Mandm

Mandm
Part 10.030 - At home

Caveat

This story is a complete work of fiction. Whilst some research effort has been made, nothing should be taken as factual, in particular anything to do with medical, legal, technical, political, social, educational or religious issues. Any opinions expressed are those of the characters, not necessarily the author's.

Room preparation for Kitty and Chloe

It was after eleven when the twins came down, walking hand in hand into the kitchen. "What's for breakfast?" asked Midge. "We're starving" from Molly. Then, to Kitty, "How are you today?" "Much better, thank you. No, really, thank you. I still don't understand it, but I think I'd be in hospital without you." She grinned, "The corner of that trolly, weighted with old fatty in it, really hurt."

Old fatty Chloe slapped Kitty on her shoulder. "I'd punch you if you weren't an invalid." "Who's an invalid?" Suddenly the two were wrestling on the floor, but moments later Kitty said "Stop, it does still hurt." Chloe stood up, helped Kitty up, "Let's make these some breakfast." "Brunch" from Kitty.

They managed to put together eggs, bacon, sausages, baked beans, tea to drink, followed by toast and marmalade. Afterwards all were full.

When they'd cleared up, Midge said "We'd better sort out the bedrooms. Chloe, you've used ours, stick with that? Kitty, we'll need to do the spare room, I don't think it's been used for a while."

They checked up on the twin's bedroom first, it could do with a general cleanup. There were the twin's knick‑knacks on the dressing table, mostly one each of things like hairbrush, hand mirror, comb, the twins always shared them. There was a chest of drawers with various clothes in it, the wardrobe had dresses that were all too small for any of them, they decided that didn't matter.

The spare room was not so good. It had a double bed that was made up, but there were a couple of large cardboard boxes on it. Three suitcases had been dumped on the floor, the wardrobe had a few of the twin's parents' clothes hung in it, their father's morning suit and a tuxedo, a couple of dress shirts. There were several of their mother's dresses, some in plastic dust covers. On the dressing table was a silver backed hand mirror, a hairbrush and comb, nothing else. In one drawer was a hair drier, the others were empty.

They decided it didn't have to look as if it had been Kitty's for very long, she would have started living there only a short while ago.

They stacked the suitcases in one end of the wardrobe, they could stand the boxes on top of the suitcases. They put Kitty's school uniform in the wardrobe, Chloe's in the wardrobe in the twins' room.

The twins' room and the spare room shared a family bathroom, it hadn't been used in a while. They put two toothbrushes in it in a mug, some soap, also shower gel and shampoo for the shower. The airing cupboard produced a couple of towels, there was a bathmat as well. The next hour they spent dusting, wiping down, vacuuming the two bedrooms and the bathroom. That done, all four got into the spare bed, had a little celebration. "That'll make it look as if it's been slept in."

By the time they'd finished, and done a general clean of the whole house, it was mid afternoon. During that time, Midge or Molly would occasionally pick something up, show the other, sometimes show Kitty and Chloe, but no signs of extreme reaction.

They made some tea, sat in the kitchen to drink it. One of their phones rang from upstairs, Midge and Molly raced up, Midge answered it "Hello?" She listened, said "That's good … Yes, we'll be here … We'd like you to check on the bedrooms anyway … Okay, thank you, see you tomorrow."

Midge said to Molly "D'nt'll." Probably shorthand for 'Let's go downstairs, then I can tell everyone together.'

Preparation for computers

They ran down the stairs, inevitably fell the last third. They picked themselves up, staggered into the kitchen where Kitty and Chloe were pretending not to have heard the rumpus. Midge didn't even notice their nonchalance, she blurted out "Tomorrow, ten, computers, tutors, Daniel." Molly tried a translation. "I think what my sister is trying to say is that Daniel and the tutors are coming tomorrow at ten o'clock with our computers." "Close enough" from Midge, "Whoever is delivering the computers will make sure they are set up properly."

Time for a group hug. Then Kitty asked "Where are they going to be?" Midge, a quick glance at Molly, "Dining room. We can use the table, two on each side." They went into the dining room.

Midge: "A tablecloth to protect the table."

Molly: "Electricity."

The twins went to the sideboard, looked through a couple of drawers, came to the table with three folded tablecloths. The second one they opened seemed to be right, it was the perfect size, made of a heavyish linen, plain, off‑white. Midge put the other tablecloths back in the drawer.

The twins looked at each other, one asked "Extensions?" then in unison, "Garage."

They'd not been in the garage at all since they had come out of the school. Midge said to Kitty and Chloe, "You'd better come with us." They went into the kitchen, Midge picked out a key from a number of hooks above one end of the working surface. She unlocked and opened a door that led into the adjoining garage, put an arm round, found a light switch. "Oh, the car." Molly: "Forgotten." Midge: "Tomorrow Daniel." Then to Kitty and Chloe, "Think there's a box of electrical gubbins somewhere. Look in those cupboards" pointing to a row of cupboards under a working surface that ran across the end of the garage. Molly put a foot onto Midge's hands that she'd clasped in front of her, stepped up onto the working surface, started opening cupboards on the wall above.

After several cupboards were looked in, Chloe shouted out "Think I've found it." She hauled out a big cardboard box with 'Electricals' written on it in marker pen. There was just enough room in front of the car to put it on the floor and open it. Midge delved through it, found a four‑way extension lead with a long cable. "That should get to the table." Kitty: "Four probably isn't enough, we may want phone chargers or something plugged in as well." Molly had jumped down, she started throwing things out of the box, eventually found a six‑way extension block. "That'll give us nine." "How long is its cable?" "Maybe six feet." "That'll do fine."

The twins dashed off into the house, each carrying an extension cable, leaving Kitty and Chloe to retrieve the things that Molly has thrown out, put them back in the box and push the box back into the cupboard, also to shut all the upper cupboard doors that Molly had left open. By the time they got to the dining room, a cable was stretched across the floor, it had been tied up a leg of the table with some string, the extension was comfortably on the table. Midge was just plugging the second one into the first, she put it towards the other end of the table. The cable was too long, she went back to the kitchen to get got another piece of string from a drawer there, folded the excess cable back on itself, tied it in two places to keep it neatly folded.

"Looks good."

Tutors and computers

The next morning, the girls were ready by nine, they went into the sitting room to wait. At about quarter to ten the doorbell rang, it was Daniel. "Thought I'd get here early to check on the bedrooms." Kitty led him upstairs, showed him first the twin's room, then the spare room, finally the bathroom. "Do you have any personal effects, photos, mementos, anything like that?" "No, we came out with just what we were wearing. Didn't have anything anyway, the nuns wouldn't let us." "That's how it will have to be, then. Seems okay, can't see anything obviously missing. Just looks a little bare somehow."

They went downstairs again. Just as they reached the hall, the doorbell rang. Kitty opened it, it was the tutors. "Hello again," Kitty said, "please come in." Tom and Fea stepped inside, shook Daniel's hand, and said "Hello, girls." "Hello" from the other three girls.

Straight down to business, Tom asked "Show us where you want to work." Molly led them into the dining room. Fea said "That looks good, there's room for books on the table, and space for us to sit beside any of you should we need to. We'll sort out what books you may need when we get going. Just need some computers."

As if on cue, the doorbell rang, Daniel answered it. "Come in," he said, "in here." The man was carrying a pile of boxes, he was led into the dining room. When he saw the girls, he nearly dropped his pile, but managed to put them on the table. Taking occasional surreptitious looks at the girls, who were just stood watching, he opened the first box. From it he took out a laptop computer, placed it on the table, took out a charger, plugged that in to an extension socket and into the computer. He opened the lid, let the computer start up. "Right" he said, "We need a user name and password." Kitty volunteered first, typed 'Kitty' into the 'New user name' entry, then hesitated.

"Password" he said. Kitty looked at the laptop, "How do I move the cursor? There's no mouse." "Oh, new to computers, are we? Put a finger on that square area below the keys, that's a trackpad. Slide you finger, that'll move the cursor. When it's where you want it, click down on the pad." Kitty did so, "Oh, easy."

"Make sure it's something you won't forget, no way to get any data out of the computer if you do. You can use any printable character, letters, numbers, punctuation marks. If you use letters you must remember the case of each. Type it into both locations."

As Kitty was about to type, Daniel said "Make sure no one can ever see what you type" ‑ the man was watching what Kitty was doing. Kitty made sure she was between him and the keyboard as she typed something into each of the text areas, then moved the cursor over the 'Next' button, clicked. "Done that" she said.

"Oh, you pick up quickly, good. Here, let me …" Kitty immediately backed away. "There are a lot of preferences for how you want the computer to behave, I'll leave those for now. Let's set up the WiFi." He rapidly went into the settings, chose the WiFi window. "Let's see, three show up, the strongest is this one, is it yours?" "Don't know." "Do you know where the router is? It'll be written on that." Midge said "I think it's in Daddy's study." "Show me."

Midge took him into the study, opened a cupboard, "Is that it?" A couple of minutes later, they returned. Midge was smiling, the man was holding his stomach. He managed to say "Found it." He silently selected the appropriate WiFi, typed in its password, opened a browser, checked there was internet connection. He asked "What's your email?" Kitty replied "Haven't got one." That's as far as I can go, then. Let's do the next one." "Let's not" said Midge, quietly. "We'll do the rest ourselves. Goodbye." She started to walk towards him, he turned, he was all but running to the front door, closed it behind him.

Daniel asked "What happened in there?" "He tried to put his hand up my skirt. I put my fist in his stomach. Not very hard, I wanted him to show us how to do the settings we need. He couldn't do that if he was in hospital." Daniel was looking at her, expressionless. Tom and Fea were just staring, the other three girls were grinning. Kitty muttered "I didn't like him to start off with."

Tom closed his mouth, "How could you hurt him like that? He's much bigger than you are." Molly smiled, "Brought up in a rough neighbourhood?" Daniel gave a more serious reply, "The twins are able to defend themselves against anybody. As she said, he's lucky not to be in hospital."

Kitty started unpacking the next computer, she did exactly what the installer did. "Midge?" she asked when it got to the user name. One of the twins came forward, "I'll do it." She typed 'Midge or Molly', having to search the keyboard for each character. She turned to her sister, "Password?" The other twin whispered in her ear, she nodded, turned back to the computer, typed some characters into each box. She pushed the computer round to Kitty, who set up the WiFi, checked a browser window. "Looks good."

Fea asked "How did you know the WiFi password?" "Watched him type it in." "You remembered it?" "Yes, of course"

Fea looked at Tom, "Not sure if these girls are going to be incredibly easy or incredibly difficult." Tom responded "Probably half of each, nothing in between."

Very soon both of the other computers were out of their boxes, Kitty had them set up in no time, with 'Molly or Midge' and 'Chloe' user names, and passwords set up, WiFi established.

Tom told them "You will need email addresses, I think you can get them from Google, use the browser, go to google-dot-co-dot-you-kay." Kitty did so on her laptop, she scanned the page, made some guesses as to where to click, within half a minute she had an account for herself. Daniel said "Go into the computer's settings, look for the email setup, you should be able to …" Kitty was already there, within no time the computer's native email client was operating.

Tom and Fea were sitting down, flabbergasted. "Ten minutes ago she didn't know how to use a trackpad. Now look at her." Daniel: "They are all bright, she's clearly a computer natural."

Kitty repeated the process on the other computers, email names agreed and passwords created with the other girls. "There, all set up. Now what do we do?"

"Can you install Zoom? We like to use it for our remote lessons." Tom was about to suggest how Kitty should set about it, Fea tapped his arm, shook her head. "See what she does."

What she did was to pause for a moment, went to Google, typed 'How do I install zoom' into the search bar. About five minutes later, Zoom was installed. Another few minutes, it was installed on all four, and a Zoom meeting was running between them all.

She looked up, "Is that right?" The adults were all staring at her. "What? Have I done something wrong?" Tom replied "No, on the contrary, it couldn't be better. Are you sure you've not used a computer before?"

"Oh yes, I did look through some photos on one." "And that's it? Just the once?" "And some material patterns a bit earlier."

Tom: "Do you know about folders?" "Not really, I think I heard Derek mention something using the word." "Derek?" asked Tom. Daniel replied "Photographer, took photos of their dresses." "Oh, the one in the town?" "Yes."

Tom: "Go to the library, find a book titled something like 'An idiot's guide to your Mac', anything like that, it'll get you started. You'll pick up everything you need from it, though be aware they update their operating system from time to time, details may be different. I've no doubt you'll be fine, but if you do have any questions I can probably help." He quietly added "Unless you get in too deep for me."

Kitty turned to the twins, "Remind me to take the shopping list pad, I may need to take notes." Tom interrupted, "Move your cursor to the bottom of the screen, the dock will appear, look for 'Notes', you can write things you want to remember there." Kitty went to her laptop, found the Notes, created a new one and typed in the girls' names. "Oh, that's good." Fea then asked Kitty, "How come you know the keyboard? You seem to know where all the letters are, yet you've never used one before." "They're all labelled." Fea shook her head. "Straight in, typing as fast as I can. Incredible."

They sat quietly for a moment, then Rea said "We need to set up a schedule for lessons, we have a proposal that suits us, here …" she delved into the briefcase she'd brought, pulled out a sheet of paper. "Simple enough, an hour a week in person here, an hour the other weekdays by Zoom. It may be one or other of us, maybe both, depending. We can do ten o'clock every day, if that's okay? We will set work for you to learn that should pretty much fill your day. You can always email us with questions, and send homework to us by email. We'll answer questions either by email or in the next scheduled lesson. If you are desperate, you can phone, but we are teaching other pupils, our day is pretty much filled, so only in an emergency please."

The girls looked at each other, all nodded. Kitty: "Yes, that's fine, thank you." Fea, to Daniel, "We normally charge for each term in advance, is that okay?" "Yes, just let me have the invoice, we'll deal with it. I know your rates, that won't be a problem. Oh, could you do three invoices, one for the twins, one each for Kitty and Chloe? Their funds come from different pots." "It'll probably be four, makes our record keeping easier." Daniel nodded, "That's fine".

Tom: "Start Monday, in person here? Pro rata invoices, it's only a partial term. Kitty, we'll be relying on you for all your computers, their housekeeping and so on, is that okay?" Kitty nodded, "Hope so, I'll seek help if I can't do something, I expect I can find someone. Not going to that horrible man who brought them whatever happens." Daniel: "Yes, sorry about that. I'll have a word with the owner, he should know what happened, though there's little point in pursuing it legally." Midge grinned, "Oh, he won't do it again in a hurry. His stomachache will last for quite a while." Tom and Fea looked at her questioningly. She grinned some more, "I know a bit about anatomy, read stuff in the library. Doesn't hurt all that much, but it'll take a while to heal." Daniel smiled, "What you really mean is 'I retaliated instinctively, must have got lucky'." "Well, it was instinctive, just a bit guided."

Tom: "Seriously, are these girls dangerous? I have heard some rumours." Daniel replied, "In all honesty, the twins can be, but only if provoked. I know they will protect Kitty and Chloe as well as themselves, which is one of the reasons I'm happy to leave them all here by themselves." "So," Tom continued, "I may be here on my own with them, have to sit beside them to show them stuff." Midge answered "Nothing to worry about, we know when someone is trying something on. You'll be fine." Molly, her turn to grin, "Unless …" Tom shook his head, but smiled. "Have to risk it."

"Daniel: "Is everyone happy? Are we done?" Tom said "Ah, nearly forgot, they'll need a printer." "Anything in particular?" "A colour inkjet with scanner, I'd suggest one that uses ink bottles rather than cartridges, a little more expensive to buy, but much cheaper to run." "I'll source something. Girls? Happy?" Nods from the four.

Tom: "Okay, we'll be off, see you Monday, ten sharp. Okay?" All four girls followed them into the hall, both tutors get a kiss on the cheek from three of the girls. Kitty shook Tom's hand, said, in a deep husky voice "You'll be safe with me." She laughed, gave Fea a kiss on the cheek. Tom, red in the face, couldn't get out quickly enough. Fea put her hand round Kitty's chin, "You're a naughty girl." Kitty grinned, Fea kissed her on the forehead, followed Tom out.

Kitty goes to the library

Next morning after breakfast, Kitty announced that she was going to the library with her laptop. She had to persuade the other three she'll be all right on her own, the convincing argument being that they'd all be shooed out of the library with their normal noise and behaviour. None could argue with that.

She was gone well into the afternoon, the three decided they'd better go and see that she was all right. They got to the library, went in, giving each other exaggerated 'Shush' noises, which got a despairing look from the librarian at the desk. "Sorry" said Chloe. "Looking for a girl with a computer?" "I've put her in the conference room, she was so involved, got half a dozen books spread out. That door over there."

They went in, Kitty was typing furiously, glancing occasionally at one of the books. Chloe prodded her, she jumped in her chair, turned and saw them. "Oh, hello. What have you come for?" "Do you know what the time is?" Kitty glanced at the menu bar at the top of the screen, "Oh, no wonder I feel hungry. Sorry, got involved. These are so clever."

"Come on, none of us have had lunch, waiting for you." "Okay, I'll pack up, the computer is getting hungry as well, battery's well down. Help me with these books." Kitty typed a little more, saved what she was doing, closed the laptop's lid. She put the computer into the shopping bag, the others took the books out. The librarian said to them, "Just put them down here, I'll put them away." Kitty said "Thank you so much, you've been very helpful." "Pleasure, it's so nice to see a youngster such as yourself so absorbed. Come again, any time. Not so sure about your entourage, though." Kitty grinned, "Just one of them with me would probably be okay, but you're right about three of them." For which she received three prods. "See what I mean?" The librarian laughed, "All right, now go, you're already disturbing the peace."

They left the library, found the fish and chip shop was still serving, took some home.

After they've eaten, Kitty went into the dining room, she plugged her laptop in, sat at it, started delving into its settings. The others brought some tea through, put a mug in front of Kitty. "Thanks" she said, without looking up, then "Look, anything we have on our computers is vulnerable to any sort of failure, we could lose our work. We need backups for each of us. I think I can set us up as a network, each can use another's computer to save the day's work automatically, there's this thing called 'Time Machine'. Can you all get your computers running, I'll see what I can do."

Half an hour later, she'd set the four computers as a network, set up the Time Machine application so that Chloe's and hers used each other's for backing up1, the same with Midge and Molly's. She'd had to ask the girls to type their passwords to enable it, but she got it going. "Oh, it's not just at the end of the day, it's every few minutes during the day, and you can look at where you were days ago, recover work, weeks, even years, depending on how much memory we can use."

