Brodie knows when he is dismissed. He nods in a businesslike fashion and glances back as he closes the door. Winifred listens as he descends the stairs. When she’s sure he’s gone she bursts into tears. She’s not certain if she’s snivelling at the shame of being seen this way or the fact Araminta has been taken. Both perhaps. And all the things that happened before. She blows her nose and pulls Mr Thom’s book onto her lap. There must be something here. There has to be. Araminta needs help.
*
It takes almost two hours for the news of Araminta McKenzie Moore’s kidnap to reach the nunnery at Sciennes. Mr Neill, the magistrate, has a cousin residing at the order, and Neill’s daughter, in regular correspondence, sends a note. It’s not a silent order and the news spreads quickly. Eleanor is one of the first to be told. She won’t stay put under the circumstances and makes an application to leave. Within a few minutes she’s sent upstairs, to Mother’s sanctum.
Mother has a good deal on her mind. It’s been a troublesome day. She received a missive from Sister Winifred before Mr Neill’s niece so much as put quill to paper, and has been pacing her study ever since, turning the key Winifred sent with the letter in her hand as she pieces together events. She’s slowly coming to an understanding of Sister Winifred and indeed all the McKenzie women, that has heretofore passed her by. When Eleanor knocks on her door she’s so distracted that she doesn’t even hear at first, for she’s in the process of making a decision.
The convent’s library is kept in order by the redoubtable Sister Gloria, a nun from Tranent who, as a child, survived the massacre when the king’s dragoons repressed an uprising against the Militia Act. Sister Gloria recalls her mother saying they had to make a stand, for she didn’t want to lose her husband to the army. In the event, however, the child lost both parents that day and was sent to an orphanage run by nuns where it wasdiscovered she had an extraordinary talent with words. Gloria didn’t so much promise herself to God when she was eighteen as to the convent’s library, where she’s been cataloguing the nuns’ collection ever since. On receipt of the note Winifred sent that morning, Mother summoned Gloria. ‘I require anything we hold about the Order of the Hermit or, indeed, St Giles,’ she said. But although Gloria has checked the stacks, little has been forthcoming. The convent library is dedicated to the works of female saints and philosophers. To fulfil Winifred’s request, Mother has realised she may have to send Sister Gloria beyond the convent’s walls and possibly, in addition, contact the bishop. What Winifred says is disturbing on many levels. A renegade order. A secret Winifred cannot reveal. A family quest. Not any family, either. But the McKenzies who, like Mother’s own forebears, served the Stuart royal house for generations.
She’s considering all this when Eleanor puts her head around the door. Mother starts. ‘My goodness,’ she says, and before she knows it Eleanor has come in. The girl is distracted, babbling about her mistress’s disappearance and something about the violent nature of a gentleman on a chestnut horse. Mother tries to focus. In the general run, little transpires at the convent. A debate about how to allocate funds, perhaps. An interview with a postulant, which turns up a family secret. But certainly not a kidnap and one which, it would seem, may have been undertaken by a group related to the church. Masonic Lodges are Christian institutions. Mother knows there are bishops in London who are members of such clubs. Men. All men. She’s wary of them. She invites Eleanor to sit down.
‘Your mistress has been taken, you say?’
‘Yes!’ Eleanor cries.
‘Sister Winifred’s great niece...’ It would seem matters are escalating. Mother doesn’t like it. Not at all.
‘My sister sent you here for safety,’ she says. ‘Sanctuary.’
‘Yes, Mother,’ Eleanor replies. She’s dressed in the robes of a novitiate, Winifred’s vestments being unsuitable for a woman who hasn’t taken orders but no other clothes being available in the robing room. The nuns also gave Eleanor a prayer rope though she isn’t sure what to do with it. ‘But when they find my lady, she’ll need me. Perhaps I can assist in the search. I was attacked by the same gentleman...’ Eleanor’s green eyes become suddenly liquid and a tear slips down her cheek. ‘This is all my fault.’
Mother takes the girl’s hand. ‘Now, now,’ she says, patting it gently. ‘Whatever’s happened I’m certain it has nothing to do with you. The shame for the man’s actions is his own.’
Eleanor shakes her head emphatically. ‘I took a bribe, Mother,’ she blubs. ‘I betrayed my lady. I thought it didn’t matter but the gentleman is wicked. He’s the one who pursued Sister Winifred and I. He said he’d see me dead and now...’
Mother’s gaze hardens. She makes the sign of the cross to stop the girl speaking. She’s trying to think. This man is of the renegade order Winifred has asked her to look into. That much is clear. Mother wonders if she ought to speak to the bishop straight away, but she can’t do so without proof. Men, even holy men, are quick to dismiss the suffering of women.
Eleanor sniffs. She’s calmed down enough to realise the tension in the room; already present when she entered. On Mother’s desk there’s a tray; a cup of tea half drunk and left carelessly aside from its saucer and two biscuits which have been snapped into pieces but not eaten.
‘Do you know anything about St Giles?’ Mother tries.
Eleanor shakes her head. ‘You mean the church?’
‘What about the Order of the Hermit?’
‘What’s that?’
‘Your mistress never mentioned these things?’
‘No, Mother.’
The old nun sighs and makes the decision that she can’t keep the girl at the convent against her will. ‘Sister Cecilia will drive you into town in the cart. Let’s hope they’ve found your lady by the time you get there. If not, you might be of use to Sister Winifred. I’m afraid she has also been attacked.’
Eleanor’s eyes flood once more. ‘What?’
‘Now, now. None of that. Sister Winifred is made of extremely stern stuff.’ Mother smiles. ‘She’s received medical attention and is in the care of a friend. Still... this gentleman...’ Mother finds she cannot summon a word to encapsulate the brutality that has taken place. It’s not the first time one of the sisters has encountered violence, far from it, but generally, once nuns have taken orders, violent gentlemen cease their pursuit. ‘Winifred is safe,’ she settles.
Eleanor takes this in. Winifred saved her at the Golf Tavern. ‘Shall I go to the sister first?’ she asks.
Mother nods. ‘That seems sensible.’ It would seem that the matter, whatever it might be, is coming to a head, and she trusts the McKenzies are in the right.
‘You needn’t hesitate to come back, should you require to. Day or night. Do you understand?’
Eleanor nods gratefully.
‘You might remind Sister Winifred that we have an infirmary here,’ Mother says and writes11 North St David Streeton a scrap of paper. Eleanor doesn’t admit that she can’t read it. She hopes Sister Cecilia will be able to do so.
‘Thank you, Mother,’ she says and, after dropping a shallow curtsey, disappears back downstairs.
