Free Never an Empire by James Green Page B

Already?
    â€˜I am in your house and even if you haven’t noticed it I’m a woman.’
    â€˜But you don’t count. You are my housekeeper.’
    Maria laughed.
    â€˜And priests don’t ever share a bed with their housekeeper?’
    He was as shocked as he was surprised.
    â€˜Is that what people think? But they can’t: you’re old enough to be my mother.’
    Maria laughed again, but this time it was the laughter of derision.
    â€˜Yes, old enough, but that would make no difference if you needed a woman. When Carmen came to your bed you discovered a man’s cock can get bigger than his brain. That was something new and you liked it, but now you’ll also find it isn’t so easy for a man to do without it. It’s your choice: sex with me and no tongues will wag or bring her back, have sex with her, and let them say what they will.’
    Father Enrique was appalled. Take Maria into his bed and do with her what he had done with Carmen. It didn’t bear thinking about, not even for a second.
    â€˜That is a dreadful thing to suggest, Maria, a dreadful and deeply sinful thing.’
    â€˜Oh, so you’re a priest again, are you? Stopped being a weak man blubbering because he can’t have his way with a pretty woman? Well, I’ll tell you something, priest, it was the Church that ordained you and made you what you are and that same Church told you that a priest had to play the eunuch and couldn’t have a woman, not any woman. Well, if it’s a sin the Church can have its sin, but before the Church made you a priest God made you a man and God made women for men and men for women. That’s God’s way even if it isn’t the Church’s, so now you have to choose, sleep with Carmen and think of it like a priest as a sin, or sleep with her and think of it like a man, something from God, his gift to all men and women.’
    And she took up the knife and fork, put them on the plate, and left him to his thoughts.
    Father Enrique had been a bright student, but he had never come up against such a proposition as Maria had put before him nor, he knew, could he ever have come up with it. He was impressed. She had put it so succinctly, so clearly, and so compellingly. He wiped the last tears from his eyes and thought about it. It was what he had been struggling to find for himself all morning. By day he could still be a priest, a good and holy priest, and by night he could be a man, a good and loving man. He stood up and went to the kitchen.
    â€˜Maria?’
    â€˜Yes, Father?’
    â€˜If I were to consider what you suggest.’
    He paused.
    â€˜Yes, Father?’
    â€˜But to bring her back would cause scandal?’
    â€˜Perhaps. But not necessarily.’
    â€˜No?’
    â€˜Something might be arranged.’
    â€˜Yes?’
    â€˜I think so.’
    â€˜You think so?’
    â€˜Yes, Father, I think so.’
    â€˜Then I will leave the whole matter in your hands.’
    â€˜Of course, Father.’
    He felt better, happy, Maria would deal with it. And he felt hungry. He had hardly touched his meal.
    â€˜Oh, and don’t throw away that food. Re-heat it. I’m hungry and it is as you say, it would be a sin to waste it.’
    â€˜Of course, Father.’

Chapter Ten
    The message that he was coming to the village on a pastoral visit had been sent only three days in advance of his arrival. It was an incredibly short time, almost unheard of for a pastoral visit and impossibly short notice to arrange a proper welcome for such an important person as a priest. However, whatever could be done in such a short time had been done, but all the people of the village, from the highest to the lowest, knew it was but a poor showing. The head man and his family felt it most, of course, as they would be the village’s public face during the welcome and at subsequent events. Despite everything, however, the news that the saintly young