Page 21 of Intimately Faithful

“Dear lord above!” A womanly voice cried from the hallway. Her white hair caught up in a tight bun about as pale as her face. Aoife equally startled and relieved that it wasn’t a mafia hitman come to kill her dead.

She sagged against the wall and exhaled finally.

“Who are you? What are you doing in Pastor Murphy’s house in a towel and why are you holding his cricket bat?”

All superb questions, Aoife thought.

Only she couldn’t answer.

She’d caught the nervous giggles so quickly she let the bat go, dropping it on the carpet with a thump and held Misha in two hands while she collapsed almost down to her knees. Laughing hard.

When they finally subsided she was faced with the same older lady standing right where she’d stopped mid-way up the stairs looking at Aoife as if she had grown a third head.

Misha chose that exact moment to start peeing. The warm liquid soaked through her towel and then Aoife’s. She laughed again and kissed the baby’s head. “Thanks a lot, I really wanted to be peed on today.” She turned her eyes to the woman. Primly dressed in a pair of black pants and a multi-colored blouse.

“Hi. I’m Aoife. Don’t try to spell it, no one ever can. You just have to know it’s pronounced Ee-fa. And this little one who just peed on me like a princess with no manners, is Misha. She’s four months old on Saturday and she likes to burp and cause trouble.”

Blinking, the old woman looked between the pair of towel clad bodies and then cleared her voice. It was obvious she must be thinking the worst. “I’m Cora, the housekeeper here. You’re Irish like Pastor Murphy? That doesn’t explain why you’re in his house… dressed like that.”

“This old thing?” Sassy Aoife made an appearance… it had been a while … “I just threw it on this morning,” when she didn’t get the laugh she expected, she sobered and cleared her throat. “Danny is helping us out for a few days. I didn’t expect anyone after he left, or we would be dressed. Excuse me.” Without further ado, she turned on her heels and got back to the bedroom as fast as she could.

“See the trouble you and your peeing has caused,A stóirín..” She whispered with a grin at the baby batting her little fists. She tended to the baby first, before she pulled on her own clothes and went through the process of detangling her hair. It was made much harder without a hairbrush.

Using Danny’s comb felt intimate and about nine billion times harder.

A lot ofunrulyhair.

By the time she headed downstairs to make some food, it was a good half an hour later.

She found Cora in the kitchen. A tray of toast, tea and food for Misha sat in the middle of the table.

“The pastor left me a note. I’m sorry if I scared you. You gave me a fright too.” The woman appeared to be in her fifties, gestured to the table. “I thought you’d want something warm making for the wee one. Isn’t she a pretty little thing,” she smiled. “I can make eggs if you want something else.”

Stunned, Aoife sat on autopilot, tested the oatmeal before offering the spoon to Misha who grabbed on like a savage. She’d always been such a good baby for eating, especially now she was weaning to solid food. “Thank you, you didn’t have to. This is very nice.”

“It’s no trouble whatsoever. It’s what I’m here for.”

“What did Danny’s… eh, pastor Murphy’s note say?”

Cora paused in her task of what looked like emptying the entire contents of the fridge onto the counter. She moved things into little piles and then started cleaning the inside. “That he has a houseguest and not to scare you with my morning singing. Though, I should warn you, he likes to play the guitar really badly. He also said you have a baby and to help with food.”

She found herself smiling. “He still plays? He never was any good. If you ask him, he’d say he was better than Clapton.”

Cora chuckled. “The choir adore him, or they would have told him a long time ago.”

Suddenly desperate to hear stories of this Danny the people of Armado Springs knew, she had to bite into the toast to stop from begging Cora to tell her everything Danny related.

“Have you worked here long?” She asked instead.

Misha finished drinking and was in her usual sleepy coma while Aoife burped her and then laid her in her arms to snooze. She should lay her down or the little miss would get so spoiled, but she loved holding her.

“Ever since the pastor arrived. About four weeks after actually. The old housekeeper to the previous pastor retired and pastor Murphy was looking for someone to upkeep the day to day running of the house.”

“Don’t you call him Danny?”

“Oh, dear no.” she smiled across at Aoife. And though she didn’t know the woman, she liked her. She trusted her instincts and Danny’s. Cora went on. “He’s stopped trying to get me to use his name. He’s pastor Murphy to me. A man of his position deserves respect. He’s done wonders for the community. He’s the first one to help and we’ve had an increase in people coming to the church.”

Aoife chuckled. “I just bet. It’s that face.”

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