The First Of Her Kind.
PROLOGUE
The Parish preacher was the first to see the sight. Now he sat in a stiff arm chair. English tea dripping down his dry throat as he thought over the day. His heavy cotton robes, in the colour of black, were stickling his legs, but he had no energy to change his clothes.
Only two hours ago a woman, a horrible looking creature, came running into the church. Her greasy knotted hair clinging to her face and a bundle pressed close against the round shapes of her bosom, outlined in the dark brown, ripped, shreds of an old dress.
"Help me!" she screamed at the priest, "Help me!"
The priest lifted his old limbs slowly and ordered his man servant to shut the doors of the church. Thus protecting the women from the angry mob outside.
Ushering her to stand by him; he asked what was wrong.
"I have sinned farther. My child, the one in my arms, was born out of the holy bonds of marriage. They wish to kill myself and my child," she explained in her quiet fearful voice. Her frail body shaking violently.
The priest thought for a second, there was something missing, "Then why, my child, do you run here?"
"Farther, I deserve death for the sins I have committed, but my child is pure, she has not sinned. Surely god can somehow protect her?"
'So that's what she wants.' He nodded, he could arrange something.
"Of course my child, you speak wisdom beyond your years. Please pass me the child. I know of a women who has just had a child that was still born. She, of course has not been out of the house since, we can easily disguise the child as her own. Your daughter will never come to know of your sins," explained the priest in a slow voice.
She nodded. Then she passed over the dirty rag where the bundle lay, kissed his hand and then she vanished into the night. Never to be seen in the church again.
The priest unwrapped the thin cotton and stared down into the face of a baby girl. Light brown wisps of hair framed the face of the sleeping child.
"Mary, I shall call you," he murmured softly.
Then he carried the child to the front of the church, and, after pouring holy water into the bowl, he baptised her. Cleansing her of all the sins of her mother.
It had not taken long to convince the woman, one of the more wealthy people in the town, to take the girl, thus Mary Cardinal's birth was celebrated two days later. She was again baptised. The songs from the choir echoed around the high ceilings of the church and the priest thought he saw a small light rest upon the child's forehead. He however dismissed it and went about his duties.
A/n: Hiya :D Originally this was a series of very short chapters all in one document. However, I decided to lengthen them so that the story was a bit better and not so painful to read. Though it is a short story and I've only got two more chapters to edit so these will be fairly quickly posted - depending on how many reviews I get.