Chapter 2: Under Holy Sanctuary

The altar boy and the Spanish orphans stared at each other for a short moment. Once the altar boy's sense of duty took over him, he walked over to them. He accurately examined the Spanish orphans and the French infant first. Next, he invited them to go with him to the cathedral to which the two orphans obliged.

While the three of them walked from the entrance of the cathedral to the convent, the Spanish siblings were very amazed of the cathedral's significant beauty; honestly, they have never seen such a very beautiful church like this.

The altar boy let his two young visitors to sit down in the convent's dining room. Both of them thank him. Once they sat down, he took the infant in his arms to help Catalina in consoling Marie.

"I am Simoun Villanueve." He said, swaying slowly to stop Marie's cries.

"I am Catalina Enriquez. And this is my brother, Jose."

"Catalina is a beautiful name." He commented, smiling warmly at her.

"Thank you, Simoun." She answered. "I think you are a good altar boy since your name means 'One who hears'."

"Oh please do not tempt me to be full of pride for my obedience to God, the Church and Dom Mathias."

"Dom Mathias? Who is he?" Jose asked curiously.

"The Archdeacon." He answered. He saw Jose still curious about the identity of his master. "In another term, he is the priest of this cathedral."

"Oh."

Simoun left them without another word. He knocked on the door of the servants' bedroom. Only Jean opened the door.

"Jean, please prepare some food for our visitors." Simoun requested.

"Visitors?"

"They are Spanish children."

"Where are their parents?" She asked shockingly.

"Nowhere. I assume they are orphans."

"My God!" She exclaimed out of shock then covered her mouth.

Her exclamation was heard. Her friend even told her to be quiet and go to sleep. Jean replied, "Later." Afterwards, she hurriedly went to the kitchen with Simoun. There, she prepared four loaves of bread and two cups of ale. Simoun, with Catalina's consent, brought Marie to a midwife's house. There, little Marie was nursed by the midwife's young assistant.

Before Catalina could eat, she asked Jean an urgent question.

"Madamoiselle, may I please do some work here?"

"What work can you do?" Jean asked, feeling a bit uneasy about a young orphan doing heavy work.

"I can sew, cook, sweep floors, wash plates and wash clothes since my mother and servants taught me how to do these tasks." Catalina replied, after swallowing a piece of her bread.

"By morning, Dom Mathias shall decide and tell you where to work." Jean replied, hoping Catalina's work will not be too heavy.

To wait for the siblings to be done eating, Jean sat on one chair and deeply explored her mind. Even though she's not academically educated, she solved her questions regarding the orphans and their origins with the only education she had: life experiences. As her answers are not very strong, she shall ask them by the following day to prove some of her thoughts and the other thoughts as wrong. After eating within some minutes, Jose burped loudly. Catalina gave him a stern glance, which made him say, "Excuse me."

"Madamoiselle..."

"Please call me not as 'madamoiselle' for I am not born a rich woman." Jean said, interrupting Catalina. "Call me by my name, Jean."

"Forgive me, Jean." Catalina said regretfully. "I must also tell you our names. I am Catalina Enriquez."

"I am Jose, her brother." Jose added, saving half of Catalina's breath.

"What Simoun hath said is of true words." Jean commented. "Both of you are Spanish...children."

Her temporary and slightly awkward pause sparked curiosity within Catalina and Jose. But, when they were ready to either ask a question about her short pause or tell her about their tragic story, Jean told them to sleep in her bed while she will sleep in one of the spare rooms. Without hesitation, the siblings followed Jean to their new bedroom.

As if on cue, Simoun arrived with Marie, who has drifted off to a peaceful slumber. Catalina took the sleeping infant carefully in her arms, thanked Simoun and proceeded to enter her new bedroom.

To her, the bedroom is as gloomy as her life. Yet this is something she really needs as it has been half a month since she didn't sleep comfortably. To Jose, this is what he really desires even though it's not much. With Jean's help, they are tucked in properly and they slept peacefully.

After that, the young servant woman walked with the altar boy in the hallway. Simoun returns to his bedroom and goes to sleep. Jean goes to one empty bedroom, which belonged to one of the deacons.

That deacon was a highly conservative, clever, ambitious and strict deacon. He follows the word of Lord but not suppresses his pride. When Dom Mathias became Archdeacon, he has left his job out of disappointment and anger of the Archdeacon taking care of gypsies. To him, gypsies are pagans from birth to death and should be "taken care of" to make the whole world Christian.

Sometimes, Christianity is evil; it is one of the bricks that contribute to building the walls of division and oppression. Thankfully, there's a good side on Christianity; it's purpose is to let God and Jesus touch our minds, hearts and souls and help us in a million ways. In fact, faith in God and Jesus makes the impossible to be possible.

Jean studies the bedroom's atmosphere and style. Even though she knows interfering with one's stuff is very rude, she opens the cabinet drawers one by one. The last drawer has an object that caught her pale, black eyes. She picks up an old rattle and looks at it for a while. Suddenly, painful memories flooded her mind. The servant immediately transferred the rattle to the first drawer.

After closing each drawer and the door, Jean goes to sleep. In her sleep, she hopes the rattle she found can be a toy for Marie. She also hopes nothing will happen to little Marie.