A VOW OF FIDELITY an utterly gripping crime mystery by VERONICA BLACK

Author:VERONICA BLACK [BLACK, VERONICA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Joffe Books crime and suspense mystery
Published: 2021-04-12T23:00:00+00:00

Seven

‘Are we too early?’

Dodie stepped from the long, sleek car and twinkled at Sister Joan with such determination that the latter had a sudden unsettling vision of her twinkling all round the convent, spreading gaiety and irritation like honey left too long in the jar.

‘You’re just in time for a cup of tea,’ she said cordially. ‘Derek, there isn’t a proper garage any longer, I’m afraid. If you leave your car at the side I can help you carry your bags over to the postulancy.’

‘Is that the main house?’ Dodie enquired. ‘Do we get to see inside it?’

‘Yes, of course. You’ll be sharing the evening meal with us every day,’ Sister Joan said. ‘If you’ll come this way?’

She would have taken one of the suitcases but Derek had bent to pick up Dodie’s neat black one and shouldered his own while Paul carried two, both of maroon leather with his initials in silver on them.

‘You didn’t bring your own car?’ Sister Joan asked him as they started towards the rear of the building.

‘Darling, didn’t I say?’ Paul smiled at her lazily. ‘I’m in the last few months of a three-year driving ban. Too much alcohol on an empty stomach if you’ll excuse the vulgarism!’

Which surely meant he couldn’t have been the one who’d knocked down Bryan Grimes and then driven on without stopping to see how badly Bryan had been injured, unless he’d been driving illegally? Mentally she ordered herself to stop playing amateur detective and behave like a hostess.

‘This is the enclosure garden,’ she said, nodding towards the low wall. ‘You’re very welcome to walk or sit there whenever you like. We sell quite a lot of our own fruit and vegetables. That’s Sister Martha’s domain. She can make anything grow.’

‘There are flowers too,’ Dodie said.

‘For the altar. Oh, while I remember you’re welcome in the chapel for any service or simply to sit there and relax. There’s a timetable in the postulancy.’

‘You’re not going to suggest we play tennis, are you?’ Paul enquired, looking with disfavour at the weed-rich court with its rusted posts.

‘No, but I wish I could,’ she said wistfully. ‘Nobody’s played there for years. If we could get it shipshape again it would be marvellous for exercise.’

‘Just imagine all the little novices leaping about with their habits flying up!’ Paul said.

‘You imagine it,’ Sister Joan said coldly.

‘It wouldn’t raise his temperature one iota,’ Dodie said maliciously. ‘If they were monks now—’

‘Here we are!’ Sister Joan raised her voice in determined cheerfulness. ‘This is where the novice mistress and the postulants spend most of their time. The postulants spend a year here — at the moment we only have one. She and Sister Hilaria — that’s our novice mistress — are camping up in the storeroom next to the library while there are visitors here.’

‘We must be an inconvenience to them,’ Dodie said with sudden anxiety. ‘I do hope it’s not a dreadful nuisance our being here.’

‘Not in the least. We’re all delighted you’ve come,’ Sister Joan said.

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