The Sins of the Fathers

Chapter Thirty-Two

Meadvale Convent and Ellington Manor

Meadvale

Surrey

Caris nodded as the keeper curtseyed to her, before opening the double door for her, so that she could move unhindered through into the dormitory area. She counted twelve cots, exactly as she had requested, and ten of them were occupied, so it seemed like there had been another delivery whilst she was asleep. It was the third dormitory, so the numbers were starting to get meaningful. Bishop Osborne was keeping his promises.

"Sister...are you aware of whether any of our new arrivals need medical attention?" Caris asked quietly, leaning close to the keeper in her clean black and white habit with the blue braid around her veil, denoting her rank. Caris had red braid, which told everyone that she was the Senior Sister. She was no longer a Winstanley Priory white nun, and much to her surprise, she had been put in charge of the safe convent, as Hugh Blackstone had described it. God was moving in very mysterious ways, she thought wryly, as the keeper replied to her question.

"Only reassurance, Mother...they were surprised to be told to rest?"

"We will need to clean up after ourselves...but everything was clean when we got here...I don't want to make work just for the sake of it?" Caris explained, not sure if she was doing the right things or not. She had not had a rest in forty-three years. Nuns were used to working and praying, with some sleep if they were lucky, every day. "Evensong at five, Sister. I shall be in the visiting booth if you need me?"

"Yes, Mother."

Caris was still getting her bearings, but she knew the history of Meadvale Convent, having served with one of the original Sisters who founded the Order alongside the legendary Mother Margaret, Pastor Richard Winstanley's eldest daughter. It was quite ironic, really. The Sister had entered the Order willingly and even eagerly, long before the pandemic, and had loved her work in the care home connected to the small convent, but she had been moved after the revolution and beaten into submission along with the conscripts. Since then, the care home had been closed, and it looked like the convent had expanded into it. Bishop Osborne had told her that he had arranged some renovation, and it was the most comfortable residence she had ever served in. One of the improvements Osborne had arranged was the visiting booth in a corner of the main building. He was intending to propose that all Sisters could receive visits by arrangement, but as things stood, only the Senior Sister, the Mother, could see anyone and it ought to be a cleric with business to attend to. So, as she worked her way into the small steel box, she was expecting to see Osborne himself when the steel partition was lifted up to reveal her guest. But first she had to wriggle into position and let her arms be clamped to the chair, like the prisoner she still was. There was a camera on the wall above her, and one of the security guards on the main entrance would be making sure that she was properly secure.

"Caris? Is that you?" Harrison Slade asked, because he could not see anything of her. But the heavily berobed figure nodded her head, and he relaxed, not sure how long they would be allowed. "Good...what is it like in there?"

"Comfortable, Sir...as his grace said it would be." She said, her voice strong and clear. He had watched her recovery in the Chapter House and he was amazed by her resilience. "Are we going to be able to stay here, Sir?"

"God knows...Osborne believes so...but there is lot going on out here?" Slade sighed and then smiled a little ruefully. "But I am applying to the high court for a compassionate release on the grounds that you were abused...it's basically the excuse they used to release Mena Forbes...but you probably don't know anything about that, do you?"

"Nothing at all, Sir?" She said, not even sounding curious.

"Don't worry about it...but it means there is a precedent...I don't want to get your hopes up too high, but there is a chance..."