Beatrice got up and turned the lamp on. The rain had become heavier, tapping angrily at the window, and although it was only late afternoon it seemed quite dull and dark outside. 'Is anyone cold? Miserable day out there.'

The others both said they were fine. Susie pointed at the woodburner in the fireplace. 'That looks like fun, though, for the Winter.' She looked around and voiced the same thought Ella had had. 'Looks cosy in here, Bea. Quite a nice little cottage, really. Not too big for one person.'

'Yes. And I can hammer stuff out on the piano without disturbing anyone.' Bea hesitated, and decided to return to the sofa rather than the piano stool. Raphaela had spread out a bit from her corner, but there was still plenty of room. 'Talking of living arrangements, did anyone ask you about the baby? Ella said we had to pretend you were married.'

Susie laughed. 'Funny, isn't it? I really don't give two hoots about it mostly, but I was pretty nervous about telling the Sisters that Ollie and I haven't tied the knot. Anyway, no, no-one really asked, I think they assumed. And if I call myself "Doctor", I can use my maiden name anyway as that's who I qualified as.' She pointed at them both in turn. 'If we ever do get hitched, you're both coming. Don't hold your breath though, we've been together seven years already.'

'How did you meet?' Bea touched Ella's arm briefly. 'Sorry if you know all this.'

Ella shook her head and stood up, tugging the hem of her dress down. 'Gonna pop to the loo, so go for it, Suze.'

Susie leant back while Ella went through to the kitchen and started upstairs. 'Well, you know I didn't get the grades to do medicine straight off?'

'Yes. I'm sorry.'

'Old history.' Susie waved her hand. 'Anyway, I did go to Nottingham, but did Biology instead then a conversion course. Ollie and I met in our anatomy lectures. Eyes locked over a decaying corpse, and that was it.' Susie chuckled. 'Not really, but you know. We hit it off from the start, and here we are.' She patted her bump.

'That's nice. So he's a doctor as well?'

'Yeah, but he works in research, in the labs at the hospital. He might go for an academic post sometime, but for now he's happy enough playing about with petri dishes.' She stroked her belly. 'The little one was an accident, but we should be alright. He earns OK, and the Trust's been brilliant at letting me go part-time, which should hold even after my maternity leave. It just means it'll take me a bit longer to finally get there.'

'You are qualified, though?'

'Yeah, yeah, I'm an actual doctor. What they call a junior doctor, like you've probably seen in the news? Just, after that you have to do another two years in whatever specialism you choose. In General Practice, that often involves more placements in a hospital department, to get as broad an experience as possible – which makes sense – and I've already done a fair bit of community medicine one way or another. You never know what someone might come in with, and I could do with knowing more about cancers and psoriasis and so on. Hence where I am now.'

'It must be quite varied, the whole process.'

'And some.' Susie rearranged a cushion behind her. 'The worst was psychiatry. I don't mind poking about inside someone's body, you kind of know what's supposed to be where and what it should all look like. But the mind's a different matter. I just didn't know how to deal with them. I mean, how do you talk to someone who's not on the same plane as you?'

Beatrice felt a shiver of understanding, and the pang of a painful set of memories. 'Mmm, I can imagine.'

Ella came back downstairs. Susie called out, 'Raffy, can you flick the kettle on?' She reached for her handbag. 'That OK, Bea? I fancy a fruit tea – I've brought my own.'

'Of course.' Beatrice stood up and gathered everything onto the tray, taking it through to the kitchen. 'Do you want more coffee, Ella?'

Raphaela hesitated, and glanced at her watch. 'Well. I had a coffee earlier because that wine at lunch went to my head a bit. But we haven't had your house-warming...or is half-five too early?'

'It's a bit early.' Beatrice grinned and headed towards the fridge. 'I liked the look of that white you brought, though. The glasses are in that cupboard to your left.' She called though to Susannah. 'Susie, Ella and I are going to give in and have wine. Are you sure you want tea? I've got some posh fizzy fruit juice stuff...'

