Rory's Promise Read Online Free Page A

WORDS FLEW OUT OF R ORY’S MOUTH. She clapped her hands over her mouth; after three years at the Foundling she knew there are certain things you never say to a nun.
    Sister Anna stared at Rory, her gray eyes flinty and hard. “That is quite enough, young lady.” She was seated at her desk. Sister Anna and the desk suited each other: square and imposing. There were two wooden armchairs in front of Sister Anna's desk and a small leather-covered sofa against the wall under the high windows. There were cracks in the leather but the room was spotlessly clean.
    “But you promised that Violet and I would stay together. You promised!” Rory's body shook with anger, and she had to clasp her hands tight to keep from trembling. She had declined Sister Anna's invitation to sit down, preferring to face trouble on her feet.
    “You and she have been sheltered at the Foundling forthree years,” Sister Anna said. “You know our mission, to find our foundlings a suitable family. We have found a good family for Violet.”
    “Violet has a family. Me! Ma sent us here so we wouldn't be separated.” Rory began to pace around the room, remem-bering her first night at the Foundling. The Sisters had tried to separate Rory from her sister. Rory had screamed and held on to Violet as though their lives depended on staying together. Finally Sister Anna had agreed that Rory could stay with Violet for the time being. Rory had stretched that brief reprieve into three years.
    Sister Anna glanced down at a piece of paper on the desk. Rory recognized it as the form for every new orphan at the Foundling Hospital. The ink on little Joseph's paper was still wet. But it was the first time Rory had ever seen Violet's or her own.
    “We need to make room for new orphans,” Sister Anna said. “Violet will have a very good home.”
    “But where are you sending her, Sister?” Rory asked, stunned. She had just explained the rules to Joseph's mother but somehow she had never dreamed they would affect her and Violet. How could she have been so shortsighted? Her mother had expected more of her.
    “It doesn't matter. Just know that it is a good home,” Sister Anna replied.
    “It's the only thing that matters. Where are you sending her?”
    “Watch your tone, young lady.” Sister Anna's voice wasicy. “I'm trying to make allowances because I know you are upset, but I won't tolerate rudeness.”
    It took an effort—the habit of obeying Sister Anna was bone-deep—but Rory put her hands on the back of the chair in front of the desk and looked her squarely in the eyes. “Will she be close? Will I still be able to see her?”
    Sister Anna's gaze dropped.
    “Where is Violet going?” Rory could be as stubborn as she needed to be.
    “Out west.”
    “How far west?” Rory's voice was small. The only thing she knew about the West was her favorite issue of Wild West Weekly . A visitor to the Foundling had left it behind and Rory had claimed it for her own. She'd read it a dozen times and she had serious doubts that a suitable home for Violet lay between those pages. There were Indians, coyotes, and rattlesnakes in the West.
    “A week's journey by train.”
    “A week away!” Rory shoved the chair aside and clenched her fists at her side. “I'll never see her again!”
    Sister Anna stood up from behind her desk and came around to Rory. She stooped to put her arm around Rory's shoulders. Rory could feel the nun's crucifix pressing into her back.
    “No, Rory,” she said. Her manner was matter-of-fact, but Rory thought she heard a little bit of pity in Sister Anna's voice. “You won't see her again. She'll have a new family. We have found it best for the children we place to sever all tieswith their former lives. It is easier for them. And for you.” She fell silent, as if waiting for Rory to speak, but Rory was staring straight ahead, thinking more quickly than she ever had in her life.
    “Violet's new parents are good Catholics,” Sister Anna went on.