Read Online Obedience by Jacqueline Yallop - Free Book Online Page B

drawing back.
    She went down into the storeroom and picked out a box for Thérèse. She brushed it clean and took it through the hall, leaving it on a small table by the door. But even with her task finished, she was drawn back, and she returned again to the earthy damp, descending the narrow steps and spending a long time in the dim brick cellars, letting the dust cling to her habit, treasuring it, as though it was all she had left now.
    Later, when Corinne found her, Thérèse was kneeling on the floor of the corridor writing in large red letters on the box of shards.
    â€˜There was no one around downstairs,’ Corinne said loudly, making sure she was heard. ‘So I came for a wander to see what I could find. I hadn’t realized – it’s big this place, isn’t it?’
    Thérèse sat back on her heels. ‘Too big for the three of us,’ she said, her voice hard.
    Corinne nodded. She looked over her friend’s head into the stripped cell, but said nothing. Thérèse bent forwards and finished writing her warning on the box. When she looked up, her smile was fixed.
    â€˜I’ve been cleaning out,’ she said. ‘I used to, you know, hoard things. Collect things. I thought, with everything – well it shows, doesn’t it, that I’m making an effort. That I’m trying.’
    Corinne held out a hand and pulled Thérèse up from the floor. Then she pushed the box to one side with her foot.
    â€˜Let’s go outside,’ she said. ‘It’s a nice morning. We could walk.’
    Thérèse hesitated. ‘I don’t know. I should pack.’
    â€˜You look pale. You need some air,’ said Corinne, matter-of-factly, setting back off down the corridor.
    â€˜It was All Souls,’ said Thérèse.
    It was drizzling still; they stood under the porch. The bread van sped across the end of the drive, hooting, sending a pair of deer leaping into the trees.
    â€˜Have you decided, then?’ asked Corinne, when the quiet had resettled.
    â€˜I can’t come. I can’t.’
    â€˜Thérèse, think about it. You can come and live with me and continue your life of prayer and devotion exactly as before, but comfortably. I can give you a good home.’
    â€˜I’m not a stray dog.’
    Corinne did not laugh. ‘It will be a change, that’s all. But I’d like the company; I need someone now, around. And for years, we’ve said… We always talked about howit would be, if we lived together – always.’ She pressed her foot against the wall and Thérèse noticed for the first time that she was wearing red shoes. ‘Besides, it’s different now. The vocational life is different in the modern world. You don’t have to – I don’t know – you don’t have to punish yourself.’
    â€˜It’s my duty to stay with Sister Bernard,’ said Thérèse.
    â€˜Until now, it’s been your duty, yes. You’ve been keeping the convent, sustaining its presence here, the three of you. But now – now… it’s not your fault. You didn’t ask to change. You didn’t ask to move. They made you.’
    â€˜I can’t help feeling it would be wrong.’
    Corinne stepped out onto the gravel and looked at the sky. ‘Why?’ Her frustration made the question sharp. ‘Why on earth would it be wrong?’
    She wiped the rain from her face and came back under the porch. She went to take her friend’s hand again, but Thérèse pulled away.
    â€˜Look, I’m sorry,’ said Corinne. ‘I don’t mean us to argue – it’s just…’
    â€˜I think it has to be a question of duty. In the end,’ said Thérèse. ‘That’s all I can think. When I pray about it, all I see is Sister Bernard, left alone, cared for by strangers.’
    â€˜But that’s what’s happening to Sister