Dilys began to wash the mountain of pots piled on every surface while Ruby dried them as she gazed from the window above the sink longingly. They were on the ground floor here and she wondered if it might be worth opening the window and trying to escape, but as if she could read her mind Dilys sadly shook her head.

‘Don’t even think about it,’ she whispered, keeping a wary eye on the old cook, whose grubby cotton cap was now awry as she fought to stay awake. ‘I tried that once but I never got past the gates. Old Wilf who lives in the gatehouse has got a nose on him like a bloodhound and I never even made it as far as the gates. The whipping I got was so brutal I couldn’t lie on my back for a whole week.’

‘But there must be some way we could escape.’ Ruby looked so desperate that Dilys’s kind heart went out to her. She could remember when she still had hope, but it seemed a long time ago now and she had resigned herself to dying in this place.

It took a considerable time to get all the pots clean and once that was done, they each took a cloth and wiped down the surfaces, which looked as if they hadn’t been properly cleaned for some long time.

‘What with the slop they feed us and the filthy conditions in this kitchen it’s a wonder we don’t all die of food poisoning,’ Ruby whispered.

Dilys nodded in agreement. ‘You’re right, but what choice do we have? We either eat it or we starve, it’s as simple as that. And please think about what I told you and try to be good. You remind me so much of myself when I was first brought here. I was always in trouble until I learnt that it was safer to just keep a low profile. All the wicked so-called treatments they dole out won’t happen if you give them no reason to use them.’

Eventually the door opened and much to Ruby’s relief she saw that it was Nurse Downes who had come to escort them back to their cells.

‘Everywhere looks very nice. Well done, ladies,’ she said approvingly as reluctantly they both allowed her to usher them upstairs again.

*

The following morning, after thinking on Dilys’s advice, Ruby allowed herself to be meekly led along to the dining room for her breakfast without a murmur. She was discovering that what Dilys had said was true: any time out of the cell was worth behaving for, although she was still determined to figure out a way to get out of there. She simply wouldn’t accept that she could be here for the foreseeable future.