Brian sighed, "Eileen, the Guards wouldn't give give that kind of thing to the tabloid papers. It's just the ravings of someone who is a bit upset. Disturbed even." that kind of thing to the tabloid papers. It's just the ravings of someone who is a bit upset. Disturbed even."

"Oh, well, then, I had better go straight to the papers," she said cheerfully.

"There's nothing between us, Eileen-"

"You're right. There's not now. Only a lot of hurt and disappointment," she said.

"There never was was anything. Anything at all." anything. Anything at all."

"Yes, I can see. It's all tidied away for you and you expect the same from me."

He spoke gently now. "There was nothing to to tidy away. I beg you, think back, think clearly." tidy away. I beg you, think back, think clearly."

"I'm very clear, thank you. Crystal clear. You've moved on, found someone else. But I owe it to her and the many others to go public on this." And she picked up her new handbag and flounced out of the coffee area.

Brian went back to his flat. He was dead tired. He needed to lie down and rest. Maybe an idea would come to him. Wasn't it sad to have lived this long and have no one to turn to? His own mother didn't recognize him. His sister would only say, "I warned you!" He couldn't ask the bishop, as His Grace would undoubtedly think that Brian had been somehow inappropriate.

He thought suddenly of James O'Connor, who had been ordained with him all those years ago. James was always so definite and certain. He had wanted to be a priest, a missionary even, but then he met this woman and he wanted to be a married man. Once he knew that was what he wanted, he set about it without a backward glance. He even managed to convince his parents that what he was doing was right. James was the man to consult.

And Johnny, who was always such a great, solid ma.s.s of common sense. Johnny had no time for nonsense. He once told Brian that he had never dreamed. He actually didn't know what people were talking about when they said they dreamed of this or that. He might well know what to do. Maybe they would be able to find a way out. As he was considering calling him, Brian got a phone call from Neddy Nolan.

"The most extraordinary thing, Brian. You know the way your mother often has a problem remembering who people are."

"Yeah, I do. Mainly Judy and myself."

"Well, she's convinced that you have left the priesthood and got married. She said she got a phone call telling her that your wedding is in Dublin next month and she wants to go to it."

"G.o.d Almighty."

"Well, I'm only telling you this, Brian, because she told Father Tomasz and he hit the roof. I tried to explain to Father that poor Mrs. Flynn has trouble sorting out fact from a kind of dream world, but I didn't do a good job. Father Tomasz has been here all morning asking me who could possibly have telephoned your mother. Then he kept saying 'bad bad woman' and a.s.sured me he did not mean your mother, so I didn't know what to do, you see ..."

Brian Flynn could see poor Neddy confused and trying to do what was best.

"So I asked Clare and she said I should call you myself. If you were were getting married, then you wouldn't mind us knowing and if you weren't, then you'd know what to do." getting married, then you wouldn't mind us knowing and if you weren't, then you'd know what to do."

"The answer is no no to everything, Neddy. No, I'm not getting married and no, I don't have any idea what to do." to everything, Neddy. No, I'm not getting married and no, I don't have any idea what to do."

"Tomasz?"

"Is that you, Brian? You heard?"

"Did she really ring and ask to speak to my mother?"

"Yes, she must have. The carer answered the phone and brought it in to Mrs. Flynn. This can't go on."

"I know it can't."

"Are you ready to talk to the police yet?"

"I'm ready," Brian said. But he wasn't ready to go alone. He needed an ally. And yet he himself was meant to be a priest of G.o.d, a man with strength and confidence. Where was it when he needed it most? And to think he had once thought it was hard and complicated living in Rossmore.

He took the train to visit his mother. He held her hand in his and said that once a priest, always a priest. The lady on the phone was just confused. It was a lady, wasn't it?

"Yes, a lady called Eileen. She said she was going to marry you, that you had got your papers from Rome and didn't want to tell me in case I would be upset."

"And what did you say, Mother?"

