Page 1 of Her Sinful Duke

CHAPTER1

“Do you think she wants to whip me again?” Penelope asked Ciara Everton, another oblate like her, as she was being taken to the abbess for what seemed to be the millionth time in the five utterly miserable years she had spent in the nunnery.

The first couple of days there were unspeakably bad. The rules were strict, and there was no room for any mistakes. Those who erred paid dearly as Penelope came to learn very early on. She could not even remember all of the rules, let alone follow them. And there seemed to be little room for kindness and leniency in the nunnery.

“Oh, no, Penelope,” one of the girls told her during one of the morning inspections of their chambers. “Your bed…”

“What about it?” Penelope shrugged. Her bed was made… more or less. It wasn’t perfect, but it was still made.

“If Mother sees it, you will be punished,” Ciara whispered softly as the oncoming footsteps echoed in the distance. Penelope would only later come to recognize that sound as the sound of reckoning.

Every transgression, even the smallest one such as a slightly untidy bed, would merit a punishment. And that punishment depended upon the abbess herself and her current mood, rather than the transgression itself. The abbess almost seemed to take pleasure in hitting the girls with anything she could get her hands on, or she would not let them eat for days. Penelope did not know which one of the two was worse.

“I am so hungry,” Penelope murmured to herself as she sat in her chamber while the other girls had breakfast. If such a thing could even be called breakfast. Still, it was food, and Penelope had already gone a whole day without any.

A knock on the door interrupted her troubled thoughts. She rushed to open it, and much to her relief, there was one of the girls with a tray of porridge and a small piece of bread. The two girls locked gazes full of sympathy.

“Eat quickly,” the girl said. “If Mother finds out, we will both be in trouble.”

“Thank you,” Penelope replied with a trembling voice, grabbing the tray and closing the door quickly after her. She didn’t even care if the abbess did find out. She would satiate her hunger, and that was all that mattered at that moment.

She hated every single moment she spent there, and because she still could not follow rules even after all this time, she had not gotten the title of nun yet, and she remained an oblate even though she was of age to become one. However, seeing that she had no other choice, she had finally decided to take the veil very soon, hoping that at least that way, she might ask to be sent to a different nunnery with a different abbess, and perhaps, lead a better life than the one she had there.

“I don’t think so,” Ciara’s sudden response startled Penelope firstly with the sound of her voice that tore through the reverent silence that reigned around them then with the actual meaning of her words. “She did not sound upset when she instructed me to bring you to her.”

“Hmm,” Penelope mused incredulously. “That is… unusual.” She paused for a moment then she spoke again, her voice down to a whisper. “Do you know what it is about?” Penelope herself could come up with any number of reasons to be called before the abbess, but she preferred to wait for the answer.

“No,” Ciara’s response was simple.

“Even more unusual,” Penelope murmured to herself then she continued more loudly. “I was certain that I had not transgressed lately.”

The truth was she had actually been trying actively to lead a chaste life, following all the rules of the nunnery simply because she was to take her vows within a matter of days. She would become a nun. Not something she had ever thought or hoped for herself, but in the past five years, she had slowly come to terms with it. And she realized that it was not the worst thing that could have happened to her.

Ciara turned to her with her eyes wide. “Do not let the abbess hear you talk in that manner.”

“Ah, yes,” Penelope nodded. “That would be demonstrating a lack of humility and the lack of knowledge that man is of sinful flesh as we are.”

“Exactly,” Ciara agreed with a smile that disappeared as hastily as it had appeared.

“I have been really trying my best lately,” Penelope said with a heavy sigh. “I have not disobeyed orders from the abbess or any other superior. I have not been engaging in gossip. I have not been neglecting my duties. I have not violated any of the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. I have not been failing to attend scheduled prayer sessions. I have not broken the rules of silence?—”

“All right, all right.” Ciara turned to her, placing her hand gently on Penelope’s shoulder. “I see you have memorized all the rules. No need to reiterate them for me.”

“I have to know them in order not to break them,” Penelope pointed out. “But even like that, I still cannot manage to do what is asked of me. If the abbess wants to see me, I must have donesomethingthat merits a punishment.”

Ciara shook her head. “I told you that she did not appear angry. Not in the least bit.”

Penelope frowned. “That only makes me more concerned.”

This time, Ciara smiled. Her face held a warmth that reassured one into thinking that things were not all that bad. In fact, Ciara was one of the first girls Penelope met at the nunnery. Ciara was even younger than Penelope had been when her parents sent her to the abbey. She was two years younger than Penelope, so she must have been thirteen when she was brought to St Catherine’s. She was also sent there against her will by her parents, but that was all Penelope knew about her, for she rarely spoke about the past.

“Perhaps she has summoned you for praise,” Ciara suggested, but the moment she said that, they both stifled a burst of laughter that came straight from the heart. For such a thing could never be. The abbess had not praised a single nun under her care for all the years she had been Mother Superior. There was a higher chance of snow in July.

“I shall refrain from commenting on that,” Penelope said, placing her hand on her lips, as if in an effort to prevent herself from speaking further on the matter. “Besides, that would be gossip and merit a punishment.”

“Indeed,” Ciara nodded. “Let us walk in silence, then.”

“Yes, we had better do that,” Penelope agreed, feeling somehow relieved by the presence of Ciara.

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