Hide Her Name Read Online Free

permission from the bishop, she swiftly opened the drawer and pulled it out as far as it would extend. It was stuffed full of bundles of white envelopes stacked in three neat rows and tied with string.
    She lifted the first bundle and flicked her fingers down the side, revealing the addresses printed on the front. All of the envelopes, she noticed, were addressed to people she did not know and had been sent to a PO Box number. Some coincided with the names in the diary entries. The first one was addressed to Austin Tattershall.
    Sister Evangelista took out the envelope and lifted the flap, revealing a wad of black-and-white photographs.
    What she saw made her feel as though she had been punched in the heart.
    Winded and breathless, in a state of acute shock and creeping numbness, she examined the photographs, one by one.
    When she considered the events in her mind later that evening, she wondered to herself how in God’s name she hadn’t fainted. How had she managed to behave as though she was looking at photographs of a beautiful rural landscape, instead of the most vile and depraved images of young girls and boys she had ever seen?
    Some of the photographs had been taken abroad, that much was obvious by the name stamped on the back. Most were of men with children, girls mostly and the occasional boy. Some were obviously taken in a hospital setting. Others were of very young girls. With horror, she realized that one  picture had been taken in the father’s study and it was of a child she recognized from the school.
    She furtively glanced at the door to see if Daisy had returned and hurriedly slipped the pictures back into the envelope, scooping the remaining envelopes in the drawer onto her lap.
    Daisy walked into the room with what had once been a large sheet now torn into squares for dusting cloths.
    ‘Thank you, Daisy. I think maybe there are some things I had better take to the convent for the bishop to deal with. Could you begin lifting the books down from the bookcase?’
    Sister Evangelista felt as though her head were spinning but she knew she had to remain calm.
    Daisy noticed that the Reverend Mother was breathing faster, that perspiration stood out on her top lip, and that her forehead and her cheeks were burning red. Daisy was not quite as simple as people thought.
    All the sister could think about was how much she and the entire community had loved Father James and yet all the time this filth was sitting in his drawer. She was out of her depth and had no idea what to do. She had to speak to the bishop as soon as she could, ask him to finish the remainder of the packing up himself. She felt as though the ground were shaking beneath her. She must ask the bishop, should they show this to the police?
    ‘ We have to protect the Church ,’he had said.
    She placed the diary and the envelopes on a square of white linen and tied up the four corners.
    ‘Daisy, I don’t want to do this just now, I have to speak to the bishop. We will finish all of this later.’
    Daisy had never seen the sister so agitated. This upset her. She didn’t like to stay at the Priory. She wanted to be at the convent and had hoped to talk to Sister Evangelista about maybe leaving with her when she had finished the packing. Daisy had only ever lived with nuns or in the Priory with the priest, and she knew she preferred to live with the nuns. There were no men in the convent.
    ‘Who came here to visit the father, Daisy?’ Sister Evangelista spoke rapidly. There was an impatience and roughness to her voice that hadn’t been there before. ‘Who visited him here that I wouldn’t know of?’
    Daisy remembered what she had been told by the father. Her lips were sealed. She looked silently down at the floor. Daisy always did as she was told.
    ‘Daisy, tell me, who did the father see that I do know? He used to visit lots of people on the streets, didn’t he, Daisy? Sure, I know he was mad busy, always calling in on the sick and the poor.