‘Kier?’ Abi froze.
‘Your father gave me the number. How are you?’ He paused and when she didn’t answer he went on. ‘Things are not going well here. I’m not very happy, Abi. I thought you should know. The bishop has suspended me.’
‘Because of what you did to me?’
‘Of course. He thinks I should take time out to consider my behaviour.’ He gave a weak laugh. ‘So, what did you tell him about me, exactly?’
‘Only the truth, Kier. That I couldn’t work with you any more. That I wanted to leave. It wasn’t all your fault, and he knows that. I realised that I no longer had a calling to the priesthood. Perhaps I never did.’
Hearing Abi’s tone Cal turned off the tap and put down the kettle. She ran her finger across her throat. Hang up!
Abi shrugged and shook her head. ‘Kier, I am truly sorry, but the bishop knows best. If he thinks you should take a break -’
‘They’ve brought in someone else to look after the parish. They have told them I’m not well. Sandra thought I must have cancer.’ He gave a strange, humourless laugh. ‘You have ruined my career, Abi. Did you set out to do that? To seduce me? To use magical powers to draw me in?’ His voice was tight and oddly expressionless.
Abi opened her mouth to retort and found no words came. She was literally speechless.
‘I suspected as much when I heard what you were doing in the parish,’ he went on. ‘I tried to understand, to give you leeway, but you just used the time to condemn yourself more. I have told him about all that. Your healing powers, your magical passes, your spells and potions.’
‘What spells and potions?’ Abi stammered at last. ‘What on earth are you talking about!’
‘Don’t pretend not to know,’ Kier went on. ‘That was how you drew me in, didn’t you. You probably put something in my drink. And The Bishop knows it. After all, he hasn’t moved you to another parish, has he. He’s suspended you too. You will go before a consistory court to explain what you’ve been doing, I shall see to that. I’m afraid you will be unfrocked, Abi. You may even go to prison, but I will support you. You know I will -’
Abi slammed down the phone. She was shaking. ‘OK.’ Cal came over to her. ‘Sit down. I got the gist of that, the man was speaking so loudly. This is your ex-colleague, Kieran, I gather, and he thinks you’re a witch?’ Suddenly Cal’s face creased with laughter. ‘I’m sorry, Abi, but this is ludicrous. This is the twenty-first century, for goodness sake!’ She broke off, seeing Abi’s expression. ‘Oh no, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have laughed. Of course I shouldn’t. This is your career, but truly, he sounded completely off his rocker!’
‘My career doesn’t matter any more.’ Abi had sat down at the table. Her hands were shaking. ‘I have tried to give in my resignation. I expect now it will be accepted with alacrity.’ She gave a small bitter laugh. ‘It’s just so damn wrong! A bigoted, sexist man shouldn’t have the power to ruin someone’s life. I might have been a good priest but I never got the chance to find out. We were warned there were a lot of people out there who would try and bring us down just because we were women, we were even warned from time to time people would mention witchcraft, but we all laughed; we thought it was a joke. That happened at the beginning, not now there have been women priests for ages. I never expected this.’
‘Why did David send you to that parish in the first place?’ Cal asked. She switched on the kettle and then came and sat down opposite Abi. ‘He must have known what Kieran was like.’
Abi shrugged. ‘I suppose the matter hadn’t arisen before. His last curate was a man.’ She paused. ‘He had a nervous breakdown, I gather, but that was due to overwork.’ Hesitating, she sniffed and groped for a tissue. ‘You know, this started because I was a healer. I trained before I went into the ministry and I went on using the skills I had developed. That’s where the idea that I was practising witchcraft came from. Stupid, stupid man!’
Cal shook her head. ‘My dear, he won’t be the first man to claim a woman has used magical arts to lure him in against his will. It’s a way of saving face. “She used witchcraft to get her wicked way with me, my lord, but when I saw her for what she was I backed off and came to my senses,”. For that read: “She couldn’t stand me pawing at her and she rejected me and I can’t believe that anyone would say no to me as I’m such a gorgeous specimen, so she’s either mad or bad!”’ She smiled.