Susie groaned. 'I'll stick with tea for now, thanks, Bea. Might have something fancier in a bit.'

*

For some time, the three talked lightly and in a directionless way about their families, university and where they'd lived over the years. At some point, Beatrice got up to fetch a jumper from her room and, at Ella's request, also brought a cardigan for her. When she returned, the other two were talking about meeting up again.

'We've realised that we're all actually not that far away from each other now,' said Ella. 'And it's quite easy to get to you here, trains allowing. We should be a bit more on top of seeing each other more often.'

Beatrice handed Ella the cardigan. 'That's a nice idea. Although I'll be busy most Sundays. You'd be welcome here, though.'

'Not a bad idea, Bea.' Susie sipped her tea. 'I guess Raffy tends to busy weekends as well, with all the playing and so on.'

Ella shrugged the cardigan on and waggled her head. 'Depends. Usually, to be fair.' She settled back in the sofa and crossed her legs.

'Well, we can sort something out. Three clever girls like us, it can't be that hard.' Susie patted her belly again. 'When this one pops out, I'm going to need moral support and fresh faces anyway, so any distraction...even if it's just for an hour or two...'

'Remind me what your commitments are, Ella. I've lost track.'

'OK so, playing, I'm in uni football and hockey teams – nothing major, just low league stuff. The girls in the top ones are crazy, they spend all their time playing. I've got other things to do, like this PhD. And I'm still on the books at the council as a health development worker, only casual but it's a bit of extra money.' She counted on her fingers. 'Then I coach two local football teams – one men, one kids – and a local netball squad. And I'm in the process of setting up another community football team for women and girls, which I may well end up coaching if I'm not careful.' She looked at their awed expressions and laughed. 'So, yeah. It all keeps me out of trouble.'

'Bloody hell, Raffy. Talking of getting up to mischief, though...anyone interesting on the scene I should know about?'

Ella glanced at Beatrice quickly. 'Er, not as such. Not really. I was saying to Bea last night, I don't seem to be able to stick with anyone very long.'

'Fair enough.' Susie shifted to lie across the sofa again. 'If I had my pick of big, fit sporty blokes with firm thighs, I'd probably be reluctant to limit my options as well. Eh, Bea?'

Beatrice tucked some hair behind her ear and glanced back at Ella, just as Ella was adjusting the hem of her dress on her crossed legs. Beatrice had a brief recollection of the feel of her thigh through her dress on the terrace, and the sight of her – hot and sweaty, but confident and relaxed – as she'd entered the kitchen after her run. 'Well. I could go for toned thighs.' She glanced at Ella's legs then glanced away, blushing, before (she hoped) Ella noticed. She wondered where this sudden spark of interest in her friend had come from. 'But I wouldn't be looking at the men.'

Susie nodded. 'Also fair enough, to each her own. So, Bea, your turn. There's obviously no-one now, but has there been in the past?'

Bea smiled, and noticed Ella's eyes flick to the photo of her and her parents on holiday; after all, she knew now who'd taken it. 'One or two. A boy at uni. A woman in France on my year abroad. Another woman at the RCM...'

Another nod. 'This year abroad...didn't you go to France straight after school?'

Beatrice shifted to tuck her feet under her legs again. She noticed Ella slightly move her legs away and cross them slightly tighter. 'Yes, but that was to another convent. I had another year abroad during my degree, which was when...'

'A convent?' Ella leant forward. 'I didn't realise that.'

Bea took a deep breath. 'Sister F organised it. It was a sister house to here, she arranged for me to go out there and be a sort-of support worker for a year. I didn't have to take vows or anything, but in return for my bed and board, I had to take charge of their music, which had slipped a bit. Train a few of them to lead the offices properly, play the organ as necessary. And otherwise generally help out as needed. I worked in the kitchens a lot, and as a cleaner in the infirmary. It was very good for my French, and by the end we had a half-decent little choir going, which was nice...'