She sat back, pleased with herself. Then "Can you all type?" Three nos. "Okay, let me see …" She used Google, looked for something that would help learn touch typing, "Ah, here we are, this looks good. I'll try to install it … Oh. I need an Apple ID. Hmm. Not sure what to do, let's try Google again … ah, here we go … yes … okay … yes. There we are. Let's do it for each of you." She repeated the process with each of them, asking for passwords, she already knew their email addresses. When she'd done she said "Right, you can download things from the App Store so long as they are free, the accounts are set up without a credit card, safer anyway. Many apps need payment, could easily accidentally spend money you don't want to. If we do need something like that, we'll have to sort it."

She downloaded a typing practice utility onto each computer.

Kitty spent the next hour or so showing them all the basic functions, using the trackpad to move the cursor, making selections, scrolling and so on. She downloaded LibreOffice onto each to enable them to create text files and spreadsheets, showed them basic editing functions and how the spreadsheet worked, how to save them into folders and subfolders. She showed them how to email, they sent a few to each other, mostly containing rude comments about the recipient or the other girls.

She finally came to a stop, "I'm worn out."

They all sat back, there'd been a lot to take in, but all were very intelligent, they had got most of it. Midge said "Teatime. Sandwiches?" All agreed, she and Molly went into the kitchen. Kitty was looking at the windows, she said to Chloe "There's a lot of expensive kit in here, anyone could look in and see it." Chloe nodded, "We could shut the curtains all the time, but that would make it dark in here all day." Kitty: "Let's see if the twins have any ideas." Kitty and Chloe went into the sitting room, waited for the twins.

The twins brought two trays through, one had a teapot, milk jug and cups and saucers, the other four plates with sandwiches (some neatly cut, some not). While they were eating, Kitty told the twins of her concern about their laptops on display. Midge's first suggestion was that they should remove them when not in use, Kitty pointed out that they do some of their backing up then, so they still need their network connections. Molly, mouth full, "Alarm." Midge: "Oh, yes, that's one thing, the house is fitted with a burglar alarm." Kitty said "They could break in and have the laptops out in seconds."

Chloe asked "What about some net curtains?" Midge replied "Mummy didn't like them, but that would at least stop the ungodly from seeing what's in the room." Molly, mouth still full, "Tomorrow's job." Midge: "I'll have a look at the alarm, belt and braces. But it's funny, it wasn't set." Kitty asked "Do you think Daniel would know anything about it?" Midge got her phone, rang him, she said "No, nothing wrong." She explained about their concern with the laptops, said they planned to put net curtains up, she asked about the house alarm. She listened, then asked "And the number?" They talked a bit more, Midge said "Goodbye, and thank you." She ended the call.

"It works fine, Daniel had unset it before we first went to the house, didn't want us to set it off by accident. We didn't know the number, Mummy and Daddy changed it and wouldn't tell us because we used to set it off for fun. Just type the number in when we leave, it'll beep for something like thirty seconds, then it's set. It will beep when we come back in through the front or back doors, we have the same time to type the number in, which will unset it. Moving away from the back door, or using any other entrance, a window or anything, it'll go off straight away. We can set it at night if we want, but mustn't go beyond the hall until it's unset in the morning. If we go into any other room it will go off." She told them the number, "Don't forget it."

"Right, rules. Last one upstairs at night sets it, first one down unsets it. If in doubt, there's a light on it that shows it's set, but the light is only on the front door keypad, not on the back door one. We'll try it in a mo. Same with going out, last one out of the house sets it, coming in it'll beep to remind us to unset it. All happy?"

They went into the hall, Midge typed the number into the alarm panel, beeping started. Midge opened the front door "As if we're going out." The beep changed to a double beep. She closed the door again, it was back to a single beep. After a while the beeping stopped, a red light came on. Midge opened the front door, a faster beep started, she typed in the number, it stopped, the red light went out. Chloe asked "Can it be unset straight away if it's set accidentally? Or forgotten something, decide we don't want to go out?" Midge typed in the number, the beeping started, she typed it in again, it stopped. "Yes."

"Time for bed?" asked Molly. All four raced for the stairs, Chloe was last to get there. She went back to the alarm panel, typed in the number, ran to the stairs. She found the other three were in a pile half way up, she clambered over the heap and was first up. She stood on the landing, "Who's the queen of the castle?" The heap untangled itself, Queen Chloe was lifted off her feet, carried into the bedroom, hurled onto the bed so hard she fell off the other side. They were all laughing fit to burst, but in ten minutes they were all toileted, showered, teeth cleaned, and fast asleep.

Attempted computer theft

They were woken by an almighty noise, the house alarm was going off. Midge and Molly were downstairs in an instant, in the dining room were two figures holding laptops, a window behind them was wide open. Molly went for one, Midge the other, each man took a single punch to the breastbone. They both collapsed, totally winded. Kitty and Chloe came in, saw the twins standing over the two, one they recognised as the man who'd brought the laptops the day before. Without taking her eyes off the man she had downed, Midge said, "Kitty, get our dresses." Kitty, pausing just to unset the alarm, raced upstairs, came down with four dresses. She gave one to Chloe, handed one to Midge, she put her own on. When Midge turned back to the men, Kitty handed Molly the fourth. Chloe was already phoning for the police, she said they'd got two potential burglars, could they come, please? She gave them their address.

One of the men tried to get up, Molly stepped forward and chopped down on his collar bone, they heard a crack, he screamed. The other one started to move, Midge said to him "Are you sure you want to try to get up?" The man stopped. "Chloe, can you phone Daniel? I think he should be here." Chloe phoned him, told him what was happening, he said he'd be round straight away.

Daniel arrived about a minute before a police car drew up outside. Chloe opened the door to the police while Daniel was talking with Kitty. Daniel introduced himself to the police, showed them into the dining room. Daniel told them one of the men had brought the computers and had installed them the day before.

The policemen both knew Midge and Molly, one said to the twins "They tried to burgle you? Must have a death wish. Well, it's red handed." Two of the computers were on the floor beside the men.

Daniel started taking photographs with his phone of the men on the floor with the computers, the table with two computers on it, the two disconnected chargers, the open window.

One of the policemen was talking into his radio, when he came off it, he said "Don't touch anything, a detective and forensics will be here in the morning. I'll push the window nearly shut, but I don't want to touch its handle. A van is coming now for these two."

"I need a hospital" the one with the cracked collarbone said. "You can walk to the van, we'll sort out any medical issues at the station. I really can't believe you were stupid enough to mess with these."

"But they're only girls" said the other one. Molly took a step towards him, the policemen touched her arm, "Not while we're here." Molly stopped.

Daniel was phoning Audrey, "No, they're all okay … A couple of idiots wanted what wasn't theirs … Yes, police are here … Yes, I'll stay here, everything's fine, you go back to sleep. Oh, I expect to be a bit late in the morning, could you let any clients know? Apologise to them? … Yes … Love you." He hung up.

Midge went to the policemen, "Could you leave us for a minute? We won't touch them. Just want to say something to them that we don't want you to hear." The policeman smiled, "Come on" he said to his colleague, "We'll just go and check on the front door."

Molly knelt down in front of the men. She quietly said "If we see either of you anywhere near this house, if you are lucky you will get a ride to the hospital in an ambulance. If you are not so lucky, it will be in a hearse to the morgue. Do I make myself clear?" They both nodded. "Do you believe me?" Both nodded again. "Good."

Daniel pretended he hadn't heard. When Molly got up, he went into the hall, nodded to the policemen, they went back into the dining room.

Kitty went into the kitchen, made some tea, brought back a tray with seven mugs, a bowl of sugar and a couple of teaspoons. "Don't put it down in here, we don't want to disturb anything." One of the policemen helped himself to sugar, Kitty took the tray away. All except the two men on the floor sipped tea while they waited for the police van to come. One of the men made as if to get up, Midge went to him, in a very quiet voice she said "Please don't move, I don't want to have to put my tea down." The man stayed where he was.

Eventually the police van arrived, the two men were taken away. One of the two policemen asked if it was all right for them to leave, Daniel said they'd be fine, he was staying anyway. With a request that they didn't touch anything in the dining room, the police left.

They sat in the sitting room for a while, Daniel said he'd sleep on a settee. They offered him the use of the spare room, but he wanted to be downstairs. The girls went upstairs, Midge found a blanket and a pillow, took it down to Daniel, went back upstairs.

In the morning, the girls managed a cooked breakfast for them all. Daniel phoned Audrey, told her that the girls were fine, but he'd wait until the detective and the forensics people had been and gone. She told him what clients he would have seen, one was Ed from the newspaper. Daniel phoned him, gave his apologies, told him why. Ed asked if he could send Isabel round to report on the attempted theft, Daniel asked the girls, they readily agreed, he told Ed it was okay.

Isabel arrived ten minutes later. She asked if she could record their conversation, Daniel said that she could, but they might possibly want some bits not recorded, Isabel nodded. She looked in the dining room, understood nothing should be touched. Daniel asked her to pause the recording, he then asked her not to report that there was more than one computer, or it might increase the temptation to the ungodly. Maybe say a computer, or computer equipment? With her recording again, between them the twins told her that they'd set the alarm, that it had gone off. They'd gone downstairs, found the two men, one of whom had brought the computers to install the day before. They had defended against the men ‑ a phrase Daniel had suggested they use. Molly winked when she said that, Isabel smiled, nodded, but didn't comment. Isabel asked about the police, Midge said they arrived quite quickly, they'd taken the men away, saying there'd be a detective and forensic team in the morning.

As she was saying this, the front doorbell rang, it was a detective sergeant. He introduced himself, his name was Mathew, please call him Mat. He already knew Isabel, she showed him her phone, said that she was recording. He nodded, then asked what had happened. Daniel told him who he was, then Midge told the detective pretty much what they'd told Isabel. He looked in the dining room, asked a few questions, took notes.

The doorbell rang again, two forensic personnel were there, a man and a woman. They came in, had a brief word with Mathew, then asked if anything had been moved or touched in the dining room, Kitty told them that the window had been pushed to by one of the policemen.

The woman asked the girls and Daniel if they would give their fingerprints for elimination purposes. When it came to the twins, they used 'rock, paper, scissors' to decide who was which (it only took five attempts), the forensics lady thought they were just playing with her. When she'd taken them all she joined her colleague working in the dining room.

Kitty asked the detective if they would be taking the laptops away, that they needed them for their schooling, he said it wouldn't be necessary. Daniel showed him the photographs he'd taken, the detective asked him to email them to him, he gave Daniel his email address. The detective said they'd need formal statements from the girls, could they come to the police station, preferably later today? Daniel wanted to be with them, they arranged to go in the evening.

The forensic pair apologised for the fingerprint dust they'd used everywhere, said it would come off easily. They said the dining room was free to be used, then they left.

Mathew suggested they might want to fit locks to the windows, they were too easy for a burglar to open from the outside. Daniel said he would do something about that, he knew a handyman who could fit them.

The detective shook hands with each of them, and he left.

Isobel asked if she could take a photograph of the four girls, she said it would bring some life to what would otherwise be a pretty dull report. Daniel looked at the girls, they all nodded. He said it would be all right, but as they'd agreed before, he would want to see her article first. Isobel said that was okay, she'd email it to him when she'd written it.

Isabel suggested they go outside, the girls should stand either side of the open dining room window. She said their faces wouldn't show up well, they'd be too small in the picture, but it would be a good illustration for her story. They pushed the window open, went outside. The twins stood one side of the open window, Kitty and Chloe the other, arms round waists. Isabel took a couple of photographs, showed them to the girls and to Daniel, they could see nothing to object to.

Isabel first gave the twins a hug, then Kitty and Chloe. She shook Daniel's hand, then she left.

Daniel went in with the girls. First thing he said was that they should check the computers were undamaged. It only took a couple of minutes, they were fine.

He asked how many windows there were downstairs. The four girls raced from room to room, mostly managing to go through doorways without crashing into each other. When they came back, "Thirteen" from Kitty. "Twelve" from Chloe. "Come on, which is it?" from Daniel. Midge said "Sorry, Kitty, only one in the kitchen opens." Kitty promptly punched Chloe on her arm. "What's that for?" "Being right." the two were immediately wrestling on the floor. Daniel totally ignored them, said to the twins that he should be going, so long as they were all right. They both gave him a hug. "Pick you up at quarter to seven." As he closed the front door, the twins dived on top of Kitty and Chloe.

That evening, Daniel drove them to the police station. Several people there recognised them, the twins got commiserations over their parents. They were shown into an interview room, there were four chairs round a table. The girls sat at the table, each with an interview form. Mathew outlined what he wanted, he stood back. While the girls wrote, he and Daniel conversed quietly. After the girls had written their accounts, Daniel read through them before they signed them.

Mathew read through them, nodded, said "Good. Pretty articulate compared with most. Midge, Molly, were you copying each other's?" Both shook their heads. Daniel explained "They think the same as each other all the while, that's why they'll be very similar." "Okay," from Mathew, "thank you, we'll let you know of any developments." Daniel asked what happened to the two men, "Oh, they're out on bail. I thought they were going to ask for protective custody. I told them if they didn't trouble the girls, the girls wouldn't trouble them. I hope I'm right." He looked at the twins. "I've heard a lot of rumours about you two. Hard to believe some of them, but you did down those two men." Midge and Molly glanced at each other, Midge: "We won't touch them unless we feel threatened." Molly added "Then all bets are off."

"All right then ladies, thank you."

They said their goodbyes.

Daniel asked if they'd had their tea, they hadn't. "Would you like to come round to ours again, nothing formal, Audrey would like it, she worries about you." The girls agreed, they went to Daniel's house. Audrey greeted them with the usual hugs, asked if they were all right, they assured her they were.

Not wanting to spring a surprise on the twins, she told them she had cooked a shepherd's pie, "Another of your mother's recipes." The twins just smiled, then Molly said "It'll be a nice change from Kitty's cooking." Kitty was about to attack her, Chloe held her back, "Not now, not here, wait until we get home."

Audrey asked "Can't you ever behave?" Daniel muttered "I hope they never do."

They spent a couple of hours there, listening as Daniel and Audrey reminisced about things the two families had done together, mostly before the twins were born. Nobody said that, once the twins were there, they made such get‑togethers almost impossible, though they did share a few Christmases.

"You never wanted dolls, did you?" "We each had our sister" said one. "Best doll you could wish for" from the other. Chloe asked "Does that make you dolly‑girls?" Midge's reply was "You're in for it as well when we get home."

Even Audrey laughed, then to Daniel "I agree with you, I hope they never behave."

The girls thanked Audrey for the lovely meal, "Well up to standard." The usual hugs. Daniel said he'd walk them home. They were about to protest, he gave a slight shake of his head. When Audrey closed the door behind them, he said "She insisted, she worries about you. Personally, I'm quite sure that if we were attacked you'd be defending me."

They reached the house, opened the door, unset the alarm, Daniel said his goodbyes on the doorstep. As he turned away, he heard a scuffle breaking out, he was grinning to himself as he walked away. Inside, Kitty had gone for Molly, got her on the floor, trying to beat her with her fists. Moments later, Midge was doing the same to Chloe. Both pairs soon ended up hugging each other, then kissing. Upstairs, a communal shower, then bed. They fell asleep in a tangled heap.

The next day they woke up late, had a leisurely breakfast, spent a little time practising typing.

About ten, the doorbell rang. Molly went to the door, it was the delivery of two cardboard boxes, the larger had a picture of a printer on it. She thanked the delivery man, shut the door. She yelled "Come on, Kitty, job for you." Kitty walked into the hall, saw the boxes, this got her enthusiastic. Between them they unpacked the printer box in the hall, Molly just ripping the cardboard box, Kitty desperately trying to make sure Molly didn't damage the contents or lose any paperwork. The others had come to watch, Midge said "I'd better carry it. Molly will bash it into the doorframe." Molly gave her a pouting look, but said "You know me so well."

Kitty asked "Where are we going to put it?" Midge said "Sideboard, but we need to protect it." Molly went to the sideboard, looked through a couple of drawers, "Here we are!" She was holding placemats that were the same material as the tablecloth they had on the table. She moved a couple of ornaments along from the end of the sideboard, put two mats down. "That should be all right."

Midge picked up the printer, placed it on the mats. Kitty said "Just hold it sideways a bit, mains lead goes in the back." She'd brought the lead she'd rescued from Molly's unpacking, she plugged it into the printer, Midge lifted the printer, turned it square on.

Kitty asked "Is there a mains socket down there?" Molly went to one end of the sideboard, Midge to the other, they lifted it and moved it away from the wall. Molly dropped flat on her front, "Socket here." Kitty dropped the plug end of the lead behind the sideboard, Molly grovelled around a bit, "Plugged in, switched on." The twins moved the sideboard back against the wall.

Kitty told them "Now go away, let me see if I can sort this." Of course, the other three stayed right with Kitty. Chloe held up a leaflet, "Will this help? It says 'Start here' on it." "Perfect" from Kitty. She opened the sheet out, read it through. She removed some packaging from the printer, filled each of the ink reservoirs from the pack of ink bottles, turned the printer on, went through its various setup procedures using an app that she downloaded onto her phone. "Is the other box paper?" she asked. Midge went to it, opened it, passed Kitty a ream of paper. Kitty unwrapped it, put some in the printer's feed tray, then continued the setup, resulting in a couple of test pages being printed.

She went to her computer, found a short email from Chloe. She told it to print. A dialogue window came up, she scanned it, saw it had found the printer, all other settings seemed right. She selected 'Print'. A few seconds later, the printer had put out a sheet of paper with Chloe's rude email on it. "No built‑in censorship" muttered Kitty. The paper was hanging out of the front, Kitty slid out its support tray.

Kitty goes to the library again

She told the other three to try to print, they all managed it without any problem. Each had printed something rude from another, several punches were thrown, unusually, Kitty kept out of it. It was nearly twelve, she said she wanted to go to the library. As she was about to leave, Chloe asked "Don't you want to take your laptop?" Kitty, looking a little sheepish, "That's not why I want to go." Immediately the other three were interrogating her, eventually she said that she'd seen a boy there, he came out of school at lunchtimes, went to the library. A bit more questioning, "We were reaching for the same book, he let me have it. He was nice."

"What's his name?" "What's he like?" "How old is he?" "Where does he live?"

"Please, can I go? I might miss him." Kitty set off at a run.

A little over an hour later she returned, she was smiling, had something of a far‑away look in her eyes.

