The Opening Chapters of "Poor Banished Children: A Novel" | Fiorella De Maria | Ignatius Insight
The Opening Chapters of Poor Banished Children: A
Novel | Fiorella De Maria | Ignatius
Insight
http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2011/fdemaria_pbchildren_apr2011.asp
Dreams of the Dead
Death has come for me again. The others are already lost. I heard their screams
as I was cast into the night; I heard them cursing as they burned or drowned
before the roar of the explosion stopped up my ears and I fell into a world of
silence. I am burnt by fire and stifled by the black, icy waters that drag me
down. There is merciless darkness everywhere, which even the flames tearing the
ship cannot pierce. I spin and struggle, raising my head for air as my blood
freezes, and I know the sea will take me in the end.
The ship is gone now, and all that remains are burning fragments scattered like
votive candles in the night. And I remain—the fragment of a human life,
drifting to its close. I am not afraid to die, even though I will die
unabsolved, but I am afraid to be alone. I fear the loneliness of the last
journey down to the depths of the sea, where I will take my place among the
dead, and no one will know that I came to such a pass. There will be no Requiem
for me and no resting place, only a troublesome memory in the minds of a few
old friends who believe that I died long ago, at the hands of another
aggressor.
There are faces all around me; the spectral images of those I have loved dance
around my head, taking their leave of me, whilst those I have lost gaze at me
in silent accusation. I will die with so many lives to account for, so much
blood I never meant to spill, but it cries out for vengeance nonetheless.
Death is so slow in coming that I find myself fighting. If I had desired death
as I yearned for it once, I would not have run onto the deck when I knew the
end was truly coming; I would not cling now to splintering driftwood, praying
that it will hold me. The very motion of lifting my head to take a breath is an
act of defiance. I feel no pain, the chill takes away all sense, and I feel
only the weariness of death as it reaches out to me. I have died so many times
and been returned to the land of the living that I could almost believe I am
not meant to go down with the ship—but I am cold. I am cold and weary and
cannot draw breath any longer. In the gloom above my head a single star shines.
Stella ... Stella Maris. I am lost. Stella Maris. I call out to the Star of the
'Sea but cannot hear my own voice ringing out across the murderous water.
Perhaps this is death, then—cruel death from which I can never awaken. I
cannot hold onto the driftwood any longer. My hands grow limp and numb with the
cold, so that I cannot feel my own fingers as they uncurl.
"Mother? Mother, I am dying!"
"Hush", says a voice I can hear. "I am holding you."
Dreams again, the dreams of the dead.
1640—The Devonshire Coast
A group of fishermen found her body at first light. She lay on the
beach—her hands still curled around the driftwood that had carried her
there, her hair covering her face so that they thought at first she must surely
be dead. However, when they turned her over they saw colour in her face, and
they were so struck by the sight of her that they carried her into the town to
see if she could be saved.
She was unusually small and of such delicate build that Tom carried her in his
arms with the ease he might have used to carry a child. "She must have
been on that boat" he said, when they reached the tavern and Mary was
prevailed upon to come down and let them in. "She's hurt."
They had been woken up in the night by the sound of a distant explosion and
seen flames on the horizon when they hurried to their windows to look, but when
they had made a search at daybreak she was all they had found. They placed her
over a barrel and began striking her back to release the water from her lungs.
"A lady passenger?" asked Jonathan, his brother. "She is clothed
as a man. Look at her."
Her shirt and breeches had been burnt and torn in many places, but she was very
definitely wearing a boy's garb
"Perhaps she was a stowaway?" Tom suggested, but there was no time to
consider the puzzle any further. The tiny body began choking and moving; then
quite suddenly she lIfted her head, opened a pair of huge, piercing black eyes,
and shouted in a barbarous tongue they did not understand. "You have
nothing to fear", said Tom, reaching out to place a reassuring hand on her
head, but she could not hear him and thought that she had fallen into hostile
hands again. "There now, we are trying to help you."
But she would not be comforted, struggling and shouting so violently that they
almost feared her and Tom could have been convinced that she was not a human
being at all. A nymph of the sea perhaps or some other fantastical creature,
she was so wild and so perfectly made—except that she was wounded and
only a real woman could bruise and bleed as she had done. "What are we to
do with her?" he asked when she lost consciousness again, much to their
relief. "We cannot keep her."
