The Aloof Count's Novice Governess

its tall windows. It was always this way. Before the sisters had even finished their pre-dawn

in itself. Her clear, soft voice echo

n as they crossed the cloist

osalia murmured. "God put music in that

rown up within th

were. But she knew she had been loved by these wo

of the young boarders and for the orphanage the nuns ran. Yet she still felt pa

ook a deep breath. A new day was beginning. She stood to prepare the girls' a

holding a sealed letter that

Mother Constance.

ther. Has some

ok a deep breath, stud

y special one. And I believe God

cient, heavy with history. An "A" entwined with ac

lara fr

he noble house from S

r Superio

tunately, from his own children. The housekeeper wrote to us, describing the situation. The children are undisciplined and emotionally u

ra shrank

t a nanny. Perhap

at home. The Alencastro family has deep roots in this region and prefers to maintain its discr

hrough Maria C

't know if

Superior touched her s

a Clara had always wanted to become a nun.

enc

Clara looked at the coat of arms once more and felt somethi

is mission, and we wil

mother looking at her daughter, and it

go?" she as

erior answered. "The ca

ra's hear

ll... s

perior took her hands. "I am certain God ha

owed her to progress beyond the novitiate. She believed Maria Clara's true

ief, innocent romance. But a deep longing for the only home she'd ever known brought her back. She returned to the convent to te

elic, with a perpetually calm expression, large emerald-green eyes, and ros

r a woman her age, she was tal

ls. The girls protested the loss of their favorite teach

eal a gleaming black car sent by the count,

he Mother Superior said, hol

, even as her eyes

roached politely. He took the single suitc

she slid into the car, t

ods, and small farmsteads. Maria Clara watched in silence as the landscape

e held her breath. The driver, who had not spoken a single word the ent

drangeas, and a vast, rolling lawn created

e curve, the manor appe

uropean architecture and Portuguese colonial design. It was be

d borne since the days of the Brazilian Empire. After all, while the title of Count carried n

light nod, set her suitcase by the entrance, and ret

through her. It felt as though the moment she stepped through those