The three almost set upon her for information, eventually she held up her hands, "Please. I'll tell you."

She told them that he's called Red, he has an unruly mop of ginger hair. He's seventeen, in the lower sixth form. He wears glasses, he's called a nerd by others in the school. He's into computers, maths, science in general. Lives with his mother, father not mentioned. "And I'm going to the park with him tomorrow" ‑ tomorrow was Saturday. "Now, can I go and freshen up?"

They let her go upstairs.

The three want into the kitchen to make some lunch, they made their own version of spaghetti bolognaise, in twenty minutes it was ready. "Where's Kitty?" "Not come down yet." All three left the food, ran up the stairs. They found Kitty in the spare room, sat at the dressing table. Her hair was laid over her shoulder, reaching halfway down her front. She was slowly brushing it, even though it was brushed through perfectly.

"What are you doing?" "Why are you in the spare bedroom?" "How long have you been brushing your hair?" "Dinner's getting cold."

"Oh, sorry, just thinking." Then "I'm hungry." Chloe muttered "Not sure it's dinner she's hungry for." Unusually, Kitty didn't hit Chloe, she just put the hairbrush down, went slowly downstairs. The other three ran down past her, by the time she'd reached the kitchen their dinners were on plates on the table.

Kitty was very slow eating, usually all four of them would wolf their food down. The others finished theirs as usual, then just sat and watched her, making faces at each other. Kitty never looked up. When they'd finished eating, Midge and Molly made some tea, Chloe took Kitty by the hand and led her into the sitting room.

Kitty drank her tea mechanically, after which she got up, went out of the room. The others waited ten minutes, went to find Kitty. She was in the dining room, she'd got up a new email message window, she was just staring at it. When she noticed them, she said "Don't know what to write. Don't even know his email address" She cancelled the window, went back with them into the sitting room. Chloe sat beside her, just held her hand.

Shortly after, the front doorbell rang. It was Daniel's handyman come to fit some window locks. Midge showed him all the windows, let him get on with it, she went back to the others. It didn't take the man long, he came back to them, said "All done." Midge stood up, he handed her the keys. "All the same. Don't leave any in view from the window, your thief could just break the glass to reach one, unlock the window. And Daniel said I would probably find you tricky, but not at all, he was wrong." Midge showed him out, saying "We aren't ourselves at the moment, maybe next time. Thank you." "Okay, 'Bye." Midge closed the door behind him, went back to the others.

They stayed like this, Chloe, Midge and Molly chatting about all sorts, Kitty leant back, her eyes closed. When tea‑time came, once again the twins made some sandwiches while Chloe stayed with Kitty. Another couple of hours later, Kitty announced she was having an early night, she went upstairs.

The three smiled to each other, one of them just said "She's got it bad."

When the three went up to bed, they found their bedroom was empty. They went to the spare room, Kitty was lying on the bed, she'd clearly showered. Her eyes were closed,. Chloe touched her, Kitty opened her eyes, "Come back with us" from Chloe. Kitty smiled, she followed Chloe to the communal bed. When the three were finished in the bathroom, they got in with Kitty. After a while, all four of them just went to sleep.

In the morning, Kitty seemed much brighter. They got dressed, went down for breakfast, Kitty and Chloe cooked it. When they'd eaten, Kitty insisted on doing the washing up, the others dried and put away. Afterwards Kitty went upstairs, she showered, washed her hair thoroughly, dried herself, sat at the dressing table and once again spent a long time brushing her hair.

She put on a clean dress, looked over herself in the wardrobe mirror, went downstairs, joined the others in the sitting room. "What time are you meeting him?" "About ten, I'll go soon." She was looking at the mantlepiece clock.

Kitty and Red in the park

At quarter to ten, Kitty stood up, looked down at herself, smoothed her dress. "I'm off." "Do you want anyone with you?" "No, thank you, I'd rather be on my own." "Got your phone?" Kitty tapped it where it was in its belt holster. "Don't know when I'll be back." "Go on, see what happens." "Enjoy yourself." "Good luck."

Kitty went out.

The three went into the dining room, did typing exercises and practised using various utilities and applications.

About two hours tater, Midge's phone rang, its display said 'Kitty'. Midge said "Hello?", she listened for two seconds, then "Coming." To the other two, "Park, now."

Midge and Molly were out of the front door in a flash, Chloe stopped to set the alarm, then ran after the twins, they were disappearing into the distance. When the twins reached the park, there was no sign of Kitty, they ran to where several paths converged, looked along each, no sign. A lady was walking with a pushchair, Midge stopped her, "Have you seen a girl and a boy, he has red hair?" "Why yes" she said, "Lovely young couple." Molly almost shouted, "Which way?" The lady, somewhat taken aback, pointed to one of the paths, "I saw them down there." The twins were off before she'd finished. By the time Chloe reached the lady, there was no sign of the twins. Chloe asked the same lady "Have you seen …" The lady pointed down the path. As she hared off after the twins, Chloe shouted back to her "Sorry, thank you, important, in trouble."

The twins came to another junction, nobody in sight, they stopped. Molly yelled "Kitty." There may have been a muffled sound. Chloe at last caught the twins up, she rang Kitty's phone, they could just hear it, they ran off into the direction of the ringing. They ran alongside a lake, through a few trees to a grassy area. On the ground they could see a man lying there, three figures standing over him, they were kicking him. A little way away was Kitty, a man groping her, trying to kiss her.

Without pausing, Molly ran to the three over the body, Midge towards Kitty. Molly leapt as she approached the three, twisted her body sideways, caught all three at chest level. None of them fell, she simply wasn't heavy enough to do anything other them knock them back. She landed on her feet, looked at them, she said "Back off." One of them laughed, "Or what?" Molly rapidly took a pace towards him, punched him, she stepped back as he sank to the ground, clutching his stomach. "Next?" she asked.

Midge reached the man with Kitty, dodged behind him, put her arm round his neck, choking him. He tried to pull her arm away, couldn't, tried to swing round to dislodge her grip. She lifted her feet off the ground, put her legs round him, he couldn't do anything. She moved her arm to a sleeper hold, cutting off blood to his brain, he started to sag. Chloe, just arrived, called out to her, "Let go, you mustn't kill him." Midge, somewhat reluctantly, did so, she placed a hand on his forehead, two seconds later he was unconscious.

Meanwhile a second one charged Molly, fists clenched. She stood her ground, waited until the last moment, used her arms to parry his fists to go either side of her, he also got a punch in the stomach, he too went down.

The third pulled a knife. Molly, smiling, said "You could get hurt playing with that." He ran at her, she sidestepped, grabbed his arm, forced it back so the point of the knife was at his throat. Midge, by this time watching Molly, called out "Probably better to let him live." Molly said, very quietly, "My sister just saved your life." She forced the point of the knife to the skin next to his Adam's apple, she nicked it with the point of the knife, just enough to make it bleed.

Midge came over, she quietly said into his ear, "This man is a friend of our friend. That makes him our friend. We don't let our friends get hurt." Molly told him "Slowly let go of the knife, I will do the same. It will fall. Before it reaches the ground you'd better be on your way."

He complied. Holding his neck wound, he ran a little way, turned, "Who are you?" "Your worst nightmare." He ran.

The two on the ground that Molly had downed were recovering. Molly said to them "Pick up your sleepy friend, he will probably come round in a bit, though frankly I don't care if he doesn't."

After she'd said that, they and the sleepy one were totally ignored.

Midge had gone back to Kitty, she was standing there, shaking like a leaf, the top few buttons of her dress were undone. "They came up to us, tried to get to me, Red went to stop them, they hit him, he went down. That one started on me, I can't defend myself like you can."

Chloe had been looking on, she went to the young man on the ground, he was groaning, clutching his ribs at one side. Chloe knelt down beside him, "How bad?" "It hurts." "Do you think you could walk?" "Give me a minute."

Kitty was recovering her composure a bit, she went to Red. It was her turn to kneel down. She kissed his forehead, he looked up at her, "For that I can run." All four girls laughed, Chloe said "He'll do."

With Kitty doing most of the work, they managed to sit Red up, then got him onto his feet, he was still clutching his ribs on one side, obviously in considerable pain. "My glasses" he said. "Got knocked off me." They found them, undamaged, a few feet away, he put them on.

Kitty asked the twins, "Do you think you can help him?" "Probably. Have to get him home, though." Kitty by this time had got Red's free arm round her shoulders, his other still clutching his ribs. Chloe asked Kitty "Have you got your phone?" "No, they threw it away." Chloe rang it, they found it several yards away, hidden in some long grass. Chloe also picked up the knife.

They made their way back along the path, very slowly at first, but Red was finding it a bit easier as they moved. As they passed the lake, Chloe threw the knife as far as she could into it. They got to the park exit, Kitty asked if they could stop for a moment, give her a breather. Midge asked "Would you like one of us to take over?" "No, please, I want to do this." After a minute or so they continued, Red having to lean less on Kitty as they went. With a couple more stops for Kitty and Red, they reached the house, Chloe unset the alarm.

"Take him into the sitting room." Kitty told him to sit in the middle of a settee, she helped him by sitting down with him. Kitty gently took Red's arm from round her shoulders, he looked at her questioningly. She said "You know I told you my friends are remarkable? We're hoping they can demonstrate at least some of that. Let them sit either side of you, just do what they ask." He said "I saw them hurting those men, am I safe?"

Midge answered him. "If you try to hurt one of us, you are definitely not safe. Other than that, you should be fine. Now, I'm going to sit one side, my sister will sit the other. Show me where it's hurting." He undid his shirt and pointed to an area right on his side, it was discolouring quite badly. She very gently laid her hand over the bruised area for a few seconds. "Definitely a couple cracked. Can't do it here. Kitty, take him upstairs, get him on the bed in the spare room. Did I just say that?" All five laughed, but Red's quickly became a yelp. "Lay him on his good side in the middle of the bed, you know how we need him."

Kitty sat beside him, he put his arm round her again, they stood up. Kitty helped him up the stairs. When they got to the top he asked if he could use the toilet. She showed him to the family bathroom, "Can you manage or do you need help?" "I think I'd better manage." He took his arm from Kitty. Leaning heavily on the doorframe, he went inside, closed the door. Two minutes later, the toilet flushed, there was the sound of water running in the sink. He opened the door, said "Used the towel in there, hope that was all right."

Leaning on Kitty, she took him into the spare room. "Let's get your shirt off." He looked at her, she said, "No, not for that." Then, silently to herself, 'Not yet. Maybe later.' She helped him with his shirt, told him how to lie, he did so. Midge and Molly came in, climbed one either side, they told Red to just relax, and to let them put their hands over his bruising. They lay on their sides either side of him, interlocked their fingers over him, very gently put their combined hands onto his bruise. An initial jerk from him, but within a few seconds he was asleep, the twins appeared to be asleep as well.

Kitty watched for a few minutes, then went down to Chloe. Chloe asked her, "Did he hurt you?" "Not really, he wanted to get my dress off, luckily you came in time. Just a bit shaken." "Like some coffee? They'll be up there for a while."

Around three quarters of an hour later, Red came down, he went into the sitting room. Kitty got up, wrapped her arms round him, gave him a full kiss on his mouth. When she released him, he stepped back, "I didn't expect that, it was nice." Chloe asked him "How do you feel?" He answered "I know it happened, but it's just a background niggle. What did they do? Are they all right, they seemed to have collapsed. They said they'd done all they could for now, they wanted to sleep."

Kitty said "We don't know what they do. If anyone asks, they haven't done anything. But it takes it out of them, they'll be fine in a while." She looked at Chloe, "Do you think you could go and check up on them?" Chloe got the hint, "Yes, okay." She left the two sitting down on the settee.

Chloe went upstairs, the twins were holding hands, apparently asleep. Chloe put a sheet over them, went downstairs into the dining room, started practising typing on her computer.

About half an hour later the twins came down. Chloe heard them laughing as they reached the hall, she came out, said "They've been alone since Red came down." The three peered into the sitting room, Kitty was sat on Red's lap, her arms round his neck, she seemed to be teasing him by giving him little kisses on his mouth. He had his arms clasped round her, trying to talk to her, but kept getting stopped by Kitty's kisses.

Chloe cleared her throat. Red immediately tried to get Kitty off, she just clung on, laughing at him. "They don't mind" she said. But he continued to try to release himself, "All right." She got off sat beside him. He immediately used his hands to cover his lap, all four girls were now laughing at him. "Stop it" he said, almost crying with embarrassment. They stopped. "It's all right" said Kitty, "We know how boys work." Red quietly said "But I don't know how girls work, they don't seem to like me." Kitty: "Well, I like you. And I think I am a girl." She put a hand on her breast, "At least, I was the last time I checked." She took her hand off, grabbed his hand, pressed it on her breast. "Oh, god" he said. "This can't be happening."

Kitty released his hand, he promptly put it back over his lap. "Look" he said "I'd better be going, my mum gets home soon, we eat tea together. She'll be very worried if I'm not there." "Does she work on Saturdays?" asked Kitty. "Yes, she works at the supermarket, she'll be back there after tea. She works as much time as they'll let her, things are a bit tight at home." Kitty: "You'd best be off, then. Do you want to come round here tomorrow?" He looked at the three girls by the door, all her grinning. "Can I?" The three nodded vigorously, then Kitty said, in a deep husky voice, "I want to show you my …" she paused, Red's face went the colour of his name, Kitty continued "… computer."

Red hit her with the palm of his hand on her shoulder, immediately pulled his hand back, "Oh, god, sorry, I didn't mean …" Kitty stopped his talking by kissing him on his mouth. She sat back again, said "I would be very disappointed if you didn't hit me when I deserved it, and I deserved it then. Oh, these three hit me even when I don't deserve it."

Immediately 'these three' set upon Kitty, pushed her to the floor, started wrestling. Red stood up, almost ran to the door, "I'll be round." The girls heard the front door close.

The next morning, as they were drying after their shower, Midge asked "Do you think he'll come round?" Molly answered "He said he would." "But you never know with boys." This normal spoken conversation between the twins meant they were really teasing Kitty, but she didn't seem to notice. Chloe asked Kitty "What time do you think he'll come?" Kitty said that she didn't know, he hadn't said. "We'd better dress to go down."

Red's visit

They were still drinking their breakfast tea when the doorbell rang. Kitty rushed to answer it. Two minutes later, the other three walked into the hall to find the front door still open, Kitty had wrapped herself round Red, her mouth firmly over his. "Let the poor man breathe" said Midge.

Kitty led him into the kitchen, "We're still drinking tea, would you like some?" Red nodded, "Yes, please." "I'll make a fresh pot" from Chloe, she put the kettle on.

Kitty said to Red, "Look, I know these three. They won't rest until they've asked you questions. Yes, they're being nosey, but they don't want anyone to get hurt." Red managed a grin, "I'm an open book, fire away."

"Is 'Red' your real name?" "No, it's Reginald, I hate it."

"Where do you live?" "My mum has a house the other side of town, only a two‑up, two‑down terrace. Nothing like as nice as this."

"Do you have a dad?" "No, he left us years ago, I hardly remember him."

"Do you have a computer at home?" "No, can't afford one. I have a tablet, cheapest second‑hand one we could find. I had to have something for school."

"Any brothers or sisters?" "No."

"When's your birthday?" "Two months' time, the seventeenth, I'll be eighteen."

"Do you have a girlfriend?" "I'm hoping so", looking at Kitty.

"Do you have a boyfriend?" "No, not my thing."

"Have you had a girlfriend before?" "No, girls don't like me."

"What sort of music do you like?" "Mostly classical, though I do listen to some pop and some jazz."

"Can you drive?" "No, never had the opportunity."

"Are you religious?" "No, it's all mumbo‑jumbo as far as I am concerned. Hope that doesn't upset you?"

"Of course not."

The questions continued thick and fast, one or two he wouldn't answer.

After a bit he said, "Hey, stop, I'm thirsty." Kitty added "I think you've grilled him quite enough. Pour the man his tea."

They sipped in silence for a moment, then Red said "Can I ask you some questions?" Kitty replied "Sounds fair. No one here will tell you anything that isn't true, but there are some questions we won't answer."

"How come you are all living together without a grown‑up?" Kitty: "Oh, starting with the easy ones. Not." Midge: "You've heard about our parents?" "Yes, I'm so sorry, don't know what I'd do if I lost my mum." Midge continued, "Well, we were living in the convent school, Mummy and Daddy couldn't look after us, doesn't matter why. We were allowed out for the funeral, but we wouldn't leave these two behind if we weren't there, they are our best friends, they would get hurt instead of us." Red frowned, "What do you mean, 'hurt'?" Molly said "Midge and I were always naughty, the nuns would punish us. Not going to say how. They'd take it out on Kitty and Chloe if we weren't there."

Red looked at them, "I have heard rumours about that place, I know someone whose sister went there for a while, drove her to a breakdown."

Chloe took it up. "These two told their parents' friend, Daniel, that they wanted us out, that they wouldn't come to their own parents' funeral if we were left there." Both she and Kitty had tears in their eyes. "And they meant it."

Midge continued "He's a solicitor, we told him a little of what happened in the school. He managed to get these two out for us."

Red just looked at them. Kitty continued "Anyway, we're out now, we don't have to go back. As for why there's no adult, legally sixteen‑year‑olds can live without an adult, though one needs to be responsible for them. Chloe and I are under council care, Daniel persuaded them he'd be responsible. He already is the twin's legal guardian." Midge corrected her "Or will be when the legal processes have been gone through."

Red then asked, "Look, I know this is none of my business, but are you more than just friends?" Kitty answered immediately. "Yes. You need to know that if you and I are going to continue to be friends. But you mustn't be jealous." "No" said Chloe, "You might be able to take advantage of it." Molly: "We all like boys as well as girls." Midge: "But we don't want anyone hurt." Kitty: "You'll have to take us as you find us."

Red: "Wow. You lot are different from anything I've ever heard about. Can I ask about something completely different? You twins, how come you are so extraordinary? You fight like I don't know what. You seem to be able to help people who are hurt, you really helped me. My ribs, you said they were cracked, what was so excruciatingly painful now feels like a bit of a bruise."

Midge said "The fighting? We read about martial arts in books. Seems to work. As for the other, we don't know. Maybe we just instil good thoughts, then you do it to yourself." Molly: "But please, nothing happened."

