Carla reeled from Anna’s explanation. All this time she’d assumed Danny had referred to a man but he’d been talking about God.
Her mind joined up the dots.
‘Anna, this is important. Do you know if the priest is hurting Danny?’ Carla said softly.
The girl looked away, her jaw sagging. Her blue eyes glittered with emotion, her cheeks flushing with two hot red spots on a pale background.
‘Is that a yes?’
Anna shook her head.
‘Father MacCarrick isn’t hurting Danny, Miss. He spends loads of time with him at church to try and get him to open up about Mother, but Danny won’t. He won’t say a word to anyone.’
‘Does the priest know your mother is abusing Daniel?’
‘He knows something is wrong at home but he hasn’t got a clue how bad it is. Danny told him he was seeing a counsellor at school and Father MacCarrick told him to stop going, that he should talk to God instead. He even tutored Danny on his altar-server duties so he didn’t get into trouble with Mother, but Danny still messed it up.’ Big fat tears plop into her hands. ‘Only I see what she does to him. She whips him raw to purge the bad out of him, miss, but I daren’t tell the priest in case he tries to talk to her about it.’
Carla shivered. She sat very still.
She could see Anna clearly wasn’t a nurtured and cared for child but she seemed to be escaping the harsh treatment Monica Clarke reserved for her son.
‘Why, Anna? Why Danny and not you?’
‘She didn’t want my brother; she got pregnant by mistake and that’s why Dad left home. Every time she looks at Danny he reminds her of how everything went wrong, and she blames him.’ Anna looked down at her twisting hands. ‘She thinks Danny stands between her and God and that he must be cleansed.’
Anna stood up suddenly.
‘I have to go, have to see if Danny is OK.’
‘Just a few more minutes, Anna, then we can get help. Let’s sit down and—’
Anna ran, wrenching the office door open, and disappeared down the hall.
By the time Carla reached the doorway to call her back, Anna was already out of sight.