Assumpta had spent a fair amount of her journey to pondering who was responsible for leaving the book in her kitchen. She couldn't decide whether it was an act of passive aggression, a joke, or if someone was deliberately trying to rile her. She had already ruled out Leo, but there was always the possibility it was Brendon trying to be clever, Niamh trying to prove a point or maybe even Father Mac trying to vex her.

Upon reflection she should've asked Brendon the previous night, but anger, dismay, and fear, had consumed her. She was angry that someone felt they could bully her, dismayed that someone she knew would do something so ghastly, and fearful of the message the book sent.

Deep down Assumpta knew that if Brendon was responsible he would've admitted it as soon as he had seen her reaction, and Niamh had seemed genuinely happy for her, it was Peter's dallying she wasn't impressed with. Furthermore, she wouldn't want to hurt her oldest friend.

In fact, the more she thought about it the more it seemed like the parish priest could be responsible, especially after she had humiliated him by barring him so publicly. The only problem with that hypothesis was that Father Mac wouldn't have had access to her kitchen.

*

Once she arrived at her hotel Assumpta's focused completely changed. Her concern and worry over the book was pushed to the back of her mind and replaced by an overwhelming feeling of excitement for her first date with Peter.

It sounded silly: their first date. Peter hadn't been far off the mark, and although the examples he had given weren't romantic, it had been in those moments that they had gotten to know eachother, much like you do when you're dating.

The difference was Assumpta didn't feel the nerves she would typically associate with a first date; she didn't feel stressed, tightness in her chest, or even the frequent call of nature. Instead all she felt was excitement.

She couldn't help but notice the contrast between her feelings about dating Peter and Leo. Both men had been her friends and both loved her dearly, but dating Leo had never caused the same sense of excitement that being near Peter gave her. Assumpta knew Father Mac believed it was the lure of the forbidden that had drawn her to the former curate, a sick sense of satisfaction that she would achieve by seducing a priest, but loving Peter had only caused her pain and had left her with a broken heart.

Although she could see why Father Mac (and his sort) would come to those conclusions, the relaity was very different. What had drawn her to Peter was his personality: his kindness, compassion, naivety and general all-round goodness. Her excitement was fuelled by knowing that Peter, wonderful Peter, wanted to be with her.

She was excited because after nearly five years of fighting their feelings, she was his and he was hers. Well, he was almost hers. There was the problem of his girlfriend.

'Bloody Niamh', she muttered to herself as she ironed her dress for tonight, she held her friend responsible for putting a downer on her mood.

*

Peter was nervous. He knew he shouldn't be, but he was.

He felt like a lemon standing in the hotel foyer shifting his weight from side to side, flicking through a Visit London leaflet in a feeble attempt to suppress his nerves. He'd had girlfriends and been on successful dates before, but this date was different. This was a date with Assumpta Fitzgerald.

He didn't fully understand why he was so nervous; he was meeting Assumpta, he'd known her for years, he loved her, she loved him and everything felt so natural in her presence, but he had a nagging feeling in the back of his head. A feeling that was telling him everything was going to go wrong. A nagging feeling telling him that it was all too normal for them.

"Peter", a soft Irish voice came from behind him as he felt a light tug on his arm. Until that moment he never believed that it was possible to be so overwhelmed by someone's beauty that you could forget to breathe, but when Peter saw Assumpta she literally took his breath away.

He took a slow step back to allow himself to fully appreciate her. Her auburn curls rested on her shoulders and framing her face, the dark red cowl neck dress complemented her fair complexion and accentuated her figure, and her black high heeled shoes drew attention to the shape of her legs. She was perfect. In that moment the world stood still and he couldnt even recall his own name.

"Peter, are you okay?", she reached out for him, her face full of concern,

"You're perfect" he mumbled his focus soley on her.

The way he was looking at her, his eyes full of love, made her weak at the knees. If he asked her to forget their date and go to her room Assumpta wouldn't refuse. After years of comunicating through facial expressions and glances the couple could read each other very well and knew what the other was thinking.

Peter considered closing the gap between them and kissing her in a way that was very inappropriate for such a public place, but he knew how that would end and no matter how much he wanted to take her in his arms he knew Assumpta had been looking forward to their 'first date'.

*

"So, where are you taking me?" she asked as he escorted her down the street.

"Dinner and a show. We're going to see Chicago".

"I've never seen that one", she wondered how much effort he had gone through to find thay out. "How'd you know I've wanted to see that one?"

