[Dark Saint Alaick]

3. Welton Priory

It is sometimes impossible to fix the precise impulses that govern our actions. We think we are free agents yet those actions may have results we were far from foreseeing. Is it possible that Fate--or Providence--spins a web much wider than we imagine and our choice is part of it?

Roger Bennion might have found it difficult to say exactly why he had accepted the rather odd invitation to visit Welton Priory. Ewen Jones had been fairly honest with him. He felt some liking for the fellow, though he was still determined to get him out of the house to which he should never have been admitted. The fact that Ruth and their infant were to be away for a time and the prospect of some fishing carried weight. It might be amusing to see a political plot in the making and he was always interested in genuine old buildings. All these things influenced him but it may be that Fate--or Providence--wanted him there for the part he was to play in the early but unexpected future. Whether or not fore-knowledge would have deterred him it is impossible to say. Those who know him best may think it would have whetted his appetite for the startling and sensational.

Having seen Ruth and Penelope Ann well on the way to Penchester he turned his car towards the Priory which was in that charming part of the country where Sussex joins Hampshire. The residence--which he had been told had been built earlier than Hampton Court Palace--appeared smaller than he had expected. The elevation was of mellowed red brick and had tall gables and lofty twisted chimneys. As he approached it through a long and well-kept drive, with glimpses of pretty flower garden on either side, it certainly looked attractive. He was to learn later it was larger than he had thought, though smaller than it once had been. Most mansions that have lasted for centuries have undergone changes. Many have been added to by succeeding owners, often with architectural crime and conglomerate hideousness.