The Judas Rose Read Online Free PDF

circumstances as a mark of the Virgin’s favor and offered their devout thanks. Once this was over, and they were less busy, they would elaboratethose thanks in the chapel. But not now. Right now, they were occupied with the laboring woman.
    The problem was that nothing about this situation was ordinary. The mother was not their usual guest. She wasn’t even Catholic, much less the usual terrified and frantic specimen; she was a daughter of the Lines, utterly without religion so far as they could determine (although their discreet inquiries had established that the linguists of her Household usually attended the United Reformed Baptist Church), and she was possessed of an uncanny calm entirely suitable to her godless condition. They resented being in this awkward position, but their vows had not allowed them the option—when she appeared on their doorstep one winter midnight—of ordering her back to her own home or to the charity hospitals or simply closing the door in her wicked face. The Sisters Of Genesis were consecrated to the needs of unmarried pregnant women, women adulterously pregnant in circumstances that made them fear discovery, and so on. Nowhere in their vows was it specified that they might pick and choose among those who asked for their help. Still . . . this seemed to all of them to be exceptionally trying.
    â€œDon’t we have to tell the Fathers?” Sister Carapace had asked, clearly distressed at the irregularity.
    â€œNo. We do not.”
    â€œI don’t understand. Surely we must tell them!”
    â€œAnd why ‘must’ we?” Sister Antonia had demanded, hands on hips and arms akimbo. “Where in our instructions for the succor of these women does it state that we must tell the priests where they come from, Sister Carapace?”
    â€œBut a woman of the Lines! ” the younger nun had protested. “The priests would want to know!”
    There were times when the others wondered how Carapace had managed to last out the long extra novitiate for the Sisters Of Genesis. She would have been far better suited to more routine duties; she was excessively emotional, and had an irritating tendency to faint when she was needed most. The Sisters Of Gensis were expected to be an elite group, selected for their unusual qualifications from among the nuns in every convent of the Order. In the case of Sister Carapace, a serious error of judgment had clearly been made somewhere along the way. Now what were they going to say to the fool woman? Sister Antonia knew that the same question was in the minds of everyone present; what she did not know was the answer to the question.
    Resorting to the most primitive tactics available to her, for want of anything better, she pinned Sister Carapace down withquestions fired like springdarts. “Has any one of the Fathers ever ordered you to come tell him the origin of each and every woman tended by the Sisters Of Genesis?”
    â€œNo, Sister.”
    â€œHave you ever been given that instruction by a Mother Superior? Or a Mistress of Novices? Or even by a senior nun?”
    â€œNo, Sister.”
    â€œHave you ever read such an instruction anywhere, Sister Carapace? Or heard it read aloud? Or heard it mentioned in passing?”
    â€œNo, Sister Antonia,” said Sister Carapace. “But still—”
    â€œYou have simply taken it upon yourself to make it up!” The accusation snapped like a whip, and the younger nun flinched and clutched ridiculously at her throat. “ You , Sister Carapace, in your wisdom, have decided to make a modification in our instructions, based upon your personal perceptions and preferences! Is that correct? ”
    Accused outright of the sin of subjectivity, right out loud and before everyone, Carapace had gone white and trembling and refused to say anything more about it, and Antonia had been sorry that she had to stoop to such bullying. In spite of her pity, however, she had