"I said I was happy to see you well out of the priesthood. But I pointed out that you were engaged to me, me, had given me a ring and that she was to get any ideas had given me a ring and that she was to get any ideas of her of her marrying you out of her head." marrying you out of her head."

Brian Flynn realized with a sense of defeat that within one paragraph his mother had slipped from knowing who he was to believing he was his father. There would be no further details about the phone call from Eileen. All was resentment now. Eileen was the enemy. The threat who might take his long-dead father away from the marital home.

Wearily he came home, back to Dublin, and let himself into the flat. There was a light on in the bedroom. He opened the door of the room and there on the bed was a bunch of red roses. And a note. The note enclosed a picture of Eileen lying there among those cushions with the soccer posters on the wall in what was undeniably his bedroom. Her letter said simply: Thank you for letting me be part of your life, your heart and your bed. I had always looked forward with hope and happiness to our future together. Perhaps it will still come to pa.s.s.Love always,Eileen There was no longer any time to wait for allies. Brian Flynn left his flat and walked purposefully to the Guards station. It wasn't going to be easy, but it had to be done. He was right in that it wasn't going to be easy. The desk sergeant was a small, foxy-looking man who had seen it all in his time. Priests wandering from the straight and narrow was part of the territory nowadays, he said. Often it was no more or no less than a vocation having ended, a new phase of life having begun.

With a very short fuse Brian listened to this man spouting nonsense.

"But where do you stand, Sergeant, when there isn't one word of truth in these allegations? This woman has told my friends, she has told everyone at the social center where I work and now even my mother, who is suffering from partial dementia down in Rossmore, that she and I are a number, an affair, even an impending marriage. Not one word of Not one word of this is true." this is true."

The sergeant glanced at the photograph of Eileen Edwards in the priest's bed. The e-mail he was alleged to have sent to this woman, the list of names and addresses: Father Tomasz, James O'Connor and Johnny Pea.r.s.e.

The glance said everything and hinted that despite the filing of a report, nothing was going to be done. The glance said this was a priest who had had a fling and had now changed his mind. For no reason Brian Flynn felt as if he were going to cry. He hadn't cried for a long time. But now everything seemed to be beyond him, like a swimmer heading for sh.o.r.e when sh.o.r.e was too far away. He might not make it. Perhaps he had had encouraged this woman. A tear fell down on the sergeant's desk. encouraged this woman. A tear fell down on the sergeant's desk.

The sergeant was not entirely unfeeling.

"Maybe you should just go home now. Think about it and if it's still preying on your mind, then you should get a lawyer and write to the young lady in question ..."

Brian scooped up all his belongings and returned them to the canvas bag he used for his shopping. It had a logo on it: TAKE CARE OF THE EARTH. TAKE CARE OF THE EARTH. As he left the Guards station, Brian thought to himself that he was doing his best to take care of the earth, but it wasn't working out very well. As he left the Guards station, Brian thought to himself that he was doing his best to take care of the earth, but it wasn't working out very well.

"Ania, will you come for a pint in Corrigans tonight?" Johnny asked when Ania came into his cardiac fitness room with the forms the patients were meant to fill out every session.

"Not if you want me to talk to Father Brian," she said.

"But why, Ania? He's such a good guy, for a druid-well, by any standards really."

"A druid?" Ania asked, puzzled.

"Forget it. It's just a sort of insulting word for a priest."

"Right, good. A druid, is that it?"

"No, that's not important. The bit you are to remember is that he's a good guy."

"He's not a good guy, Johnny. I thought he was, but he is not."

"Why do you say that? Did somebody say something against him?"

"No, but I saw his girlfriend in his bed, lying there as bold as bronze."

"Bra.s.s," Johnny corrected.

"What?"

"You say as bold as bra.s.s, not bronze. Did she speak to you?"

"Of course she did."

"And was it Eileen Edwards, the one we call Goldilocks?"

"You know that it was. You all protect him. You're as bad as he is."

"But it's all lies, Ania. Every word of it."