"I remembered you telling me you were dissapointed that you were never cast in the production at uni",

"Doesn't mean that I hadn't seen it though",

"No, but I also remember you saying that you never went to the show out of spite and still haven't seen it".

All Assumpta could do was stare at him in disbelief. He had remembered a small and seemingly insignificant coversation from years ago, one that she couldn't even recall having, and then based their first official date around it. It was almost unbelievable how thoughtful Peter was.

"Well, after that I decided after that I wasnt suited for acting and only did the minimum number of performances in order to graduate. Childish eh?"

He gave a non-commital shrug, "you're a good actor. Ryan's mother proved that",

"That wasn't acting Peter. At least not with you", she gave him a knowing smile but didn't give him the opportunity to respond, "anyway, I didn't get cast in Chicago because I can't sing and, believe it or not, thats kinda essential for a musical",

"Do you regret it?"

"Not being cast? No, I would've made a right fool of myself; even if I was in the chorus. The one thing I do regret is being unrealistic about my goals, ya know? I wanted to perform here" she waved her hands to indicate she meant London, "but I missed Ballykissangel. I'm a village girl. Dont fit in anywhere else. I just keep goin' back home". Her eyes met Peter's and she realised they'd not really spoken about their future living arrangements. "But I'd leave Ballykea. I'd leave for you".

"Assumpta, I don't want you to leave Ballykissangel. I left because I couldn't bear seeing you with Leo, not because I wanted to leave the village. I love Ballykea".

*

The resturant was busy and service slow. Peter could see Assumpta getting persnickerty about the haphazardness and increasing delay of service.

"Did you just kick me?" Assumpta asked with a slight scowl across her face. Peter was looking away from her clearly trying to hide his childish gin, shook his head.

Not entirely satisfield Assumpta returned her attention in the direction of the kitchen hoping that sheer will would bring out their food, but her focus was once again broken,

"You did, you kicked me!"

"I did not!", he replied with fake indignation, Why would I kick you?",

"How am I supposed to know? You're the one who did it". She knew exactly why he had done it. She had missed their playful banter.

When their dinner was finally served the couple continued to chat about their experiences at univeristy. Peter explained how the skill sets he learnt from studying Theology didn't really transfer to social work.

"Do you regret it?" she asked mirroring his earlier question,

"Not for a moment. If I hadn't studied Theology then it would've been more difficult for me to join the seminary",

"You don't regret that though? The seminary? The priesthood?",

"No" he said without a moments hesitation, "If I hadn't joined the priesthood then I wouldn't have gone to Ballykissangel, and I wouldn't have met you. I don't regret that for a moment. What I do regret is not telling you how I felt that night in Killishee Woods, and not telling you in the pub's kitchen. I regret listening to Father Mac and going on retreat. I regret listening to my doubts". He looked at her with doeful eyes and let out a deep sigh, "I'm sorry Assumpta".

"Don't do that Peter", her voice was harsh and her tone firm, "don't take the blame for things beyond your control".

Peter didn't understand. He owned his mistakes, saught guidence, repented, persued absolution, tried to face his demons. "Then who is to blame?",

"The church".

*

It had been clear that Assumpta's earlier comment about the church had been a bit of a mood killer. Peter had been reluctant to engage in much conversation after that and they had walked to the threatre in near silence. She had tried several times to reignite their previous banter, but Peter was clearly distracted by his own thoughts. She desperately need to explain what she had meant; it hadn't been religion keeping them apart, it was the church's archaec rules about members of the clergy marrying.

Peter knew that religion was always going to be a sticky issue with Assumpta. She had told him she wasnt an atheist, but she was far more than just a lapsed Catholic. He thought back to the various conversations they'd had over the years, some where she ridiculed the priesthood, others where she made off-handed comments about the church, but more worryingly when she had made it clear she didnt believe in transubstantiation. Would love be enough to transcend such a big difference in belief? What would happen in the future in terms of marriage and children?

It wasn't until the interval that they finally fell back into their normal banter, but the elephant in the room had still been released and Peter knew they'd need to discuss religion at some point. After the show they walked back to the hotel, hand-in-hand, while Assumpta explained the vaudaville acts each musical number was based on.

