The Devil's In The Water

Chapter # 3

They sailed in circles all day long, looking for any sign of...anything. The slightest clue of their objective, and where it might be going. Father Rosa knew patience well, but in this case, he began to fear that perhaps the demon had passed them already.

The course Captain Jack had charted for them took them along the famous isles around these waters, making Father Rosa feel like being in the middle of a vast maze they were too small for. It made the mood so much more forbidding to feel dwarfed by the land masses around them, especially when the weather turned for the worst with an uninviting dark sky.

"Bad weather," Will commented, catching Father's Rosa look as he stared outside. "It's rare for here, but there's nothing to do but wait it out."

"Feels like it should rain, but I have a feeling it won't."

"What do you mean?" Will asked.

Father Rosa turned and gave a small smile to the young man, hoping to reassure him. "Ah, don't listen to me. Everything feels like a bad omen when you do what I do."

Will didn't seem convinced, but he nodded and continued his duties. Father Rosa returned inside, sliding the glass door shut behind him, and wishing he had stayed out the moment he stepped into the main living area. Miss Sournois was sitting there on the white leather couch, alone for once. She smiled widely at him, and crossed her legs as if to get more comfortable now that he had arrived.

"I have to say father, it rather feels like you are avoiding me," Miss Sournois said, her voice delicate.

Father Rosa put on his most practiced smile. "What makes you say that?"

"A woman knows when she's not wanted, we're very aware of these things, you see," she said, catching his eyes. "I know you must not have a lot of experience with the opposite sex, given your vows of course, but we are in this together, the least we can do is talk."

"And what is there for us to talk about?" Father Rosa said, less patient.

"Oh mon Dieu, so hostile," she spoke with an aggrieved air, but Father Rosa could tell she was playing. "I'm only here to help, father. In my own way."

"Your way is not the way of God."

"Isn't it? We both work for him, don't we?"

"You work for the people who represent him, who should know better."

"Sometimes you need to think outside the box to find the right solution," Miss Sournois countered, unbothered.

"But not outside of our principles!" Father Rosa didn't yell, but he felt the anger in voice. "I've been around long enough to see the kind of help black hands like you bring, and since honesty is part of our tenets, let me tell you I find it all distasteful in the extreme."

If Miss Sournous was offended, she didn't show it, instead, she continued to smile at him in that fake way that bothered him so much. She clapped her hands above her knee, as if to look more dignified, but her pitch black dress and sun hat made her look like an evil presence in the otherwise white furnished room.

"I've met my share of priests like you," she said icily. "All holier than thou types who think of the church as this immaculate thing, flawless, and extending that imagined perfection on to them. But in my experience, the church is more like a horse."

Father Rosa said nothing, glaring at her though he knew he should be above such things, but she seemed to enjoy his discomfort.

"Oh, I don't mean that as a bad thing," Miss Sournis laughed at his expression. "Non mon cher père, I'm quite the lover of horses, even have a few back in my chateau. They are magnificent creatures, strong, imposing...but they require a lot of work. Lots of money to maintain and feed, see to their needs."