The other two were quiet for a moment. Susie recovered first. 'So many questions, Bea. The main one being, why?'

Beatrice quickly cleaned her glasses on the edge of her dress. 'Like I say, it was good for my French.'

'Didn't you want to do music, though?'

Beatrice adjusted her dress in her lap unnecessarily. 'I...changed my mind. That same Easter, our last one...I found out about then that I'd failed Grade 8 organ, which really pulled the carpet from under me. I was convinced that Cambridge wouldn't want me – that the scholarship I was after wasn't a possibility any more – so I withdrew my application...'

'Bloody hell.'

Bea shrugged. 'Like you said, it was a bad time around then. Anyway, Sister F had a long talk with me, tried to make me change my mind. Then when she realised I wouldn't, she arranged for me to go to this other convent so I could spend a year getting a sense of perspective and practise my French. It was her condition for supporting my application to do languages instead. Which she did, all the way. I owe her a lot.'

Ella shifted slightly closer. 'Did you get some perspective?'

'Some. On what I needed to, I suppose. That failing one music exam wasn't the end of the world, for example, and that there were other things I was good at.' Beatrice felt Raphaela slip her hand under her own, and responded by squeezing it gently.

Susie sighed.

Raphaela withdrew her hand from Beatrice's, slowly.

Susie put her mug on the floor carefully and clasped her hands over her bump. 'You know, she said the same to me, after I hadn't got my grades for medicine. Gave me an almighty pep talk about what a beautiful person I was and had so much to give, then told me very matter-of-factly the exact steps I needed to follow to become a doctor anyway, if I was that bothered about it.' She smiled at the ceiling. 'She's a crafty old bird, God bless her.'

Raphaela uncrossed her legs and twisted a little in the corner of the sofa. 'Do you think she was like that with everyone? She sat me down one day and said I wasn't to worry about missing out on the county netball squad, because my talents would be better employed further afield, and had I thought about coaching? Like a more full-on version of Double-M.'

Beatrice smiled at Ella. 'She and Sister Mary-Martha were very close. I know Sister F used to go round to Sister MM's for tea a lot. It was probably a double-pronged attack.'

Susie waved a hand vaguely. 'The bugger is, the old girl was right. Look at us. We're all more or less where she thought we ought to be.'

'Can't argue with that,' said Ella, swinging her long legs up and resting her feet against the back of the sofa, knees drawn up. She glanced at Beatrice, then fiddled with the hem of her dress – even though it was only ever going to reach halfway up her thighs.

Beatrice tried not to look. 'You weren't there, Susie, but earlier on the terrace, she did that thing where she leans in with a big secret and told me and Ella that our year was her favourite.' She looked from one friend to the other. 'Do you think she meant that?'

Susie laughed. Ella shrugged, before extending one foot across the sofa cushion to prod Beatrice's leg gently. 'She also said she particularly remembered us.'

'Hmm.' Beatrice put her hand out and rubbed Ella's foot gently a few times. Ella moved her foot to rest it against Beatrice's thigh. Beatrice held it in place gently. 'Don't know, but here we all are at her retirement, as well. None of us had to come, especially. Although we all never considered not doing so, even before I got this job.'

'Guess we all feel we owe her.' Susie picked up her mug again and turned to peer out of the window. The rain was still pattering against the panes, and it had got a lot dimmer outside.

Beatrice glanced at Ella, and was surprised to see her friend looking at her calmly but steadily. They half-smiled at each other, before Beatrice reluctantly let go of Ella's foot and stood up to close the curtains. She wished she could understand this strange new sensitivity to her friend's physicality – and the unexpected appeal it suddenly held for her. 'Anyway,' she said, turning back to face them both. 'Is anyone actually hungry? There's leftover pie from yesterday, or I can do an omelette or something.'