‘Abi laughed. ‘Thanks. You’ve made me feel a lot better.’
She looked up sadly and frowned suddenly. There was someone else in the room with them. A figure, swathed in a brown cloak, was standing watching her, halfway between the door and the window, her eyes fixed on Abi’s.
‘Mora!’ Abi leaped up, pushing her chair back so hard it fell over.
Abi, what is it?’ Cal stood up too, alarmed.
The figure had gone.
‘Did you see her?’ Abi’s voice was shaking. She pointed. ‘There. Did you see?’
Cal stared round anxiously. ‘I couldn’t see anything. Not one of the Romans? Not in here?’ She backed towards the window.
‘The healer from the college. One of the druids.’ Abi’s mouth had gone dry.
For a moment Cal said nothing. She was glancing round the room. There was nothing there. ‘Tea,’ she said firmly at last. She reached for the caddy from a shelf. ‘Sit down again, Abi. You are overwrought and I’m not surprised.’
‘She must have heard me. Perhaps she understood.’
‘You mean she’s come with the sympathy vote?’ Cal smiled tentatively. ‘Poor old Abi. Look, don’t answer the phone again. Leave it for one of us or the answer machine. The last thing you want is that vile man threatening you.’ She poured water into the teapot. ‘Shall I call Ben? He should know about this.’
‘About Mora?’
‘About Kieran.’
‘You don’t believe I saw her, do you.’
‘I know you think you did. It’s just -’ Cal hesitated. ‘No-one has ever seen them indoors before, Abi. But that doesn’t mean they can’t come in. I believe you. Of course I do. You appear to be very psychic. Far more so than I am.’
‘I wasn’t making it up.’ Abi bit her lip. ‘But on the other hand, she was only there for a fraction of a second. It could have been a trick of the light, I suppose. I don’t know. I’m just so confused.’ She put her head in her hands.
‘Drink this.’ Cal pushed a cup and saucer over towards her. ‘And try to stop worrying.’
‘Did Bishop David tell Ben I had lost it?’ Abi raised her head and looked up at Cal. ‘Was Kier right? Is that why I’m here?’
‘No.’ Cal took a deep breath. ‘Look, I don’t know if I’m supposed to tell you this, I thought perhaps you knew it anyway, but the reason you’ve been sent here to us, and to Ben, is to try and keep you in the church. The bishop thinks you are too valuable as a priest to lose.’
Abi gave a little snort. ‘Somehow I don’t believe that.’
Cal shrugged. ‘Up to you. I can’t believe that after one call from that odious man you’ve been reduced to a quivering jelly!’
Abi smiled. ‘My mother called him oleaginous.’
‘Good for your mother! Come on, Abi. Where’s your backbone! You don’t strike me as the type to cave in at the first fence!’
There was a moment’s silence. Abi took a deep breath. ‘You’re right. I’m sorry. I have to stand up for myself. It just shows, doesn’t it, what men do to us women if we’re not careful.’
Cal sat down opposite Abi again, studying her face with care. ‘Talk to Ben about all this. He is a genuinely good man. He’s very experienced in counselling people. I know it’s trendy to denounce counsellors but some of them do an awful lot of good.’
Abi nodded. ‘I will. I’ll ring him now.
Mora was standing lost in thought. It had happened before, this strange feeling that she had slipped somehow into another world. Lost in her own meditations, alone as she walked the fields and hills, or sat beside the waters of the fen, listening to the soft whisperings of the reed beds she would suddenly be aware of other people nearby. Other people in another world; not nature spirits, not gods, not souls of the ancestors, people just like her, going about their own business, unaware of her. Until now. Now there was another woman there in that world. A woman who had looked up and seen her. She was half afraid, half intrigued. This was a special place, a place where physical worlds conjoined, the territories of three tribes, all neighbours, all respectfully standing back from this
