Chapter 22

Page Judith and John arrived at Mother Superior's private dining room fairly quickly. From L-Corner they had not walked over to the doorway at the end of the Convent's East Wing but entered through the doorway hidden under the Grand Staircase in the Main Hall.

It was just an easier path because they would have needed to go up to the second floor to traverse the distance to the Main Hall. Mother Superior's quarters and office take up the first floor of the East Wing. There was no direct ground floor passage from the entrance into the East Wing through to the Main Hall.

Although, taking that upstairs/downstairs path had entered into Page Judith's mind. She liked to take every opportunity to walk either up or down the Grand Staircase. But this time she let the urge pass because they were going to be slightly late for Brunch. She told John, "Brunch is a less formal meal but late is late!"

Everyone else was there and all eyes turned toward the pair as they walked in together, hand in hand. Both John and Page Judith gave a slight bow and said "Good Morning" to everyone there. A reply followed welcoming them.

Mother Superior stepped toward Page Judith and John. Her face had a smile on it but it was tinged slightly with something John could not analyze. It bordered on the sinister.

"Just a little late today?" she queried.

But before an answer could even be constructed and given, Mother Superior continued, "I got reports just a short while ago about a pair moving through the downstairs L-Wing corridor making a lot of noise.

"Would you two know anything about that?"

John glanced over at Page Judith as he could feel her hand he was holding starting to get damp and to shake a little. Page Judith had lowered her gaze to the floor and was starting to nervously draw figure eights with her right toe.

She looked askance up at John and said softly, "I told you we'd get in trouble about that."

Then without raising her eyes to meet her mother's she said to Mother Superior, "Sorry Mom."

Raising her voice just a little louder Mother Superior sternly said, "What did you call me?"

Page Judith choked a little and gasped as she tightened her grip on John's hand. In barely more than a whisper she apologized, "Sorry ... Mother Superior ... It was us."

John looked up at Mother Superior's face and there was not a hint of sternness covering it. Confused, he admitted, "Sorry, Mother Superior. We were a little exuberant passing through the hallway."

Directing her attention back to Page Judith, she said, "And how do you explain yourself, Page Judith?"

Page Judith's demeanor sank as she hunched forward a little and the tension in her body spilled out. Her grip on John's hand increased in anticipation of Mother Superior's wrath.

"I have no explanation, Mother Superior.

"I'm sorry. It was wrong and we probably disturbed those working in the office there."

"Well, then," Mother Superior said as her voice deepened, "Page Judith ... I have only one thing to tell you."

As Mother Superior paused again, she stepped closer to her daughter. Page Judith let out a soft gasp waiting for the world to begin crashing down upon her and come to an end.

Reaching out to place a finger under Page Judith's chin Mother Superior lifted her face so their gaze could meet. Then she said, "I have just one word to tell you ... Gotcha!"

"Oh MOM," Page Judith said as her arms reached out to meet her mother's for a hug. "You REALLY got me that time!" she said as everyone in the Dining Room laughed.

"Let's all eat!" Mother Superior said and everyone queued up at the buffet table and selected from the bounty waiting for them. After filling their plates everyone chose a place, standing between their chair and the table, waiting for Mother Superior to say grace.

When everyone was ready she offered, "John why don't you give it a try."

"Dear Lord," he began. "Please bless this food we are about to eat, the hands that prepared it and please bless those around us as they do your work. Amen."

Lighthearted conversations began as they ate. Even though the meal was buffet style, there were several of the kitchen staff bustling around filling glasses with one of a variety of juices or water and cups with coffee or tea. They instantly exchanged plates when someone wanted to sample something else or take seconds.

As the meal started to wind down, Mother Superior commented, "I'm slightly changing the routine for today.

"For the men, we usually do three semen samples on Saturday, but today, we'll only have time to do one or two. Also, we usually have interviews today, but I'm probably going to be rescheduling that to tomorrow for the same reason. It depends on how things go today because I want everyone to tour our stables and our farm.

"We actually farm about 500 acres in the flood plain next to the stream that runs through our property. It's very fertile and although we do use modern technology, we also enjoy using old and tried methods. That means a lot of manual labor. You know, gardening vegetables by hand and when it's practical, plowing, seeding and harvesting with our horses.

"We do tend to grow more produce here than we need and sell our excess at a nearby farmers market during the growing season. That income does help support our Program to Feed Families and Children.

"When harvest comes, we preserve enough for our own use and again, the excess is sold at the Farmer's Market. Some of our Jams and Jellies have won awards at local fairs. Our produce as well has won prizes and so has our baked goods."

Laughing she said, "We bake a mean pumpkin pie in the fall for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Plus we prepare other types of pies and freeze many for use year round. We have several huge walk in freezers and they're so large it's hard to keep them full.

"In contrast to the bounty of the summer growing season we grow a variety of vegetables year round in our hydroponic facilities. We also tend to have excess there too and similarly use that to supplement our food programs.

"Our dairy farm has about a hundred cows and we get an average of about five to six hundred gallons of milk a day from our herd. We sell most of it but we do use some of the milk ourselves for baking and food production. Plus we make butter from some of it too.

"Not too many people like to drink raw milk that is only Pasteurized. By that I mean, milk that is not Homogenized as commonly done by most milk processors," she continued. "The cream that naturally separates off from that milk is used in many ways including finding its way into a coffee mug. Including mine!

"With getting just under a dollar a gallon, that adds up to a little more than two-hundred-fifteen thousand a year income but it's not all profit. We do save on cattle feed because we let our cows graze most of the time. So while we don't really make much of a profit from our dairy operation there are other benefits.

"We slaughter about one or two a month of our herd to supplement our meat consumption. We also keep about a dozen or so of the calves born each year to keep our herd size fairly constant. The extra ones are sold at local auctions and usually get a good price when it is known they come from our farm.

"It's not easy to be self sufficient with the number of people on our staff and keep our orphans and boarding students fed. But we do keep food expenses in check with our own production. One plus is we have a very large kitchen and excellent food preparation staff. We try not to waste anything. Things like potato peelings and other food waste is processed for feed for our animals.