Free As Death Draws Near by Anna Lee Huber

regardless.
    â€œBecause we were needed,” I replied.
    Her eyes met mine again, that wisdom I had noted earlier somehow sharpening. “Yes.” She sighed. “Yes, you most certainly are.” She set her own cup aside. “Let me start at the beginning then, shall I?”
    Miss Harriet Lennox had arrived at the abbey some fourmonths earlier and had seemed to settle in easily enough to life at the convent. She was perhaps quieter than most new postulants, but Reverend Mother had sensed this was because she had become used to keeping things to herself as a necessity. She was a quick learner and dedicated to her prayers and study, and the students seemed to gravitate toward her. This was not uncommon. The postulants were often younger and closer to the girls in age as well as temperament, still struggling with some of the same anxieties and uncertainties of youth.
    There had been no indications of trouble until one evening about a week before her death. Miss Lennox had been caught returning to the grounds of the abbey through a portion of the garden wall that had been removed because of work being done to fix some drainage issues in the orchard after a particularly wet spring. Loretto sisters, including postulants, were not allowed to leave the property of the abbey without special permission and dispensation. She claimed she had become absorbed in following the flight of a gray heron and wanted to see whether it nested near the large pond beyond the abbey proper. This behavior was not entirely out of character, for Miss Lennox had often been observed watching the swans, and other birds and animals which populated the abbey gardens and small pond. She had even been the person to first note a den of red foxes below a beech tree at the southern end of the property. Her manner had been properly contrite, and she had done her penance without complaint, so the reverend mother had thought little more of it.
    However, a week later when Miss Lennox failed to appear for evening prayers and then the meal that followed, she couldn’t help but wonder if there had been more to the girl’s absence from the abbey than she had confessed. As the dinner hour stretched out, she began to feel uneasy about the missing girl. It was unlike her to behave in such an inconsiderate and neglectful way. She asked several of the sisters to search the abbey grounds, particularly the orchard and the area beyond its tumbled walls to see if Miss Lennoxcould be located. It was possible the girl had suddenly fallen ill or met with some sort of accident and needed help.
    Unfortunately, by the time they reached her, she had been beyond their earthly assistance.
    â€œI informed the county constabulary,” Reverend Mother explained. “But as soon as I witnessed the way they were treating the sisters, frightening the students, and bullying the gardeners, I ordered them to leave. I knew they would never uncover the truth. Not like that. Then I immediately wrote to the Duke of Wellington for assistance.”
    â€œI’m surprised the chief constable bowed to your wishes with a murder happening on your grounds,” Gage remarked.
    Her gaze turned shrewd. “Ah, but the murder didn’t happen on the abbey grounds, but just over the wall, about ten feet to the north. I can’t keep them away from there, but I can keep them from entering the abbey. For now.”
    Clearly she was a woman who possessed a strong backbone and some powerful connections.
    â€œThey also wanted to examine Miss Lennox’s body, beyond what could be seen cursorily outside her clothing, but I would not allow it. It would have been entirely improper. Even if Miss Lennox had not yet professed her vows, she was still intent on becoming a bride of Christ. For any man to have touched her would have been a sacrilege.”
    I had anticipated as much, guessing that one of the reasons Lord Gage had recommended his son bring me was because I was one of