AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter One
November 1819
Dundee, Scotland
The edict was delivered in a tone of mild regret, completely at odds with the appalling effect it would have on her life.
“But . . . but you cannot just kick me out,” Donella Haddon stammered. “What the devil would I do with myself?”
A spasm crossed Reverend Mother’s dignified features. “Remember where you are, my child.”
Donella would have been able to describe the prioress’s study in the Convent of the Sacred Heart even if blindfolded. After all, she’d received a fair share of gentle but guilt-inducing scolds in this very room.
“That is precisely my point,” Sister Bernard intoned. “Our dear sister never remembers where she is.”
As Novice Mistress, Sister Bernard was Donella’s immediate superior and the bane of her existence. She stood behind Reverend Mother’s chair, her spare features obscured by her cowl and the sun shining through the window at her back. Donella could easily imagine Sister’s disapproving frown, because she’d seen that on a regular basis, too.
“My final vows are only a few months away.” Donella waved her arms, her wide sleeves flapping like a sparrow’s wings. “It would be an utter disaster to turn me away now. I’ve given upeverythingto be here.”
When Mother’s iron-gray eyebrows arched up, Donella winced. The prioress was a truly saintly woman, but no one could argue with those eyebrows. They conveyed volumes, and the message was that Donella’s goose was indeed cooked.
“My dear, such dramatics are unnecessary. I’ve discussed your progress with Sister Bernard and Sister Agnes—”
“Oh, drat,” muttered Donella.
Sister Agnes was the Mistress of Liturgical Music and even more exacting than Sister Bernard. If those two had lined up against her, Donella’s goose was scorched beyond recognition.
“And we’re all in agreement,” Mother firmly continued. “We believe that life in an enclosed order may not be the correct path for you. Some time in the outside world would be helpful in ascertaining your true vocation.”
“Or if you even have one,” Sister Bernard said. “In my opinion, that remains to be seen.”
Donella clamped her lips tight against the impulse to stick her tongue out at the old . . . the good woman. Sister Bernard had never trusted Donella’s vocation.
In truth, it was hard to argue with their assessment. For months, she’d had the growing sense that she’d once again made a fatal mistake. Ghastly little twinges of guilt and anxiety had kept her awake at night and distracted her during the day.
Something was very wrong. She knew it, and so did Mother and the rest of the sisters.
Her scalp prickled with perspiration under the close-fitting cowl. What in God’s namewouldshe do if they shoved her out into the world? Over three years ago, she’d run from that world as fast as she could, carrying no doubt that she’d made the right decision.
“Sister Bernard, you’ve always worried about me because I was not raised within the Catholic Church,” Donella said, trying to sound calm. “But I can assure you that my conversion was entirely sincere.”
“Hmm,” replied the nun.
Really, the woman wassucha snob. The aristocratic granddaughter of a French émigré family in the Bourbon line, it was no wonder she sniffed down her long nose at Donella.
Still, Donella’s great-uncle was the Earl of Riddick, a descendant of Scottish kings. She’d stack her relatives up against snooty Sister Bernard’s any day.
She supposed that made her a bigger snob than Sister.
Face it, old girl. You’d probably make a terrible nun.
“It’s not your faith we worry about, my dear,” Mother said. “It’s your . . .”
“Complete inability to follow the rules,” Sister Bernard finished.
Donella shook her head. “But I’m very good at following the rules. Everyone knows that.”
So good, in fact, that everyone also believed her to be a total bore. Certainly Alec Gilbride, her cousinandformer fiancé, had thought so. He’d found her so boring he’d run away from home at the age of sixteen and refused to come back for ten years.
