Free The Sands of Time by Sidney Sheldon Page B

and the firemen managed to put out the fire.
    “It started in the basement,” a fireman explained, “and a boiler exploded.”
    The next incident happened three weeks later. This time it was no dream.
    Betina was on the patio reading when she saw a stranger walking across the yard. He looked at her and in that instant she felt a malevolence coming from him that was almost palpable. He turned away and was gone.
    Betina was unable to get him out of her mind.
    Three days later, she was in an office building, waiting for the elevator. The elevator door opened, and she was about to step into it when she looked at the elevator operator. It was the man she had seen in her garden. Betina backed away, frightened. The elevator door closed and the elevator went up. Moments later, it crashed, killing everyone in it.
    The following Sunday, Betina went to church.
    Dear Lord, I don’t know what’s going on here, and I’m scared Please guide me and tell me what you want me to do.
    The answer came that night as Betina slept. The voice said one word. Devotion.
    She thought about it all night, and in the morning she went to talk to the priest.
    He listened intently to what she had to say.
    “Ah. You are one of the fortunate ones. You have been chosen.”
    “Chosen for what?”
    “Are you willing to devote your life to God, my child?”
    “I—I don’t know. I’m afraid.”
    But in the end, she joined the convent.
    I chose the right path, the Reverend Mother Betina thought, because I have never known so much happiness …
    And now here was this battered child saying, “I’m afraid.”
    The Reverend Mother took Graciela’s hand. “Take your time, Graciela. God won’t go away. Think about it and come back and we can discuss it.”
    But what was there to think about? I’ve nowhere else in the world to go, Graciela thought. And the silence would be welcome. I have heard too many terrible sounds. She looked at the Reverend Mother and said, “I will welcome the silence.”
    That had been seventeen years earlier, and since then Graciela had found peace for the first time. Her life was dedicated to God. The past no longer belonged to her. She was forgiven the horrors she had grown up with. She was Christ’s bride, and at the end of her life, she would join Him.
    As the years passed in deep silence, despite the occasional nightmares, the terrible sounds in her mind gradually faded away.
    Sister Graciela was assigned to work in the garden, tending the tiny rainbows of God’s miracle, never tiring of their splendor. The walls of the convent rose high above her on all sides like a stone mountain, but Graciela never felt that they were shutting her in; they were shutting the terrible world out, a world she never wanted to see again.
    Life in the convent was serene and peaceful. But now, suddenly, her terrible nightmares had turned into a reality. Her world had been invaded by barbarians. They had forced her out of her sanctuary, into the world she had renounced forever. And her sins came flooding back, filling her with horror. The Moor had returned. She could feel his hot breath on her face. As she fought him, Graciela opened her eyes, and it was the friar on top of her trying to penetrate her. He was saying, “Stop fighting me, Sister. You’re going to enjoy this!”
    “Mama,” Graciela cried aloud. “Mama! Help me!”

C HAPTER S EVEN
    L ucia Carmine felt wonderful as she walked down the street with Megan and Teresa. It was marvelous to wear feminine clothes again and hear the whisper of silk against her skin. She glanced at the others. They were walking nervously, unaccustomed to their new clothes, looking self-conscious and embarrassed in their skirts and stockings. They look as though they’ve been dropped from another planet. They sure as hell don’t belong on this one, Lucia thought. They might as well be wearing signs that say CATCH ME .
    Sister Teresa was the most uncomfortable of the three women. Thirty years in the