Page 24 of Fallen
Coira’s chest tightened in anticipation at being able to close the door on the world for a few short hours, to be able to put herself back together again and make sense of her jumbled thoughts and emotions.
She’d almost reached the entrance to the lodgings when a man’s voice, rough and accusing, cut through the chill night air. “Stop right there.”
Light blazed behind her, and Coira abruptly came to a halt. Her heart then started pounding. Without turning, she knew that Father Camron stood at her back and that he was carrying a torch.
“Turn around,” he ordered sharply. “Let me see yer face.”
“The nun is unrepentant. This time, she must be punished.”
Father Camron’s voice boomed through the abbess’s hall, echoing off the stone walls. Standing a few feet back, her gaze bleary, for she’d just been torn from sleep, Mother Shona winced. “There’s no need to bellow, Father,” she said wearily. “None of us are hard of hearing.”
“I caught her, Mother,” the abbot continued, barely lowering his tone. “With that staff of hers. And look at her … she’s wearing a cloak. The nun has clearly been outside the abbey walls!”
Coira said nothing, although she didn’t take her gaze off the abbot’s face. His dark eyes gleamed, and his cheeks were flushed. He could barely contain his glee at catching her.
“Was she practicing with the quarter-staff again, Father?” Mother Shona asked with a long-suffering tone that Coira knew well. It was one she used with the likes of Sister Elspeth, when the nun came to her telling tales about the ‘misconduct’ of other sisters.
“No.” A little of the abbot’s glee ebbed from his face. “But that matters not … the point is, Sister Coira has no godly reason to leave the abbey at night.” His attention swiveled to Coira then, his gaze pinning her to the spot. “What were ye doing?”
“I have trouble sleeping, Father,” Coira replied, her voice frosty as she fought anger. It was rising within her like a springtide, and it took all her effort to choke it down. “So I took a walk in the hazel wood. I didn’t go far … and I took my staff with me, for the ground is uneven and I didn’t want to trip in the dark.”
The abbot gave a loud snort, his broad chest expanding with the force of his disbelief. The large iron crucifix he wore gleamed in the light of the cressets burning upon the surrounding walls. “Ye must take us both for fools, Sister Coira. Ye were out consorting with men, weren’t ye? Ye werefornicating!”
“Father!” Mother Shona gasped. “How dare ye suggest such a thing?”
“I dare because it is the truth!”
“But ye have no proof.”
“I don’t need any … not when I caught her returning from outside the walls.” Father Camron rounded on Coira before taking a menacing step toward her. “This time, ye will be flogged … and I shall wield the rod.”
“No, she won’t—andyewon’t.” The abbess’s voice cut in, flint-hard now. Glancing Mother Shona’s way, Coira saw that the last vestiges of sleepiness had disappeared from her face. The abbess’s eyes had turned dark and hard, and her nostrils flared.
Coira’s belly dropped in response. In all the years she’d lived at Kilbride, she’d never seen Mother Shona look so angry.
“If ye dare take a rod to anyone here, I shall rip it from yer hands and use it upon ye,” the abbess said, her voice tight with the force of the rage she was barely keeping in check. “Ye are a guest here, Father. Remember that.”
The abbot pulled himself up short, his broad chest expanding even further. His eyes bulged, and he began to breathe noisily, in short, rasping breaths. “I am aninquisitor, Mother,” he growled. “I can do what I wish.”
Mother Shona drew herself up, eyeballing him without the slightest trace of fear. “No … ye can’t.” Her voice had turned icy now. Watching her, Coira’s breathing caught. How she admired the abbess. Although small in stature, she wasn’t afraid to stand up to men. That day Mother Shona had stood her ground against MacKinnon, Coira had been frightened for her. But now watching her face-off against the abbot, her small hands balling into fists at her sides, Coira felt nothing but respect for the woman.
How she wished she was that brave.
It hurt to kneel upon the hard stone floor of the kirk—especially since the bruising upon Coira’s knees had only just healed. But it was preferable to a flogging so she bore the pain in silence.
Dawn wasn’t far off; she sensed its approach. The interior of the kirk was beginning to lighten as the sky outside the high narrow windows turned from black to indigo.
Closing her eyes, Coira swayed. Fatigue pressed down upon her. She was so tired she could have happily stretched out upon these icy flagstones and gone to sleep.
But instead, she was praying to atone for her misbehavior.
The words of the prayers blurred into each other now, for tiredness had muddled her thoughts. Instead, the abbot’s words intruded.
Ye were fornicating!
If the accusation hadn’t been so serious, she’d have laughed at its ridiculousness. After what she’d suffered at the hands of men in the past, sneaking out to copulate with one was the last thing she desired.
However, the abbot didn’t know of her past—and if he had, he’d likely have just used it against her.
