Valour and Victory Read Online Free Page B

and the finding of my sister and
mother second. I don’t even know if they’re still alive.”
    “I was brought
up with slavery,” said Elliot, “but it doesn’t mean that I think it
is right. When I visited your country Robain, there weren’t any
slaves and no one, not even the rich thought there was a need nor
felt the lack. I liked it there. My Father, he hates it too. When I
am King I am going to end it.”
    “You’re going
to emancipate the slaves? That’ll not do much for your popularity
amongst certain numbers of your people.”
    “I think I can
live with that, I certainly can’t live with the knowledge that I
knew slavery was wrong and did nothing to try to end it.”
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     
    Isobel
     
    Duchess Anne
Cocteau handed out the letters. There were three. One was to
Baroness Tamsin Dubois, who was visiting the manor for the summer
with her husband and children from her nun sister, Sister Cynwise.
It was an invitation to visit the convent with her husband and
children.
    The second
letter was also from Cynwise, to another of the Duchesses nieces,
Isobel.
    The third was
to Countess Katia, married to Isobel’s brother James.
    Letter from
Sister Cynwise, a novice with the Order of Grey Nuns, to her cousin
Isobel:
    ‘ My Dearest
Cousin Isobel,
    Mother
Breguswið has given me leave to write to you as well as my sister
Tamsin to tell you all the news from our House because she knows
well how interested you are in our day to day lives. As you know,
now that I have professed my initial vows and donned the habit I
cannot write as often as I might like but it is a small price to
pay for the happiness now within me now that I am a one of the
novitiate.
    First, I am
going to say that both Coenberg (remember, that is the name in
religion Annette has taken) and I enjoyed your last visit very much
and we hope that you will be able to visit us again soon and before
your wedding to Prince Elliot. Who would have thought when we
arrived here with your sister Estelle all these years ago to join
the schoolroom that you would become our future Queen? I am happy
for you and pray that the joy you expressed when you were here
regarding your impending nuptials will continue during the years
ahead. As you know, I never really wanted the type of marriage that
will soon be yours. I think, even at twelve I intended to be a
‘Bride of the Church’ and knew that for me, it was the route to my
greatest joy and happiness.
    I was not
wrong. Life here as part of the Sisterhood is more wonderful than I
could ever have imagined.
    Are you keeping
up with your studies? I only ask because you used to enjoy them so
much. We spend at least a candle-mark each day studying, trying to
increase our understanding of God’s place in our life and in the
world. As well as the Scriptures and Theology we also study more
earthly and mundane subjects, to better prepare us for the other
part of our vocation, that of teaching the young. I have already
presided over three classes in the schoolroom and I enjoyed it very
much.
    Young Jill,
your sister-in-law’s little sister was a member of the class to
which I was assigned. She is a bright little thing, eager to please
and to learn and I hope that I will be teaching her and her
form-mates more in the future. You can tell, Katia, isn’t it that
she is doing well and appears to have settled in with us fine.
    Sister
Earcongota is still in charge of the school annex. Remember how we
all used to love her when we were younger? She is as kind and as
gentle as ever though she admitted to me the other day that she is
beginning to feel her years and complains of the joint-ache when
the weather is cold and wet. Sister Hereswald has prescribed a mild
painkiller for when the aches are very bad which seems to help.
    Your friend
Mary is in retreat at the moment, preparing to make her initial
vows. She talks about you often during our recreational time.
Although she will not ask you herself, I think she would as