Page 12 of The Duke's Forbidden Bride
There is worse than this.
His spine stiffened, and a growl rumbled in his chest. Every muscle tensed, and he felt the urge to move, to fight, tostrike, but he held himself in check.
Another woman came up behind the head sister, bearing a heavier-looking cross, her face more lined. He had heard of the pious Mother Caroline, who ruled this place with an iron fist. He had respected such devotion, but not if it entailedtorture.
“Your Grace, there is no need to cause a scene,” she said, her voice calm and composed. “The bell for the morning prayers will ring in a few hours. I will not have tired prayers for our Lord simply because?—”
“Because of torture,” Spencer snarled, cutting her off. “Frankly, Sister, I do not care. I will wake up the whole convent myself if any one of you lays a hand on Lady Eleanor.”
Mother Caroline’s eyes slid to Lady Eleanor. “Eleanor needs deep cleansing, Your Grace. Bathing her in holy water is necessary. Sometimes atonement requires a sliver of pain.”
“Not like this,” Spencer choked out, undone by the sheer violence he had witnessed in the scars and wounds on Lady Eleanor’s back. He stood over her protectively. “Is this how you treat every woman sent here?”
“The women who come here, Your Grace…” Mother Caroline paused, looking down her nose at Lady Eleanor. “They cannot keep themselvesclean. They have snuck out to sin.”
Spencer stepped closer to the trembling woman on the floor. He did not care what they accused her of, not even if he himself had thought the same. She did not deserve this treatment.
“Eleanor is our responsibility,” Mother Caroline told him firmly. “We do with her as the Lord sees fit.”
“As the Lord sees fit, or asyousee fit?” Spencer snapped.
At that, the other nuns shuddered, not knowing what to say.
In the end, Mother Caroline extended a hand. “Return my charge to me, Your Grace. Leave here and ignore what you have seen. It is better for everybody this way.”
But all he could hear was Lady Eleanor.
“Charlotte… Must help Charlotte…” she mumbled over and over.
The desperation in her voice, the fact that she was only thinking of Charlotte right after nearly drowning at the nun’s hands…
This woman was honest.
Another girl’s screams echoed in his head.
He flinched.
I cannot fail another sister.
“Lady Eleanor is coming with me,” he declared, bending down and pulling his coat tighter around her shoulders. “Now, get out of my way.”
“You cannot,” Mother Caroline said simply. “And should you try, be prepared to face the wrath of Lord Quinley. He will bring her back.”
“He will have to know she has left first,” Spencer threatened.
Mother Caroline held his gaze, and he glared at her for daring to challenge his authority. “Eleanor Barnes is not to leave this convent.”
“LadyEleanor Barnes is no longer your ward to decide her fate,” he hissed.
“You have no right to take our ward, Your Grace. She is nothing to you.”
His mind raced. Yes, Lord Quinley would come after his daughter. He could even bring the constables to Spencer’s house, claiming his daughter was abducted. The news would spread all over England: the Duke of Everdawn, a kidnapper.
That would ruin Charlotte. And it would drag Lady Eleanor back to this forsaken place.
Unless…
There was a way. Theonlyway.
