Finding Ashley by Danielle Steel (free ebook reader for iphone txt) 📗

been sent to the principal’s office to be reminded of the tenets and beliefs of the school. But even after Mother Elizabeth’s speech, Hattie hated everything she now knew about Saint Blaise’s and felt it was wrong. And like Fiona Eckles, her faith had been shaken by it, and possibly her vocation.

The next day Mother Elizabeth suggested to her that she spend more time in prayer until she felt better. Her trip out in the world and the people she had met there had obviously upset her.

She spent her lunch hour at the hospital in silent prayer that day, and stayed longer in chapel than the others at the end of the day. She stayed after Mass in the morning and skipped breakfast, and went to confession. But no matter what Hattie did, the test of her faith was getting the better of her. She had never fought as hard to strengthen her beliefs and cling to them, and she felt as though she were hanging onto the edge of a cliff with her bare fingers and below her yawned the abyss, waiting to swallow her.

“You’re wrestling with the devil himself,” the mother superior said when she called her to her office again. She could see that the younger nun was still having a hard time. She had hardly smiled since she got back from her trip, and she was spending all her spare time on her knees in church. She scrubbed the kitchen floors every night as penance, but nothing helped. No amount of self-denial or ardent prayer had brought relief. Hattie wondered if the superior was right, and the devil had her in his grip. But the only devil she could see were the nuns who had been at Saint Blaise’s while the girls were there, and what they had done to eliminate every trace of where their babies went.

As she continued to pray about it, the results of the DNA tests came back, and there was no question, she and Michaela Ashley Moore Foster were a match, and Melissa would be too. The index of the test was high, which was very good. For Hattie and Michaela, it was cause for celebration. She called Hattie at the convent. They had both gotten the emails with the results at the same time. Michaela sounded jubilant and Hattie smiled for the first time in weeks.

“When can I meet her?” Michaela was eager to meet Melissa now.

“I’ll go up and see her as soon as I can, and tell her,” Hattie promised. Melissa still had no idea that Hattie had been to Dublin, and Saint Blaise’s, and had found Michaela Ashley. Hattie was smiling from ear to ear and Michaela said she had cried when she read the results. Her mother was still on location, but she had decided that she wasn’t going to tell her until after she met Melissa, so she could be more reassuring about her, and assure her mother that Melissa was a decent person. “I’ll try to go up this weekend, if I’m not working. And if I am, I’ll try to trade my shifts. I can go up and back in a day if I have to. I did last time.”

“Thank you,” Michaela said, profoundly moved by what was happening. “Should I call you Aunt Hattie now?” It had been strange asking for her as Sister Mary Joseph at the convent, since she had introduced herself as Hattie Stevens when they met, and had been wearing normal clothes. Michaela was still surprised that she was a nun.

“You can call me anything you want,” Hattie said, and promised to call her as soon as she had told Melissa. It was a moment Hattie was savoring, the opportunity to help heal her sister’s wounds of the past.

Mother Elizabeth saw her face after the call. Sister Mary Joe was beaming.

“It’s a match,” was all she said, and the superior understood immediately.

“Congratulations. That should cheer you up.” She knew how she had been struggling.

“I’d like to go up and see my sister this weekend,” she said hopefully, and the superior nodded.

“Of course, you have my permission. Stay overnight if you’d like to. That’s a long drive to do round trip in one day.”

“Thank you, Mother,” she said gratefully. All she wanted now was to see the look on Melissa’s face. It would make everything worthwhile, no matter how much the trip to Dublin had challenged her faith ever since. It was a small price to pay compared to what her sister had been through.

—

Melissa was sanding the fifth door when Norm came by at the end of the day. He had promised to bring her more fine-grained sandpaper. She had seven more doors she wanted to do, and was just halfway through the project. He’d gone to Maine for a few days with friends to go sailing, and she missed his impromptu visits. He was the only person Melissa saw and spoke to on a regular basis. He’d been dropping by more frequently since the fire.

“How was Maine?” she asked him.

“Great. Perfect wind conditions for sailing and fresh lobster every night.” To his knowledge, she hadn’t been on a vacation since she’d lived there, and he wondered why she never went away. But she had nowhere to go, and no one she wanted to be with, so she stayed at home and worked on the house. “I’ll bring you some lobsters from Boston the next time I go,” he promised, and she laughed at the suggestion.

“I wouldn’t know how to cook them.”

“I’ll cook them for you.” It was the first time in four years he had suggested a meal with her. Usually they shared lemonade or iced tea on the porch, or a cup of coffee in winter. He had never invited her to dinner, but she seemed friendlier since the fire, so he risked it, and she didn’t seem to mind his suggesting a meal or offering to cook for her. “What did you do while