on familiar ground. "But a common one, I am sad to say. In these evil times in which we suffer before our admission to the higher reward..