"My God!" she said, and dropped the baby's bottle. He retrieved it, handed it to her and leaned against the veranda railing, facing her: "It's all right. The teat didn't strike the ground; you can feed her with it." The baby was just beginning a deprived quiver. Anne stuck the rubber in her mouth and got enough breath back to speak. "Well, Your Grace, this is a surprise!" Her eyes slid over him, amused. "I must say you don't exactly look like an archbishop. Not that you ever did, even in the proper togs. I always imagine archbishops of any religious denomination to be fat and self-satisfied."
"At the moment I'm not an archbishop, only a priest on a well-earned holiday, so you can call me Ralph. Is this the little thing caused Meggie so much trouble when I was here last? May I have her? I think I can manage to hold the bottle at the appropriate angle."
He settled into a chair alongside Anne, took baby and bottle and continued to feed her, his legs crossed casually.
"Did Meggie name her Justine?"
"Yes."
"I like it. Good Lord, look at the color of her hair! Her grandfather all over."
"That's what Meggie says. I hope the poor little mite doesn't come out in a million freckles later on, but I think she will."
"Well, Meggie's sort of a redhead and she isn't a bit freckled. Though Meggie's skin is a different color and texture, more opaque." He put the empty bottle down, sat the baby bolt upright on his knee, facing him, bent her forward in a salaam and began rhythmically rubbing her back hard. "Among my other duties I have to visit Catholic orphanages, so I'm quite deedy with babies. Mother Gonzaga at my favorite infants' home always says this is the only way to burp a baby. Holding it over one's shoulder doesn't flex the body forward enough, the wind can't escape so easily, and when it does come up there's usually lots of milk as well. This way the baby's bent in the middle, which corks the milk in while it lets the gas escape." As if to prove his point, Justine gave several huge eructations but held her gorge. He laughed, rubbed again, and when nothing further happened settled her in the crook of his arm comfortably. "What fabulously exotic eyes! Magnificent, aren't they? Trust Meggie to have an unusual baby."
"Not to change the subject, but what a father you'd have made, Father." "I like babies and children, I always have. It's much easier for me to enjoy them, since I don't have any of the unpleasant duties fathers do." "No, it's because you're like Luddie. You've got a bit of woman in you." Apparently Justine, normally so isolationist, returned his liking; she had gone to sleep. Ralph settled her more snugly and pulled a packet of Capstans from his shorts pocket.
"Here, give them to me. I'll light one for you."
"Where's Meggie?" he asked, taking a lit cigarette from her. "Thank you. I'm sorry, please take one for yourself."
"She's not here. She never really got over the bad time she had when Justine was born, and The Wet seemed to be the last straw. So Luddie and I sent her away for two months. She'll be back around the first of March; another seven weeks to go."
The moment Anne spoke she was aware of the change in him; as if the whole of his purpose had suddenly evaporated, and the promise of some very special pleasure.
He drew a long breath. "This is the second time I've come to say goodbye and not found her .... Athens, and now again. I was away for a year then and it might have been a lot longer; I didn't know at the time. I had never visited Drogheda since Paddy and Stu died, yet when it came I found I couldn't leave Australia without seeing Meggie. And she'd married, gone away. I wanted to come after her, but I knew it wouldn't have been fair to her or to Luke. This time I came because I knew I couldn't harm what isn't there."
"Where are you going?"
"To Rome, to the Vatican. Cardinal di Contini Verchese has taken over the duties of Cardinal Monteverdi, who died not long ago. And he's asked for me, as I knew he would. It's a great compliment, but more than that. I cannot refuse to go."
"How long will you be away?"
"Oh, a very long time, I think. There are war rumbles in Europe, though it seems so far away up here. The Church in Rome needs every diplomat she has, and thanks to Cardinal di Contini-Verchese I'm classified as a diplomat. Mussolini is closely allied to Hitler, birds of a feather, and somehow the Vatican has to reconcile two opposing ideologies, Catholicism and Fascism. It won't be easy. I speak German very well, learned Greek when I was in Athens and Italian when I was in Rome. I also speak French and Spanish fluently." He sighed. "I've always had a talent for languages, and I cultivated it deliberately. It was inevitable that I would be transferred."
"Well, Your Grace, unless you're sailing tomorrow you can still see Meggie."