Vow of Silence

by Veronica Black

  ‘You think I won’t find some way to forget?’ His smile was defiant.

  ‘Nobody,’ said Sister Joan out of the hardness within her, ‘cares much what you do. The game’s over and nobody won.’

  For an instant he raised his hand and she gripped Lilith’s rein more tightly, fearing he intended to pull her down, but his hand dropped again to his side and he flung himself behind the wheel of his car and drove off as if the devils of hell chattered in his ear. She wished she could feel pity for him but there was nothing within her but a sick and weary thankfulness that it was over.

  The following week the school would reopen after the unexpected holiday and she and Sister David would divide the teaching between them. The election of the new prioress would be over, and –

  Musing she trotted slowly back down the broad track, concentrating upon the flowers that carpeted the moor, laying aside the image of a vengeful man chased by his private demons, a nun babbling of second Comings, a novice laid in earth.

  ‘Have you taken Lilith for a ride?’

  Sister Perpetua always stated the obvious. She stood now at the gates, her reddish brows knitting together furiously, blossom in her hands.

  ‘For the chapel?’ Sister Joan dismounted, looping the reins over her arm.

  ‘Sister Katherine is to share the duties of sacristan with me for the time being. I always thought it one of the nicest jobs in the convent,’ Sister Perpetua said. ‘I have a feeling that everything is going to be very different from now on, more like my old convent.’

  ‘Shall I come with you to the chapel, Sister? I’ve some praying to do on my own account,’ Sister Joan said.

  For a man who wasn’t really like Jacob at all, and an old nun who had seen more than she had had strength to tell, and a young couple making their way north. For them in particular.

  ‘The rain’s stopped,’ she said. ‘Summer’s on the way. Isn’t that grand?’

  Copyright

  © Veronica Black 1990

  First published in Great Britain 1990

  This edition 2011

  ISBN 978 0 7090 9707 5 (epub)

  ISBN 978 0 7090 9708 2 (mobi)

  ISBN 978 0 7090 9709 9 (pdf)

  ISBN 978 0 7090 3964 8 (print)

  Robert Hale Limited

  Clerkenwell House

  Clerkenwell Green

  London EC1R 0HT

  www.halebooks.com

  The right of Veronica Black to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988