LITMIR.BIZ

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time,” poor Mother Superior whispered in her heart of hearts. “No time would be convenient for you to take Dimanche from us.” But, just like the fisherman’s wife in far-off Kithira, who still thought often and longingly of the baby from the sea, she knew it was her duty to return Dimanche to the bosom of what family she had left. “Come to tea on Tuesday,” she said graciously. “Bring Sister Victorine. Every orphan deserves a long-lost aunt.” Mothers Superior also make mistakes.

      It was not a happy meeting. The nuns gathered sadly in their sunny parlour. Honey from their own bees, bread baked in their own ovens, fruit teas made from rosehips and camomile picked from the convent garden, and golden butter churned by the sisters’ careful hands lay like treasure on the linen cloth. Sun streamed in through the stone-arched windows and lit on little Dimanche, sitting in her high chair and banging on her tray with a silver spoon. Sister Sophia sat on one side of her and fed her titbits of bread and honey dipped in milk. Sister Catriona sat on the other and dabbed at the little girl’s chin and fingers with a soft napkin. It was a sight to bring joy to any heart, but the hearts of the Sisters of Small Mercies were filled with sorrow.

      Mother Superior sat at the head of the table, with the chief superintendent on her left and Dimanche’s long-lost aunt on her right. The Sisters of Small Mercies were quite surprised by the aunt’s appearance, perhaps because she was one of those people who seem to be bigger than their clothes. She was not fat in that nice, billowy way some people are, so that when you lean against them you feel comfortable. No. She was fat in a bossy, get-out-of-my-way-or-I’ll-squash-you-flat sort of way. Her face, what they could see of it behind her veil, was reddish. Not a nice reddish-brown, like someone who’s been outdoors a lot, but an I’m-so-angry-I-may-explode-at-any-minute sort of red. She wore a signet ring on her little finger with her initials on it: VV. Her heavy veil made eating and drinking quite difficult for her and she spilled cake crumbs down the front of her navy blue habit. She got her tea cup mixed up with her rosary, and she forgot to wait for grace. She seemed to the Sisters to be a peculiar sort of nun, and not a very nice one. They supposed that her strange ways had something to do with her having lived abroad. French nuns are quite different from us, they thought. None of them had ever been to France.

      Dimanche was placed at the far end of the table from her visitors, because she was inclined to throw things. The nuns didn’t mind a bit, but they felt it better that such important visitors should be seated out of range. The strange Sister didn’t in any case seem anxious to get close to her niece. When Sister Sophia held her out to be kissed, she backed away as if she had been asked to kiss a spider.

      “It is a great sacrifice to one of my powerful vocation,” she told them, “to leave my dear convent and all my dear Sisters in France. But my Mother Superior says that I must do my familial duty, and I am accustomed to obeying her in all things.”

      Dimanche stared doubtfully up from Sister Sophia’s lap at her new-found relation, and dribbled.

      “Oh, the darling,” murmured Sister Catriona, dabbing at her chin with a bib. “Isn’t she enchanting?”

      Dimanche’s new aunt did not look enchanted, in fact she looked revolted, but she did her best to disguise her feelings. The veil helped. If they had been able to see through the veil, the Sisters of Small Mercies would have found her face most unpleasant.

      “Time to go,” the strange Sister announced, as soon as tea was finished.

      “Already?” faltered Mother Superior. She wiped her eyes and frowned at Sisters Sophia and Catriona, who were beginning to sob. “Please understand, Sister Victorine, that here at the Convent of Small Mercies, we have grown to love Dimanche very much. We are glad, of course, as we ought to be, that you have come to claim her. It’s a wonderful thing to have your family around you, and we wish you every joy with little Dimanche. But we cannot help crying, now that it’s time for her to go.”

      “There is no need for you to give her another thought,” said the strange nun crossly. “I shall engage someone suitable to care for her until she’s old enough to go to boarding school. I shall choose one in the north of England, one with plenty of discipline and outdoor activities. How lucky she is that I noticed your advertisement! Now, put her in the pram, ladies, I mean Sisters, and we’ll be off.”

      “Where are you taking her, Sister Victorine?” asked Mother Superior. “If it’s not too far away, we would so love to visit her.”

      “That will not be possible. I’m taking her to our ancestral home at Hilton in the Hollow. It is a remote spot, and inhospitable.”

      “But you will write to us, Sister Victorine?”

      “Probably not. I shall have my devotions to attend to, as well as my niece.”

      There was not a dry eye in the convent as Dimanche was tucked into the big black pram that the nuns had bought for her, and wheeled away towards the station. Even Chief Superintendent Barry Bullpit had to wipe away his tears. He was not an emotional man, but when he was telling his wife about it that evening, he found himself crying all over again.

      “I can’t explain it, Beryl,” he said. “Seeing that scrap of an orphan lying there as good as gold, and that old dragon of a Sister pushing her away down the road in a big black pram, and the poor nuns crying fit to burst, it got to me.”

      Beryl Bullpit made her husband a cup of hot chocolate and sat him down in front of the TV.

      “You watch the sport, Barry,” she advised. “And don’t upset yourself. Your job is not an easy one.”

      As for the nuns, their last glimpse of their precious foundling had to last them for many a long year. It was a good thing that they were able to find solace in prayer, otherwise I’m sure their hearts would have been broken.

       Four

      The journey should have been a dismal one for little Dimanche.

      Her new aunt left her alone in her pram in the luggage compartment, with a bottle of cold tea propped beside her pillow, and went off by herself for cakes and ale in the restaurant car.

      If it had not been for a kind-hearted guard called Winston, who knows how Dimanche would have managed? Fortunately, Winston was a father and a grandfather, and what he didn’t know about babies wouldn’t fill a thimble. He fetched warm milk, and banana sandwiches, and made Dimanche’s journey pleasant by singing to her.

      Valburga Vilemile did not show up until the train pulled into Hilton in the Hollow station. Winston felt extremely angry with her as he helped her down with the pram.

      “Look here, Sister,” he said. “You may be a nun but you don’t know a thing about babies. Babies need plenty of attention. They need food and drink all the time. They need conversation. They need looking at, picking up, and singing to. They need cheerful and abundant company by day and by night. Why d’you think their parents look so tired?”

      “I suggest, my good man, that you confine your attention to the serving of tea and coffee, the lifting down of prams, and the occasional clipping of tickets,” Valburga replied. “Unless you wish to be reported to your superiors for insolence.”

      Winston shook his head and clicked his fingers. He peeped into the pram. “Good luck, little one,” he murmured. “You’re going to need it.”

      How right he was.

       Five

      Dimanche’s new life, without her parents, or the nuns, and with her peculiar new aunt, was not an easy one. Dozens of nannies passed

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