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The Refectory, Saddell Abbey
It had been several weeks since her father’s death and Yesenda kept to herself. She did not converse or engage other than was necessary to show politeness. The combination of grief and homesickness was debilitating most days. Another reason she kept to herself was a handful of girls tormented and bullied all newcomers, and especially the most vulnerable.
The tormentors came from wealthy families and the ringleaders were Eilidh Ruthven and Una Pringle. Whilst Yesenda could understand that some people were just mean, she could not excuse the fact Sister Ines, who supervised the common assemblies, turned a blind eye to it.
So Yesenda did everything in her power to remain invisible. To not attract any unwarranted attention. It was safer that way. Each night before going to bed, she prayed for deliverance from the abbey and from the strange new world she now occupied.
While the girls tormented everyone on a whim, they seemed particularly vicious towards one newcomer called Naomi. She was Italian, and Yesenda noted they were almost the opposite in physical appearance. Yesenda was blonde-haired and fair. She wore her long locks loose and her build was leaner, taller. Naomi’s skin tone was sun kissed bronze, and her hair was a lustrous black. She had high cheekbones and wore her hair in two long braids. Naomi was shorter and curvaceous but there was a sadness in Naomi’s dark brown eyes that Yesenda felt an affinity with.
Whenever Yesenda saw Naomi, it was as if she was peering into a mirror, reflecting her own debilitating grief and homesickness. Under any other circumstances, Yesenda would have loved to talk to her, but to be anywhere around Naomi meant attracting the vitriol of the terrible two, so she kept her distance and remained invisible.
One day, Yesenda was in the refectory quietly tucked away in a corner, eating her meal. She kept her head down. When the trouble began.
She heard a commotion and quickly glanced up just in time to see Una push Naomi. The latter fell to her knees, dropping her plate of food onto the floor. Naomi kept her head down and quickly tried to clean up the mess.
Yesenda’s eyes scanned the room, and she noticed the other girls watching quietly but trying to avert their eyes. Meanwhile, Sister Ines smirked and pretended to be occupied with something else.
“Naomi, you dinnae belong here. No one likes you, foreigner,” Eilidh said, now moving closer. She surreptitiously tipped over Naomi’s dish with the tip of her shoe again, spilling the contents Naomi had just picked up.
Naomi remained still and did not move. Her head lowered in submission.
“You’re so clumsy, always falling over making a mess,” Una said as she kicked Naomi in the spine. Naomi made a subtle grunt and tried to move out of their way, but Eilidh stood on the end of her long braid so she could not move far without it hurting her scalp.
Yesenda gripped her spoon tighter, watching the display, willing it to be over soon.Dinnae get involved, she chanted in her head over and over. They would soon tire of it and move on as they had the times before. Except this time, something changed. Their treatment was worse.
Naomi tried again to pick up her dish when Una placed her foot on Naomi’s hand. Effectively crushing her fingers. Naomi winced but did not make a sound.
It was when Naomi looked up and stared straight at Yesenda that she saw her expression. It was filled with pain. Naomi was biting her lip to keep from crying out, and that sadness as bleak as Yesenda’s own stared right back at her. Yesenda saw something else in Naomi’s eyes.Hopelessness.
Without hesitation, Yesenda rose from her chair and yelled, “Leave her alone!”
The refectory went quiet. There was a brief pause before everyone stared at Yesenda including Una and Eilidh. Yesenda realized it was too late to back down now.
The two girls eyed her up and down, then snorted. Una ground her foot harder into Naomi’s hand, almost taunting Yesenda to do something.
And she did.
As if borne of instinct, Yesenda picked up the uneaten apple on her plate and threw it will all her might at Una’s head. By some stroke of luck, her aim was true, and it smacked the girl right in the forehead with a loud‘thwacking’sound.
Una staggered backwards with a grunt, and Eilidh stepped away from Naomi in shock. Naomi looked stunned, but quickly grabbed her plate and scurried out of the way.
Yesenda plucked an apple off the girl’s plate beside her, and this time took aim at Eilidh. Again, her aim was perfect, and Eilidh screeched, “Sister Ines! Yesenda is attacking us.”
Before Yesenda could do anything else, someone gripped her arm and forcibly yanked her away from the table.
“What is the meaning of such violence?” Sister Ines shouted whilst painfully clutching Yesenda’s arm. Her nails digging into her skin. As if Yesenda was the one in the wrong.
Yesenda watched as the refectory went silent with wide eyes staring at her from around the room. Meanwhile, the two perpetrators were behaving as if they were the victims. Caterwauling like toddlers.
Sister Ines shoved Yesenda to stand in the middle of the room. She said, “Violence tis the work of the devil. You think to bring your vile nature here and sully this peaceful place. How dare you!”
Yesenda looked at the sister and felt indignation. Seeing as she had already shattered her cloak of invisibility, she decided she had nothing to lose, so Yesenda loosened her tongue.
“Dinnae talk to me about violence when you allow those vile creatures to torment us all. The devil is the ultimate deceiver, and they continue to lie and yet you, Sister Ines, allow it. How. Dare. You!”
Sister Ines stared at Yesenda in shock before backhanding her hard across the face. “Insolent child!” she shouted and raised her arm to slap her again. Yesenda braced but never felt the slap because a woman dressed in travel clothes suddenly appeared beside Sister Ines and gripped her arm.
