Meg and Sophia were exhausted and their hands were sore. They had worked until they almost fainted because they had shared their food with Dorothy. As punishment, they had to clean all the rooms in a disused wing. They carried buckets and brooms under the watchful eye of the guards. The nurse opened the last door at the end of the corridor and pushed them inside. "Let's hurry! Tidy up this room quickly! We're about to receive another young misfit," she exclaimed in a firm voice. Meg hurried to put clean sheets on the bed, and noticed bloodstains on the wall as her colleague swept the floor. "It's a shame," whispered Meg. "Did you say something?" asked a nurse, tapping her on the back with her broom. "No," Meg replied, cringing in pain. It was a small room, with no light or ventilation, reserved for new inmates in their first days, when they were still getting used to the sad reality of being prisoners for the rest of their lives. A feeling of sadness invaded her as she wonde
Meg was in a desperate situation, unable to accept that her life was coming to such a sad end. She was confined to a hospital, against her will, and escaping from there seemed an almost impossible task. The cold, dirty walls of the institution were riddled with doors and padlocks. The high walls and the constant vigilance of the numerous guards outside aggravated the feeling of imprisonment. With each passing day, her hope of escaping diminished. As Meg and her friends, Dorothy and Sophia, swept the vast hospital courtyard, hunger set in. "I'm hungry," complained Dorothy. Sophia sighed and replied: "We can't get bread for you anymore, Dorothy." Meg whispered worriedly: "They're watching us all the time." Dorothy, curious, asked: "Has anyone had a chance to see the new patient yet?" The three women directed their gazes towards the end of the building, in the ward reserved for pregnant women. Meg replied: "She arrived here last night." Just then, two guards approached and gra
Meg was assigned to empty the potties of the newly arrived patient. This is still part of her punishment for stealing food. However, she would have preferred this task to being physically assaulted. But it was Dorothy herself who received the harshest punishment: in addition to chopping wood all day, she would go without food for five days. "You have five minutes to empty the potty and bring it back." When the door was opened and a little light entered the room, Meg saw a woman tied to the bed, covered in old, torn sheets, who was crying non-stop. Her face was against the wall and all Meg could see were two staples in her hair and the deep marks on her wrists. Meg picked up the potty and left quickly. "Feed her. We can't untie her. She's too violent," said one of the nuns. Meg picked up the tray with porridge and bread. She approached the bed. "I brought your food. It looks bad, but it tastes good," she said mildly. The porridge itself was a viscous, white mass with no sme
Dorothy stocked the fireplace in Mother Superior's office with more wood. And she tried to ignore the slice of strawberry pie right in front of her. There was a table with cookies and sweets and refreshments. The wonderful smell of the goodies was torture for Dorothy, who felt her stomach growl with hunger. This was also a form of punishment, while all the patients were eating a white paste that was almost spoiled, the nuns were splurging on food upstairs. After Dorothy left, Mother went to the window to look out at the hospital courtyard where some patients, including Meg, were cleaning the floor. Everything there worked strictly to schedule like in a beehive and she was the queen bee. "Serve me some more tea," she ordered one of the novices. She examined the hospital's finances with deep concern. Expenses were high and keeping the accounts up to date was a challenge. The solution she found, apart from forcing the patients to work almost to exhaustion, was not to hire staf
Meg carefully placed the porridge on the plate and a glass of fresh water next to it, making sure that everything was arranged impeccably. She tried to give the meal a touch of presentation by carefully sprinkling breadcrumbs on top, but unfortunately this only made the food look worse. Meg forced a polite smile before heading for the bedroom door. "I've brought your meal," she announced, trying to convey a friendly attitude. "Even my dogs eat better," the patient replied bitterly. "Unfortunately, you're right. But it's important that you eat," Meg replied with compassion. "You can't treat me like a criminal. My only mistake was to love." Meg put the spoon to the patient's mouth, who refused the food. "I'm thirsty. Give me some water," she asked. Meg placed the glass of water gently against the patient's lips, who drank all the liquid in one go. "What's your name?" Meg asked, trying to establish a connection. "Lilly," came the reply, with a curt tone. Meg pulled a red, juic
The sun's rays gently invaded the room through the gaps in the curtains, while the pillows rested serenely on the bed and the hats remained organized on the shelves. Everything was exactly as it had been before. James sat on his mother's bed, flooded with a sense of nostalgia. "I couldn't keep my promise to look after Meg," he muttered, his tone heavy with regret. He picked up one of his mother's beloved hats and then opened the jewelry box. He planned to present Angelina with some family joy, something he should have done at the beginning of her pregnancy but had neglected to do. Among the precious pieces was a sapphire necklace that Angelina had long wanted. James decided to surprise his wife with this little treat. However, in a moment of distraction, the box slipped out of his hands and all the jewels spilled onto the carpet. "Damn," he exclaimed in frustration. Looking more closely, James discovered the presence of a false bottom in the box and found several yellowed envelop
Despite her advanced pregnancy, Angelina managed to convince James to let her go to the country house with her mother and some maids, one of whom was a very skilled midwife. She planned to stay there until she gave birth to James' son. The journey wasn't very long, but it was exhausting and Angelina's mother didn't stop complaining for a minute. The cottage was a haven that her family enjoyed every summer with picnics by the lake and horseback riding. But in recent years it has gone unused. "That's very reckless. I don't know how your husband allowed such a whim," the mother remarked again, throwing herself down on the sofa while one of the maids waved a fan at her. "Mother, my husband has other worries," Angelina replied, helping the maids to open the windows. The woman took the fan from the young woman's hands and ordered: "Make me some refreshment." She went to the window where her daughter was standing and they both looked out towards the lake. "Is he still looking for
Meg was immersed in a bathtub. Two women were rigorously washing her hair and scrubbing her back with a sponge to remove all the dirt from her body. She knew why they were perfuming her body and applying make-up to her face. And the reason was far from noble. "Wash well, remove all the dirt from her," ordered one of the nuns. They put new, clean clothes and a tiara on her head. "That's good. She looks very beautiful," one of the women said. Mother entered the room and almost didn't recognize her. "Do you know where you're going?" she asked, looking directly at her. Meg looked at herself in the mirror, her make-up was strong and eye-catching. "They told me.”"Do you know what you have to do?" "No.” "Don't do anything. Just lie down and wait for him to finish." Sophia told her almost exhaustedly not to do anything, not to cry or try to fight, just to wait until he was finished. But how to remain calm in this situation, where she would have her body violated by a stranger.