Mary backed away. "Do not look to me for help; she cannot stay here."
"You have room."
"Ay, for paying guests, not sickly strangers. I am not a nursemaid."
"Oh, Mary, where's your woman's heart?"
"Buried with my husband", she snapped. She took her shawl from around
her own plump shoulders and covered the girl, who was shivering in a feverish
sleep. "You should take her to Branton Hall. Lady Alice is a good woman,
if a Papist. She will take care of her. Who knows, she may even understand the
nonsense she speaks."
+
"Would it be impertinent of me to ask how this woman came to your house,
my lady?" asked Mr. Forbes, when she had dismissed the servant from the
sickroom and they were at liberty to talk. As a physician and fellow Catholic,
he had attended the family for many years and was Lady Alice's most trusted
confidant, but never had she called him on so strange an errand.
'Some men carried her here this morning", she said, seating herself by the
window. "They said a ship had gone down in the night—they heard an
explosion—and that she had been found on the beach, half-drowned.
Naturally I took her in and ordered the servants to care for her, but when they
tried to undress her they discovered she was horribly injured and were afraid
to do her any further harm.
I did not know whom to trust. Since she was evidently in need of help, I sent
for you."
"And you have no notion of who she might be?"
"None at all. Her dress was so strange; if she had been a man I would have
thought she were a pirate, but of course that cannot be. And she is clearly not
from these parts; look how dark she is." Forbes moved away and knelt at
the girl's bedside. The servants had eventually been prevailed upon to strip
off her tattered, damp clothes and had dressed her in a nightgown before
putting her to bed. She lay now, senseless and trembling, entirely unaware of
their presence. "My dear Mr. Forbes, I have hardly considered where she has
come from; I have been so worried she might not live."
He turned to look at her. "Lady Alice, you have reason to fear. This woman
has been tormented almost to the point of death. I am quite astonished that she
is alive and cannot say with any certainty that she will live much longer.
Look." He would never have shown her what he had found if he had not known
how strong she was, but he knew that Lady Alice had been a prison visitor as a
young woman in London and there was very little she had not seen, including
dead bodies. "If you will forgive me, my lady—" He pulled back
the coverIng and turned the girl onto her front, then slipped the vast,
ill-fitting gown off her shoulder to reveal fresh dressings. "She must
have had her back to the explosion if she was on the ship, but she is quite
badly burnt. And there are older injuries I do not like. Here." He pointed
at the exposed side of her face, where a livid patch had spread across her
cheek. "That was a hefty blow some days ago, powerful enough to break the
cheekbone. Then there are these thin scars all over her body—"
He was cut off by the patient beginning to move; he quickly turned her onto her
back again so that he could look at her face more clearly. Her eyes were open
and she looked at him in undisguised terror. "Hush now, do not be
afraid", he said, but knew he was wasting his time. She clearly could not
understand a word he said.
"What about French?" suggested Lady Alice, but she simply shook her
head when it was tried. "Latin?"
To Lady Alice's surprise, a look of recognition came into the girl's face.
"Puella sum", she whispered, pressing her wrists together.
"Puella."
"A slave?" Lady Alice knelt by her side to hear her better.
"Where are you from?"
Her breathing was becoming laboured again. She struggled to form the word.
"Malta."
"And your name? Do you have a name?"
The girl's mouth opened and closed as though she could not remember her own
name or could not decide whether to trust them with it; then her eyes filled
with tears and she shook her head. "Leave her", ordered Forbes,
placing a hand on the girl's forehead. "It cannot matter now. She has not
had a peaceful life; she deserves a peaceful death. Ask your servant to bring
me more water."
Lady Alice turned to leave but stopped in her tracks, hearing the unmistakable
gasping and grunting of a dying body attempting to speak again. "Do not
speak if it troubles you", said Forbes, placing a finger on her lips to
hush her, but he pushed his hand away, hissing between her teeth. Finally, they
both heard one barely distinguishable word: "Sacerdos."
