The Wonder Read Online Free PDF

anything rancid?”
    Mrs. O’Donnell bristled. “There does be nothing rancid in this kitchen.”
    â€œDid you plead with her to eat?” asked Lib.
    â€œI might as well have saved my breath.”
    â€œAnd Anna gave no reason for her refusal?”
    The woman leaned a little closer, as if imparting a secret. “No need.”
    â€œShe didn’t need to give a reason?” asked Lib.
    â€œShe doesn’t need it,” said Rosaleen O’Donnell, her smile revealing her missing teeth.
    â€œFood, you mean?” asked the nun, barely audible.
    â€œNot a crumb. She’s a living marvel.”
    This had to be a well-rehearsed performance. Except that the gleam in the woman’s eyes looked remarkably like conviction to Lib. “And you claim that during the last four months, your daughter’s continued in good health?”
    Rosaleen O’Donnell straightened her frame, and her sparse eyelashes fluttered. “No false
claims,
no impostures, will be found in this house, Mrs. Wright. ’Tis a humble home, but so was the stable.”
    Lib was puzzled, thinking of horses, until she realized what the woman meant: Bethlehem.
    â€œWe’re simple people, himself and myself,” said Rosaleen O’Donnell. “We can’t explain it, but our little girl is thriving by special providence of the Almighty. Sure aren’t all things possible to him?” She appealed to the nun.
    Sister Michael nodded. Faintly: “He moves in mysterious ways.”
    This was why the O’Donnells had asked for a nun, Lib was almost sure of it. And why the doctor had gone along with their request. They were all assuming that a spinster consecrated to Christ would be more likely than most people to believe in miracles. More blinkered by superstition, Lib would call it.
    Mr. Thaddeus’s eyes were watchful. “But you and Malachy are willing to let these good nurses sit with Anna for the full fortnight, aren’t you, Rosaleen, so they can testify before the committee?”
    Mrs. O’Donnell flung her skinny arms so wide, her plaid shawl almost fell. “Willing and more than willing, so we’ll have our characters vindicated that are as good as any from Cork to Belfast.”
    Lib almost laughed. To be as concerned for reputation in this meagre cabin as in any mansion…
    â€œWhat have we to hide?” the woman went on. “Haven’t we already thrown our doors open to well-wishers from the four corners of the earth?”
    Her grandiloquence put Lib’s back up.
    â€œSpeaking of which,” said the priest, “I believe your guests may be leaving.”
    The singing had ended without Lib noticing. The inner door hung open a crack, shifting in the draught. She walked over and looked through the gap.
    The good room was distinguished from the kitchen mostly by its bareness. Apart from a cupboard with a few plates and jugs behind glass and a cluster of rope chairs, there was nothing in it. Half a dozen people were turned towards the corner of the room that Lib couldn’t see, their eyes wide, lit as if they were watching some dazzling display. She strained to catch their murmurs.
    â€œThank you, miss.”
    â€œA couple of holy cards for your collection.”
    â€œLet me leave you this vial of oil our cousin had blessed by His Holiness in Rome.”
    â€œA few flowers is all, cut in my garden this morning.”
    â€œA thousand thank-yous, and would you ever kiss the baby before we go?” That last woman hurried towards the corner with her bundle.
    Lib found it tantalizing not to be able to glimpse the
extraordinary wonder
—wasn’t that the phrase the farmers had used at the spirit grocery last night? Yes, this must have been what they were raving about: not some two-headed calf but Anna O’Donnell, the
living marvel.
Evidently hordes were let in every day to grovel at the child’s feet; the vulgarity of it!
    There