Red then said, "Look, I know this must be painful, but I heard a rumour that you hurt each other at the funeral, is that true? Why would you?" Kitty immediately said "No, you can't ask that." Molly and Midge glanced at each other, Midge said "No, it's all right, everyone there saw it." Molly continued "Every so often, when something traumatic happens, we can, and we do, do things to each other." Midge: "It can be pretty awful."

Chloe: "Can I tell him?" When both twins nodded, "I once found them in a pool of their own blood. It seems they were taking it in turns to throw a knife into each other." Chloe stared to cry, Midge put her arms round her, said "She saved our lives that day." Molly added "And got punished by the nuns for doing so."

Red went silent, shook his head, then after a bit "But you so obviously love each other, how could you?" Midge said "That's something we don't have an answer for. We also sometimes do hurt each other out of pure affection, much more than the love slap you gave Kitty, though only once or twice has it been life threatening. Sounds odd. Can't explain it."

All went quiet for a little while, then Red said "Another question?" Four nods. "Kitty, can you show me your …" he paused for a second "… computer?" Kitty punched him on the shoulder. Chloe, Midge and Molly each gave him a kiss on his mouth, Kitty grabbed his hand, yanked him up and round into the dining room. Once again from Chloe, "He'll do."

The three cleared away the breakfast things, then wandered into the dining room.

Kitty was sat at her computer, Red was on a chair tight up to Kitty. Kitty was typing, Red was pointing to something on the screen. Chloe said, quite loudly, "That's not how dates usually work." Kitty jumped up, punched Chloe's chest, went back to her chair. Chloe went forward, grabbed Kitty's chair, tipped it so its back was on the floor, Kitty's arms flailing as she fell backwards. She got up, punched Chloe again, they were immediately on the floor, at it hammer and tongs. Red asked the twins, "Aren't you going to stop them?" "No" said Midge. "We're going to join them" from Molly. The twins jumped on top of Kitty and Chloe, just adding to the wrestling.

Red tried to pull Kitty out of the writhing heap, all of a sudden he found himself at the bottom of it. Then there was only Kitty on top of him. A short while later she pulled herself off him. She stayed kneeling upright over him.

He lay for a moment, staring at her, then said "That was … that was …" Kitty asked "Awesome?" "Oh, god, totally."

Applause broke out, he looked round to see three girls stood watching, clapping. He rapidly pulled himself from under Kitty, stood up, straightening his clothing. Kitty, her dress still wide open, stood up in front of him. She took both his hands, cupped one over each of her breasts, pulled him to her, trapping his hands there. She gave him a long kiss, then whispered in his ear, "There's more where that came from." She let him go.

He looked down at her, "Please do your dress up, it's … it's …" Nice?" suggested Kitty. "Yes, but it's embarrassing me." Chloe stepped forward, said "I think it's lovely." Staring straight at Red, she started rubbing her hand over Kitty. Red gasped, ran out of the dining room towards the front door. Before he could open it, Midge reached him. She said "We really don't want you to go, they'll behave." He said "I've just never seen anything like it, I didn't think girls …" he didn't know what to say. "Like having fun?" suggested Midge. "That's one way to put it." Midge took his hand, led him back into the dining room. The three girls were sat at their computers, apparently doing typing exercises. All dresses were fully buttoned.

"Come on," said Midge, "let's have some coffee." Midge, still holding Red's hand, led him into the sitting room, made him sit in the middle of one of the settees, she sat beside him. Kitty, following them in, sat on his other side. Midge asked "How do you like your coffee?" "Just black, please." Midge shouted "Black, no sugar." An 'Okay' could be heard from the kitchen, half a minute later Molly came in, followed by Chloe carrying a tray. Molly unloaded five mugs onto the coffee table, "All the same" she said. Chloe leant the empty tray against the end of the settee.

Molly and Chloe sat on the other settee. Chloe asked Midge "Are you staying there?" Midge replied "I think he feels safer than on his own with Kitty." Molly: "He doesn't know you very well, does he?"

Red: "Please don't start again."

They drank their coffee in silence, Red just staring at his. All four girls were smiling.

After a few minutes, Red's gaze moved to Kitty's knees, and the bit of thigh that was showing through the front of her dress below the bottom button. Without thinking, his hand moved onto her thigh. After several seconds he realised what he had done, he pulled his hand back, said "Oh, god, sorry, I didn't …" Midge put her finger over his mouth, "If a girl wants you to stop, she'll tell you. Kitty didn't tell you."

"Look" he said, "I think I'd better be going. I feel totally out of my depth, I think I need time to recover." Kitty stood up, took his hand, stood him up. "I suppose we can be a bit much at times. Will you come again?" "Yes, I'd like that, could I email you?" Kitty grinned, "Of course. Let me have your email address, I'll send you one, then you'll have mine."

She led him into the dining room, opened her computer's contacts, he typed his name, email, home address and telephone number, "Only to be used in emergency until mum knows you." Kitty didn't comment about his mother knowing her. She did ask "Do you have a mobile phone?" "No, it got stolen, can't afford to replace it." "Do you know who stole it?" "Yes, same ones as in the park, they're in the upper sixth. One of them's still got it, he shows it to me just to upset me. He can't use it, it's securely locked." "Which one?" "The one who went for you." Kitty didn't comment.

Red asked "Will you be coming to the library tomorrow?" Kitty said "I don't think so, we're getting our first lesson in the morning, I'll probably be too involved." Red looked disappointed, said "Oh, well, another time."

Red opened the front door, gave Kitty a quick kiss on her lips, turned and ran off.

Kitty watched him go, closed the front door. Still facing the door, she asked "Did you hear?" Molly replied,"Of course we did." Kitty turned to the three, then "Can we do anything to get his phone back for him?" Midge and Molly glanced at each other, "Plan already underway." Kitty smiled, nodding her thanks.

Kitty went into the dining room, sent an email to Red with the house address, her phone number, also the email addresses and phone numbers of the other three. She had to put 'Midge or 'Molly' and 'Molly or Midge' for the names of the two twins.

While she was there, she worked out how to bring up her emails on her mobile phone, she called the others in, set theirs up as well.

They spent a little more time on their computers, familiarising themselves with their functions, Kitty was asked lots of questions, most she could answer straight away, some she had to investigate first.

That evening, they went to bed early, fell asleep holding hands.

First lesson with tutors

Five to ten in the morning, the doorbell rang, Fea and Tom were there. They were shown into the dining room.

Tom and Fea worked with the four, showed them some GCSE exam papers, gave each of them different subject papers, watched as the four attempted the questions. After forty minutes or so, they called a halt.

Tom summed up what they had done, "You all have holes in what is required, but mostly you are way ahead. In the papers you have tried, you'd all easily get 'C' grades, mostly above, even with those holes. We will check you each on other subjects. We'll email papers in all subjects to you, we'd like you to try them over the next week. It's throwing you in at the deep end, but we think you'll swim just fine."

Fea added "Don't worry if you can't answer any of the questions, just write 'Don't know' or whatever, so we know what you need to learn, email the papers back. We'll Zoom you at ten each day, talk over difficulties, start teaching where you need it. Happy?" Four nods.

They talked some more, at the end of their hour, Tom and Fea said their goodbyes and left.

The girls made themselves coffee, talked over their papers.

At about quarter to twelve, Midge and Molly said they'd got an errand to run, they'd be back within the hour. As they closed the front door, Chloe asked Kitty, "Red's phone?" "I expect so." "Will they be all right?" "The twins?" "No, those boys." "I hope not."

"Let's get some lunch ready for when they come back, I'd guess about half past twelve."

The twins came in a few minutes after half past twelve. They went into the kitchen, Chloe asked "Everything all right?" Both twins just nodded. "Come on," said Kitty, "Tell us what happened." Midge: "That smells delicious." Molly: "Hungry. Tell when ready."

Kitty put some spaghetti on four plates, then some mince that had been cooked with vegetables. Chloe grated some cheese over them, they sat round the kitchen table.

Midge and Molly started eating, then Molly, her mouth full and with spaghetti trailing from it, said "He didn't like his balls being squeezed." She sucked in the spaghetti, grinned. Midge: "We sneaked in through the gates when someone came out." Molly: "The four were in the playground, looked like" "they were tormenting" "some poor kid." "I tapped one on the shoulder." "Said 'Hello again'." "Thought he was going to faint." "Showed him my fist." "Kitty's playmate said 'What do you want?'" "Said 'Give Red back his phone, tell him you're sorry'." "He said 'What are you going to do about it? You can't hit me here'." "She said 'Could, but I'd rather do this.' Grabbed him" "by his testicles." "Should have seen his face." "I didn't, watching the other three in case they wanted to play." "Let go of him, he took the phone out of his pocket." "Wanted to give it to us." "Grabbed him again." "He howled." "Well, did squeeze a bit harder." "Let go again." "Crowd of kids round, some laughing." "Red was at the back of the crowd." "Told the boy, 'Red's there, do it'." "He pushed through the crowd." "He gave Red his phone, I said 'Tell him you're sorry'." "But he only whispered to him." "'Louder, we all want to hear'." "He said 'I'm sorry' quite loudly, more in the crowd were laughing." "Said to him 'You're not going to bully" "him or any of his friends" "are you?" "He muttered 'no'." "Said to him 'Louder, so everyone can hear'." "He said the full bit, 'I'm not going to bully Red or his friends ever again'."

"We left, kids all laughing." "Red was open mouthed." "Seems to do a lot of that." "Particularly around Kitty."

Kitty got up, went round to the two twins, gave each of them a kiss (in Molly's case through spaghetti). "Thank you both." Then she punched them both. "What's that for?" "The open mouthed comment." The twins both fell off their chairs, pulled Kitty down onto the floor. They started rolling around, half fighting, half hugging. Chloe carried on eating, smiling at them. After a couple of minutes, the three got up, sat back on their chairs, finished their dinners, barely able to stop themselves laughing.

They spent the rest of the day doing their schoolwork, emailed their papers when they'd done. Sandwiches for tea.

Red's mother visits

About six o'clock, as they were just clearing away, Kitty's phone pinged. She looked at it, it was an email from Red, could he bring his mother round? She showed the others the email, Chloe said "His mum must have guessed, he was a bit dreamily excited."

"Is it okay?" Kitty asked, the other three nodded. "I'm a bit worried, what if she doesn't like me?" Chloe answered, "Look, even I like you, so how could she possibly not?" Kitty wasn't sure whether that was an insult or not, but she hit Chloe anyway. For once, Chloe didn't hit her back, she just said "Send the email." Kitty did so.

Half an hour later, the doorbell rang. Kitty didn't budge from the settee, so Chloe went to the door, opened it, Red came in with his mother. Mother said "Is this …?" "No," said Red, "this is Chloe." Then Chloe said "I know you, you were at the checkout when we borrowed a trolley." His mother smiled, "Oh, yes, I recognise you now." Then, "Come on, Red, I want to meet Kitty."

Chloe led them into the sitting room, Kitty stood up. Red went to her, gave her a peck on the cheek. He said "This is Kitty, Kitty this is my mum." Kitty was feeling very shy, she didn't say anything. Chloe said "We usually can't shut her up. Oh, what should we call you? 'Red's mum' doesn't quite feel right." Red's mum laughed, "Call me Jess, short for Jessica. Now, introduce me to these other two lovelies." Red said "This is Molly, or it might be Midge, this is Midge or it might be Molly. I can't tell them apart, and I'm sure they swap names sometimes." The twins, in turn, shook Jessica's hand, gave a little curtsey. Jessica looked from one to the other, "Yes, you really are identical."

Midge asked "Shall we sit down?" Red took the initiative, he led Jessica to one of the settees. She sat down, patted the seat beside her, "Come on Kitty, sit here. I want to get to know you." Kitty did so. "Now, Red's told me a little, says you are beautiful. I can't argue with him over that." Kitty went a little red in the face. Jessica looked round, "Actually, they all are, why did he choose you?" Kitty managed to blurt out "Guess I was the lucky one. Red, squeeze in beside me." Red sat down, held Kitty's hand.

Chloe asked "Would you like some tea?" "Oh, yes please, that would be lovely." Chloe and the twins went into the kitchen, leaving the visitors alone with Kitty. Jessica turned to her, took her other hand. She said "I'd like to thank you, Red's been a different boy. I've never seen him so happy." Red: "Stop it, mum." Jessica smiled, "I'm only saying it as I see it."

Jessica looked at Kitty, "So, what do you see in Red? A mother wants to know." Kitty looked a little embarrassed, "I … it's … when we first met, he was kind to me, I'm not used to boys being like that."

"Is that all?" "I don't know, just something about him, he's just … just right, sorry, I don't know how to put it."

Red got up, embarrassed, left the room. Jessica smiled, "I think the feeling is mutual. Look, now he's gone, can I ask you some personal questions? Will you answer honestly? I care about my boy." Kitty looked at her, "Look, I won't lie to you, but I may not answer, there are some things I won't talk about."

Jessica nodded, "Fair enough. Can I ask, do you have a boyfriend at the moment?" "I'm hoping I do."

"When did you last have a boyfriend?" "I've never had a proper boyfriend."

"Why not? I'd have thought boys would love to go out with you." "No, look, I've been living at the convent until the twins got Chloe and me out. We sometimes sneaked out in the evenings, but …" her voice trailed off.

"Sorry to probe, but have you, you know, with a boy at all?" Kitty started welling up, tears started running down her cheeks. Kitty said "When we were around fourteen, all four of us desperately wanted something to take our minds off the convent, so yes, we all went with boys, any boys. I'm not proud of it."

Jessica said "Sorry, didn't mean to upset you, I just got the impression all of you are a bit more worldly than Red." Kitty said "You might as well know, the four of us share a bed and I suppose you could say we share each other. But we all like boys, just had little opportunity."

Jessica smiled, "I sort of guessed that might be the case. Don't worry, it doesn't shock me, and I'm sorry, I have to ask this. You aren't just interested in Red because he's the first nice boy you've come across?" "I don't think so, something just seems right about him."

"Enough for now, and thank you for being so honest with me. Not many would answer such questions. And wipe those tears away, they'll wonder what I've been doing to you."

Kitty lifted the hem of her dress to wipe her eyes, just as Red came back in. He stopped when he saw more of Kitty than he should. Chloe was right behind him with a tray, she bumped into him, "Hey, no brake lights." Kitty put her dress down, Red came and sat beside her. "What's mum been saying to you to make you cry?" Kitty replied, "Oh, just girl talk. Nothing for your ears."

The twins sat down, Chloe poured tea into mugs, she asked Jessica "Do you have sugar?" "No, thank you." Chloe passed mugs to each of them, took hers and sat beside the twins on the other settee.

Jessica spoke again, "Red says you four are always fighting each other, you seem pretty peaceful at the moment, what's that all about?" Chloe answered, smiling, "We may be sixteen, but we sometimes act as if we're six. Yes, we can play a little rough sometimes, but that's what it is, play." Kitty added "If the twins were serious, we'd be …" she paused, she was going to say 'dead', but came out with "… in hospital."

They sat in silence for a while, sipping their tea.

Jessica spoke again, "Kitty, why don't you show Red a bit more of your computer? He's been going on about it almost as much as about you." Kitty needed no encouragement. With both of them still holding half‑full mugs of tea, she led Red out of the sitting room. Jessica waited a moment, then "Can I ask you three something? I really am worried about Red being hurt, he's no experience with girls." Chloe looked at the twins, they both nodded, Chloe said "You can ask, but if we don't want to answer something, we won't. We won't lie to you." "That's exactly what Kitty said to me. That wasn't rehearsed, was it?" Chloe: "No, it's just how we are." Midge: "Got us into a lot of trouble at school." Molly: "Well, we got ourselves into trouble, but told the nuns the truth. Then they …" she stopped speaking.

Jessica said "No, don't worry, you don't have to tell me anything you don't want to. But there are some things …" She got up, closed the door, sat down again. "You four are very close to each other, Kitty implied you have been for years." Chloe: "Since we were about eleven." Molly, grinning: "Midge and me since we were inside Mummy."

Jessica: "And for Kitty, Red is her first real boyfriend?" The three nodded. Jessica continued "Look, I've seen them together, as far as I can tell this is more than just an infatuation. If it does develop, I can see them wanting to …" she paused. Chloe grinned, "Live together?" "Yes. Look, no mother wants her child to leave the nest, but it's the way life works. That's my heartache. But, what about you three and Kitty? If she wanted to leave you? She would be distraught if you hated her for leaving you."

Midge and Molly, in unison, "Good god, no!" Then, alternating "We would be" "sorry if she" "left us, but" "we want her" "to be happy." Chloe added "No way would we not still love her."

Jessica, staring at the twins because of their way of speaking, then "Thank you, that was the reaction I was hoping for. If Kitty was unhappy it would be bad for both of them. Sorry, I am being selfish, but I have to think of my boy's future." Midge: "Naturally, you're his mother."

Molly, with a little grin,"Of course, Red could move in here with Kitty, there's a spare room. Best of all worlds as far as we are concerned."

Jessica: "I am not sure whether you are just being a little bit naughty. I am also not sure whether he would survive it here." Chloe, with a big smile: "Nor are we." Midge: "But it's a real possibility." Chloe: "Wouldn't Daniel have to agree?" Midge: "Good point, but I think he would." Molly: "That's a bridge we would have to cross if ever the time came."

"Daniel?" queried Jessica. Midge replied "He's a solicitor, he's been a family friend since before we were born." Molly: "He and his wife will soon be our legal guardians. He's also a joint trustee of Mummy and Daddy's estate." Chloe added "And he got Kitty and me out of that dreadful place so we could live here with Midge and Molly."

They sat there in silence for a while, then Jessica, smiling, said "Do you know, I really hope this works out, I would love to see some little Kittys and Reds running around."

Kitty's infertility

The three all opened their mouths, staring at her, Chloe started crying. Jessica: "What's the matter? What's wrong? Doesn't she like children?"

All three girls got up, left the room, went into the dining room. Kitty was sat on Red's lap, they were kissing. Chloe went to her, said "Come with us." Midge and Molly each took one of Kitty's hands, she stood up, followed, a puzzled look on her face. Chloe took an equally puzzled Red by the hand, he followed her. All went into the sitting room, Jessica had stood up, not knowing what was happening. Chloe and the twins were crying. Chloe managed to say "Please, sit down, all of you." They sat in they original places. "I don't know how to do this, it's going to hurt. Kitty, you must tell them about what they did to us, they have to know." Kitty didn't say anything, just looked at Chloe. "Jess, tell Kitty what you said to us." "What about?" "Little ones." "I said I'd love to see little Kittys and Reds running around."

