“So you went to live at the Convent,” the Duke said. “It must have seemed strange in a way.”
“It was very different from what – I had imagined a Convent would be,” Giovanna answered. “On one side were the dedicated Sisters who prayed all the time or attended to the very poor in Naples.”
“You were not allowed to be with them?” the Duke asked.
“No,” Giovanna replied. “On the other side was the school, which was attended by thirty pupils, all of whom came from the best families in Italy or France. We had highly experienced teachers in all subjects and they were not always nuns.”
She smiled.
“Although we had to attend a lot of Services and had hours of religious teaching every week, we were also extremely well taught on all the other subjects.”
Giovanna paused before she looked up at the
