Vow of Obedience Read Online Free Page A

from home in the middle of the night, now bundled into a cupboard, the wreath on her head and the long white dress with its inserts of cheap lace a terrible mockery of a bridal costume. Bitten nails on the fingers added the final touch of unbearable pathos.
    It had been an elopement then. A girl of sixteen stealing away in the middle of the night to meet a boy-friend of whom her parents had either been unaware or of whom they would have disapproved. Killed here? Brought here later? It was impossible to tell.
    Moving with the calmness of shock, she rose and shut the cupboard door, her hand automatically sketching a blessing. There was no help for it but on her first day back she would have to miss chapel.
    Remounting Lilith she urged her down the track towards the town. Fortunately the pony was in a mood to go fast but it would be dark by the time she reached the police station, even though in Cornwall the day died slowly.
    Street lights cast a hard blue light over nun and horse as she rode down the street and dismounted in the parking space at the side of the police station, tying Lilith’s rein loosely to the fire hydrant.
    When she walked into the station the desk sergeant glanced up, then snapped to attention in the way some people did when a nun appeared.
    ‘Good evening, Sister. Anything I can do for you?’ Hesounded brisk and businesslike.
    ‘Is …’ She searched for the one name she knew. ‘Is Detective Sergeant Mill on the premises?’
    ‘Someone using my name in vain? Oh, hello, Sister Joan.’ Detective Sergeant Mill had just emerged from the inner office.
    ‘I hoped you’d be working late,’ she said.
    ‘Catching up on paperwork.’ His voice sharpened slightly as he took a second look at her. ‘Is anything wrong?’
    ‘I’m afraid there is, Detective Sergeant Mill. May I use your telephone to let the convent know I’ll be late?’
    ‘Certainly. You look as if you need a stiff shot of brandy too. See about it, will you?’
    He threw the order over his shoulder at the desk sergeant as he held open the door for Sister Joan.
    She accepted a chair gratefully and dialled the convent with fingers that felt suddenly clumsy and chilly.
    ‘Sister Perpetua? Sister Joan here. Please ask Mother Dorothy to excuse me but I’m forced to be absent from chapel and possibly for supper too.’
    ‘What’s happened?’ At the other end of the line Sister Perpetua sounded more resigned than panicky.
    ‘I’ll explain what has happened when I get back. I’m ringing from the police station but I’m perfectly all right, so there’s no need for anyone to worry. Goodbye.’
    She hung up quickly to find Detective Sergeant Mill’s eyes fixed on her.
    ‘What has happened, Sister?’ he asked quietly.
    ‘I went over to the Moor school – you know it’s been closed? I wanted to have a last look at it – not literally, of course, but in a rather sentimental way. I also had some idea of picking up anything that I thought I might need. I’d forgotten the key but the front door was unlocked, so I went in.’ She paused to moisten her lips, clasping her hands tightly together. ‘Someone had taken the shelves out of the cupboard behind my desk. I opened the cupboard door and the girl – the one who was reported missing – was there. She was – someone strangled her, I think, and she’s wearing a bridal gown with a wreath of leaves on her head.’
    To her extreme embarrassment her voice choked and tears came into her eyes.
    ‘Drink this.’ Detective Sergeant Mill handed her the brandy the desk sergeant had just brought in. ‘You heard that, Stephens?’
    ‘I did.’ The desk sergeant looked marginally less stolid.
    ‘Lay on a car and get hold of Barratt, will you? He may as well be flung in at the deep end.’
    ‘Doctor, sir?’
    ‘And the photographer. A couple of men to rope off the area – you know the drill. Oh, and better get hold of the priest – Father Malone. Don’t contact the Pendons yet. Bad news