Kitty burst into tears, sobbing, Red tried to comfort her, Kitty shouted to him "No." Then, to Jessica, "You know what I said about boys?"

Jessica, to all of them: "She told me you'd, how shall I say, used boys in the past as some sort of release." Chloe, between sobs: "That's a very nice way of putting it, we really shouldn't have done it."

Jessica: "Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you, but surely that's all in the past?"

All four girls continued crying. Jessica: "What is it? What's wrong?" Midge and Molly clung to each other, Kitty finally managed "Midge and Molly had abortions." Jessica was about to say something, but Kitty cut her off "They can't have babies now. Nor can Chloe. Nor can I. Fucking nuns did it to all of us."

It wasn't Kitty's language that upset Jessica. She stared at Kitty, then she, too, burst into tears. Red was just dumb‑struck.

After few minutes, Jessica asked "Can't anything be done about it?" Chloe answered "No. Bits missing." Red asked "Can't Molly and Midge, you know …" Midge replied "Mending is one thing, replacing is another." Molly: "And we've tried. Nothing happens."

Jessica didn't understand what Red and the twins were referring to, but after a moment she asked "Eggs?" All four girls shook their heads. Midge: "It's as if they were trying to be cruel." Molly: "Nothing affected our desires." Midge: "Just any possibility of babies."

Jessica hugged Kitty, whispered "I'm so sorry." She released Kitty, said "I'm really sorry, I can't … I don't know … I have to go. Red, you can stay if you want to …" Jessica got up, walked out of the sitting room, out through the front door, closed it quietly behind her.

Red sat there for a moment, then got up, "Mum needs me." He ran out, the front door slamming behind him.

Kitty went forward onto her knees, put her forearms over her face, hands over the top of her head. She curled right up, elbows over her knees, fell onto her side, sobbing and rocking.

Chloe, still crying, "What can we do?" Midge touched Molly, the twins went to Kitty, interlocked their hands over the side of her head. Within a second, Kitty was asleep. With Midge's help, Molly picked Kitty up, put her over her shoulder, legs hanging in front, body hanging behind. Molly carried Kitty up the stairs with Midge following closely in case Kitty needed steadying, Chloe was right behind. In the bedroom, Molly laid Kitty on the bed, they undid her dress, rolled her off it, put covers over her.

Chloe took her own dress off, got in beside Kitty, pressed her face to Kitty's, an arm over her. Midge and Molly followed suit, got in next to Chloe.

Mutilation

Sometime in the very early morning, Chloe woke, Kitty wasn't beside her. She got out of bed, checked the bathroom, no Kitty, nor was she in the spare or the twins' bedrooms. Chloe went downstairs, the alarm wasn't set.

There was a light coming from the Kitchen, Chloe could hear sobbing. She went into the kitchen, took one look, and screamed. Kitty was sat, crosslegged on the floor, blood was running from her chest. She was holding a carving knife in her right hand. Chloe ran to her, yelling "Kitty, no, Kitty!"

Chloe was trying to get the knife off Kitty as Midge and Molly arrived, Midge pulled Chloe away, Molly grabbed Kitty's wrist, pulled it back, pressed her thumb into it until she dropped the knife. Chloe yelled at her "What are you doing?" Kitty, sobbing, "I'm not a woman, shouldn't have these."

She'd started to slice off her left breast, it was bleeding profusely.

Chloe's hand had a nasty cut across her palm. She was screaming "No, no, no …" Midge had a quick look at Chloe, she was holding her hand in a fist under her other arm. Midge put an arm round Chloe and put her mouth to Chloe's ear, "We need your help." Chloe stopped her shouting, "What can I do?" Midge said "First, get a clean teacloth, wrap it round your hand, hold it in your fist. Then you can help us with Kitty." Midge let Chloe go, turned to Molly and Kitty. "Bad?" she asked. "Bad" was the reply. Molly was pressing the cut skin of Kitty's breast with her fingertips, trying to reduce the flow of blood.

Midge shouted "Chloe. First, clean teacloth here, now. Then bathroom cabinet. Bandages. Any antiseptic. Tampons."

Chloe, now with her hand bleeding into the teacloth, used her other hand to pass Midge another teacloth from the pile in the drawer. Midge folded it into a pad, put it for Molly to get it under her hand.

Chloe went upstairs, opened the bathroom cabinet, found a couple of bandages and a box of tampons, she tossed them down the stairs. There was a packet of safety pins and a bottle of antiseptic, she threw the safety pins down, carried the bottle. Midge had already picked up the bandages and tampons, Chloe took the antiseptic into the kitchen and passed it to Midge, then she went back to retrieve the safety pins, these she put on the floor by Midge. The box immediately started soaking up blood.

Midge had readied three tampons. She opened the bottle of antiseptic, Molly released the pressure, Midge poured some of the antiseptic over the wound. Kitty screamed, the twins took no notice. Midge put the tampons over Kitty's cut, held them with the flat of her hand. Molly said to Chloe, "I'm putting her hands above her head, please hold them there." She raised them right up, pushed Kitty's hands one behind the other. Chloe used the thumb and fingers of her good hand to hold them together, used the back of her cut hand to hold them into her good hand.

Molly took the end of one of the bandages, Midge held it under Kitty's armpit. Molly fed the bandage right round Kitty's chest, undoing the roll as it went, pulled it over Midge's hand, Midge carefully removed her hand to leave the bandage holding the tampons in place. Molly fed the bandage round Kitty several times as tightly as she could until she reached its end. Midge picked up the blood‑sodden safety‑pin box, muttered "Well done, Chloe." She took out three, used them to secure the bandage while Molly held the end.

By now, Chloe was dripping blood from around the tea‑cloth, it had loosened. Midge got hold of Kitty's arms, "You can let go, Chloe." Chloe did so, immediately started hugging her hand to her chest. Midge and Molly lifted Kitty to get her on her feet, she had no strength to stand. Midge said to Chloe, "We have to get her upstairs, then I'll deal with your hand. Chloe asked "Can I help?" "Just keep your hand wrapped until I get back."

Midge, from behind, put her arms under Kitty's shoulders, Molly put a hand flat on Kitty's forehead. After two seconds Kitty's head lolled onto Midge's arm. Molly bent down, put her arms round Kitty's knees, Midge lifted Kitty from behind, Molly lifted Kitty's legs. With Midge walking backwards, the twins carried Kitty upstairs into the bedroom and laid Kitty on the bed.

Molly stayed with Kitty, Midge went down the stairs to Chloe. "Release you hand, hold it under the cold tap. Let it wash through. It'll hurt, but you must wash it. Just think of what Kitty's cut feels like, yours won't seem as bad.'' Chloe held it under. After about a minute, Midge said "That'll have to do, come over here."

Midge had got another tea‑cloth, patted Chloe's hand dry. She poured some more of the antiseptic over the cut, which was right across her palm, Chloe jerked but didn't pull away or yelp. Midge got out another tampon, laid it along the cut, got the other bandage, wrapped it several times round Chloe's hand. She used her teeth to help rip it across, got another safety pin, fastened it at the back of the hand.

Midge stood in front of Chloe, "Listen, this is important. Are you listening?" Chloe nodded. "Your hand is nasty, but superficial, you can still grip with it." Chloe nodded again. "See the clock there?" - she indicated the wall clock with her head - "It says quarter to three." Chloe looked at it, nodded. "When it says quarter past four, you must, absolutely must, wake us up, don't care how you do it. Have you got that?" Chloe said "Quarter past four, wake you, whatever it takes." "Good girl."

Midge raced upstairs. Chloe followed more slowly, when she reached the bedroom Midge and Molly were either side of Kitty, one had her hand flat above Kitty's breast, the other flat underneath, all of them seemed to be sleeping. Chloe pulled a sheet up over them, she had to go to each side of the bed a couple of times because she could only use one hand.

Chloe went downstairs into the kitchen, to a horrendous scene, blood pooled on the floor, smeared where it had feet or knees in it, outlining where Kitty had been sitting. There were bloody footprints around there, and to the sink and kitchen cupboards.

Chloe set about trying to clear it up. She picked up the rest of the bandage, the safety pin box and the tampon box, put them on the table. She found a plastic bowl under the sink, put it on the floor near the blood. She got a dishcloth, laid it in the blood to soak some up, squeezed it one‑handed into the bowl. She repeated this until there was no more liquid blood. It was extremely slow going, her squeezing out was pretty ineffectual.

Using her good hand at one end of the bowl, the back of her bad hand at the other, she carried the bowl to the draining board.

There was no way she could wash the floor properly. She got the kitchen towel, used that to try to wipe the rest of the blood up. She checked the time, it said ten past four.

She sat and watched the clock, when it got to fourteen minutes past, she went upstairs. The three were lying just as she'd left them. She pulled the sheet back, shook the shoulder of one of the twins, there was no response. She went to the other, nothing. She tried hitting one with her good fist on her shoulder, nothing. Sharp slaps, again, no response.

Chloe ran downstairs, went to the knife drawer in the kitchen, picked out a sharp‑pointed paring knife. Upstairs again, she stabbed the nearer twin in her thigh a quarter of an inch in. Nothing. She tried again, an inch in, there was a slight twitch. She stabbed again, a bit further, a slight groan. She repeated on the other twin, same results. Finally she plunged the knife in up to its hilt into each of the twins' thighs. At last first one then the other opened their eyes. Chloe was sobbing. She went to each, kissed them, "Please wake up." Eventually one spoke "Hello." then the other, "Okay."

Chloe dropped the knife, crawled onto the bed, still crying. Midge managed "It's all right, you've done good." Chloe: "I had to really hurt you both." Molly: "We knew it might be difficult." Midge: "Must check on Kitty."

Kitty was still asleep. The twins moved their hands round a bit on Kitty above and below the bandage, looked at each other. Midge said "She's a bit better, bleeding's stopped. Lot of damage." Molly: "Will need more sessions, we're out of it for a while." Midge: "We've got to sleep, will you be all right for a bit?"

Chloe answered "Yes, will I need to wake you again?" Molly: "Not this time, just sleeping, it'll be okay." Midge: "Got to give Kitty another go later, then you might have to." Molly: "Chloe, we've got to sleep now, maybe another hour or so." "But we'll be fine. Thank you."

The twins closed their eyes.

Chloe went to the airing cupboard, took out a couple of towels, took them downstairs. She looked at the hall floor, there were some remnants of bloody footprints, luckily they didn't reach the stair carpet. She scrubbed at the bloodstains as best she could, continued into the kitchen.

A while later the twins came down, they found Chloe sat at the kitchen table, her bad hand laid across her lap. With her good hand she was rubbing a bloodstained towel over the table where blood had got onto it from the safety‑pin box. The blood had dried hard, it wasn't budging, but Chloe just kept rubbing at it, gently crying. Midge and Molly went either side of her, one of them took the towel. Chloe sobbed "I couldn't stop her. And all that blood, it reminded me …"

Midge: "We know. You did everything you could." Molly: "You were very brave, your poor hand."

Midge: "We can look at it now, but it'll have to be conventional." Molly: "We need everything we have for Kitty." Chloe nodded. Midge unbandaged Chloe's hand, carefully removed the blood‑soaked tampon. Meanwhile Molly went upstairs, returning shortly with a packet of gauze and a box of cotton wool. Midge took a little of the cotton wool, poured some antiseptic over it, used it to clean up Chloe's hand, it was still bleeding a little. She took some of the gauze, made it into a pad, laid it over Chloe's cut and bandaged it again. "It looks clean, it'll be all right until we can do it properly."

Midge; "Now we must go back to Kitty. Set your phone timer for an hour, wake us then, okay?" Chloe nodded. The twins went upstairs, Chloe found her phone, set the timer. She collected all the bloodstained towels, teacloths and the dishcloth, put them in the washing machine, set it going. Making sure she had her phone, she went upstairs, covered the three up again, climbed in beside them, was asleep in seconds.

The phone timer beeped, it woke all four girls. Chloe stopped the beeping, Midge and Molly both smiled at Chloe, then felt Kitty again. Midge said "Good, progress."

Kitty's eyes were wide open, "What did I do? I've this awful nightmare, but it was real, wasn't it?"

Chloe leant over Midge to get to Kitty, kissed her, said "You'll be all right, the twins are looking after you." Kitty pulled down the sheet, looked at the bandage round her, said "It was real, wasn't it?" Midge muttered "Sleep." She and Molly were out of it again. Kitty said "Can I get up?" "I expect you will feel faint, you've lost some blood, and it's probably better not to disturb the twins." Kitty managed to sit herself up. She said "God, it hurts." Then "I think I can get over Midge. Give me a hand." Chloe held out her hand, helped Kitty to step over Midge and down onto the floor.

Kitty did wobble a bit, clung on to Chloe, which is when she saw Chloe's bandaged hand. "What, no, that wasn't me? Did I do that to you?" Chloe pulled her as close as she dared, kissed Kitty, said "No, my fault, held the knife wrong."

Kitty: "I'm so sorry, nobody should have got hurt. Oh, I desperately need the loo." Chloe said "I'll help you in." She took hold of Kitty's arm. "I'll be all right." But Chloe wasn't letting Kitty out of her sight, she walked her in to the bathroom, watched as Kitty relieved herself. When Kitty stood up, Chloe said "Wait while I go." After Chloe got up, she flushed the toilet, said "It's not time to get up, let's go back to bed."

They went back into the bedroom, the twins had moved themselves closer to each other, they were holding hands. There was room on one side for both Kitty and Chloe to lie down, Chloe used her good hand to hold one of Kitty's. They, too, were soon asleep.

About eight in the morning, Midge woke Kitty and Chloe. "Come on, sleepyheads, today's another schoolday." Chloe sat up, looked at Kitty who was grimacing. "Sorry," said Kitty, "It hurts, give me a hand." "Here", said Chloe, "this one still works." Kitty started to laugh, but "Oh, don't, laughing makes it hurt more." Chloe helped Kitty swing round and stand up. Midge and Molly looked at each other, pleased that Chloe could show a little humour.

Midge said "Dresses on, may run out of time before ten." They slipped them on, went downstairs. When Kitty saw the remains of the blood on the kitchen floor and table, she just sat down at the table, started crying. Chloe sat beside her, put her arm round her shoulders.

Midge and Molly grilled some bacon, fried four eggs then another four, put the toaster on. They dished it up. Midge said "Eat up, we all need lots of protein." Molly added "And toast and marmalade."

Three of them ate well, though Kitty was very slow, she was in a lot of pain. Chloe put her arm round her again, whispered in her ear, "We know it hurts, but you must eat. Give the twins something to work with." Kitty nodded, she made more of an effort, soon she had cleared her plate. Chloe asked her "Could you butter and marmalade me a slice of toast?" Kitty was glad to help her, she did a slice for herself while she was at it. Midge and Molly looked pleased with both Kitty and Chloe.

They managed to get through the morning. All were quite unresponsive during their hour's Zoom session, Fea asked them more than once what was wrong, their reply was along the lines of they were all a bit upset and didn't get a proper night's sleep. Apart from that, the lesson was fine, their homework was well up to expectations. They were taught in areas they were weak on, more work was given for the rest of the day.

They continued at their computers until lunchtime, decided to have sandwiches then, they would cook in the evening.

They'd just emptied their mugs of tea, Chloe couldn't contain herself. "Kitty, you're not going to do that again, are you?" Kitty slammed her hand down on the table. "No." she said, very positively. "If any of us do anything like that, the nuns have won. The fucking nuns mustn't win."

Midge put her hand on top of Kitty's, she said "The fucking nuns mustn't win."

Chloe put her good hand top of Midge's, "The fucking nuns mustn't win."

Molly added hers, "The fucking nuns mustn't win."

Kitty put her other hand on top, then Midge put on hers, Chloe her bad hand, with a gasp of pain, but she held it there, Molly's other hand on top of that.

They held the pile for a moment, then Chloe sagged in her chair, her eyes closed. Midge and Molly glanced at each other, Midge said to Kitty "We seem to be doing Chloe's hand without meaning to, could we put you off for an hour or so?" Kitty looked at Chloe, "It still hurts like the devil, but …" she paused, then "… you must help her. I've remembered more of what happened. She didn't just grab the knife, I sliced her with it as she was trying to take it off me, but still she tried to stop me. Please help her, I can wait."

"Take you hands from the pile, we'll keep ours like this.

Midge lifted her hands a little, allowing Kitty to slide both of hers out. The twins both leant forwards over the table, their foreheads resting on its top, eyes closed. Kitty got up, took the empty mugs off the table. She went upstairs, carried two folded towels from the airing cupboard down to the kitchen. She gently lifted Midge's head up, pushed a towel under it, turned her head to one side, laid it on the towel. She repeated using the other towel with Molly, Chloe's head was resting on one of the twin's free hands.

Kitty went to the washing machine, took out the night's washing, put it in the drier. Upstairs, she got both sheets off the bed, both had blood on them. She brought them down, put them in the washing machine. She put the dirty dishes in the sink, washed them up.

She went upstairs again, into the spare bedroom, laid on the bed, within minutes she had cried herself to sleep.

She was woken by Chloe stroking her hand, the three of them were standing over her.

"Come on, sleepyhead, the day's not over."

Kitty got herself out of the bed, stifling a cry of pain. She kissed each of them, then saw Chloe's hand. The bandage was off. Kitty took her fingers, lifted her hand to look at the palm. There was an ugly scar across, but it looked well on the way to healing. Chloe smiled at her, "It still hurts, but I can begin to use it. Twins say there's nothing serious, just superficial." Kitty lifted the hand, kissed the scar, "I'm so sorry, that wasn't meant to happen." Chloe replied "None of it was meant to happen."

Chloe looked at the twins, "How are your thighs?" Kitty frowned, she didn't know what Chloe had done. Both Midge and Molly lifted the hems of their dresses, there were just small scabs. "They're fine" from Molly. "We heal quickly" from Midge.

"What happened?" asked Kitty. "Chloe attacked us with a knife" from Molly, grinning. Midge said "She was doing what she was told, we just needed a bit of a kick to come out of it, this was it." Molly: "Nothing wrong at all."

Midge: "Come on, we're going to the shops, need to replenish stocks." Molly: "And we all need some fresh air." Chloe added "But we all still have schoolwork to do before tomorrow." Kitty: "We can do that this evening."

They walked to the shops. Kitty was a bit slow at first, but soon all were striding out, Kitty ignoring the pain. They went into the bakers for bread, then into the chemist's where they got more bandages, some antiseptic, a range of plasters from the smallest to the largest that were stocked. Also another box of tampons. None of them needed tampons for their original purpose, it just seemed right to replace the ones they'd used. And they had been very useful.

