Mrs. Janina nodded, pacing around in her floral house dress, with a stern expression. “I agree. This issue must be addressed,” she said, as if Emil’s life choices were up to her or anyone else in the room.
“Ladies, I’m a priest, not an inquisitor,” Father Marek said as he took a second slice of the cake. “The only thing I could do is advise him against doing such things, but none of us can stop him, whether we like it or not.”
“Of course we need to stop him,” Mrs. Golonko said, pulling out a pack of cigarettes.
Adam wanted to stop her, but seeing that no one else reacted, he resigned himself to the prospect of smoke soaking into his cassock. Curious how cigarettes smelled so good on Emil and yet so revolting on anyone else.
He glanced at the cake on his plate and wondered how a cake infused with the smoke and wood of Emil’s scent would have tasted. His thoughts once more drifted to the most sinful confession he’d ever heard, and his mouth went dry as he imagined being in the place of Emil’s lover.
“I am visiting the pastor of Belkowice tonight, so I’ll have to be on my way soon. Besides, Father Adam is closer to Emil in age. Maybe he can talk some sense into the man,” Pastor Marek suggested, ripping Adam out of his depraved fantasies.
“M-me?”
Mrs. Janina harrumphed. “Are you afraid of him now? I’m sure his crows won’t touch a priest.”
“Your wit is getting sharper every day,” Adam said and rose to his feet, because there was no point in resisting.
“What was that?” Mrs. Janina asked and took the plate with Adam’s unfinished cake.
“I said I’ll be on my way then,” Adam said through gritted teeth.
Father Marek smiled and grabbed another piece of cake. “There we go. Problem solved. Bring some milk from Mrs. Mazur while you’re at it.”
Adam kept his face straight despite fuming on the inside. “Are we not afraid Emil’s influence will turn the milk sour?”
The pastor nodded. “Good point. Pick it up on the way back.”
***
Adam had avoided Emil since he’d caught him attempting to steal the monstrance, but there was no backing out of this. He’d intended to go dressed as he was for lunch—in a black dress shirt with a priest’s collar, but the late May heat made him change his mind, and he settled on denim knee-length shorts and his nice white T-shirt with the 18th-century map of Warsaw printed at the front. He usually wore it when he didn’t want to stand out as a clergyman, as it transformed him into a young man like many others. If he was to talk Emil into anything, he should try doing so as a friend rather than a priest.
A black cat watched him from the side of the dirt road, but as Adam walked past it, the animal stretched and followed him with a meow.
A smile tugged on Adam’s lips, and he scooted down, gently sliding the back of his hand along the cat’s back.
“Are you Emil’s familiar?” he asked and shook his head at Mrs. Golonko’s fit.
The Church saw divination as dangerous, because flirting with the occult had the potential of inviting demons into the world, but while Adam hadn’t known Emil for very long, he suspected the man didn’t believe in anything at all. Which meant that if he was to try influencing Emil, he’d have to use nonspiritual arguments. Like the fact that with all the black magic gossip about him, fortune telling was the last thing he should be doing.
Unless, of course, Emil didn’t just lie to people for the fun of it and practiced some kind of magic. Adam had no idea how he could deal with that.
The black cat walked him all the way to Emil’s homestead but skirted away when Jinx rose his massive head. Tied to one of the fruit trees with a longe, the huge stallion whinnied in greeting and raised one of its front legs several times before he returned to grazing.
Waving at him for no reason at all, since the animal couldn’t possibly understand the gesture, Adam took in the property. He’d seen many old homes since he’d come to Dybukowo, but Emil’s could easily be a stand-in for a witch’s house in some historical drama. Embraced by the dense woods descending from nearby slopes, it featured a thatched roof and small windows with blue lines painted along their frames. Large enough to house three generations of the same family, it had its own orchard, a barn, and a set of other buildings. Everything was in good working order, especially considering there was only one person living here.
It took Adam a while to get the courage to knock, but no one answered the door.
So that was that.
Adam was about to leave, but he heard a laugh somewhere farther behind the house, and he couldn’t help but succumb to the sin of curiosity.