Ancrene Wisse

Keep no beast, he tells them, except a cat. The three sisters it was written for had asked to be sealed into a cell against a church wall for the rest of their lives, and their anonymous director sets out to furnish that room: what to wear, how far to open the parlour window and to whom, what to do about a maid who has angered them, how to keep the anchorhold from becoming a place for news.