When they went to pay for the things, the girl at the counter knew them, "I was a couple of years above you, the name is Ann. You brought the only fun there was to that place. We all lived on the things we saw of you and the stories that were told about you, but what they put you through, I don't know how you survived. Oh, so sorry about your parents."

Molly leant across the counter, pulled Ann's head down, gave her a kiss. "Thank you." Midge added "I'm still not sure that we have survived."

They went to the supermarket, picked up whatever they thought they needed. Midge suggested they should get some frozen meals, might be useful if they were too busy to cook. They got four of one offering, four of another. Midge: "No arguments about who gets what." Molly: "But I like arguing." which gave them something to laugh about.

Jessica asks for help

Back home, they put the things away, decided to do some of their schoolwork. They were still there when the doorbell rang, a little after six. Midge went to the door, it was Jessica. "Can I come in, please? I'd like to talk."

Midge led her into the kitchen, went back to the dining room, "It's Jess." Kitty started to cry, Molly went to Kitty, held her hand. Chloe said "I'll see what she wants."

Chloe came back a few minutes later. "It's about Red. Apparently he's only come out of his room to go to the bathroom, he's not eaten anything since they left here, won't talk to her. She's really worried, she'd like some help with him."

Kitty started crying even harder. Molly said "She should know what she did to Kitty." Kitty told them "She didn't do it, I did it to myself, and I blame those nuns." Midge: "She should at least know Red isn't the only one suffering."

Molly and Midge led Kitty into the kitchen. Without a word they undid the top of Kitty's dress, pulled it wide open, exposing the bandage right round her. Meanwhile Chloe went to a drawer, took out the carving knife. Chloe said "You should know. Kitty said she wasn't a woman, used this on herself, tried to cut her breast off."

Jessica screamed. "No, no, that's …" She sunk to the floor on her knees.

Kitty did her dress up, she knelt down to Jessica. "It wasn't your fault. It was the fault of the nuns. If they hadn't done that to us, this wouldn't have happened."

Jessica said "Shouldn't you be in hospital?" Kitty answered "Did Red tell you about the park?" "They set on him." "Did he tell you what Midge and Molly did for him?" "He said they somehow mended cracked ribs, but that's impossible." "Impossible it may be, but they've worked with me, helped me better than any hospital could."

Jessica shook her head, "How bad is it?"

Midge went to Kitty, undid her dress again. "It's about time we looked at it anyway." She dropped the top of Kitty's dress down, carefully unwrapped the bandage. The tampons were totally saturated with congealed blood, and sticking to Kitty's skin, Jessica was just staring.

Midge started pealing away a tampon, Kitty started yelping. Molly went to the sink, picked up the bowl, rinsed some blood residue that was still in it. She put some warm water in it, brought it and held it near Kitty. Chloe found the last clean teacloth, she dipped a corner of it in the bowl, wetted where the tampon was stuck while Midge eased it away, but it was hurting Kitty too much to get it off the wound.

Midge whispered to Kitty, "Just lie down on the floor." Kitty, without any comment or argument, did so, Midge and Molly making sure she went down gently. The twins put their hands on Kitty's forehead, she closed her eyes and was immediately asleep.

Chloe knelt down, Molly put the bowl on the floor near her. With the twins keeping an eye on Kitty, Chloe continued working at the tampons until all were off.

An ugly wound could be seen, near the base of Kitty's breast. It extended about half way round, and looked as if it had been hacked at more than once.

Chloe used other corners of the teacloth to clean the blood from all around. When she got to the wound itself she only dabbed, didn't wipe. When she'd done all she could, she stood back. "Antiseptic." said Midge. Chloe found the cotton wool and the nearly empty bottle of antiseptic, there was still just enough in it for her to dab antiseptic all round and over the cut.

It wasn't bleeding, but looked as if it could open up at any time, particularly as the breast was no longer squashed by the bandage, so the skin had moved.

Midge asked "Can you see if there are any steri‑strips? And get the larger plasters." Chloe ran up the stairs, came down with a packet of steri‑strips and the plasters they'd bought. Midge used several steri‑strips to keep the skin together, and selected a plaster that would just cover the wound. She stuck it over, it wasn't easy because of the shape of Kitty's breast, but she managed it. Molly knelt down, whispered into Kitty's ear, Kitty opened her eyes. She looked at all the faces peering down at her, she lifted her head, looked at her front. "Oh, thank god for that, thank you. Such a relief to get that bandage off. And, yes, I am so glad I still have my tits, I love my tits."

The three girls, and even Jessica, laughed at her. Molly said "We all love them, too. Let's get you up" "But it's really hurting."

Molly said "We should be able to sort that over the next day or so."

They'd forgotten about Jessica until she said "Midge, Molly, I saw you put Kitty to sleep, is that how you …" She was lost for words. Midge replied, "We don't know how it works, let's just call it hypnotism." Jessica shook her head.

Kitty spoke, "Look, none of this is your fault. Would you like me to come over, try to talk to him?" Jessica said "Would you? I don't know what else to do." Molly looked at Kitty, "Are you up to this?" Then Midge "You must be feeling weak." "We have to help Red if we can, it's not his fault, either." Midge said "We'll come with you." Chloe: "You'd better do your dress up before we leave." Jessica did up Kitty's buttons, then gave Kitty a little kiss on her cheek, whispered "Thank you."

"Got to go somewhere first" said Kitty, she went upstairs, followed by the other three girls. Jessica heard the bathroom door shut, then some muffled laughter, the sound of the toilet flushing, water in the sink, more laughter. Jessica walked into the hall to wait for them.

The four came down, Molly bringing up the rear. Jessica saw the front of Molly's dress was saturated, still with water dripping off it, the cotton fabric was clinging to her body.

Jessica stared, "Are you really going out like that?" Molly looked down at herself, "Why, don't you like it?" "Well, actually I do, but …" "Well, that's all right then." None of the other girls were taking any notice.

They walked through the front door, Midge setting the alarm.

Kitty asked Chloe to walk with her, she put her arm through Chloe's. Jessica led the way, Midge and Molly brought up the rear.

Kitty couldn't walk very quickly. Chloe called to Jessica, "Please, slow down a bit." Jessica fell back, took Kitty's other arm. They went to a part of the town the girls weren't familiar with, much of it was a bit run down. Jessica's house was in a terrace, it was one of the few that had a nicely painted front door and window frames. Jessica led them in. The front door opened straight into the living room, stairs immediately inside. "Sorry" said Jessica, "not much room." There was a two‑seater settee, two small armchairs, a sideboard and a television. Jessica said "I can get a couple of chairs from the kitchen …" Midge said "No, really, there's no need, we often sit on the floor."

Kitty asked "Red?" Jessica led her up the stairs, went to the front bedroom, some slow jazz could be heard. Jessica knocked on the door, "Someone to see you." "Go away" from inside. Kitty said "It's Kitty." Within a second, the door opened, Red looked at her, grabbed her, tried to hug her. Kitty yelped, managed to hold Red away, "Sorry," gasped Kitty, "Hurt a bit." Jessica turned, walked downstairs.

Downstairs, the three girls were sitting crosslegged on the floor. Jessica sat on the settee, staring at Molly, but not really seeing her. After a couple of minutes, Jessica shook herself, said "Can I get you anything? Tea? Coffee?" Midge, glancing at Chloe and Molly, "Let's wait for the others, hopefully Kitty will work some magic on him."

Jessica thought a bit, then she said "I really don't know what to do about them, whether to encourage them or not. I'm sorry, it's very selfish of me, and I love Kitty, she's been really good for Red, but not to have a family …" Tears welled in her eyes.

Midge said "We do understand, but …" Chloe took it up "Really it's not something we can help with." Molly continued "As far as we are concerned it's down to Kitty, Red and you." Midge: "I think Kitty won't press it, but we will be supporting her whatever happens." Chloe: "Even if it's not what you want."

Jessica nodded, "I understand all that, and I would expect nothing else."

They sat in silence. Chloe was working her hand, looking at it. Jessica saw it, said "What's wrong with your hand?" Chloe looked at her, then at her hand. She opened it, showed the scab to Jessica, she just said "Tried to take the knife from Kitty." "You could have lost your fingers." "Better than Kitty losing her breast." "You'd do anything for each other, wouldn't you, whatever the risk."

No one answered her. They sat in silence.

About twenty minutes later, Red and Kitty came down, they were holding hands. Red let go, sat beside his mother. Both he and Kitty had moist eyes.

"Mum, we think we can just be friends, but it won't be easy." Kitty went and sat on the floor by Chloe, held her hand, looked at the floor in front of her.

Jessica gave Red a hug, looked at Kitty, she said "Kitty, thank you." Kitty looked up at her, she managed to say "Probably for the best. But I can't promise we won't …" she didn't finish.

Midge said "I think Kitty's done all she can here, we should go." She stood up, the other girls followed suit. Red went over to Kitty, held her shoulders, "We are still friends aren't we?" Kitty looked at him, said "I hope so, but at a distance for now." She gave him a quick kiss on his cheek, then made for the front door. Jessica got up, held the door open, she said "Thank you, all of you." They were out as quickly as they could go.

Bullies seek revenge

They'd walked about quarter of a mile when Molly said "It's wrong." Midge nodded, said "Followers." Molly: "And in front." They stopped. Midge said to Kitty and Chloe "Stay together here, but be prepared to run." Then to Molly "How many?" "Three." "Same." "We wait."

Midge moved to face behind, Molly kept in front. The two groups of three came up to them. One of them said "You won't take us by surprise this time." Midge recognised the boy she'd put in a sleeper hold in the park. She said "I let you live last time. Don't push your luck." One of the others with him, not one they'd seen before, lunged at her, was going to punch her. She grabbed his arm, ran it past her, twisted it viciously, hung on while his whole weight continued to twist it until something snapped.

Midge let go, muttered "I'm fed up with this." She whipped forward, she punched one of the other two in the stomach, hard. The third she grabbed by his testicles. Holding them as tightly as she could, she did a cartwheel, twisting his testicles right round. His trousers ripped, he screamed, collapsed, apparently unconscious. The two were downed in less than a second, Midge's movements far too quick to follow. She stood there for a moment, looking to see if any tried to get up.

Midge called out "You?" Molly called "Waiting." Midge said quietly "Too tired to wait." She walked round to stand beside Molly. "Now." In a blur, all three were in a heap. Two were unconscious, one with another's knife in his stomach.

Pointing to the knife, Midge asked "Prints?" "His."

They turned to Kitty and Chloe, Midge said "Come on, I'm tired." Kitty said "Shouldn't we phone some…" Molly put her finger over Kitty's lips. "We're going home." Midge: "They brought it upon themselves." Molly: "I expect at least one of them will be able to make a phone call." Midge: "Or someone will find them." Molly: "I really don't care." Midge: "Maybe, just maybe, they'll learn."

They walked back home, Molly in front, Midge behind. They made it back without further incident.

Once home, Molly said "We haven't eaten." Midge: "Nor done all our homework."

Chloe: "We ought to eat, you three really need your strength." Midge said "Frozen meals."

They got four out of the freezer. "Takes ten minutes." "Can we do all together?" "Should be done one at a time." "Do singly, we share to eat."

Which is what they did. As each meal was heated, they put it on a plate in the middle of the table, used a fork to feed themselves from the plate. No games, they were all tired.

As they started the last, Kitty said "Bugger." "What?" from the other three. "Sheets are in the washing machine." Chloe got up, took them from the washing machine, put them in the drier. "Dresses" she said. All dutifully took their dresses off, Chloe put them in the washing machine, set it going.

They went into the dining room, all managed to finish what they were supposed to do, sent completed work in emails to Fea and Tom. Back in the kitchen, the drier had finished. Midge got out the ironing board and iron. Molly asked "Do we really need to iron the sheets?" Midge replied "Mummy always ironed them." No further argument.

Molly ironed the bottom sheet, the others just watched. When it was finished, Kitty and Chloe took it upstairs. Midge ironed the top sheet. Molly sat watching her sister, who was being very careful to iron one crease down the centre, and no other creases, "Just like Mummy did it."

When it was finished, they took it upstairs. They found Kitty and Chloe asleep, their bodies still damp from the shower. They were facing each other, Chloe with her good hand resting on Kitty's plaster, Kitty was using her hands to hold Chloe's bad hand to her mouth, it looked like she'd been licking or kissing it.

Midge said to Molly, "They're worth it." Molly nodded. "Whatever it takes from us." They put the top sheet on the bed, covered the two sleeping there.

They went into the shower, spent a leisurely twenty minutes soaping and washing each other, they, too, didn't bother to dry, just got into bed, hugging each other. They were asleep in seconds.

In the morning, Molly woke first. She carefully got up on to her knees, trying not to wake her sister as she did so. She pushed the top sheet down, then smacked each of the others on their thighs in rapid succession, at the same time shouting "Come on, sleepy heads!"

Kitty woke with a start then a yelp, put her hand to her plaster, then she sat and watched while Midge and Chloe attacked Molly, they pushed Molly on to her back, smacking her all over, Chloe one handedly. Molly did nothing to defend herself, just lay there laughing, arms and legs outstretched.

Kitty was still in a lot of pain, in the end she couldn't watch in case it made her laugh. She got off the bed, went into the bathroom.

Midge, seeing her go, quietly said "Kitty."

They stopped playing. Chloe went into the bathroom, she found Kitty sitting on the toilet, bending over, holding her hand over her patch. Chloe asked her "Hurting?" Kitty nodded.

Chloe asked "Have you finished?" Kitty said "Yes, don't want to take my hand off to wipe myself."

Chloe: "Go into the shower, I'll clean you off in there." Kitty stood herself up, grimacing, she went into the shower. Chloe flushed the toilet, poked her head out of the door, just said "She's hurting, going to shower her." Chloe got into the shower, rinsed her all over, then plenty of soap to make sure they were both clean. Midge and Molly came in as the two got out of the shower, Molly passed Chloe a towel, she dried Kitty off.

Midge said to Kitty, "There's just time before school for a quick breakfast, then a session with you. Let's get you downstairs." Chloe went down first, unset the alarm, went into the kitchen. Mostly one‑handed, she put the kettle on, put some bread in the toaster. She got out four bowls, put some muesli and milk in them. Midge and Molly helped Kitty to the table. Molly poured some tea, Midge put butter and marmalade on the toast. They all ate in silence.

When they'd finished, Kitty, Midge and Molly went upstairs, Midge saying to Chloe "Three quarters of an hour max, or we won't be ready for ten."

Chloe took their dresses out of the washing and put them into the drier. She washed the breakfast dishes, it took a long time, she didn't want to use her bad hand. She couldn't dry them, had to leave them on the draining board. That done, she sat, waited for the drier to finish. She still had quite a few more minutes, so she got the ironing board out, she found it very difficult with only one useful hand, but managed to iron the teacloths and put them away.

Chloe went upstairs, shook each of the twins' shoulders, they woke fairly easily, as did Kitty a minute later. Chloe asked Kitty, "Any better?" "A lot, just feels sore now." Midge said "Change the plaster, clean it up. Don't let us sleep beyond five to ten." When Kitty got out from between the twins, Midge moved herself a little closer to Molly, got hold of her hand and was instantly asleep.

Chloe told Kitty to lay back on the bed. She eased the plaster off, it came fairly easily, probably because of the earlier showering. She cleaned the wound using a facecloth from the bathroom, patted it dry with a towel. It had oozed a bit, but looked clean. Chloe used a little antiseptic on it anyway, waited for it to dry, put a fresh plaster over it.

"There, that'll do for a while. Let's get you up and dressed."

Chloe got four clean dresses out, she and Kitty put theirs on, the other two Chloe left laid out on the bed. They went downstairs, checked their computers.

About ten to ten Midge and Molly came down. They had a brief group hug, Kitty said "Feels a lot better, thank you." Midge asked Chloe, "How's you hand?" "Just about okay, but still can't really hold anything with it. "We'll do a bit more later, it's school now." Chloe gave each of the twins a quick kiss.

They all sat down, waited for Tom and Fea's Zoom call.

Isabel with a police report

They were all quite engrossed in the session when Midge's phone rang. She glanced at the display, it was Isabel. She quickly answered it, just said "Could you ring back after eleven, please?" and ended the call.

Their hour went quite quickly, they got good comments from Tom and Fea, though Tom did say "We'd prefer your emails a little earlier." Molly answered, "Sorry, we got a bit tied up, we'll do better."

The session ended, the girls knuckled down to their work. Midge's phone rang again, Midge answered it, said "Hello, I've put you on speaker." Isabel said "Hello, all." Then "Could I come and see you, as soon as possible?" "What's it about?" asked Midge. "A police report." Midge said "Don't know if we want to help you, but …" She looked at the other girls, Chloe and Kitty didn't respond, Molly nodded. Midge took the decision, "Can you come a little after twelve?" "Perfect" from Isabel, "See you then."

The girls carried on working until they heard the doorbell. Kitty got up to answer it, she led Isabel into the sitting room, the others joined them. Chloe and Isabel sat on one settee, Kitty and the twins on the other. Isobel said "Good to see you all. How are you?" Molly answered "We're surviving." Midge said "Sorry for putting you off, we were in a call with our tutors. Now, What can we do for you?"

Isobel said "We always get notification of any police incident. This morning we were told of something that happened yesterday evening. It was a bit outside of your usual neck of the woods, but," she paused, "let's say there were some aspects of it that made me think of you." She looked round, no one said anything.

"All right, then. I'll tell you what I was told. Five youths ended up kept in hospital, a sixth was hurt but not detained. One of them had a knife wound to his stomach, he's in a critical condition. Another has had what they've called life‑changing injuries. From the way they've skirted round what those were, I presume he'll never be able to have children. According to the doctors' report to the police, the others kept in hospital have severe internal injuries, the one who walked was hurt, but not quite as badly."

Molly muttered "Not hit hard enough."

If Isobel heard Molly, she ignored it. "Oh yes, each of the internal injuries was from a single massive blow.

"The police officially think the youths were set upon by a rival gang, that they expect an arrest soon. Unofficially they don't have a clue, it didn't look gang‑related. But they do think it's better that they are off the streets." She paused, looked around, still no one spoke.