Forbes let out a long sigh. Quite without knowing it, she had made the most
dangerous final request she could possibly have articulated.
Poor Banished Children: A Novel
by Fiorella de Maria
• Poor Banished Children: A Novel -- Electronic Book Download
For more information about Poor Banished Children, visit
the website here.
An explosion is heard off the coast of seventeenth-century England, and a woman washes up on the shore. She is barely alive and does not speak
English, but she asks for a priest . . . in Latin.
She has a confession to make and a story to tell, but who is she and from where has she come?
Cast out of her superstitious, Maltese family, Warda turns to begging and stealing until she is fostered by an understanding Catholic priest who
teaches her the art of healing. Her willful nature and hard-earned independence make her unfit for marriage, and so the good priest sends Warda to
serve an anchorite, in the hope that his protégé will discern a religious vocation.
Such a calling Warda never has the opportunity to hear. Barbary pirates raid her village, capture her and sell her into slavery in Muslim North
Africa. In the merciless land of Warda's captivity, her wits, nerve, and self-respect are tested daily, as she struggles to survive without submitting
to total and permanent enslavement. As she is slowly worn down by the brutality of her circumstances, she comes to believe that God has abandoned her
and falls into despair, hatred, and a pattern of behavior which, ironically, mirrors that of her masters.
Poor Banished Children is the tale of one woman's relentless search for freedom and redemption. The historical novel raises challenging
questions about the nature of courage, free will, and ultimately salvation.
• An award-winning European novelist presents a powerful story of mystery, adventure, peril, suffering, faith, and courage
• A thrilling historical novel that explores the life and cultures of 17th century England, Malta and Africa
• A challenging work that tells the story of one woman's relentless search for freedom and redemption amidst great suffering, loneliness and despair
"De Maria (The Cassandra Curse) writes an absorbing tale replete with Barbary pirates and concubines. In 1640, a badly injured woman
washes ashore on the coast of England following an explosion at sea. Warda, the woman, has come a long way from the island of Malta where she was
born, and her sickbed confession to a priest is a story of adventure, enslavement, and piracy. Disowned by her family, young Warda is raised by a
Catholic priest who teaches her Latin and the healing arts and prepares her to live as an anchorite. But the landing of a pirate ship dashes that, and
Warda is captured and sold into slavery in North Africa. Through changing circumstances and locales, she remains fiercely stubborn, balancing a
refusal to concede to her circumstances with a ferocious desire to live at any moral cost. The author creates a memorable heroine and renders scenes
set in unfamiliar places and times with only a few details and swift dialog. Varying viewpoints provide a fuller portrait of Warda, her aching soul,
and her momentous choices. Catholic writer De Maria deserves a wide audience." (March, 2011)
-Publishers Weekly
"A soulful, beautifully written, and haunting novel."
- Ron Hansen, NY Times Best-selling Author, Mariette in Ecstasy
"The hypnotic tale of an unforgettable girl who loses everything in the world but her courage -- and the unshakeable knowledge that with every new
trial, her soul remains at stake. Set in the terrifying days of Barbary piracy, peopled by both savages and saints, this novel will rivet any reader
ever to have felt the forces of evil and redemption. It is a meditation on guilt, innocence, and transcendence that will haunt the reader long after
the book is done."
- Mary Eberstadt, Author, The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism
"This is serious fiction with prose that is clean, strong, and worthy. We are drawn into a first-rate story-Corsairs, Barbary pirates, cruelty,
slavery, shipwreck, suffering, and heroic sanctity. It has skillful character presentation and true craftsmanship in the narrative: dreams,
memory, straight reporting, and confession. Above all, here is the Catholic Faith in all of its depth, radiance, and plenitude."
- Thomas Howard, Author, Narnia and Beyond
Fiorella De Maria was born in Italy of Maltese parents. She grew up in Wiltshire, England, and attended Cambridge, where she received a BA in English Literature and a
Masters in Renaissance Literature, specializing in the English verse of Robert Southwell, S.J. She lives in Surrey with her husband and her three children. She won the National
Book Prize of Malta (foreign language fiction category) for her novel The Cassandra Curse.
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