Sister Agnes looked uneasily at Rose. Rose was wearing a coat trimmed with black Persian lamb and a black Persian lamb hat. Daisy had a frogged military-style coat also trimmed with fur and a sort of shako on her head.

‘Very well. Follow me.’

The dining room was blessed with a roaring fire. Rose and Daisy were told to take seats at the end of a long refectory table. Grace was said. The food was plain but with generous helpings. The nuns and novices ate in silence. Rose wondered whether they were usually silent or whether the presence of two strangers in their midst had made them shy.

After dinner, Sister Agnes came up to them and bent her head as a signal that they were to follow her. She led them to an austere office and sat down behind a huge desk, indicating two hard chairs in front of it.

‘You have been sent here for correction,’ she began. ‘You will attend all prayers. The convent owns six homes for fallen women. You will come with me tomorrow. Part of your duty will be to talk to these women and impress on them the folly of their ways.

‘The order of your days will be as follows: You will rise at five. Five-twenty to six-fifteen, matins; six-fifteen to six forty-five, private devotions; six forty-five until seven, make beds and clean up rooms; seven to seven-thirty, prime; seven-thirty to eight-thirty, service in church; eight-thirty to eight fifty-five, breakfast; eight fifty-five to nine-ten, terce; nine-ten to twelve-thirty, visiting the poor . . .’

Rose had heard enough. She sat silently while the description of their daily programme went on and on. When Sister Agnes finished with a long lecture to which neither of them paid any attention, she then led them on a bewildering tour of the convent.

When they were finally left alone in their cell-like room, Daisy blurted out, ‘We’ll die here. Why didn’t the captain or Becket try to do something to stop this?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Rose. ‘Can you remember where the bathroom is?’

‘About a mile to the left,’ said Daisy and burst into noisy tears.

CHAPTER FOUR

If you become a nun, dear,
A friar I will be.
In any cell you run, dear,
Pray look behind for me.

James Henry Leigh Hunt

Rose awoke with a start the next morning to the sound of a bell. Then she could hear a quick step coming along the corridor as someone knocked sharply at each cell door and called out, ‘Benedicamus Domino!’ Sleepy voices called in return, ‘Deo gratias!’

When the sharp knocking came at their door and the voice called, ‘Benedicamus Domino,’ Rose huddled farther down under the bedclothes and her fur coat covering and pretended not to be there.

‘Rose,’ the voice then called. ‘It’s time to get up.’

‘Daisy,’ hissed Rose, leaning across and shaking her. ‘It’s time to get up.’

‘Shan’t.’

‘We’ll miss matins.’

‘I could kill Harry,’ brooded Rose as they made up their beds. ‘My knees are already sore with praying.’