"I can't stop being devout Assumpta" Peter finally interjected,

Slightly confused by the sudden change in topic, "I've not asked you to",

"No - but is it going to be a problem, in the future?", she looked at him for clarification, "I mean, I want - need - to get married in a church, my children need attend church, they need to be baptised and recieve the sacrements"

Assumpta knew all of that, "I'd never expect anything less, but Peter I can't get married in a church, you know that. I'm a divorcee. That is assuming you are talking about me of course". She smiled and nudged him with her shoulder. Peter relaxed at the normality of the gesture and felt his sense of melancholy beginning to lift.

"Of course I am. And you can. You had a civil wedding so its not recognised by God. You can get married in a church as long as you have counselling before remarrying",

She took a long deep breath. Great. Marriage counselling from a priest about marrying a former priest. That wouldn't be weird at all. She needed to change the subject. They were getting perilously close to a proposal, and she wasn't ready for that - not while he was still officially seeing his girlfriend.

"Someone left me a book the other day", it was her turn to change the subject. Peter knew she was avoiding the possible contentious issue.

"Oh - thats nice"

"Not really. It was the Scarlett Letter",

"I dont know that one. Whats it about?

They had arrived back at her hotel room by the time she had finished telling him about the book and her suspicions of who left it. They stood by her door as an all too familiar uncomfortable silence engulfed them. In their years of longing they'd had many 'almost' moments and awkward silences like this, but neither of them were unsure how to proceed. Their last encounter had primarily been the physical expression of years of self-denial, lust and love, but this eveing was different; this evening had been normal and they'd had so few normal situations together that neither of them knew how to act.

Peter took both her hands on his and rested his forehead against hers. "I love you Assumpta" he whispered before placing a light kiss on her head, "I'll see you tomorrow". As he was turning away Assumpta tugged his wrist pulling him into a hug, "dont leave" she whispered as she ran her other hand along his jawline before pulling him into a kiss.

*

Upon entering the room he sat nervously on the bed. Theyd' done this before, but tonight was different, tonight theyd been on a date and shared tells of regret and hope. They'd been truly honest with eachother fo the first time.

Peter knew his mind should've been on the woman in the bathroom, the woman who claimed she was making herself more desirable, he scoffed at the notion, she couldn't be more desirable regardless of how hard she tried. But instead he kept thinking about the book.

"My money's on Father Mac" he called from the bedroom,

She appeared at the door wearing a simple black neglegee, "why?",

He looked her up and down. God, she was beautiful. He desperatly wanted to stride across the room and take her in his arms, "well, looking at it strategically - as my sister would say - he is the only person who would have anything to gain. Its an odd motive - to annoy you - and probably me, but it is still a motive. It could also be down to church politics, Ballykissangel is kinda a revolving door for curates and that doesn't look good on him. He may have had a dressing down or been threatened with transfer. He may want to aviod news of our romance reaching the Bishop",

"But how would he have put it in my kitchen?,

"Not sure. You said your new barmaid, Arla, is the priest's sister"

"Orla", she corrected, "So?"

"Is she devout? Would she blindly follow Father Mac or her brother?",

"To be honest Peter, I don't know her very well. And I've had very few dealings with Father O'Connell, but I can't see him getting involved in something like that. He isn't exactly wordly", Peter gave her a puzzled look in response, "he used to be a monk".

"Ah, okay, well, he might not be involved, but watch his sister".

Assumpta turned her back him and busied herself making tea. The English always wanted a cup of tea. 'That's what Leo said', she thought.

*

Charlotte had spent the week sitting by her father's bed pondering what to do about her situation, but the only conclusion she could come to was that she needed to talk to Peter. As it stood, she couldn't lie to him about the baby, but she had convinced herself that if she begged for his forgiveness then he still might chose her.

Judith had offered to accompany her to a BPAS clinic and swore blind they could both take it to their graves, that way Peter wouldn't need to know anything, but Charlotte couldn't bring herself to do that. Not only would she be making a momentous decision in the hope that it would save a shaky relationship, but if Peter ever found out he'd probably never set foot in a room with her again, let alone stay with her. Instead she decided that telling him the truth was the best option; if he loved her then he would forgive her. Afterall, his previous job had been all about forgiveness, and forgiveness was a corner stone of his beliefs .

When Charotte arrived home she was surprised to find the lights off and everything tidy. Last time she had left Peter on his own he'd invited Toby round and she come home to find pizza boxes and empty cans of larger decorating her livingroom. Peter was a tidy man, but Toby was a bad influence.

It was clear Peter hadn't been home today. She assumed he was staying at Anne's to help with the preparations for tomorrow. Rather than disturb him she decided she'd surprise him tomorrow at the party. They could talk when they got home.