The Hills and the Valley Read Online Free

her imagination worked overtime on what excuses she could offer. She had seen someone taken ill, perhaps, and stopped to do what she could. Or rescued a kitten from a tree and become ledged herself. A bit unlikely, one had to admit, but it would also account for the bent brim of her boater – another sin that was going to need explaining.
    And if I have to make up a story it might as well be one that shows me in a good light, Barbara reasoned.
    She tapped at the headmistress’s door.
    â€˜Come!’
    A nun shouldn’t have a harsh voice like that, Barbara thought. It should be soft from praying and singing Aves, not sounding like a sergeant major. She opened the door and went in.
    Sister Claude looked up and her expression told Barbara her worst fears had been realised. There was something very unholy about the tight set of her narrow lips and the way her eyes glared from behind her spectacles.
    â€˜Well, Barbara,’ she said.
    â€˜Sister.’
    â€˜You know why you are here, I’m sure.’
    Barbara opened her eyes very wide and attempted an innocent expression.
    â€˜I’m sorry if I was a long time at the dentist’s, Sister, but on the way back I saw the most terrible accident. A poor woman stepped off the kerb and …’
    â€˜Barbara!’ Sister Claude thundered.
    â€˜Yes, Sister?’ She said it with less conviction.
    â€˜Save yourself the trouble of lying. It only adds to your wickedness.’
    â€˜But Sister …’
    Sister Claude closed an exercise book she had been marking with a snap and laid it on a pile with the rest. ‘I happen to know, Barbara, that you have not been to the dentist at all. You have been to Bristol.’
    Barbara’s jaw dropped. This she had not expected.
    â€˜How …?’ It was out before she could stop it.
    â€˜You may well ask that, Barbara. Suffice to say that very few movements of a girl in the uniform of our convent go unnoticed – and all are known to God.’
    â€˜Oh.’
    â€˜Yes, I hear you were in Bristol, Barbara. Bad enough, but that is not all, I fear. I understand you were on the station meeting some boy. ’ She spoke the word with distaste, as if boys belonged to some strange alien race, Barbara thought.
    â€˜Not some boy, Sister,’ she protested. ‘Huw.’
    â€˜Huw?’
    â€˜My … my brother.’
    â€˜Don’t lie, Barbara. You do not have a brother.’
    â€˜Well, he’s not my brother exactly …’ Barbara broke off. She had not realised Sister Claude did not know about Huw, though she supposed there was no reason why she should. Now she wondered just how she could explain him. My stepfather’s adopted son, sounded so far-fetched, even though it was the truth. In her present mood Sister Claude would never believe her. ‘He lives with us,’ she said lamely.
    Sister Claude’s tight lips told her exactly how truthful she was being.
    â€˜I had thought, Barbara, that a school such as ours would have set your feet on the right path for life. I don’t know where you met this boy, I don’t know what possessed you to lie to me and to miss your lessons to go cavorting with him. But one thing I do know. I shall not stand for it. This school has a reputation to maintain …’
    Oh God, she’s going to expel me! Barbara thought in horror.
    â€˜â€¦ and I shall do all that is necessary to maintain it. What will your mother have to say about this, Barbara?’
    â€˜She … I …’ Useless to protest that Amy would have no objection to her being with Huw, She certainly would object to her missing lessons and telling lies to do it.
    â€˜You realise she will have to know about this?’
    Barbara swallowed. ‘Yes, Sister.’
    Outside the door Barbara let out her breath in a long, sustained ‘Phew!’ So she hadn’t been expelled – more was the pity. In the end Sister Claude had