The Priory of Finchelsea XIX
"Dr. Llewellyn Pryce-Rees-Evans-Jones was your uncle?" Lil exclaimed.
"Yes. He... he practically brought me up after my parents were killed in a car crash."
Was she expecting sympathy? Lil wondered. If so, she'd come to the wrong irritated academic. After all, Kathy had had a family member to bring her up, and her parents had died in a tragic accident. Lil had watched helplessly as her only relative, her Dad, was gunned down in front of her. She wasn't the place to go for sympathy.
"So, did he tell you why he wanted to see me?"
"We... we drifted apart in the last few years. It... It was kind of sensitive. One summer, when I was at university... I came home to his house in Wales early. There were a dozen cars outside, and I went in. The house seemed deserted, but... I went into the great hall - he lived in a Medieval manor house - and I saw a ring... of masked people. They held orbs, and there was a man... he was stark naked, and I realised it was my uncle! He was... with..."
"Hieros Gamos, lass," Sir Richard observed laconically.
"'Sacred marriage?'"
"Of course. Well, that's what they call it. Lil here would describe it as a bizarre neopagan sex ritual, and she'd be right. Some of the ancients believed that the sex act was the key to union with the Divine. When I say ancients, of course, I refer to some aristocratic Victorian persons in the decade commonly known as the Naughty Nineties. They were completely bonkers, of course, not to mention as batty as a bloke who believes he's a poached egg, but what can you do? Still, the idea was the union of the male and the female..."
"But there wasn't a woman there! It was a sheep."
"A sheep!" Sir Richard exclaimed in disgust. "Goats and monkeys! My dear Kathy, what you witnessed must have been Welsh Rite Hieros Gamos, which is frankly even more revolting than the original, and is banned in every civilized country and quite a few countries that aren't civilized, including France. So your uncle was involved in that sort of thing. Lilian, I'm glad you didn't go to meet him."
"So am I. I'd probably have killed him myself!"
"But the question is, what organisation was it to which Dr Llewellyn Pryce-Rees-Evans-Jones belonged?" Sir Richard posed the question, and Lil started to think about it.
"Yes. He... he practically brought me up after my parents were killed in a car crash."
Was she expecting sympathy? Lil wondered. If so, she'd come to the wrong irritated academic. After all, Kathy had had a family member to bring her up, and her parents had died in a tragic accident. Lil had watched helplessly as her only relative, her Dad, was gunned down in front of her. She wasn't the place to go for sympathy.
"So, did he tell you why he wanted to see me?"
"We... we drifted apart in the last few years. It... It was kind of sensitive. One summer, when I was at university... I came home to his house in Wales early. There were a dozen cars outside, and I went in. The house seemed deserted, but... I went into the great hall - he lived in a Medieval manor house - and I saw a ring... of masked people. They held orbs, and there was a man... he was stark naked, and I realised it was my uncle! He was... with..."
"Hieros Gamos, lass," Sir Richard observed laconically.
"'Sacred marriage?'"
"Of course. Well, that's what they call it. Lil here would describe it as a bizarre neopagan sex ritual, and she'd be right. Some of the ancients believed that the sex act was the key to union with the Divine. When I say ancients, of course, I refer to some aristocratic Victorian persons in the decade commonly known as the Naughty Nineties. They were completely bonkers, of course, not to mention as batty as a bloke who believes he's a poached egg, but what can you do? Still, the idea was the union of the male and the female..."
"But there wasn't a woman there! It was a sheep."
"A sheep!" Sir Richard exclaimed in disgust. "Goats and monkeys! My dear Kathy, what you witnessed must have been Welsh Rite Hieros Gamos, which is frankly even more revolting than the original, and is banned in every civilized country and quite a few countries that aren't civilized, including France. So your uncle was involved in that sort of thing. Lilian, I'm glad you didn't go to meet him."
"So am I. I'd probably have killed him myself!"
"But the question is, what organisation was it to which Dr Llewellyn Pryce-Rees-Evans-Jones belonged?" Sir Richard posed the question, and Lil started to think about it.
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