Let Loose the Dogs Read Online Free PDF Page B

linen bandages.
    “Mother, I have been wrestling with such dark thoughts. They are blotting out the light of Our Lord’s face.”
    “These are mere scruples, my dear little sister. You have been absolved of all your sins. You are going on the journey to Our God with a soul that has been cleansed of sin.” She stroked Sister Philomena’s cheek.
    The nun pressed the prioress’s hand against her face.
    “I know that my heart is still full of anger …”
    “For whom, my child? You have been ever one of our most loving sisters. What is this anger?”
    Sister Philomena became more agitated. “For the past three days, I have looked up at the corner of the room, there where the ceiling and the wall join. There, do you see it? A spider. Oh, it is so big. I asked Sister Genevieve to chase it away, but it always returns. It does not move.”
    Involuntarily, Mother St. Raphael glanced up at the ceiling. The wall was whitewashed; and even though the light was dim, she could see nothing.
    “Does this frighten you, my child?”
    “At first yes, but now I see that our Saviour has sent it to me as a sign. There is a dark place in my soul. I must cleanse it before I die.”
    She shifted restlessly, but the movement made her whimper. Mother St. Raphael waited patiently. When she spoke next, Sister Philomena’s voice was so low she was almost inaudible.
    “I have hidden it even from my confessor. The Lord our God commands us to love and honour our father and our mother, but I do not.”
    The prioress was surprised at what she heard. Sister Philomena had said so little about her life before she entered the convent as a postulant. She’d understood she had no family except for the one brother, older than she was. He had visited two times in the beginning but not for many years now.
    “I led you to believe that both of my parents were dead, but that was not true.” She licked at her lips. “My mother was deceased, but my father was alive when I became a postulant.” She stopped. “It is he whom I reject in my heart. In spite of the words of Our Saviour, I can find no love for my father. I must not go to Our Lord’s house with such uncharitable thoughts.”
    She was almost exhausted with the effort of talking, and Mother St. Raphael had to lean closer to hear what she said.
    “What is your father’s sin that you cannot honour him?”
    But the nun was distracted. She glanced upward. “Perhaps the spider has come to remind me of my shame.”
    Mother St. Raphael stood up. “I will send for our father confessor once more if it will bring you peace. But you must not fret so. We are all only frail mortals. Our Lord sees everything and is ever merciful.”
    She could not tell if her words had reached Sister Philomena because she had closed her eyes again. The prioress turned to the infirmarian and spoke to her in French. “Sister Genevieve, burn another stick of incense if you please and bring it close to the bedside. It will give her strength.”
    She left the room with a soft rustling of her habit on the wooden floorboards.
    Sister Genevieve took a strip of the linen and carefully wiped away the moisture from Sister Philomena’s forehead. She wrapped that piece in a separate strip and put it on the table. If Sister Philomena of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was truly a saint, this cloth would be a holy relic.

Chapter Six
    T HE INFIRMARY WAS IN A LOW , single-storey wing off the east side of the main convent. An arched, covered walkway ran the length of the building, the openings small and high. In front of that was a row of hemlocks. The snow was smooth and deep as far as the trees. No shrubs poked up, no mark of human activity. At a different season, the courtyard might have appeared tranquil, but today, in the winter night, the sombre dark stone of the convent walls seemed bleak and desolate.
    At the end of the path, almost hidden by the evergreens, there was a narrow door. As Murdoch and the driver of the sleigh that had brought