Sentence The Fivehundredandtwentyfirst  

 

And that was when Lolly, who had been quiet and reserved since the group of friends had arrived at Albany Palace, spoke up; now she addressed Sister Evadne: "Sister, I know you are a religious, and that my grasp of your language is poor, but please hear me!" and the nun turned and looked at her as she continued: "the good Master Tavish has been kind to me, he and Father Boisel are the only men who have treated me with compassion, with gentleness; I know from what Master Tavish has told me that you were a prisoner of the evil man, MacFarlane, as was I before I escaped from his clutches; he and his friends and others like him stole me and bought and sold me paid gauleiters at checkpoints to let me and other girls through and used and abused me, they treated me very bad and cruelly; they raped me and did vicious things to me and I give thanks every day that he is no more, that Master Tavish slew him so that he cannot treat other young girls as he treated me; your God did not protect me, did not help me when I needed his help and protection, and for that reason I cannot find it in my heart to praise him and kneel before him as you do; but Master Tavish is my first supporter, he intends to put an end to their cruelty, to save you and me and others like me from the kinds of things they do for their pleasure; that you will not help Master Tavish I do not understand; but I ask you this – if your prayers to your God and his son Jesus have brought Master Tavish here to do your God's work in ridding the world of the evil men, in answer to your prayers, will you stand in his way or will you give him your Blessing to carry out the wishes of your God? because it seems to me that the only person alive who can do that, is Master Tavish, here!" the atmosphere in the room was thick and palpable, highly charged and felt almost explosive; Tavish noticed that Lolly's face had become flavescent, yellow like someone with jaundice – he reached out a hand to her and she took it as she stared with an intensity he had not seen before, at Sister Evadne and then a tear welled up in the nun's eyes as she gazed up at the child who now had her hands held as in prayer, muttering words in her

own language and Tavish desperately waited for Sister Evadne to speak: "child, innocent child, it is true when they say 'from the mouths of babes and sucklings' and I promise you that I will do everything in my power, with the support of Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, to help you –

for you are right, evil must be conquered and if it falls to us, we must be strong and destroy it," and the nun crossed the short space between them, wrapped Lolly in her arms, and rocked her like a baby and Lolly collapsed into the embrace and suddenly a light seemed to suffuse the gloom and bathe Sister Evadne and Lolly in it's glow!