Excerpt: Sister Rosa's Rebellion (The Meonbridge Chronicles #6) by Carolyn Hughes
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Book details:
Book Title: Sister Rosa’s Rebellion, The Sixth Meonbridge Chronicle
Series: The Meonbridge Chronicles
Author: Carolyn Hughes
Publication Date: 4th April 2025
Publisher: Riverdown Books
Pages: 446
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How can you rescue what you hold most dear, when to do so you must break your vows?
1363. When Mother Angelica, the old prioress at Northwick Priory, dies, many of the nuns presume Sister Rosa – formerly Johanna de Bohun, of Meonbridge – will take her place. But Sister Evangelina, Angelica’s niece, believes the position is hers by right, and one way or another she will ensure it is.
Rosa stands aside to avoid unseemly conflict, but is devastated when she sees how the new prioress is changing Northwick: from a place of humility and peace to one of indulgence and amusement, if only for the prioress and her favoured few. Rosa is terrified her beloved priory will be brought to ruin under Evangelina’s profligate and rapacious rule, but her vows of obedience make it impossible to rebel.
Meanwhile, in Meonbridge, John atte Wode, the bailiff, is also distraught by the happenings at Northwick. After years of advising the former prioress and Rosa on the management of their estates, Evangelina dismissed him, banning him from visiting Northwick again.
Yet, only months ago, he met Anabella, a young widow who fled to Northwick to escape her in-laws’ demands and threats, but is a reluctant novice nun. The attraction between John and Anabella was immediate and he hoped to encourage her to give up the priory and become his wife. But how can he possibly do that now?
Can John rescue his beloved Anabella from a future he is certain she no longer wants? And can Rosa overcome her scruples, rebel against Evangelina’s hateful regime, and return Northwick to the haven it once was?
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Evangelina sunk back against the cushions of her chair. How much she relished being able to hide herself away here in the sacristy, away from the press and hubbub of her sisters. Not that they were especially noisy or demanding. Theirs was not a completely silent order, and moderate talk was permitted in many areas of the priory. But chatter was an irritation when she was excluded, which, invariably, she was… It was good to be able to retreat to the quiet of this little room.
Edgar used it too, to robe himself before a service, and to compose his sermons. But the rest of the time, it was hers: her own private office…
Sometimes she came here just to sit and think. But those were rare enough occasions, when there was always so much to do: taking care of the vestments and the altar cloths, ensuring the chapel’s candles were trimmed and lit for every service, that the chapel itself was always in good order. As well as ringing the bell for the offices, and for meal times, though she’d persuaded one or two of the other sisters to share the task with her, for it was tedious and burdensome.
And then there were the wider responsibilities Aunt Angelica had imposed upon her years ago when she appointed her the sacrist: maintaining not only the chapel building but all the others in the priory, requiring her to engage with artisans from the nearby village, carpenters and masons, a task which had become more onerous in recent years, as old stone walls began to crumble and ancient timbers were attacked by beetles.
However, it was here she cleaned the church plate, the silver chalice and the paten, the containers for the communion wafers, the candlesticks and alms plate. And it was cleaning she had come to do, a task she rather enjoyed, handling these precious objects and polishing them until they shone… And imagining how their gleaming splendour would brighten and enhance the austerity of her monastic cell…
Space in the sacristy was limited, dominated as it was by the great oak chests in which the altar cloths and priest’s vestments were kept. One wall held two cupboards with locks, to which she was the only key-holder. The larger one held her stock of candles made by the local candle-maker four times a year, and the aumbry was where the silver could be stored away but rarely was, since the chapel was in use eight times every day.
Alongside the cupboards was a narrow table where Edgar sometimes sat to write. It was also the only place Evangelina had to do her cleaning. She pushed his writing implements aside, but lit the candle he brought especially to light his work and had forgotten to take away. She knew he would be annoyed, but why use the chapel’s precious candlewax when his was sitting here, available?
Evangelina went into the chapel and, returning with the alms plate and the paten, and the little wafer box, the pyx, she placed them on the table. She opened her pot of ashes saved from the frater hearth and poured a little verjuice from a bottle into a bowl. Dipping a rag first into the verjuice and then the ashes, she rubbed it onto the pyx, cleaning away the small amount of tarnish that had built up, before giving it a final polish with a clean dry cloth. Because she never permitted the precious silver to become too dirty, cleaning it was quick and easy, and it was always a pleasure to return the gleaming pieces to the chapel.
