Bedraggled and deflated Olivia returned alone to her cell to find Sister Letitia waiting for her with a collar and chain.
'I hope you have learned your lesson,' the nun said, repeating her Abbess.
'I have, and no thanks to you,' Olivia said unhappily.
'What do you mean?'
'You know very well what I mean. If I hadn't met you at that damned station I wouldn't be here now.'
'Alas, my dear, you did meet me, and you are here. Now turn around and face the wall.'
'Please...' sighed Olivia, 'I just want to lie down and rest for a while.'
'You can rest all you like after I've put your collar on.'
'Why must you?' sobbed Olivia.
'Because the Abbess wishes it.'
'But I promised I wouldn't run away again.'
'Saying and doing are two very different things,' said Sister Letitia. 'Now will you do as you're told, or shall I report you?'
Olivia just couldn't be bothered with all the trouble that might bring. She was too tired and too numb to argue. She faced the wall with her arms by her sides and allowed Sister Letitia to slip the collar around her throat and fasten it at the nape. It was made of leather and fitted with a ring at the side.
'Give me the chain,' Sister Letitia said, wriggling the collar to make sure it was a snug fit.
Olivia picked the chain off the cot and gave it to the nun whilst looking longingly through the barred window at the rolling windswept meadows beyond the foreboding walls. She recalled something Walpurga had said that had been nagging her subconscious ever since. 'Is there a nun here called Flora?' she asked carefully.
There was a long tense silence.
'Why do you ask?'
She detected a hostility in Sister Letitia's response. 'I - I just wondered.'
Sister Letitia slipped the chain through the ring and clicked a small brass padlock 'Flora? No, there's no Flora here.'
Olivia must have misheard Walpurga in the first place. Perhaps she'd said Dora. Or perhaps it had never even been mentioned at all. Olivia just didn't know what to think any more. She slumped wearily onto the cot, and the free end of the chain was fastened to the wall behind her.
'How long am I to be kept like this?' she asked.
Sister Letitia shrugged. 'Until the Abbess decides otherwise.' She regarded her charge with a satisfied smile. 'I'd get some rest if I were you. Sister Alice will be ready for you soon.'
'Sister Alice?'
'Apparently you've promised to have a bath with her.'
'I didn't promise anything.'
'Pardon?'
'...I'm looking forward to it...' Olivia was learning.