Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered--Chapter Five

[Elkhound]

Another question: If Amanda/Grub's mother was unable/unwilling to care for her properly, why didn't she leave her at a convent?  Wasn't that a major ministry of religious sisterhoods, to care for orphaned and unwanted children?

[Evie]

Dunno, Huldah was too busy screaming and throwing things to tell me.  It could be she thought a convent wouldn't accept the girl without a dowry.  While they did accept foundlings, they preferred to accept girls who could provide their own means of support.  Or she could have been like a lot of teen mothers throughout the ages, happy enough to keep a newborn at first because they're longing for someone who will love them unconditionally, only to become disenchanted by the realities of parenting (especially when poverty is a factor).  While she clearly became an abusive parent, she may have still loved her daughter as much as she was capable of understanding love, though certainly she wasn't providing the sort of care Grub needed.  She may have had family pressure to keep her baby.  ("Ye brought the little bastard inta th' world an'  ye'd best be responsible for her.  I ain't havin' me blood kin raised by no strangers!")  Or she might even have held some grudge against the Church.  (Remember, as far as Grub knew, she'd never been christened.  Maybe no one ever thought to tell her she was, but even so, she was clearly unfamiliar with even the concept.)  Or maybe she just figured a child would grow up  being another set of hands to help out with ekeing out a living, and was impatient because Grub was disappointing in that regard, being expensive to feed but still too young to be of much use, and Huldah finally gave her up as a bad investment once Sextus re-entered the picture.

At any rate, there are any number of reasons Grub's mom might have kept her as long as she did.  The real reason, of course, is that if Grub hadn't been there when Sextus came along, there wouldn't be a story.  The rest of Sextus's future revolves around that one pivotal moment.