L'Oro Verde by Coralie Hughes Jensen Read Free Book Online Page B

teaching for a while.”
    “Do you know what pulled Sister Angela
away?”
    “No. But I’m sure she’ll tell you first,”
she said, smiling. “And then you’ll have to tell all of us.”
    Sister Daniela looked at the other
teacher, her mouth agape. “I can’t tell everyone about the crime. Sister Angela
would never trust me again. I have to respect her request for strict confidentiality.”
    “Normally, you are such a chatterbox, my
dear,” said Sister Lucia, pushing a strand of hair behind the novice’s ear. “I’m
sure Mother Margherita says many prayers for your future here. But when you
work for Sister Angela, you keep your lips sealed tight. We would all like to
know her secret—how she gets the best out of you.”
    “You are right, Sister,” Sister Daniela
said. “You are simply right. I wish I could be just like her.”
    “I think I hear the bell, Sisters,”
Mother Margherita said, stepping out of her office. “What can possibly be
important enough to keep you talking out here?”
    “Forgive us, Mother,” Sister Lucia said.
“Sister Daniela was telling me she wanted to be just like Sister Angela.”
    “Good Lord,” the mother superior said as
the teachers hurried back toward the classrooms.
    *
    When Sister Daniela sat down to dinner,
she wondered where Sister Angela was. Rarely did her friend miss a meal. Just
then she noticed the older woman enter. As a novice, Sister Daniela did not eat
at the same table with the nuns so she could not get close to Sister Angela.
She watched her take her seat, wishing she could hear more about the crime. It
would have to wait until after dinner. She turned to the others at her table
and struck up a conversation about their classes. Novices had to attend school
too, preparing them to take their vows the following spring.
    *
    Mother Margherita observed the novice as
she sipped her soup. Sister Daniela should be watched more carefully. I have
to remember to talk to mother the vicaress about the situation.
    The novice became a postulant in Bologna
and arrived in Montriano well-recommended. The mother superior remembered the
report. She was perky and a bit talkative, but Novice Daniela had no doubt
about wanting to teach. The novice mistress at her former convent wrote that
she definitely would have encouraged her to stay there if her interests were the
care of the sick or handicapped. Unfortunately, the community in Bologna could
not train novices to be teachers—so they sent her to Montriano. The novice
still acted young but she arrived with excellent recommendations.
    It must be her association with Sister
Angela, the mother superior
thought . That nun’s darn romantic dreams are leading the child’s mind
elsewhere.
    Mother Margherita tried to think back to
when she first met Sister Angela. It must have been when the nun came to the
school. They were about the same age. The mother superior could remember very
little before she was promoted, but she could not forget Sister Angela. Since
Sister Angela first reported to her, there had been nothing but trouble—no, flux.
The clear-cut rules of the order were bent, and then re-bent, and then tied
into knots. Nothing was simple. Now the mother superior had to weigh the
arguments against that.
    “It’s not really clear in the rules,”
Sister Angela would point out. “But if you look at the teachings of Christ and
listen to doctrine, it’s so clear, don’t you think?”
    Mother Margherita’s mind would soon be
in a muddle. She did not know how to debate it—either way was right, every way
was wrong.
    No, she did not want the young novice
following in Sister Angela’s footsteps. The question was how to intervene.
    *
    After dinner, Sister Daniela headed
straight to Sister Angela’s room. Although she was not allowed to spend the night
outside the quarters assigned to novices, she could still visit.
    Sister Angela seemed glad to see her.
“Come in, come in. How did class go today?”
    “Perfectly. Umberto