Alice knelt before Mother Superior, head bowed. She was visibly distressed by Mother's continued refusal to allow her to take her vows and become a nun.
"I know you think me harsh, child, to refuse you this again," Mother Superior said softly, running a lightly caressing hand over the turned down head.
"Please, Mother, do not think I question your judgment and wisdom. But I am not idle, my voice is considered pleasing by the other members of the choir, my embroidery is moderate, I…is it because of my illegitimacy?" Her lower lip trembled as she murmured the last words.
She had never known her natural mother, an unmarried tavern wench who had died giving birth to Alice. No relatives or a father had come forward to claim the babe for their own, so the convent had taken in the sickly babe
