‘You need
faith, Evie.’
‘I need to eat, love. We all do.’
‘Who started the ritual?’
‘It’s much older than I am.’
‘When did you first perform it?’
‘I was 18.’
‘Who did it before you?’
She hesitated. She looked rattled. He was on to something here. Excitement swelled in his breast as her reaction seemed to fit with his theory.
‘I dunno.’
‘What? In a village this size? You must.’
She shrugged defiantly.
‘How long has it been going on?’ he persisted.
‘Ages. Maybe 500 years, maybe more, how would I know?’
‘Who introduced you to it?’
‘Oi, vicar, I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition.’
‘They were Catholics.’
‘Whatever. Can you lay off me, please? Unless you want to lay on me, know what I mean, Adam?’
She gave him a louche wink that immediately diverted his thoughts down to his trousers.
‘Let’s talk about the Ten Commandments,’ he stammered.
‘Oh gawd, let’s not. Thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not. What shalt thou? Is anything allowed?’
‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me.’
‘Before you? Sorry to break it to you, love, but you ain’t no god. Not bad-looking, I’ll grant you, but –’
He thumped the desk with his fist. ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, Evie!’
She jerked back and looked up at him. The tiny tremor of fear on her face aroused him more than he had ever been before. Those eyes, wide, and those lips parted were maddeningly beautiful. He wanted to reach out, touch, kiss – but there would be time enough. He would pluck his pretty apple from the tree as soon as she was ripe.
She sat, quiet and subdued, through the rest of the lecture, hardly speaking at all except to answer questions in a sulky tone. He made it all the way up to “Thou shalt not kill” without encountering any resistance from her.
Before they could move on to adultery, though, and the speech he had prepared on how “adultery” technically covered all fornication including the things she got up to with the village lads and sundry porn actors, she stood and made an abrupt declaration of a prior commitment.
‘Are you sure? You’ve only been here 20 minutes. I wanted to tell you so much more.’
‘I’m a busy woman,’ said Evie. The sly, teasing minx seemed to have disappeared, replaced by this stubborn alternative version.
Adam wasn’t sure which he preferred.