"The police told me they'd done a door‑to‑door in the vicinity, no one saw anything. Well, I did my own door‑to‑door, a few people talked to me, strictly off the record because they are very scared of repercussions. Two did admit to seeing it, they said what happened was unbelievable. They said there were some girls that were attacked by these youths. Two of the girls downed the six within a few seconds."

Midge asked "Do we have to get Daniel involved?" Isabel answered "That's not necessary, I'm not recording this, not taking notes. As far as the newspaper is concerned, this conversation never took place."

Midge looked at Molly, Molly gave a hint of a nod. Midge said "Okay, yesterday evening we'd gone to see a friend of ours who may or may not live somewhere near wherever that attack took place. Four of the boys might have been those that had been bullying our friend at school. We'd helped resolve that bullying. We think they might want revenge."

Isabel smiled, "You should be a politician, saying things without saying them. Don't you think the force used was a bit excessive?"

Molly: "We tried less excessive force the first time. It didn't work."

Isabel smiled some more. "You're not quite as diplomatic as your sister, are you?" Molly said "She's never been up to my standards. I bet the one who could walk out of the hospital was hers."

Isabel thought for a moment, then "Look, I'm not judging you, but do you really think it's right to give people life‑changing injuries?" Molly and Midge glanced at each other. Midge gave an answer, "Those bullies may not give physical life‑changing injuries to their victims, but they do change their lives. Our friend was bullied unmercifully by those boys, he was scared out of his wits going to school. They'd stolen his phone, no way could he afford to replace it. He was in mental agony, was barely existing in a shell, pretty much scared to go out of his house. It's my belief he might have committed suicide if we'd not done something. And how many more have they put into that state? So, tell me, what's the difference?"

There was silence, until Kitty could contain herself no longer. She started sobbing. Immediately Midge moved round so one twin was on each side of her, both put their arms round her. Isabel asked "What's the matter? Surely you've fixed things?"

Chloe explained "He was really Kitty's friend. They were good together. They've just had to break it off, and they were, no, still are, so much in love."

Isobel: "But why …" Kitty interrupted her, she yelled "Fucking nuns, that's why." Kitty threw off the twins' arms, ran out of the room. They heard her stumbling up the stairs, still sobbing.

Chloe started to stand, but Molly stopped her, "I go, you tell." Molly ran out of the room.

Chloe was about to speak, Midge interrupted her. "Chloe, wait, please let me. Isabel, we told you we had a story for you." "Yes, about your school." "Maybe now is the time to bring it up, but we would need to consult Daniel first before we could say anything, and he might say we mustn't. He would have to be involved in any case."

Isabel looked at Midge, then at Chloe. She noticed Chloe was working her hand, got a glimpse of the scar on her palm. She said "Chloe, what have you done to your hand?" It was Chloe's turn to say "Fucking nuns." Midge said "Chloe got hurt stopping Kitty from harming herself, which was an indirect result of what happened at our school. That's all I'm going to say."

Isabel stood up. "I've caused enough upset, I'm really sorry, but it does look like this school thing is pretty important. Please, sort things out with Daniel. I'll be available any time, day or night, weekday or weekend, I mean that. Let me know. And once again, I'm really sorry."

Without saying anything else, she left.

Molly heard the front door close, she brought Kitty down. Midge sat Kitty down beside Chloe, Molly and Midge went into the kitchen, made sandwiches and tea, brought them through to the sitting room. They sat and ate them in silence, then it was back into the dining room for more schoolwork. The work soon had all of them concentrating on what they were doing, they'd finished the day's work by three. Each sent their emails to Tom and Fea.

When that was done, Midge said she was going to ring Daniel, see what he said. She stayed in the dining room, the others went into the sitting room. They cleared away their lunch debris, and by the time they'd washed up Midge was in the sitting room. When all were sat, Midge said "Spoke with Audrey. Daniel is fully booked at work for a while, but Audrey would like to feed us again tonight, we can talk with him then. I said we'd be there by half past six, okay?" They all nodded.

Midge glanced at Molly, said "Chloe, there's time to do a bit more to your hand, it's nothing like healed yet. Is that all right, Kitty?" Kitty replied, "Stupid question. Of course. In any case I'm almost better, only a little sore. Go ahead. But I'll come up with you, I'll keep out of your way."

Chloe went to her, "You could never be in the way. Well, maybe only most of the time." Kitty punched her. "That's right," said Chloe, "take advantage when you know I can't hit back."

Midge, laughing, "Come on, let's go up."

Two hours later, the twins had done their thing with Chloe and had had their sleep, they were all downstairs again. Chloe's hand just had a line across it, she could use it almost normally. "Got to test it." She was about to do something to Molly, but Midge told them "Come on girls, we need to get going."

Audrey's steak, more school revelations

With a bit of pushing and shoving, they went out, walked round to Daniel's house. They were greeted by Audrey at the door, "Daniel's been hung up a bit at the office, he'll be home soon." She led them into the sitting room.

They talked mostly about domestic stuff, Audrey wanted to make sure they were looking after themselves all right, she seemed satisfied with the answers. "And, what about money? Are you all right?" Midge replied "Yes, we're fine. We have a system, whatever any of us spend for the whole house, we note it down. Every few days we work out who owes who what, move money between bank accounts accordingly." Chloe added "Actually, Molly does the sums. She's quite good at it. Of course, she's almost certainly cheating us all like crazy, just hides it well."

Molly hit her, soon the two were fighting on the floor. Daniel walked in, totally ignored them, said "Hello" to Kitty and Midge. He went to Audrey, gave her a kiss. Guessing which twin would be most likely fighting, he said "Midge, Kitty, sorry I'm late. Since there are only four of us able to sit normally, perhaps it's only we who should eat." Instantly Chloe and Molly were on their feet, "Hello" they chorused.

Audrey, laughing, "I need ten minutes to finish things."

Daniel disappeared upstairs, came down a few minutes later. They went into the dining room, sat as before. Audrey started bringing through plates, she'd cooked steak and chips, she'd put some sort of pepper and onion sauce on the steaks. Audrey said "From what I hear, you are eating too well. It's about time you had something unhealthy."

They started eating. For once, Kitty and Chloe didn't wolf it down, they were savouring every mouthful. The steak cut easily with their steak knives, pink juices ran from the meat at every cut. The chips were crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside.

Kitty and Chloe were the last to finish. "That was absolutely delicious." "Best yet." "Like, wow." "Really yummy."

Midge stage whispered to Audrey, "I think they liked it. Mind you, it was very, very good." "Top drawer" from Molly.

Audrey said "Have you got room for some pudding?" All four girls picked up their pudding spoons and forks, showed them to Audrey. Molly said "We live in hopes these aren't just for show."

"Daniel, help me clear the plates." He got up, stacked the plates, took them out. He came back with some pudding dishes, put the pile in front of Audrey's place.

Audrey brought in a pavlova, put it down, "Sorry, all I could come up with."

Kitty exclaimed "Yes." Chloe actually started crying.

Again, Kitty and Chloe ate theirs very slowly, they were once again the last to finish. They put their spoons and forks down, just stared, smiling, at their empty dishes.

"Any more?" asked Audrey, but all refused, too full. "Room for coffee?" asked Daniel. "Real coffee?" from Kitty. "Only the best for my four princesses." "Plenty of room for coffee" said Chloe. "Yes, please" chorused Midge and Molly.

Daniel got up, whispered to Audrey, "The queen has done it again." She smiled, stacked the dishes. Chloe picked up the plate with the remaining pavlova, took it into the kitchen. Kitty followed, they both started picking crumbs off the pavlova dish. "You could have had some more" from Audrey. "Too full for more" said Chloe, her mouth full of pavlova. Audrey just laughed.

When every last crumb had been taken off (along with a few bits accidentally broken off the uncut part), the two girls joined the twins who had gone to the sitting room. Once again the four of them squeezed on to a settee, the twins in the middle, Kitty next to Molly, Chloe next to Midge.

Daniel brought through a tray with two cafetières, a jug of hot milk and six mugs. "Can I push the knob thingy down?" asked Kitty. "And me the other one?" from Chloe." "Yes," said Daniel, "but wait a few minutes, let the coffee brew."

Daniel said "Now we are settled, I have some good news. Audrey and I are now the twins' legal guardians, paperwork's all gone through." Molly and Midge both got up, hugged Daniel and Audrey, broad grins on their faces, in unison "That is good news." They sat down again, both got prods from grinning Kitty and Chloe, "Brill" and "Super" from them.

When they were drinking their coffee, Daniel asked "Now, what is it you want to talk to me about?"

Midge answered. "School and Isabel." Molly: "There's a reason this comes up now."

Daniel: "Tell me."

Midge asked "Have you seen this evening's paper?" "I picked one up on the way home, I do if I'm late back, not looked at it." He went into the hall, got it, passed it to Midge. Midge turned the page, on page three was an article headlined 'Boys hurt by gang rivals'. Without reading it, Midge passed the paper back to Daniel, pointed to the article. It was brief, it only took him a few seconds. He passed it to Audrey, then asked Midge "You?" "You can't say anything we tell you to anyone else, can you?" "No, total confidentiality, Audrey as well since she's my secretary. Chloe and Kitty are a bit of a grey area." "But if we tell you about them?" "I can't reveal anything of what you say."

Midge: "I'll tell you the story, and what's behind it. It'll take a while. It's upsetting for all of us. I'll start at the end, because that's why we are here, I'll work backwards, sort of.

"Isabel came to see us today, she guessed we were involved in those boys being hurt. She was right. While she was with us, she noticed Chloe's hand, show them, Chloe."

Chloe, somewhat reluctantly, showed them her scar. Daniel didn't say anything. Audrey put her hand to her mouth, "That looks awful."

Midge continued "It was much worse yesterday, it's mostly healed. She got that trying to stop Kitty mutilating herself." She stopped, trying to compose herself. Audrey asked "What did she do?" Molly, ever blunt, answered "Kitty tried to cut her left tit off." Audrey shouted "No", stared at Kitty. Kitty was looking down, tears running from her eyes.

Molly, without comment, undid several buttons of Kitty's dress, opened the front to reveal the plaster. Kitty just sat there, totally impassive. Audrey was crying, even Daniel's normally dead‑pan face looked aghast. "How bad?" he managed to get out. Midge said "We think pretty much half way." Molly yanked the plaster off, Kitty barely flinched. The ugly gash could be clearly seen, with just a slight oozing in places. Molly replaced the plaster as best she could, did Kitty's dress up.

"Hospital?" queried Daniel. Midge replied "Thought we could help quicker and better." Chloe said "They did, but they almost killed themselves doing it, they wouldn't wake up."

Daniel was almost lost for words for a moment, then "Do you mean that literally?" Chloe nodded. "Had to really hurt them, sink a knife into them, only thing I could do to bring them out of it." Audrey got up, "I can't listen to this", she ran out of the room. Molly said quietly "Kitty, go to her, she needs to see you're all right." Kitty got up as if in a dream, walked slowly out of the room.

Daniel said "Tell me."

Midge and Molly explained about Kitty meeting Red, how they clicked perfectly. The walk in the park, the phone call, driving off the four, helping Red mend. Getting Red's phone back, embarrassing the boys in the school playground. Red's mother coming round, her finding out that Kitty couldn't have children, Red unable to keep seeing Kitty. Them going round to try to get Red out of his numb state, meeting up with the six boys on their way back. The twins stopped talking to give time for Daniel to absorb it, he hadn't uttered a word while the twins were speaking.

After a couple of minutes, Daniel said "So much to ask about, but what I don't know yet is the connection to your school."

Chloe was about to reply, Midge stopped her, "Grey area." Then "Kitty can't have children because they made all of us infertile."

"What? How? Why?"

Midge said "Because of what we did." Between them, Midge and Molly told Daniel that they were always disobeying the nuns, being punished. How the four would sneak out, that there was a time when, to get their minds off things at the school, they went with pretty much any boy they could find. That they were beaten and whipped. That the twins both got pregnant, the nuns made them both have an abortion, they were sterilised in the process, that even though Kitty and Chloe were never caught, they were sterilised probably just because they were close friends of the twins. Or maybe they did it to more or even all of the girls.

The twins stopped. Daniel was seething, all three girls were crying.

After a couple of minutes, Daniel asked "Any more?" Midge shook her head, "Just details."

Daniel started speaking. "I know you've never lied, but this is unbelievable. It does explain a lot of what's happened though, for instance why you insisted on Kitty and Chloe coming out with you." Then "Did your parents know any of this?" Molly answered "We couldn't tell them." Midge added "It would have killed them."

Daniel said, "You're right there, they'd have been so upset about your treatment, and felt so guilty about putting you in that school. But surely they'd have picked something up when they did see you?" Molly replied "We've always been able to hide things from them. We would never lie to them, but often didn't want to tell them the truth." Midge: "We were just too naughty, never wanted them to be hurt."

Daniel sat thinking for a while.

"As for where we go from here, I'm at a bit of a loss."

Midge said "Isabel."

Molly: "We want that school closed." Midge: "The girls still there are all abused." Molly: "Probably worse than ever since we left." Midge: "We were always their favourites." Molly: "And somehow the nuns always seem able to get away with it."

Chloe: "Isobel said she would be available at any time."

"Midge, Molly, how much are you prepared to tell Isabel?" Midge and Molly looked at each other for twenty seconds. Midge spoke "We don't want her to know about Kitty and Red, nor Kitty and Chloe getting cut. They've suffered enough as it is."

Daniel: "Not really relevant anyway, but the sterilisation very much is. It might lead to doctor's examinations, are you up for that?" Molly: "Yes, of course." Chloe looked a little doubtful, Midge said to her "They might be doing it to other girls." Chloe immediately said "Yes."

Daniel said "I want to think about this a bit, maybe talk to some colleagues, no specifics. I won't say anything that could lead back to you. Is that all right?" Midge said "Kitty must agree as well." "Of course" said Daniel. "Could one of you find her? Probably in the bedroom with Audrey." Midge went out, came back a minute later, Audrey following, holding Kitty's hand. She led her to the settee where Daniel was sitting. Audrey sat down, lifted Kitty on to her lap like a six year old. Kitty put her arms round Audrey, put her face into Audrey's neck.

Audrey asked "Are we done?" Daniel replied "No more nasty stuff, we just want to ask Kitty something. Kitty lifted her head, looked at Daniel. He said "I'll come straight out with it, would you be prepared to be examined by doctors to check on your sterilisation?"

Audrey, looking aghast, "What do you mean, sterilisation?" Daniel said "Audrey, I'll tell you about it later. Kitty?" Kitty said "If it helps with that school, then yes." She rested her head back on Audrey.

Daniel said "Okay, I think business is done for now." Kitty lifted her head again, "Could we have some more coffee, please?" Daniel managed a smile, "No problem." He got up, took the tray into the kitchen, returned five minutes later with fresh coffee and hot milk. He found Chloe, Midge and Molly holding hands, all looking at Kitty, who was still sitting on Audrey's lap. Kitty and Audrey were whispering very quietly to each other, Audrey occasionally kissing Kitty's forehead.

Daniel poured the coffee, put the twins and Chloe's coffees near them, he said to Audrey and Kitty "Coffee's poured." Audrey nodded. But Audrey and Kitty didn't touch theirs, just let it get cold. Kitty had curled up a bit, her ankles were over Audrey's knees, her head now resting on Audrey's chest. They'd stopped their whispering, Audrey was gently crying.

When Daniel had finished his, he got up, just touched Audrey's shoulder. He went across to the other three, knelt in front of them. He quietly asked "Did she ever know her mother?" Midge answered "She won't talk about it, but we think it was an abusive childhood, possibly mother allowed men to use her."

Daniel: "You realise she only asked for coffee so she could stay longer with Audrey?" Midge answered "Yes, she sees Audrey as the nice mother she didn't have." Daniel asked "Could she stay the night here?" Molly gave the answer. "Only if all of us can stay."

Daniel: "God, you do love her, don't you, but that's not really practical." Midge said "It's not just that we love her, Molly and I need to help her a bit more." He thought for a moment, "Could Audrey stay at yours for the night?" Midge answered "We do have the spare bedroom."

Daniel went back, whispered in Audrey's ear. Audrey said to Kitty "Would you like me to come back with you, stay tonight?" Kitty lifted her head, "Yes please, I'd like that. Just for tonight."

Audrey stays the night

Audrey kissed her forehead again, said "Daniel, are you coming as well?" He answered, "No, this'll be a girls' night for you." Audrey said to Kitty, "Come on, help me pack an overnight bag." Kitty gave her a kiss on her mouth, jumped off, almost dragged Audrey to the door.

Daniel, smiling at the pair leaving the room, "Sure you don't mind?" Molly: "It's for Kitty." Midge: "I think Audrey really wants to as well." Chloe: "Are you sure you are all right with it?" Daniel: "I think I can survive one night without her. I do want her back in the office for nine, though."

The three girls went to him, he got some serious hugging. Kitty and Audrey came back into the room, Audrey said "Don't suffocate him. Oh, Kitty carried the case downstairs, it hurt her some, though she tried to hide it." Kitty looked at her, "Didn't know you realised." "I'm a woman. I can tell."

Midge said "Let's get you home, we'll see if we can deal with it." Daniel: "I'm walking with you, I'll carry the case." Molly started "No need, we …" Daniel interrupted, "I'm coming with you." Molly nodded. Daniel said "Let's get going, I think the twins need the time with Kitty. I'll clear up here when I get back."

They set off. Daniel could tell that the twins were being careful, Midge went on her own in front, Kitty and Audrey were hand in hand next. Chloe took Daniel's hand, more or less made him follow Kitty and Audrey. Molly brought up the rear. When Daniel glanced back at her, she was looking over her shoulder, he could see she was keeping a very watchful eye around, as was Midge in front.

But they arrived home without incident, Daniel was glad to see they'd set the alarm. They went into the sitting room, Daniel left Audrey's case in the hall. He kissed Audrey, got a hug from each of the girls. Kitty said "Thank you." Daniel left them.

Midge immediately said "Kitty, upstairs. We need to deal with you." Kitty smiled at Audrey then went upstairs closely followed by the twins. Chloe said "Let's make sure the spare room's ready for you." Chloe carried Audrey's case up, the bed was unmade, rumpled. Chloe whipped the sheets and the pillow cases off, went to the airing cupboard, found there were some in there. She also found a clean towel for the shared bathroom. Between them they made the bed. "If there's anything you need, I'll try to sort it." "Looks fine" from Audrey.

