It took about 15 minutes for us to walk from Saoirse’s cottage into town. Heading to Mass I was a little nervous, I’ll admit, but my curiosity overshadowed it almost completely.

Saoirse, however, was just nervous.

“You good?” I asked. She didn’t react immediately.

“I don’t know what Nóra has told them. She thinks you’re a Moor, and that Úna thinks you’re a fae. I… I don’t know what people will say.”

“I don’t know either,” I said, smiling. “But I bet it’ll be fun to find out, won’t it?”

Saoirse shook her head.

“Nóra… talks too much. The others don’t like her, but they stay with her. I don’t… under-stand it.”

“Sounds like she’s the village gossip,” I said. “And I get that. I had gossipy aunts like that: loud, boisterous, and prone to exaggeration. No one likes them, but people still stick with them because they’re interesting and say crazy stuff.”

Saoirse now seemed a little more relaxed. That’s when I noticed that her outfit today looked a bit cleaner than her other ones. This is what they call “Sunday best,” I guess.

We then entered the town, which looked deserted. I figured everyone must be at church, which I spotted further down the path.

“Oh, is that it?” I asked. Saoirse shook her head.

“That’s Protestant now.”

She then led me down another path. We walked just a little bit more, until finally stopping outside a slightly larger cottage.

“This,” said Saoirse. I looked at her with confusion.

“This?” I said. “But this looks nothing like a church…?”

“Catholics must pray in… secret now, after the English came.”

“Oh...”

Saoirse slowly opened the door and entered the cottage, while I followed. As soon as I entered, everyone’s eyes were on me. A lot of them were actually crossing themselves.

“Lord Almighty, so it’s true then…”

“… an actual Moor… in our town…”

“... look at her skin! Dark as oak…”

“... are we sure she’s not a fae… ”

“... she could be a witch…”

“... did Mairéad say where she found her…?”

“... no of course not, you know how Mairéad is… an odd one, her.”

They were all murmuring, and I couldn’t understand a word of it at the time. I found it all very amusing, but Saoirse wasn’t having any of it. She grabbed my arm and quickly led me to the back row of chairs.

“Saoirse!”

I turned around, and found Maebh grinning at us. A woman next to her, who I assumed was her mother, started reprimanding her.

“Her name is ‘Mairéad’ child, as she was baptized. Don’t encourage that ‘word’ she calls herself.”

Saoirse greeted her by raising her hand, but did it without smiling. Then we sat down. The priest, who was standing behind a makeshift altar in the front, was also staring. But then he loudly cleared his throat, which made the townspeople stop their murmuring.

“We have a… guest… with us today,” said the priest. “Know that the house of God is open to all.”

“What did he say?” I asked. Saoirse just shook her head again, which I realized she’d been doing a lot today.

“Nothing important.”

I shrugged my shoulders. The townspeople may have stopped talking, but now they kept trying to turn around to gawk at me. I ignored them, turning my attention to the decor. The inside of this cottage was decorated with fancy cloth, and the altar had a cross and some candles on it.

The priest then began the service by kissing the altar, and then started chanting in Latin. The townspeople kneeled to pray. Saoirse did this as well, albeit with subtle insincerity, so I followed suit.

Now, I’d been to a church service only once before, when I randomly wandered into Grace Cathedral on a Sunday morning. That was Protestant though, and even though the sermon was in English I still wasn’t paying attention. Though I did end up taking communion, which was interesting.

But this was completely different. The chanting was in Latin, with a little Greek here and there, and the tone was more hushed. That made sense actually, considering the borderline illegal nature of Catholic worship here.



After the service Saoirse grabbed my arm again, hoping to make a quick exit when the priest actually caught up to us.

“Mairéad,” said the priest. Saoirse stopped dead in her tracks, causing me to bump into her.

“Father Padraig,” said Saoirse, clearly losing patience. I, however, was intrigued.

“Tell me the truth, my child. Who is this stranger you’ve brought here today?”

Saoirse hesitated.

“She is… a traveler. From distant lands.”

Father Padraig nodded slowly. I noticed the townspeople continuing to gawk at me on their way out, but I’d stopped caring at this point.

“Has she been baptized…?” asked the Father, eyeing me suspiciously. Saoirse took a sharp inhale.

“I don’t know. But I was, Father, as you might recall. I’m simply doing my duty to God by giving her shelter.”

The Father stared at us for a few seconds before finally appearing satisfied.

“That’s all one can do in life, after all,” he said. “Alright, off you go my child. May God look upon… both of you… with favor.”

“Thank you, Father,” said Saoirse, bowing. She then turned to me. “Come, let's leave.”

She was walking a little quickly now, and I tried to keep up. I happened to turn around to look at the priest one more time, and noticed that he seemed a little startled by Saoirse’s use of English.

“So that was… interesting,” I said. “I hope it was all good things he said about me.”

“That is how they speak,” said Saoirse, shaking her head. “It means nothing.”

I smirked, then counted my lucky stars that it was her I ran into after landing here, and not one of those other townspeople.