Page 49 of Heart of the Wren
“This village doesn’t want men like you and Lorcan.” He was well used to speaking in his little church and knew exactly how his voice would carry. “You’ve brought out a bad side of him, right enough, but it was there all along. Stay away from him and there will be no need for me to take any further action.”
The gall of the man made my blood boil. I wondered how many other men he’d spoken to in that way. How many women. The church’s insistence on wedging itself into the private lives of Irish people, to control every aspect of them with calculated malice, was a defilement I could never bear. I lingered under the pointed-arched door of the entrance, reminding myself of my spiritual path and how harming another person was not what my goddess wanted for me. But the universe had laws of its own. I tapped my fingertips. “Walk with grace, Father, for what we give returns threefold.”
Chapter 30
LORCAN
“I’VE A favour to ask.” I popped up the collar of my shirt and put my tie around my neck. “Will you come to mass this morning?”
Dara finished tying his boot laces. “I don’t really—”
“I know. I know you don’t.” I fixed the knot at my throat. “But… I don’t feel right. I had funny dreams all night about crowds of people with sticks. I don’t want to leave you alone here.”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
Wearing my best trousers and shirt, I found my goodtweed blazer at the back of the wardrobe. “You might be fine but I don’t know if I will.”
“What will Father McDonagh do if he sees us there together?” The tip of Dara’s tongue stuck out a bit. “I don’t know if he’ll appreciate seeing me again after our chat.”
I slipped my arm into the sleeve of my blazer. “When did you talk to him?”
“After Bullseye left yesterday, I took myself into the village and went to the church.”
I fixed my collar in the mirror. “What for?”
He scratched at his neck. “I wanted to make it clear to Father McDonagh how I wasn’t going to be around long enough to be a problem for him or for the village. And how he should stop spreading rumours about you.” He fetched a tin box from his rucksack. “In fact, I made—”
“Hang on, why didn’t you tell me you’d spoken to him?”
The tip of his tongue made another appearance. “I didn’t think I had to. I didn’t want to upset you.”
“I’m not upset.”
“No, you seem fine, alright.”
I didn’t know how I felt, at first. “I don’t need you to fight my battles for me.”
He sat on the bed again. “I was trying to help.”
My stomach dropped. “I… I know you were. I’m sorry. It took me by surprise. I don’t trust him and I don’t like having him in my life.”
“Which is why—” He opened the tin box. “—I made this.” He held up a small wax doll with a prominent nose and a cross carved into the chest.Crude it may have been but I could tell right away who it represented.
“A voodoo doll?”
Dara’s eyes shot open as if I’d slapped him across the mouth. “It’s not a voodoo doll. It’s a poppet! Witches use them in sympathetic magic. We create an effigy of a person and use it to cast spells.”
“Like a voodoo doll,” I said.
“You’re being very offensive to my people.” He closed his eyes in mock indignation but his grin gave him away. He took a length of twine and shimmied his shoulders. I’d seen him do it a few times before and knew he was getting ready for magic.
“I bind you, Father McDonagh, from speaking of Lorcan Fitzgerald.” He repeated the line three times, once for each turn of twine around the poppet’s mouth.
“Will it work?” I wasn’t entirely sure I liked the idea of him doing magic on my parish priest.
“If my will is stronger than his, it should.” He put the doll back into the tin. “Mind you, it would work better if I could hide it in the church…”
I took the tin and set it on my chest of drawers. “Ah, no, I don’t think so. Imagine what would happen if you’re caught?”
