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Chapter 1

I FEEL SUCH A FRAUD

I stand with Alice Auclair and Mei Zhang in a narrow tenee We are all dressed alike: black woolen cloaks covering stiff black bo out beneath floor-length skirts, hair pulled back simply and neatly This is the uniform of the Sisterhood, and while none of us are full members yet, we are on a Sisterly mission of charity We carry baskets of bread baked in the convent kitchen and vegetables from the convent cellar We keep our eyes low, our voices quiet

No one must ever suspect us for e really are

Alice knocks Fine onyx earbobs swing from her seashell ears Even on a mission to feed the poor, she finds a way to flaunt her fa

I half relish the thought

Mrs Anderson opens the door She’s aof twenty-three with blond hair a shade lighter than my own and a perpetually harried expression She ushers us inside, her hands fluttering like pale loo”

“There’s no need to thank us Helping the less fortunate is part of ourat the cramped two-room flat

“I’rateful” Mrs Anderson presses old wedding band, though her husband has been dead three ood provider We always made ends meet I don’t like to depend on charity”

“Of course not” I give her an uneven sratitude makes me squirm

“You’ve had hard luck You’ll be back on your feet soon,” Mei assures her The fever that tore through the city in August clai Mrs Anderson to fend for the two surviving children

“It’s not an easy thing, to be a woman alone in the world I’d take on more hours at the shop if I could” Mrs Anderson slides the jug of ets dark so early now, I don’t like to walk home alone”

“It isn’t safe for a woht” Mei is stocky and short; she has to stand on tiptoe to put a jar of apple butter on the shelf next to the canned vegetables

“So ners in this part of the city Most of thelish” Alice’s hood falls back, revealing golden hair that waves prettily away frouess what a harpy she is “Who knohat kind of people they are?”

Mei flushes Her parents irated from Indo-China before she was born, but they still speak Chinese at hoirl at the convent and conscious of it I daresay Alice knows that; she has a talent for poking at people’s bruises

The old Cate Cahill would have taken Alice to task, but Sister Catherine only helps Mei unpack sweet potatoes and butternut squash onto the scratched wooden table Sisters do not have the luxury of losing their tempers—at least not outside the convent walls In public, we must be models of ladylike decorum

I loathe these visits

It’s not that I lack compassion for the poor I have plenty of co how they would feel about us if they knew the truth

The Sisters pose as an order of wo their lives to charitable service for the Lord We deliver food to the poor and nurse the sick That is the truth—but it’s also true that we are witches, all of us, hiding in plain sight If people learned e really are, their gratitude would turn to fear They would think us sinful, wanton, and dangerous, and they would have us locked up in the madhouse—or worse

It’s not their fault That’s what the Brothers preach at church every Sunday Feould risk going against them, and these poor people already have less than most