"Not what I saw. That wasn't lies. She was lying in his bed, Johnny."

"How did she get in?"

"He gave her the key."

"He swears there's only one other key and you have it," Johnny said.

"He surely is not saying that I let her in?"

"No, but could she have taken your key?"

"No, she could not do that. It's in my handbag."

"And she couldn't have got at your handbag. She's very mad, you know."

"No, she would not have been alone with my bag ..." Ania stopped. "Unless, of course ..."

Johnny leaped at this. "Unless what?"

"No, it was impossible. She called in one day when I was doing the ironing. Father Brian wasn't in. She asked me to make her a cup of tea ..."

"And you left your bag ..."

"Only for a small moment."

"But you did leave it in the same room?"

"I was not expecting that she would open my bag ..."

"No, none of us were expecting this ...and she probably put it back in your bag next day at the center when she had made a copy."

"She was very much at home there in Father Brian's house."

"In her mind she was, Ania. She is really mad, you know."

"I know that she is dangerous," Ania said.

"That too," Johnny agreed. "Please come tonight. Brian needs his friends."

"I was going to have an English lesson," Ania said.

"Sure, don't you speak better English than any of us. Come to Corrigans, please," please," he said. he said.

And Ania said that she would ring and cancel her English lesson. Carl would understand.

"I have learned one new word anyway today," she said cheerfully.

"What's that?" Johnny asked.

"Droo-id, a word for a priest," she said proudly. a word for a priest," she said proudly.

Johnny put his head in his hands.

That night they all sat openmouthed in Corrigans while Brian told the whole tale, showed the photograph and eventually had a cry with big, heaving shoulders. Johnny ran to get him a brandy. This had gone beyond pints. Ania cried with him at the unfairness of life and out of shame that she had ever doubted him. James O'Connor said the one thing about being a schoolteacher was that you knew the first thing to do with anything was to make a list of what to do now.

They dried their tears, sipped their drinks and planned what to do. Could they get a private detective to follow Eileen to see where she went and perhaps to find her family? That way they might find out a bit more about her.

How would they find one? In the cla.s.sified directories? Maybe the security man who worked with Johnny and Ania at the heart clinic might know someone in that line of business. James wrote down "Ask Tim for contact." But then it might cost huge money, which none of them had. They couldn't follow her themselves, as she would recognize them.

"Lidia, the girl I share a flat with-she could do it. She works in a bar and is very confident," Ania said enviously. She knew Lidia could cope with anything that life threw at her. James wrote down "Discuss matter with Lidia." There were further options: "Talk to bishop," could do it. She works in a bar and is very confident," Ania said enviously. She knew Lidia could cope with anything that life threw at her. James wrote down "Discuss matter with Lidia." There were further options: "Talk to bishop,"

"Go to someone higher in the police force,"

"Set up a pet.i.tion,"

"Get a journalist to tell Father Brian's side of things,"

"Tell everyone she's mad and ignore her." None of their ideas seemed very good. The best hope was Lidia.

Lidia was bemused when Ania came into her pub with three men in tow. She was even more astounded when she took her break to sit with them and realized what they wanted her to do.

"Is this some kind of a joke, Ania?" She spoke in English out of courtesy to the others, but Ania answered in Polish to show how serious it was.

"This is our only hope to save a good man. You must help us- you must."

"But suppose it's not what you think-" Lidia began.

Brian interrupted. "Please believe me. This is a lot to ask you, but without your help we have no hope at all."

"But the government, the Church, the law? They cannot punish you if you are innocent."

"If it were only as easy as that, Miss Lidia, then believe me we would not be here wasting your time." Brian looked very defeated.

"What do I have to do?" Lidia asked.

The first thing the little committee asked her to do was to follow Eileen back to the big apartment block where she lived. She had told tales of how wonderful the commissionaire was, a real sweetie, she said, who would do anything for you. Eileen had said she was friendly with a lot of the people and sometimes went to their little drinks parties.