Free The Magus of Hay by Phil Rickman Page A

Sophie steepled her fingers. ‘So that’s why you didn’t come in.’
    ‘Seeing her off. Making sure she had everything she needed.’
    ‘Laurence on tour, Jane in a Pembrokeshire trench. You’re on your own. In that vast old vicarage.’
    ‘Me and the cat.’
    ‘Which doesn’t strike me as conducive to a recuperative frame of mind.’
    ‘I’m a grown-up, Sophie. Less afraid of ghosts than I used to be.’
    ‘I wasn’t thinking of ghosts. I was thinking of—’ The phone rang. Sophie picked up. ‘Yes, she is, but she’s in a meeting. Can I ask her to call you back when she comes out…? How are you now, by the way? Glad to hear it.’ Sophie sniffed. ‘Goodbye.’ She put the phone down, glaring at it. ‘Didn’t expect your friend Bliss to be back at work so soon, either.’
    ‘Oh. You sure he is?’
    ‘I don’t know. He seemed to resent me enquiring about his welfare. He wants you to call him back. On his mobile.’
    Bliss. His mobile. Just like old times. Bliss on the Gaol Street police car park so as not be overheard by Annie Howe or whichever senior officer had him on a short leash.
    ‘Anyway, you can do that later.’ Sophie pushed the phone away. ‘I’m sorry to sound as if I’m bossing you around, but after working with the clergy for over thirty years and seeing what’s happened, all too often, even to the most balanced of priests—’
    ‘Sophie—’
    ‘And that was in the days before multiple parishes and falling congregations. And without the extra spiritual and emotional burden of people who believe themselves paranormally afflicted.’
    ‘I’m not cracking up .’
    ‘If you knew how many times I’ve been told that by people trying to steer a vehicle without brakes. Look at Martin Longbeach.’
    ‘Martin Longbeach lost his partner. He had a breakdown, had to give up his parish…’
    ‘Having also lost his faith.’
    ‘ Mislaid his faith. And I’m not going to be smug enough to say I’d have held on to mine if anything had happened to Jane and Lol at Brinsop. And that’s— Since you bring it up, that’s another reason I can’t postpone the week off.’
    ‘What is?’
    Oh, this really wasn’t likely to go down well, but she had to know sometime.
    ‘Martin Longbeach is standing in for me.’
    ‘Assure me you’re joking,’ Sophie said.
    ‘He needs to get back in the saddle. For a trial period. When Jane was offered Pembrokeshire, I thought maybe I could join Lol somewhere, but then Danny’s with him, and wives and rock music don’t—’
    She felt her face colouring. Wives? Where the hell did that come from?
    Sophie didn’t appear to have heard.
    ‘Let me get this right. Martin Longbeach is taking over your services?’
    ‘And the rest. The original idea was he’d stay at the vicarage with Jane and me, and we’d go off during the day, but I’d be available to talk things over in the evening. So if he was experiencing any strain or felt he couldn’t go on…’
    ‘I’d assumed it would be Canon Callaghan-Clarke.’
    ‘She knows about it. She agrees with me that Martin’s a good guy and a good priest. She thinks it’s… that it could be a good idea.’
    ‘So now this… this leaves you and Longbeach living together ?’
    ‘Sophie, he’s gay…’
    ‘How bad can this get, Merrily? You’re taking a week off, but you’re not going anywhere, for the purpose of nursemaiding a notorious neurotic. You do know what Longbeach did ?’
    ‘I know what he’s said to have done.’
    ‘He should leave the area.’
    ‘Well, I actually think he’ll be a better priest if he stays here and works through it.’
    Sophie drew breath.
    ‘You exasperate me, Merrily.’
    ‘Evidently. In which case, perhaps now would be a good time to tell me exactly what Sylvia Merchant said about me.’
    Sophie didn’t move.
    ‘Sylvia Merchant is not in her right mind.’
    ‘It’s a big club. Come on, Sophie…’
    ‘She told me the whole atmosphere of the bedroom had altered in