Charlotte sat up suddenly. A noise had woken her from her sleep. She looked around the room and found nothing. It was dark out, but she could sense it was nearing dawn. Her body was well rested, and she saw through the window that the kitchen was lit on the other side of the yard. She heard steps outside the door and figured that someone had slammed the gate to the east wing, and that's what woke her up. It must be one of the nuns coming to unlock the door so she could return to her regular routine at breakfast. She heard the keys rustling in the lock, and the door open. A weak light from a lantern lit the room and in came sister Sarah. Charlotte had gotten dressed and stood ready to greet her punisher when sister Sarah suddenly ghasped and dropped the contence of her hands on the floor. The light went out as the lantern shattered and the keys clanked loudly against the floorboards.
- "Oh Charlotte... uhm... I was surprised to see you... up... Surprised to see you up at this hour!" Even though it was dark in the room Charlotte could tell that sister Sarah was lying. Her posture and tone of voice was different for a couple of seconds, but she soon returned to her usual stern self. "Most girls can't sleep when punished! The weight of their crime keeps them up all night. They are usually asleep from exhaustion when we let them out." she said and pointed her finger at Charlotte.
- "Oh I havent slept at all." Charlotte lied. She figured that was what sister Sarah wanted to hear. "The regrets of my actions would not permit it."
- "Let's hope you've learned your lesson. It would be a terrible waste if your spotless record was tainted after all these years. Get out now, and bring the sheets to the laundry room. You have been posted there for today. You are to eat breakfast in solitude one hour later than the rest of us. I'll send sister Anne to fetch you."

Charlotte gathered all the sheets and suddenly it hit her: The woman was gone. Her mind started replaying yesterdays events and she could feel herself blush. Luckily the room was still dark so sister Sarah could not see. Charlotte didn't want to linger in the room in this condition so she hurried away before sister Sarah had time to light a candle. She was well on her way to the laundry room before she slowed down.
- "What did you do to sister Sarah? I've never seen her so angry!" said Melissa, one of Charlottes closest friends suddenly, effectively scaring Charlotte back to present time.
- "I hate it when you do that Melissa! You are so dang sneaky sometimes."
- "I don't hear you complaining when I sneak out food from the kitchen though." Melissa said elbowing Charlotte in the ribs. "Besides, I only do it because you are so easy to scare. Come on now, do tell."
- "Well, I got caught doing something I shouldn't have and she locked me in the east wing." Charlotte said trying to make it sound as uninteresting as possible.
- "No, I already knew that. Sarah"
- "Sister Sarah" Charlotte interrupted.
- "SISTER Sarah was gleaming all day yesterday. You know how she is when she gets to punish someone. I mean now, this morning. I saw her coming out of the east wing just now and she looked mighty furious."
- "I must have startled her. She dropped the lantern so it broke when she got into the room. What is really odd though is that she prolonged my punishment. I don't get to eat breakfast with the rest of you..."
- "That is odd... I've been locked up there sometimes myself, but by dawn everything is forgiven... usually." Melissa said looking in the general direction of the east wing. "What did you do exactly to get locked up?"
- "Oh I'm not telling you that. Knowing you, you would probably take it as challange and do something worse." Charlotte said as she pushed open the door to the laundry room, covering her blushing face with the sheets. Melissa laughed at this statement.
- "As if it would be hard to do something worse. You never do anything against the rules so you probably got caught doing something weird... Were you in the restricted sections of the library?"
- "Goodness no... How boring do you think I am? Besides, I have a written permission to use the restricted sections as I see fit." Charlotte said with a sense of pride as she was lighting a fire for the water boiler.
- "That is even more boring than being there illegally! They have you dancing in the palms of their hands. That is why they trust you." Melissa lifted some dirty laundry on the floor, than looked disgusted and put it down again, not really helping Charlotte at all.
- "There is nothing wrong with taking my education seriously."
- "Education... Bah... This is just a prison. They are keeping us from having fun." Melissa found a chair and sat down very unlady like. Charlotte threw her a disapproving look, and Melissa straightened her back, not really correcting the pose.
- "It is a poorly designed prison in that case. The front gate is open all day and we are free to leave if we please."
- "Are we really? They guilt us into coming back, reminding us of our responsibilties towards our fellow students and agains our parents who pay good money to keep us here, getting 'educated'... Besides... we have nowhere to go. The reason we are here is because our parents can't deal with us."
- "That is a horrible thing to say."
- "Well, it's true and you know it. Our parents dumped us here, and we haven't seen them since. It's true for every girl in here. The only time a parent is ever seen again is if someone is going to be presented as a bride..." Melissa struck a nerve. Charlotte had been thinking about that a lot. It was true that she haven't seen her parents since the day she got enrolled. She didn't even recieve any mail from them as some of the other girls did. The breakfast bell rang and Melissa left, but Charlotte hardly noticed since her mind was elsewhere.

A sturdy woman from the norht who wasn't that good with speaking the language. She had a garden and she ruled over the house where they all lived. Everyone called her Momma, but she was without children of her own. But she didn't care. Every day she worked hard to keep everyone in the mansion fed and happy... and clean. It was a wonder she had time for it all. She even had time for Charlotte when she snuck away from her boring parents. Momma would tell stories that Charlotte never had heard before, and whenever her dad found Charlotte in the kitchen he would scold her for spendning time with the help.
- "They don't have time for telling those stupid stories. They are working" Her father always was like that whenever Charlotte was nice to the staff. "Don't praise them. They are doing what they are paid for. They should praise us for being so kind as to pay them." Her father was a jerk. He should see her now, working with other peoples dirty laundry in a cellar as the sun rose outside the window. He would be furious... or would he? Maybe he didn't care at all anymore. A knocking on the window woke Charlotte from her thoughts. She looked out and saw the woman, just as naked as yesterday, but a lot smaller. She was waving at Charlotte and smiling.