Part 21 (1/2)
”Go!” the woman mumbled, her cracked lips quivering. ”Go!”
_Seeing us here always seems to upset her, Penny thought._ Aloud she remarked: ”Yes, we're leaving now. If Father Benedict wonders what became of us, I'm afraid he'll just have to guess.”
The girls started toward the cloister with Old Julia following a step behind.
”Hurry! Hurry!” she muttered. ”No time!”
”Oh, we have plenty of time, if that's what you mean,” replied Penny, smiling at her in a friendly way. Suddenly she halted as the thought occurred to her that she might obtain useful information from the woman if only she phrased her questions skillfully.
”Julia, you must know everyone who lives here in the dormitory rooms,”
she began. ”Do you often see a girl about my age?”
A strange light flickered for a moment in the old woman's watery gray eyes, then died. She merely stared at Penny.
”No soap!” commented Louise. ”Let's get out of here.”
Penny, however, was persistent.
”Julia, you must have seen her--a girl like me,” she emphasized. ”Does she sleep here?”
”Sleep--sleep--” the word seemingly had aroused an unpleasant chain of thought in the old woman's twisted mind.
”Where is the girl's room?” Penny probed.
Julia did not act as if she had heard the question. She was mumbling to herself, a look of horror upon her face.
”What's she saying?” Louise demanded, unable to catch a word.
Penny bent closer. Distinctly she heard the old woman mutter: ”The canopied bed! In the chapel room--”
Then old Julia stiffened and she flattened herself against the wall of the pa.s.sageway, her eyes wide with fear.
Directly ahead, in the doorway opening onto the cloister, stood Father Benedict.
CHAPTER 14 _AN a.s.sIGNMENT FOR PENNY_
Father Benedict's face was as expressionless as a marble statue, but his dark eyes smoldered with anger.
Ignoring Penny and Louise for the moment, he fixed the cringing Julia with stern gaze.
”Did I not order you to remain in the kitchen?” he demanded. His voice was low, almost purring. Nevertheless, the woman acted as if she had been lashed with a whip.
Mumbling unintelligibly, she scurried off down the covered pa.s.sageway along the side of the cloister, and disappeared through another doorway.
”Please, it wasn't Julia's fault that she was here,” said Penny, feeling sorry for the unfortunate woman. ”Louise and I called for help and she came to a.s.sist us.”
”Yes, we were locked in the study,” added Louise. ”If she hadn't come to our rescue, we would have been there yet.”
”Do I understand you to say you were _locked_ in?” asked the monk, his s.h.a.ggy eyebrows lifting in astonishment. ”The door sticks sometimes.”