CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
When daybreak came, Boyce didn't hesitate waking and getting out of his bed. He made his painful way to the window and looked out onto the majesty of Gothal. Below him many nuns were already awake and working on the vegetable gardens, and fruit groves. Over to one side was the flower and tree garden and there was a group of nuns maintaining its beauty through their trimmings and cultivating.
Lilith walked into the room and Boyce slowly turned around to greet her.
Zoro only looked at her when she came in. He was very quiet and squawked only once when he sensed someone at the door, but otherwise, he didn't make a ruckus.
She wheeled a small cart into the room, laden with a variety of foods for Boyce to dine on.
"Will you eat with me?" he invited her in.
"Yes, thank-you!"
They spent a long time eating breakfast then, when they were finished,
Lilith had Boyce get
back on the bed and she looked him over once more to make certain that nothing was at fault with him.
"I'm just a little sore now, that's all. I can walk!" he informed her.
She helped him put some clothing on himself and she showed him around the abbey; through the school and chapel and through the library. There they heard Lloyd having an aggravated discussion with a nun, about the poet, Djenaud Smarte. This made Boyce laugh because he knew that Lloyd didn't think very highly of that particular poet.
Lilith knew that the opposite was true of Sister Rhonta and she could hardly keep from laughing, herself.
"Listen to them!" exclaimed Boyce.
"Does Lloyd dislike Smarte as much as Sister Rhonta admires him?"
Lilith asked him.
"It certainly sounds like it!" he said then listened some more to the highly vocal discussion between his friend and the sister.
Soon, however, Lilith lead by the hand, to the garden and there they walked about for several hours and told one another some other about themselves then they sat on a marble bench in a cosy gazebo.
Boyce had fallen into a mutual love with Lilith and each of them were aware of it. Now, however, was the first time that they had voiced their feelings and no one else was anywhere in the garden to disturb them, accept for Zoro, quietly watching them from a tree top.
"I love you, Boyce!" Lilith revealed to him and he gently embraced her.
"I love you!" he also admitted, and they embraced each other's wanton bodies and kissed each other's lonely lips for the first time.
Their time together was brief and yet their love for one another bonded them together so strongly that their spirits became fused as one.
Boyce felt dishonest in keeping most of the truths about himself, from her, and he now decided to tell her every detail and account of his life, and why he came to Phoride.
Lilith also told Boyce more about herself revealing to her love that she was the daughter of the Laurentine Consul, Debran. To keep her innocent and safe of monastic validations, he left her at the abbey before going on to Pomperaque.
Boyce learned that this young man was more than just a beautiful, dark hair and dark-eyed novice, waiting to turn seventeen so that she may take her vows and become a full fledged nun of the abbey.
That was a wish of her father, Debran. The only way to save her from the lustful designs of some carnal coenobite at Halls, was to have her become a simple and uninteresting sister.