Free Dangerous Lady by Martina Cole

now. That, together with the fact that Joe had willed him everything he possessed, made Michael Ryan a very happy man.
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Chapter Five
    1960
    Sister Rosario looked at the pinched face of Maura Ryan and her heart went out to the child. She had noticed her being teased mercilessly all through the dinner hour, no doubt due to the fact that her brother Benjamin had been expelled the day before. The nun realised that now the child had no one to protect her, some of the other children were making up for lost time. She watched Margaret Lacey lean forward across her desk and pull hard on one of Maura Ryan’s long blonde plaits. Sister Rosario didn’t like Margaret Lacey. She didn’t like any of the Laceys, with their carroty red hair and green malicious eyes. And this Margaret Lacey was the most brazen strap of a child she had ever come across. The nun leapt from her seat, causing her chair to fly backwards. The noise brought thirty pairs of eyes to rest on her.
    ‘Margaret Lacey, come out here at once!’ Her voice reverberated around the classroom. Margaret, her face pale with fright, slowly edged her way from behind her desk and began to walk to the front of the class. Sister Rosario was without doubt the hardest nun in the school. No amount of tears could shake her. Margaret stood before her, trembling. Tapping a ruler across the palm of her hand, Sister Rosario stared at the child for a few seconds.
    She knew from thirty years’ experience that bullies were a breed apart. Most were inherent cowards who picked only on people who they knew were frightened of them.
    The nun’s countenance and dark brown close-set eyes challenged the child before her. ‘Did I see you pull Maura Ryan’s plait?’ Margaret’s big green eyes seemed to have taken possession of the whole of her face. Her tiny pink mouth was trembling. Already, tears were beginning to glisten in her eyes.
    ‘N … N … No, Miss … I mean, Sister.’
    In her fright she had begun to stutter. This caused some of the other children to titter, quickly putting their hands over their mouths to stifle the sound.
    Margaret Lacey was the class bully and the children enjoyed seeing her get, for once, what she doled out so often.
    ‘Are you calling me a liar?’ The nun’s eyes had narrowed.
    ‘No, Sister!’ Margaret’s voice was stronger now. Whoever heard of calling a nun a liar? It was unthinkable. Her own mother would kill her if she knew. Her eyes were now riveted on the ruler in the nun’s hand. She knew that it was liable to come swishing down on her hands and legs at any moment.
    Sister Rosario was enjoying Margaret’s discomfiture. Running her tongue across her teeth she glared down at the object of her annoyance. Her white wimple covered nearly all her head, revealing only wrinkled yellowing skin that, combined with her dark eyes, had earned her the epithet ‘Lizard Features’.
    ‘So … you admit to pulling Maura Ryan’s plait then?’
    Maura watched Sister Rosario completely demoralise Margaret Lacey. She sat in her chair, her face scarlet. She did not thank this nun for making her the centre of
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    attention. She knew that whatever Margaret got she would make sure Maura got it back one hundredfold.
    ‘Yes, Sister … I pulled Maura’s plait.’ This was said so low as to be virtually inaudible. ‘Speak up, child.’
    ‘Yes, Sister. I pulled Maura Ryan’s plait.’ The high piping little voice was trembling with fear.
    Smiling smugly at the class, Sister Rosario lifted the ruler. ‘Hold out your hand then.’
    The thin little hand came out. Margaret closed her eyes tightly as the ruler came down hard six times across her palm. Against her will, hot scalding tears burst from her eyes and down her cheeks. She held her injured hand to her breast as if frightened it might drop off, and at a nod from Sister Rosario made her way back to her desk, rubbing at her injured palm with the thumb of her good hand. Sister Rosario’s beady eyes scanned