Roger's Father is a Brother

"Aren't friars supposed to be chaste?" Sarah says. Then she regrets it, as it seems rather rude to make a comment like that. However he doesn't seem to be offended. Perhaps friars don't have to be celibate in this world, she thinks.

"They are indeed supposed to refrain from sex," Roger says, disposing of that theory. "But evidently my father didn't. When my mother fell pregnant with me, my father was afraid of being thrown out of his order, and told my mother that if she went to his superiors he would deny everything and claim that the baby must be someone else's. Since she had no proof, she knew that to tell her story would achieve nothing and held her tongue. Shortly after that, and before I was born, my father moved to another part of the country. My mother was left to bring me up alone, as well as with the stigma of having given birth out of wedlock. As you might guess, I don't have a very high opinion of my father."

"It must have been tough for you as well as for your mother. I'm sorry."

"Thank you...

1. "As far as I know, I've never met my father. To go on with my story..."
2. "As fate would have it, I encountered my father just a couple of years ago, the first time I'd ever met him. My mother had told me his name, and it was uncommon enough that it had to be the same man. He was a prior by then."

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