As she worked, she recalled Aunt Angelica’s funeral. How relieved she was so many Godeffroys had come. Although ostensibly they had come for Angelica, she believed they had also come for her, to support her as chief mourner within the priory and as her aunt’s successor. The splendid casket her uncles had provided, and the feast, made all too evident the commitment the family had to Northwick, a commitment they would surely confirm by ensuring her election…
Yet she feared the election might not go her way unless she took steps to guarantee it. For Angelica had already left instructions that a “proper” election, as she had called it, must be held, with at least two candidates, so the nuns had a genuine choice of who should lead them.But, if the nun who stood against her was Sister Rosa, she was sure Rosa would win.
For decades, the election of a Godeffroy as prioress had always been assured. She didn’t know exactly how it worked, but presumed that Nicholas’s predecessors– tasked with managing the elections – somehow ensured sufficient votes were cast in favour of the Godeffroy.
She mused a moment upon Nicholas’s position in the priory. Like his predecessors, he’d been put forward for his post as bishop’s man by one or other of the Godeffroys, to ensure their wishes were upheld in the day-to-day dealings of the priory, and in particular in the matter of elections, and visitations. Not that she thought he or any of his forebears bothered overmuch with the day-to-day. Rather, they did whatever was necessary, and no more. As far as Cousin Nicholas himself was concerned, he was amiable but maybe he was also sly. Sly enough, perhaps, to be of use to her…
Edgar had said the previous bishop’s men must have bribed some of the nuns to vote the Godeffroy way, and that Nicholas might do the same for her.
Yet she wasn’t entirely confident that, this time, bribery would work, when Rosa was so much admired, and she herself was so much not…
Which was why she needed to discredit Rosa in their eyes.
She took the items she had cleaned back to the altar and, picking up the chalice, carried it back into the sacristy. As she turned it on its side to begin the cleaning, she gasped. Spilled wine had left an unsightly blemish running down the vessel, from lip to base. She tutted. Had it been standing on the altar in that state ever since last Mass? Why hadn’t she noticed it before? She rubbed fiercely at the stain with her ashy rag, ensuring every trace of wine had gone, then took up her polishing cloth and buffed and burnished until the silver shone.
She’d told Edgar of her plan to discredit Rosa, and he seemed willing enough to help her. He evidently knew something of Rosa’s past, from what she had disclosed over the past ten years. How fortunate he was loyal enough to her to be willing to break the sacred seal of the confessional…
She’d always known Rosa came to Northwick under some sort of cloud of her own making. The girl had had a secret for which, in her early days here, she spent hours upon her knees begging for forgiveness. But Evangelina had never gleaned the exact nature of the secret, other than that it involved some dreadful sin.
Edgar had learned a little more: some transgression as a girl, he’d said, though he had no details. She asked him again yesterday if he knew anything further.
‘I’ve already told you, Eva,’ he said, rolling his eyes. ‘Rosa’s confessions these days hold fast to the adult sins of pride, disobedience and being selfish.’ He grinned. ‘She’s not going to let slip some scandalous new morsel now. The time for that has long passed…’
CAROLYN HUGHES has lived much of her life in Hampshire. With a first degree in Classics and English, she started working life as a computer programmer, then a very new profession. But it was technical authoring that later proved her vocation, word-smithing for many different clients, including banks, an international hotel group and medical instruments manufacturers.
Although she wrote creatively on and off for most of her adult life, it was not until her children flew the nest that writing historical fiction took centre stage. But why historical fiction? Serendipity!
Seeking inspiration for what to write for her Creative Writing Masters, she discovered the handwritten draft, begun in her twenties, of a novel, set in 14th century rural England… Intrigued by the period and setting, she realised that, by writing a novel set in the period, she could learn more about the medieval past and interpret it, which seemed like a thrilling thing to do. A few days later, the first Meonbridge Chronicle, Fortune’s Wheel, was under way.
Seven published books later (with more to come), Carolyn does now think of herself as an Historical Novelist. And she wouldn’t have it any other way…
Author Links:
Website: https://carolynhughesauthor.com
Twitter: www.x.com/writingcalliope
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CarolynHughesAuthor
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Carolyn-Hughes/author/B01MG5TWH1
Tour hosted by: The Coffee Pot Book Club
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