Thunder On The Right by Mary Stewart Read Free Book Online Page B

convent."
    "Then surely," said Sister Louisa, with another of her bright glances, "surely it's more strange still that she didn't speak of you to anyone?"
    "I thought so at first," said Jennifer, "but, of course, if she was delirious with fever, she would hardly remember------"
    "Well, yes, of course. But there were many times when she was lucid, too. That's why it seems so odd------"
    Jennifer sat back abruptly on her heels and stared at Sister Louisa.
    "You mean—she wasn't feverish all the time?"
    "Of course not. You know how these things go; there is delirium, followed often by a period when the patient's mind is quite clear—very weak, you understand, but quite sensible. She did have times like that, so I believe."
    "But," said Jennifer, "Dona Francisca gave me to understand that Gillian—my cousin—was delirious all the time, and had no chance to remember me!"
    Sister Louisa's shoulders lifted in a remarkably unmonastic shrug. "As to that, I can't tell you any more, child. I didn't see your cousin myself, but I had certainly understood from Celeste------"
    "Celeste?"
    "One of the orphans—the eldest of them, a sweet child. She and Dona Francisca nursed your cousin."
    "Dona Francisca did that?"
    "Indeed yes. She's skilled at it. It was she who took her in, and she insisted on looking after her herself with Celeste to help her. We're a tiny community, you know, and though Dona Francisca may have a temper and a high-nosed Spanish way with her"—she grinned suddenly—"she's a good doctor in sickness. I can speak for that myself: I get rheumatism every winter, and she's been very good to me."
    "And Celeste told you that my cousin had these periods of sanity?"
    "I don't know whether she said so for sure, but that's what Fd understood. In fact, that's why I'm so busy here planting these things—you know what they are, child?"
    "No, what?"
    "Gentians. They're bonny flowers. In the spring the grass on the grave will be blue, bluer even than those morning-glories."
    Jennifer stared at her. "But------"
    "Oh, yes, there are gentians out now, on the mountains, I know. Look, there's some here now in this bowl. But the ones I'm setting are the spring ones. I brought them in myself so that she'd have gentians for the spring. She loved the color, you know.
    Celeste told me that. That's what made me understand your cousin had been able to talk sense for a bit; she told Celeste these were her 'avoxlte flowers. She'd hardly say that in delirium, would she?1
    "Hardly. But------"
    "Celeste used to gather them for her, and when she died, I planned to plant them on her grave. It's a small service, but one I like tc do for them. . ." She made a little gesture toward two other flower covered mounds. "Sister Therese loved pansies, you see, and old Sister Marianne always said the prettiest flower of them ail was the mountain daisy. And so here are gentians for your cousin. . . ."
    "I—I see. It's very sweet of you." But something—some shaken and breathless undertone in Jennifer's voice—made the old nun cock an eye at her again.
    "What's the matter, child?"
    Jennifer did not reply for a moment. She sat looking down at her hands, gripped tightly together in her lap, while her grief-stupefied mind struggled to assess a new and sufficiently startling idea.

    Sister Louisa put down her trowel with a tiny slap. "Something's up. What is it?"
    Jennifer looked up then, thrusting back the soft hair from her forehead as if by that act she could comb away the tangles of her confusion. She met the anxious old eyes levelly.
    "Sister Louisa, my cousin was color-blind."
    The old woman gave her a puzzled glance, then reached half-automatically for her trowel again. She picked up another plant and began to set it in its place. "Well?"
    "You understand what that means?"
    "Well, of course. When I was a girl I had a friend whose brother suffered the same way. They might never have known it, but he went to work on the railway, and they soon found out and