The Convent Read Online Free PDF

polished wooden floor, glad that it was her, Ellen Reynolds, playing his notes.
    It was by no means her best rendition, but for most of the way through she was halfway pleased. Not too many notes went missing, and every time she came to the end of a page of music and Mother Seraphina leant forward to turn it Ellen saw she was smiling. Ellen’s fingers flew over the notes. By the end she knew she was making all kinds of mistakes, but it didn’t matter because they were both laughing by then.
    â€˜Bravo, my dear girl! Bravo!’ Mother Seraphina clapped a couple of times before gently putting down the lid of the piano. ‘With no practice, you did very well indeed.’ She sighed and checked the time on the small silver watch under her guimpe.
    â€˜Well, we must be going, dear.’
    â€˜Thank you, Mother.’
    The nun took her hand. ‘Tell me what it is you want to do in life, Ellen?’
    Ellen could only look at her in shock. No one had ever asked her that before. Not even her father had asked her that. What did she want to do?
    â€˜You mean …?’
    â€˜When you leave school and become an adult.’
    â€˜I don’t know, Mother.’
    â€˜Think, child.’
    â€˜Well …’ Ellen began shyly, ‘I would like to have my own family one day, Mother.’
    The nun’s old face lit up. ‘Then you will, my dear,’ she said softly, ‘you will. You’ll have a beautiful family.’
    Ellen was surprised that the nun seemed so certain, because she wasn’t at all sure herself. She’d never in her whole life spoken to a boy, and she knew nothing about babies or families for that matter.
    â€˜Oh yes.’ The nun closed her eyes. ‘You’ll meet a good Catholic man. And you’ll have a wonderful family of your own.’
    â€˜With my own house,’ Ellen added softly.
    â€˜Of course, my dear!’ Mother Seraphina stood up. ‘A house full of lovely children. You’ll bring back your first child and show me, if I’m still alive?’
    â€˜Oh I will, Mother! I will. I won’t forget.’
    They both stood up. Ellen waited as the nun packed up the music books into a neat pile.
    â€˜Now, Ellen, I have some time on Saturdays around three. We don’t want all that practice going for nothing, do we?’
    â€˜You mean a lesson, Mother?’
    â€˜What else, child? Of course I mean a lesson. As long as you’re here, you’ll have lessons.’
    â€˜Thank you, Mother.’
    When everything was shipshape, she turned to Ellen, her face softened into a whimsical smile. ‘What will you call your first child, do you think?’
    Ellen smiled and didn’t hesitate. ‘Dominic,’ she said, and the nun frowned thoughtfully as though the name invited deep consideration. Ellen waited, hoping that the nun wouldn’t disapprove. But why would she? After all, it was a Great Saint’s name. Ellen secretly didn’t care much for the saint but rather loved the sound of the name. Dominic .
    â€˜Dominic is a wonderful name,’ the nun said at last. ‘And what about if you have a girl first?’
    Ellen looked at the plaster saint in the corner. ‘Cecilia,’ she whispered.
    â€˜Of course!’ This time Mother Seraphina laughed in delight. ‘And she’ll have the gift, too, like her mother. I don’t doubt it. Now don’t you forget,’ she said. ‘If I’m not gone to God I want to see her too. Dominic and Cecilia.’
    â€˜I won’t forget, Mother.’

Cecilia 1964
    He has placed his seal upon my forehead and I will admit no other lover but him…
    The day had arrived and she was ready for it.
    Today. Everything that was meant to happen would happen: hour by hour, minute by minute. And at the end of it, when she lay down to sleep in this bed again, she would be changed. Transformed. No longer nineteen-year-old Cecilia Mary Madden, the