Free For All Their Lives by Fern Michaels Page A

Casey?”
    â€œAt least nine. That makes sixteen between us.” Casey giggled. “Won’t our reunions be wonderful?”
    Nicole felt her throat constrict. She wondered if Casey knew how beautiful she was. When they were little in the orphanage and sharing side-by-side cots, they talked into the night, sharing dreams and fears. In those days, she had always thought of Casey’s eyes as the color of bluebells that grew in the garden. Now she called them electrifying. Both girls wore braids back then. Casey’s were the color of corn silk. Now that hair was gold, thick and beautiful, with a natural curl Nicole would kill for.
    She had only seen Casey truly angry once, and that time those electric-blue eyes had turned purple with passionate anger. They’d giggled over that a lot. Passionate purple eyes were something to giggle about when one lived in the drab St. Gabriel’s orphanage, where laughter was seriously frowned upon by Sister Ann Elizabeth.
    â€œI really hated Sister Ann Elizabeth as much as you hated her,” Nicole blurted.
    Casey laughed. “Now, where did that come from? We were talking about the children we’re going to have.”
    â€œI know. And my children are going to be happy. There won’t be any Sister Ann Elizabeth in their lives,” Nicole said vehemently. “No Catholic school for my children. ”
    â€œMine either,” Casey said just as vehemently.
    â€œYet you went back to St. Gabriel’s two days ago, didn’t you? Danele said she saw you.”
    â€œI . . . I went for selfish reasons. I wanted to see that nun’s face when I told her about my . . . inheritance, about having a real father and a grandmother. I thought I hated her. I wanted to hate her. I lost count of the times she took a switch to me.”
    â€œThree times on my behalf,” Nicole said softly.
    â€œIt was worth it.” Casey smiled. “Incorrigible misfits, she called us. She said we had delusions, and when one is an orphan one can’t afford delusions because they get in the way of life. Remember?”
    â€œCasey, there’s nothing about St. Gabriel’s I’ll ever forget. I’ll never forgive her for the way she treated us. Never! But you damn well forgave her, didn’t you?” Nicole accused. “After we swore in blood we never would.”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter anymore, Nicole. We got through it. Look at us now. I’m a fine nurse. You have your own shop, this marvelous little apartment, and a man who loves you. You have guts, and you gambled on a dream. Don’t tell me you didn’t follow through just so you could rub Sister’s nose in your success.”
    â€œSo what?” Nicole blustered.
    â€œShe made us tough. She made survivors out of us. She told me that. She said we had no idea what the real world was like. She had tears in her eyes when she was telling me how every night she prayed for the two of us. She really believed that the switchings we got, the detentions, the rosaries she made us say, the raps on the knuckles, were for our own good.”
    â€œShe’s a fanatic, Casey, and she lied to you. Nuns aren’t supposed to lie. She lied to you, said there was no note on your basket when they left you at the orphanage. If it wasn’t for Maryann copying down the note from your file in Mother Superior’s office, Sister Ann Elizabeth would have beaten you down to nothing. Little kids don’t have to have guts or be tough. They need dreams and something to hold on to. She took that away from you! You had a father and a grandmother.”
    â€œThey didn’t want me. She knew that. Do you think that back then I could have come to terms with that? No, Nicole. It was better I dreamed and took the switchings and the rosaries.”
    â€œI still don’t understand how you can forget the hell she put us through.”
    â€œShe was sweeping the leaves off the walk when