Evil Intent Read Free Page B

are,’ he announced, beaming jovially. ‘This will warm us up.’
    ‘Miss Anson – Callie – was just telling me about the origins of her interesting name,’ Jane addressed him, then turned back to Callie. ‘So do you have other family? Other brothers and sisters?’
    ‘No, just the one brother. There are four years between us, but we’vealways been quite close. He lives just across the river, in Southwark.’
    ‘And your parents?’
    Callie felt as if she were being given the third degree. ‘My father died a few years ago. He was a Civil Servant, in Whitehall. My mother still lives in London.’ She made an effort to deflect further questions. ‘I understand that you have two sons.’
    Jane softened visibly. ‘Yes. Twins. Very clever boys, both of them. They’ve just gone up to Oxford for their first term. Charlie is reading Theology at Oriel, and Simon is reading Law at Christ Church.’
    ‘You must be very proud,’ said Callie. That, at least, was a safe thing to say.
    ‘Oh, yes,’ Brian agreed, handing Callie a glass and sitting down beside his wife on the sofa. ‘Cheers, Callie.’ He raised his glass. ‘Here’s to a successful partnership at All Saints.’
    ‘Cheers.’
    Jane didn’t look overjoyed at the toast; she raised her eyebrows at Brian and took a sip of the wine. ‘I’ve always looked on our marriage as a partnership ,’ she said to Callie, almost belligerently.
    ‘And so it is,’ Brian assured her, draping an arm across her shoulders and giving her a casual squeeze. ‘You know I couldn’t possibly manage without you, my dear.’
    Callie observed them, middle-aged and content with each other: Brian, with his sandy, receding hair and prominent nose, and Jane, the almost quintessential vicar’s wife, chunky in her ancient Laura Ashley skirt, round-faced, bespectacled and with her dark hair skinned back from her face into a lank pony tail. A team, dependent on each other. What sort of partnership would she and Adam have had in another fifteen or twenty years? She didn’t want to think about that …
    But Jane was on to the next question. ‘What did you do before you were ordained? Brian went to Theological College straight from university, of course – everyone did in those days. But I believe that nowadays they like their ordinands to have another career first.’
    Callie gratefully turned her thoughts from Adam. ‘To tell you the truth, when I was at university, ordination was something that never crossed my mind. I wasn’t much of a church-goer, in fact. I wasn’t even very muchaware of the battles over the ordination of women.’
    Brian seemed interested. ‘What happened?’
    ‘Well, I followed my father into the Civil Service. It was a good career. I enjoyed it. Then…well, then my father got sick. Cancer.’ Now she was back on painful ground; she told the rest as quickly and non-emotively as she could: how during his illness she had come to know and respect the hospital chaplain, Frances Cherry; how the respect had grown into a deep friendship; how, after her father’s death, Frances had helped her to discover her vocation to the priesthood and put her on the path leading to ordination.
    ‘So that’s it,’ she said. ‘Before I met Frances, I didn’t even know that women could be priests. Afterwards, I knew that I had to be one.’
    And then, with the second glass of wine, came the question that she should have been expecting, but wasn’t.
    ‘Have you set a date yet?’ asked Jane.
    ‘A date?’ Callie echoed, not yet comprehending.
    ‘Your wedding. Brian told me that you’re engaged to a fellow ordinand. He’s the new curate at Christ Church, I believe?’
    The question struck Callie like a physical blow, and for a moment she was breathless with the pain of it. Of course Jane would have known about Adam, she realised. She’d told Brian all about him at their initial interview, had explained that it was one reason why she was so interested in serving her