Bad Mothers Brilliant Lovers by Wendy Perriam

Author:Wendy Perriam
Language: eng, eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Robert Hale
Published: 2014-12-05T16:44:02+00:00

A Cuppa and a Biscuit

‘Ah, Cecilia, come in, child.’

Cecilia pushed the door a little further open and slunk across the expanse of polished wood, not daring to look up. Her heart was beating so violently, it must have jumped out of her body and be clearly visible on the outside of her chest, like the picture of the Sacred Heart that hung in the antechapel. That scary heart was red and gory, and had a crown of thorns around it and a gash in its side that oozed drops of lurid blood. She could feel the spiky thorns pressing into her own heart; hear the drip of her own blood splattering onto the floor. No girl was summoned to Reverend Mother’s presence unless she had committed some serious offence and, although she couldn’t recall any crime, she had learned, in her three years at St Botolph’s, that you could sin without actually knowing.

‘Sit down,’ Reverend Mother commanded, and Cecilia perched obediently on the edge of the hard-backed chair. Reverend Mother’s chair had a high carved back and padded arms and seemed more like a throne.

‘And look at me when I speak to you, child.’

With an effort, Cecilia raised her eyes and met the ice-blue gaze. The nun’s face was whitish-grey; her lips greyish-pink and thin. You never saw nuns’ hair or legs or bodies. They were just gliding black robes that crept up on you unawares if you had pulled another girl’s hair, or picked a leaf from the flowerbed or – worse – an actual flower. Although she hadn’t picked anything, or pulled anybody’s hair, she suddenly remembered that she had wished Mother Jude would drop down dead. It was only for a second and only after Mother Jude had rapped her hard on the knuckles with a cruelly stinging metal ruler. Nonetheless, it was still a terrible sin. And, because the nuns could see into your mind, Reverend Mother was probably going to tell her that, if she didn’t go to Confession this minute, she would burn in Hell for ever. A year ago, she’d scorched her arm and the nuns had said that, however bad the pain, it was nothing compared with the flames of Hell, and had explained, in frightening detail, exactly what Eternal Damnation meant. Later, she’d wondered why people couldn’t be eternal, then her mother wouldn’t have died.

‘The reason I want to see you, Cecilia, is to discuss the problem of you fainting during Holy Mass. You seem to be doing it more and more often, which causes huge disruption. This week, for example, you’ve fainted almost every day, so you have to make an effort to put a stop to it.’

Cecilia suppressed a gasp. No one could stop themselves fainting. It just happened automatically. One minute, you were kneeling at the altar-rails, and the next, everything went black and there was a sickening sort of thump and you found yourself flat-out on the floor. And then there was the blank bit, where you

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.