All the Sweet Tomorrows Read Online Free PDF Page A

her own convent; whitewashed walls with no decoration other than a crucifix, and no furniture other than a simple pallet bed set on the floor. Kneeling now before the cross was Darragh O’Neil, deep in prayer. Eibhlin waited politely for a few moments and then spoke softly.
    “Sister Mary Penitent, I am Sister Eibhlin, the bishop’s representative. I have come to speak with you on the matter of Lord Burke’s death.”
    At first Eibhlin thought that Darragh did not hear her, but then the kneeling woman crossed herself and rose from her prayers. Eibhlin had never seen Darragh O’Neil before. She looked nothing like her aunt, who was the Superior at Eibhlin’s island convent of St. Bride’s. Ethna O’Neil was a beautiful and serene woman, but her niece’s face was pinched and tortured. She was clearly suffering, and putting an arm about her, Eibhlin helped to seat her upon the pallet bed. Joining her there, she looked again upon the woman’s face and knew that Darragh was sane for the moment, but how long she would remain sane she could not tell. She did know that she must act quickly if she was to learn the truth.
    “Sister Mary Penitent,” she repeated softly, “I am Sister Eibhlin, the bishop’s representative.”
    “You’re an O’Malley,” came the dull, despairing reply, “and His Grace the Bishop is another O’Malley. Have you come to wreak your vengeance upon me?”
    Looking at this poor creature so obviously enslaved by her fears, Eibhlin suddenly felt sorry for Darragh O’Neil. “It is not our place to punish you, my sister,” she said. “Only God truly knows what is in your heart and soul; but the bishop must know why you have done this terrible deed. Why did you kill Lord Burke, Sister Mary Penitent? Why did you throw his body into the sea?”
    Darragh O’Neil lifted her eyes to meet those of Eibhlin O’Malley. The pale-blue eyes were filled with pain and guilt and totally lacking hope. “I did not want to kill him,” she said slowly, “but Sister Mary Claire told me that if I did not he would draw me once again into carnal bondage, into his lustful power. I had to kill him! If I had not he would have taken me back! She said it!” Darragh’s voice had now risen to a frightened pitch.
    “But why would you believe such a thing, my sister?” Eibhlin gently inquired. “You had neither seen nor communicated with Lord Burke since the day you left Burke Castle. For most of your marriage you did not cohabit as a man and wife do. Why did you believe the slanders of this strange woman whom you barely knew?”
    “She knew the truth!” Darragh O’Neil declared. “She came from the convent at Ballycarrick. Lord Burke managed those lands for a royal ward, and ’twas known that he was a bold, lustful man unable to keep his hands from any woman who took his fancy. Why, Sister Mary Claire told me that he even raped two novices of her convent! Raped and bewitched them so totally the Mother Superior at Ballycarrick was forced to drive the two poor damned souls from her convent, for Lord Burke had roused their baser instincts so uncontrollably that they did terrible and shameful things to themselves and each other in plain sight of their gentle sisters. It was wicked! As she left the convent, one of the two women shouted that Lord Burke had developed a taste for nuns; that his first wife was a nun; that he had told her he intended reclaiming her and making her his leman! I could not let him do that to me! I could not! Surely you, a woman called to God as I was also called, understand that.”
    Eibhlin was frankly curious as to what else Claire O’Flaherty had told poor Darragh to rouse her enough to commit murder; and so she asked her.
    Darragh’s weak blue eyes grew round, and she lowered her voice. “It was not so much the telling,” she said. “She showed me. Several times she came to my cell in darkest night, and sheshowed me what Lord Burke had done to those two novices, what he would do to