Saint Agnes and the Selkie

Anglo-Saxon women of royal blood sometimes became abbesses ruling great religious houses of both men and women. Some, like Hilda of Whitby, became among its greatest saints. But for others, the role, with its responsibilities and its privations, cannot have been easy to bear.

Thrust into the leadership of Whitby Abbey by a dynastic bargain, Mother Wynflaed, a king’s daughter once engaged to a nobleman’s son, attempts to live her responsibilities with grace both in the abbey and as councilor to her nephew, the young king of Northumbria. But though many call her mother, in her heart she burns with the desire for a daughter of her own.

When a beautiful young woman is found on the abbey doorstep, soaked and silent, Wynflaed feels as if she has birthed her out of the sea. She names her Agnes and offers her a mother’s love. But Agnes shuns all affection and pulls down penances on her head for a sin she will not confess. As she unravels Agnes’s terrible secret, Wynflaed must struggle with the unbearable question of whether Agnes is to stay or to go.

Author Biography

G. M. Baker has been a newspaper reporter, managing editor, freelance writer, magazine contributor, PhD candidate, seminarian, high school teacher, desktop publisher, programmer, technical writer, department manager, communications director, non-fiction author, speaker, consultant, and grandfather. He has published stories in The Atlantic Advocate, Fantasy Book, New England’s Coastal Journal, Our Family, Storyteller, Solander, and Dappled Things. There was nothing much left to do but become a novelist. He is currently serializing an historical novel, The Wistful and the Good, on Substack. Subscribe to the newsletter at https: //gmbaker.substack.com.