Theresa smiled, but Lena could tell she was irritated. She just didn’t seem to understand that there were certain things that once voiced out loud could never be taken back. Look at poor Imelda: she ferreted out everything she could about Delroy even when she knew that most of it would not be good. As a result, Imelda, God love her, was the most unhappy person Lena knew.

In the Life, knowledge wasn’t power. In the Life, knowledge was no more than added aggravation.

She saw the priest beckoning to her, and she felt a second’s shame at her distraction. She was in the house of God for her daughter’s baptism, and she was thinking all these terrible things. Plastering a smile on to her face, she walked to the altar, and she began to pray, asking His forgiveness, and asking Him to make sure the rest of the day went off without a hitch.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Peter Bailey had renounced the devil, done all he had been asked, and was now watching his brother’s reaction to his daughter’s screams of distress as the holy water was poured over her head.

Tania was not impressed in the least – that much was obvious. As Peter saw his brother scoop the child into his arms and try his hardest to placate her, he wondered once more at a man who was such a mass of contradictions. Daniel appeared genuinely worried about his daughter’s distress, and he was jiggling her up and down in an effort to calm her. It was only when Lena took her from him, and nestled the child into her shoulder, that she quietened down.

Peter closed his eyes, and allowed himself to become immersed in the Mass. He knew that it was the only way he could ignore his brother. He didn’t like this priest – he was a ponce. Father Mahoney always took the weddings, the Christenings and the burials – he knew the earners. There was always a drink for the priest after those, unlike after the daily Masses. Peter knew his mother revered Father Mahoney, as all the women did; he made a fuss of them, and they loved it. Even his Ria was not averse to his charms. He flirted with the females in the congregation, and they loved it, lapped it up.

He repeated the Mass without thinking. ‘We lift them up to the Lord.’

He felt his brother come to stand beside him; he knew it was him before he even heard him repeat the Mass with him, something that they had done all their lives.