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watched her father beat her mother, and she made the abbess cry when she asked if she was still scared of her mean father. She saw the bishop sleeping in a big bed with an altar boy, and after she told this to the Abbess, and her face turned ashen, she had asked if they could sleep together, too. She knew Sister Marguerite's much-loved sister died the day before the message had come. Sorrow filled her large gray eyes as her thin arms wrapped around the older woman and she told her she was sorry that her sister had died but that she was certain she was happy in heaven "'Cause Mary's there and she is as warm and good as sunshine, and Mary loves her more than you..."
    The abbess herself soon took over Linness's training and she began meeting with little Linness each morning after prayers. The abbess was a wise woman, extremely pious and devout and little Linness's sight, more than anything, replenished her faith each day. She saw the little girl as holding one of God's graces; a gift to be used in service to God. That the child was sent from heaven, she had no doubt, and yet such a gift would be very harshly scrutinized if it were ever demonstrated to a larger audience. She began coaching the girl in the art of secrecy, her gentle authority and lessons given with tenderness and love.
    During the winter of Linness's eleventh year, the abbess died. A simple death of influenza. Linness had not foreseen this tragedy; she would learn that her sight, while uncertain in the best of cases, was unreliable when directed at herself. Her light refused to turn inward. Instead she had developed a keen intuition to compensate, which saved her life.
    The new abbess arrived from an abbey in faraway Italy. She was small and dark and spoke unintelligible French. The new abbess watched the little girl with an unveiled suspicion, which grew instead of diminished as she repeatedly heard the other sisters gushing praise for her gifts and witnessed their unnatural fondness for the girl. Linness knew to be afraid of this new woman; she knew because her intuition made her hands go cold and clammy whenever they shared the same space and she felt the penetrating stare of those dark eyes come to her.
    The new abbess sent for the famous bishop, Peter Luce, a man sent to examine all unusual members of the clergy. Linness heard the worried whispers of the sisters that this bishop found Satan lurking beneath every stone, but she took comfort by the addition "If our dear Linness were not so perfectly good and pure, she might be in danger."
    All fear disappeared the day she saw him. For she was still at the age when goodness and a pleasing appearance made one and the same impression. She stared at the red crimson cap over his blond curls, his bright golden eyes and stiff shoulders. He was so handsome! She had been sure he would not hurt her.
    Linness still remembered their first meeting. Two sisters had stood on either side and she was comforted by their familiar friendly presence as she knelt to kiss his jeweled hand. He had stared at her beautiful young face. His hand lifted suddenly to his gold crucifix and in a voice suffused with a lifetime of anger that lifted the hairs on the nape of her neck, he said, "How does thy dark presence make my crucifix shake?"
    The sisters had gasped and drawn back. Bewildered eyes shot questioningly to his handsome face. "Milord?"
    "Take her away…"
    The sisters had helped her escape before the trial. With nothing but the clothes on her back and at the tender age of eleven, she had left the abbey and struck out for the wide world on her own. Just as she was doing now.
    For once again she had nothing and no one. Nothing but the memory of a magical night spent with a man named Paxton. A man she would never see again. A man who had forever altered the course of her life...
    The sunshine fell against Linness's bare arms and legs as she walked through the forest. She felt as if she still walked in a dream made by the warmth of his