Embrace the Night

Page 46



"We must do something," another nun said.

"But what?" Sister Mary Josepha shook her head again. "I was powerless against him." She clutched the cross that dangled from a braided rope around her waist. "I've never felt such evil. Oh, my poor Sara, to be at that fiend's mercy."

An hour later, he entered the monastery. He freed Sara's mind from sleep as he locked the door behind him.

She was yawning when he entered the room.

Sara smiled at him uncertainly. "Where have you been?" she asked as he removed his cloak.

"I went to the orphanage," Gabriel replied, dropping his cloak on the foot of the bed. "How do you feel?"

"All right." She glanced away, afraid to ask questions, afraid of the answers.

"None of the sisters was badly hurt," Gabriel said, answering the unspoken question in Sara's eyes. "One child was badly burned. One died."

"Who?"

"I didn't ask her name."

Sara closed her eyes, murmuring a silent prayer for the child's soul, giving thanks that no other lives had been lost.

"Sara?"

She looked up at him through eyes shiny with unshed tears, grateful that the nuns who had cared for her had been spared.

"Are you all right?"

She nodded, blinking back her tears. "Does Sister Mary Josepha know where I am?"

Gabriel shook his head. "No, I didn't have a chance to speak to her. I learned of the fire from someone else. No one seems to know how it started."

"Do you think I could send her a message and let her know I'm all right?" "If you wish."

"You never told me why you brought me here." "Does it matter?"

She blinked up at him, confused by the peculiar light in his eyes, by the sudden warmth that suffused her.