Sisters of Belfast by Melanie Maure

Author:Melanie Maure
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-11-23T00:00:00+00:00

AELISH, 1947

THEY WERE SIXTEEN WHEN IZZY SNUCK INTO THE VESTRY BEFORE mass, drank the altar wine, and chewed down all the communion wafers, hoping for what, Aelish had no clue. When Sister Edel sneaked up on Aelish during that mass, hustled her and not Izzy out of the church, pinching the thin flesh of her arm, not Izzy’s, it was a strange relief. She deserved this punishment. You knew what Isabel was up to, you could have stopped her, Aelish scolded herself. You should have stopped her. And now this is what you get.

The corn grit Sister Edel spread on the floor bore into Aelish’s soft knees, and after a few short minutes, the discomfort of grit turned to the stabbing of broken glass. Leaning her forehead against the wall earned her a crack of the Mother Superior’s stick on the top of her head. At least it wasn’t the wood sandal this time.

“When I was your age, I knew a girl who lost her way when Satan got hold of her heart,” Sister Edel lectured, wood sandals clacking as she paced back and forth. “She ended up in a very bad way. Is that what you want? The dark prince to get hold of your heart and lead you straight into the fires of hell?”

A drop of sweat trickled down the back of Aelish’s thigh, pooling in the cracked skin of her knee pit. Aelish rubbed her eyes, hoping to brush away thoughts of a boggy stinking hollow in the earth filled with sooty flames, broken bricks, and burned leg bones—her idea of hell.

“No, Mother Superior.” Aelish knew to be clear, short in answering. Would there be an eternity of kneeling on glass in hell? Aelish wanted to ask Sister Edel but kept her tongue. She didn’t want to hear the answer, not really.

The final hymn floated down the hall, and Aelish’s worry turned in a new direction. Father McManus. He is going to step through the doors and see me all soggy and crying like a baby.

Aelish wished the floor to open and swallow her whole—even if hell were just below. He knows I was in the church with Isabel when she ate the hosts and drank the wine. What if he thinks I did it? Aelish’s brain buzzed; sparks in her head made her blink. The more she blinked, the bigger the tears that soaked her white church blouse.

The double doors opened. Sister Edel stopped her pacing. The musky smell of incense drifted past Aelish’s face. It did not soothe her like usual. Her shoulders shook as she risked biting at her knuckle. A stifling embarrassment covered her.

“I think that’s sufficient, Sister.” The sound of Father McManus’s voice so close made Aelish jump and cry out, just as she had done during mass when Isabel had pinched her arm—which was what ultimately led to her kneeling in the hall.

“Father, if you don’t mind, Isabel is not through with her penance.” There was a silence, and Aelish wondered if she’d heard correctly.

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.