They went downstairs, Chloe carried the bed linen, put it in the washing machine. They went into the sitting room, talked about schoolwork. Chloe offered Audrey coffee, "Only instant, I'm afraid." "Only a dash of milk with instant." They drank the coffee. Chloe said "I'll just check up on them." "Can I come?" asked Audrey. "Of course."

Kitty was lying on her back, Midge and Molly either side of Kitty, facing her. All were unclothed, and judging by the wet hair, they'd all showered. Midge and Molly had their hands interlinked, cupped over Kitty's breast. Kitty had a knee raised, one hand on her tummy. Her other hand was on her chest, just below the twins' hands.

Audrey just stared, then "Don't they look beautiful?" Chloe responded "They are beautiful, inside as well as out." She added "They've not said anything about waking them, but I will if they go beyond an hour and a quarter. Look", she said, she pointed to marks on one of the twins thighs. "That's where I had to put the knife in." Audrey said "That must have been pretty traumatic." "Not as bad as seeing Kitty hacking at herself, though I was frightened."

Chloe got hold of a corner of the top sheet which was on the floor at the foot of the bed. Audrey took the hint, picked up the other corner, they pulled up the sheet to cover the three.

Chloe made them another coffee. While they were sipping it, Kitty came into the room, she hadn't dressed. She said "Is that coffee?" Chloe got up to make one for her, Audrey asked "How are you?" "Much better, thank you. Look." She knelt in front of Audrey, giving Audrey a view of her breasts, just a faint scar where the cut was. Audrey said "It does look so much better than earlier. It's magic."

Chloe came back with Kitty's coffee, put it on the table. "Let me see." Staying on her knees, Kitty turned towards Chloe. Chloe got on her knees, put her hand on Kitty's breast, started pressing it, moving it around, kneading it.

"Not hurting?" Chloe asked. "Not at all, feels like it normally does." Audrey gasped. The two looked at Audrey, Kitty said, "Oh, sorry, does that upset you?" Audrey managed to say "Let's say totally unexpected. I don't think I mind, I'm not used to beautiful young ladies playing with each other right in front of me." Chloe said "Maybe the twins are a bad influence." Kitty used her own hand and fingers on herself, said "I think they are a good influence."

"Please, girls, behave, you're embarrassing me."

The two grinned, sat either side of Audrey. Kitty picked up her coffee, sipped it. She asked "Is the spare room all right?" Audrey replied "Chloe's sorted it for me, thank you." Then "Will the twins be all right?" Kitty answered "Oh, yes, they woke tired but okay, they'll sleep for something like an hour, they'll be back to normal. And, Chloe, they did say they hope they never have to be woken in that state ever again. Not the stabbing them with a knife, it was how they felt in themselves. Molly did say using the knife was a really good idea, it would have given them a dose of adrenalin which almost certainly saved their lives."

They sat sipping coffee for a few minutes, then Audrey said "I still think it's magic what they do." Kitty said "I don't think they have any idea how it works, but whatever energy going into me seems to come directly from them. That's why they wouldn't wake easily for Chloe. They had no energy left in them, they'd given me everything." Chloe said "I was really frightened, they were barely breathing."

Shortly after that, the twins came in, they were looking bright and cheerful. They hadn't dressed, they sat holding hands on the other settee. Chloe asked "Coffee?" The twins both nodded. Chloe disappeared into the kitchen. Audrey asked, "Are you all right?" Midge: "Yes, fine, thank you. Oh, nothing like Kitty's first session, we went a bit far then." Molly: "We can usually judge how long, but Kitty was worse than we thought." Midge: "Much worse." Molly: "Better now."

Kitty laughed, touched her breast, said "Chloe was showing Audrey that there isn't much wrong with me now." Molly pouted, "Hey, it's my job to test your functions." Kitty thrust her chest out, Molly got up, took a step towards Kitty." "Stop it!" from Audrey, "or I'll have to go home." Both Kitty and Molly put on very hurt looks, Kitty sat back, Molly returned to her seat.

Chloe came back with two coffees, put them on the coffee table for the twins, she'd taken her dress off. When she sat down beside Audrey again, Audrey couldn't help staring at her. Chloe saw this, she said "Well, I was feeling overdressed with these three as they are." Audrey said "Don't expect me to take mine off." Kitty: "This is a free dress code house." Midge: "You can dress anyway you please." Molly, grinning, "Or not dress."

They spent the rest of the evening chatting. Kitty was leaning against Audrey, Audrey's arm round Kitty's shoulders. About ten o'clock, Chloe said "I'm tired." Midge and Molly nodded, Midge said "Been a busy day." The twins stood up, each came to Audrey, gave her a brief kiss on her mouth, said "Good night", they left the room. Chloe took the coffee mugs into the kitchen, she could be heard washing them up. Kitty looked up at Audrey, said "Could I sleep in your bed tonight?" "Of course you can. I'm pretty sure that's why I'm here."

Chloe came back, gave Audrey a kiss, she said "Goodnight" then left the room. Kitty took Audrey's hand, led her into the hall, she stopped briefly to set the alarm, Audrey waited for her. Kitty led Audrey to the spare room, said "I'll shower with the others." She let go of Audrey's hand, disappeared into the main bedroom.

Audrey went into the family bathroom, had a shower, put on her nightdress. By the time she got into the spare bedroom, Kitty was already lying in the bed, a sheet over her. Audrey got in, Kitty gave her a kiss, held her hand, seemed to be asleep instantly.

Nighttime visiting

Audrey woke up a little later. In the dim light, she could make out that Chloe was beside Kitty. The sheet was off Kitty, Chloe was gently massaging her. Kitty was breathing quite deeply, but no other apparent reaction. Audrey pretended she was still asleep. After a few minutes, Kitty shivered, Audrey felt her hand being gripped a little harder for a few seconds. Chloe stopped, moved to lay beside Kitty, Audrey could make out them kissing. Kitty and Chloe seemed to fall asleep, as did Audrey a few minutes later.

Audrey woke again, it was still dark. This time she found that the twins had managed to squeeze in beside Kitty, all seemed to be asleep. Audrey went to sleep again, she was woken by the sound of giggling and little yelps. She was alone, she couldn't resist going to the girls' bedroom. On the bed the four were writhing over each other. In what little light there was, Audrey could just about see them playing with each other. She was mesmerised for a while, after a few minutes she shook herself out of it, went back to her bed, eventually went back to sleep.

In the morning when Audrey woke, Kitty was there, sheet covering her. Kitty was already awake, holding Audrey's hand. Kitty asked "Sleep all right?" "Very well, thank you. Did you?" Kitty said "Oh, yes, thank you, I feel so much better. I'll let you get up, see you downstairs." She gave Audrey a brief kiss, jumped out of bed, raced out of the bedroom.

When Audrey got downstairs, she found all the girls were dressed, she was a little surprised to find that she felt a bit disappointed. After some 'Good mornings', Midge asked her "What would you like for breakfast?" "Oh, just some toast, please, I often don't have more." "Sure? We're having cereal." "No, thank you, just toast."

They ate their breakfasts, drank tea. When they were finished, Audrey said "I'd better get going, I mustn't be late." She went upstairs, came down a few minutes later, carrying her case. She went back into the kitchen, said "Goodbye, all." Chloe, Midge and Molly each gave her a kiss, then Molly said "Hope you weren't upset when you saw us last night." Audrey opened her mouth, closed it, then "You saw me?" "Of course." "But you were so totally involved with each other. But no, not upset. Very surprised. Funny thing to say, but you looked so innocent, in spite of what you were doing." Molly grinned, "Not sure where the innocent comes from. But nobody got hurt."

Audrey smiled at her, "I did hear a few yelps. But I know what you mean. Come on, I'd better be off."

Kitty said "I'll come with you, walk will do me good."

They left, Kitty insisting on carrying Audrey's case. It was still only ten to nine when they got to Daniel's offices, but Daniel was already there. "Hello" he said. He glanced at Kitty, gave Audrey a hug and a prolonged kiss. "Missed you." he said. He released her, turned to Kitty, took Audrey's case from her. "And, how are we this morning?" Kitty replied "We are very well, thank you. And thank you so much for the loan of your wife, made me feel a lot better." "Good" said Daniel. He gave her a kiss on her forehead, "Now go away, we have work to do." Kitty grinned. As she turned, Daniel gave her a playful slap on her bottom, Kitty laughed, skipped out of the office. Daniel turned to Audrey, "Couldn't resist." Audrey kissed him, "I know what you mean." Daniel "How was it?" "Wonderful. God, they're wonderful. Tell you about it tonight."

She did tell him that evening. She told him about their total lack of inhibitions around her, their intimacy with each other, how they could get in and out of her bed without waking her, but they knew she was watching whilst totally involved with each other. And how she found innocence in what they were doing.

He listened without comment. When she'd finished, he asked "Are they worth helping?" "That", she said, "is what comes under the category of 'Stupid Question'. I can't think of anyone who could be more deserving of help. They are wonderful children, they've come through some horrendous experiences, all of them. We know they'll help others in trouble, they wouldn't hurt anyone. Well, unless they deserve it." She added "They can be a bit over the top when they do hurt the ungodly, but in all honesty I understand it."

Daniel said "I'd hoped you would say that. And I hope they never show their lack of inhibition around me, I'm supposed to be a father figure."

Audrey repairs a dress

Three days later, Daniel rang Midge. He said he had something to tell them about the school, would they like to come round that evening and have a meal again?

That evening, they went round. Audrey had prepared some sort of slow‑cooked stew, vegetables cooked it it, all done in a rich stock. It was followed by apple and blackberry pie.

This time it was Chloe who said "Molly's right, we can't go back to Kitty's cooking." Nobody stopped the ensuing fight between Kitty and Chloe, they were left to get on with it on the dining room floor. The twins helped carry the remaining pie and the dirty dishes into the kitchen, though had to be very careful not to trip over the writhing bodies.

The twins and Audrey went into the sitting room, Daniel made coffee. He first took the tray into the dining room, took one of the cafetières, wafted it as near the fighting couple's faces as he dared. They immediately got up, and, arms round each others' waists, followed Daniel into the sitting room.

Audrey looked at the two, said "You two are a mess." Then "Kitty, you've got a seam undoing, come here." Kitty dutifully walked in front of Audrey's chair, Audrey poked her finger through the seam running down from one armhole down the dress's side, she found her whole hand would go in. "Wait there while I get my sewing box."

Audrey went upstairs. Kitty turned to face the other girls, put her hand through the undone seam and started moving it around. Daniel couldn't see what she was doing from his seat, but he could see the three girls grinning. "Oh, god" he muttered. Then, "I don't want to know what you are doing. Please, don't show me."

Audrey came in just as he said that, she could see exactly what Kitty was doing. Audrey shook her head, said "She's just being herself. Now, young lady, that's using the loosest possible definition of the word, let me see what I can do." Kitty took her hand out, turned to Audrey, stood as close as she could get. Audrey got out a needle and some suitably coloured cotton, leant forward, then said "I can't do it while it's on you. I'll do it another ti…" Kitty had undone the dress's buttons and slipped it off before Audrey could finish.

Daniel said "Oh, my god." Trying to keep his eyes averted, he poured coffee into a mug, picked it up and just about ran out of the room, saying "You can sort your own coffees out." Audrey's mouth was hanging open. She closed it, said "You're a wicked girl." Kitty looked at her, then at the three grinning girls on the settee. "What?" she asked. Through her laughter, Molly managed to say "Don't just stand there, pour the coffee."

Kitty picked the dress up, handed it to Audrey with a smile. She poured the coffee, put Audrey's near her. She passed the three girls theirs, took hers and sat next to Chloe. Chloe poked Kitty in the ribs. Kitty put her coffee on the table, took Chloe's from her, put it on the table as well. She poked Chloe in the ribs, a bit harder.

The twins quickly put theirs down, knowing they were going to get joggled. Chloe and Kitty resumed their fight while sat in the settee, fists, slaps, pinches, though for once Chloe didn't take advantage of Kitty's nakedness. Audrey was struggling with her sewing, she was laughing so much, but eventually she finished. "All right, Kitty, come here and make yourself decent." The two stopped their scrap, gave each other a hug and a kiss. Kitty got up, walked to Audrey. Audrey said "Just a moment, let me see." Kitty knelt down, Audrey ran her finger along the faint line round Kitty's breast. "Good, that's much better. Feel all right inside?" "Kitty nodded, "Yes, thank you. I wouldn't know I'd done it." Audrey handed Kitty her dress, waited until she'd done the buttons up, Kitty thanked her. Audrey picked her sewing box up, went out, poked her head into the study. "All right, she's decent. Or as near decent as she ever is."

Isabel gets told about punishments

Daniel came back into the sitting room, looked at the four girls sitting primly on the settee, he just shook his head. When Audrey returned, Daniel said "Okay, business. I've talked with one or two people, generalities only at this stage. The consensus is we need very good proof before we make any accusations. I think we need Isabel's investigator to help us get that. We need to talk with her. But be aware, we start this, there'll be no stopping it." Molly immediately said "It's the school that needs stopping." The other girls nodded. Midge asked "Shall I see if she can come here now? It's not that late. And she did say 'Any time, day or night'."

"Okay, give her a ring, see what she says."

Ten minutes later, the doorbell rang. Daniel answered it. Isabel said "I've brought Crutch, I think he heard Molly's voice on the phone, he got excited. Can I bring him in?" Daniel opened the door wide. Isabel unhooked Crutch's lead from his collar, he looked at Isabel. She said "Go", Crutch ran into the sitting room, his paws up on Midge and Molly, he licked their faces. The twins got off the settee, sat on the floor cross‑legged, Crutch sat down in front of them.

Daniel led Isabel in, he introduced Audrey, "My wife, secretary, and very much my better half." They said hello, Isabel said hello to the girls. Chloe patted the settee beside her for Isabel to sit down.

Daniel started. "We think it's time to tell you about these girls' school." Isabel nodded. Daniel continued "We need a good investigator to get proof about this, mine says this would be beyond him. I would ask that you don't publish anything at least until the investigation is done." Isabel nodded, she said "You remember what I said that once our investigators are involved it may be taken out of my hands." Daniel nodded, "We understand that." Isabel nodded again. Then "Can I record this?" Daniel said she could, but they may want to stop the recording. Isabel took her phone out, put it on the coffee table. She said the time, the place, and who was there.

Daniel said "I'll start with something of an overview, then I'll try to get the girls to give you some details. I know they will get very upset, we may have to stop at any time." Isabel nodded.

"All of the girls were at the convent. They all went there aged eleven to start their secondary education. I'll perhaps talk about the actual education later.

"While there, Midge and Molly were openly naughty, they will readily admit that. And they were punished. But it's the form of punishment that is the issue. And Kitty and Chloe got the backlash, probably more severely than others there because they were friends with Midge and Molly. Oh, backlash is a very apposite term as you will hear. Girls, perhaps you could say some of the things you did that upset the nuns first?"

Midge and Molly looked at each other, Midge started. "The first thing was the very first night we were there. I got into Molly's bed. We've only ever had one bed at home." Molly: "There was a time when Mummy and Daddy got two beds for us, one was never used." Midge: "We wouldn't dream of sleeping apart if we were anywhere near each other."

Molly continued "A nun came round patrolling the dormitories. She pulled me out, smacked my bottom, even though it was Midge who'd moved. She dragged me by the ear to Midge's bed, threw me onto it." Midge "They never could tell which of us was which." Molly: "Of course, as soon as she was gone, I was back in with Midge."

Midge: "This happened every night, the smacks got harder, then the nun brought round a cane, used that." Molly: "When that didn't work, we were taken to the abbess." Midge: "She gave us a telling off. When we asked why …" Molly: "… she shouted 'It's immoral' and punched Midge in the stomach." Midge: "Molly shouted 'Don't hurt my sister' and punched her, but only gently."

Midge "That's the first time the whip came out." Molly: "Just a couple of lashes each that time." Midge "But that didn't stop us." Molly: "Nothing would ever stop us." Molly and Midge were hugging and crying. Crutch was looking at them, whining.

Isabel was speechless. Daniel just grim‑faced, he said "We'll take a break." Molly said "A bit more."

Midge: "They tried to stop us. Put us in different dormitories, locked the doors, patrolled the corridor." Molly: "We always found a way." Midge "Every time we were found, we were caned or whipped."

Kitty spoke "We'd bathe their backs, try to help their pain." Chloe: "The only thing that would help was them being together." Kitty: "They could pick the dormitory door locks." Chloe: "When the corridors were patrolled one would go out of a window, there's a six inch wide ledge, two stories up, they'd walk along that to get to the other."

Midge: "In their eyes we were naughty." Molly: "But who were we hurting?"

Daniel: "Enough for now, girls. Enough."

Audrey was looking down, tears running down her cheeks.

Isabel looked around, she said "Is this really true? No one would believe it." Kitty: "No one ever did."

Daniel: "There's more to tell, some of it worse. But I'm not letting them say any more for now, they've had enough." Isabel: "Worse? How could anything be worse?" All four girls started sobbing.

Daniel said "Another time." He waited a moment, then "You just said that no one would believe it. That's why we need a proper investigation, to get positive proof of some of this. I have talked with some legal colleagues in general terms about it. They say it must be watertight."

Isabel: "I understand what you're saying, and you are quite right. Girls, I'm sorry, I must ask you this. You aren't making any of this up, are you? This is really what happened?" The girls all nodded, Molly managed to say "True, every word."

Daniel: "About this being the truth, in all the years I've known Midge and Molly, which is the whole sixteen years of their lives, I've never once caught them telling a lie, other than a joke or the odd white lie. Possibly be mistaken about something, but I can't even remember that. They may not answer if they don't want you to know something, in that case they will tell you that they won't answer. They don't evade the truth, they will take any consequences of a truth that someone doesn't like. Lie? It just isn't part of what they are. And, while I've only known them for a short while, it seems to be the same with Kitty and Chloe. My experience of them is obviously of no interest to the legal profession, but for any investigation it's important you know that."

Isabel nodded. "That's certainly the impression I've got whenever we've talked." Isabel thought for a moment. She said "I'm not sure what to do immediately. Ed has to hear this, this sounds like the hottest story the newspaper has ever had. I would like to get the investigators working as soon as possible, it's his decision."

Kitty said "Meanwhile, there may be girls still there getting what we got." Molly: "We probably got it the worst of anyone, but we know they use the whip on others." Midge: "We could sometimes help them …⁠" Isabel interrupted, pointing to her phone, "That's not really relevant."

Daniel: "I'm seeing him first thing tomorrow morning about an unrelated matter, I'll give him a heads‑up." Isabel nods, "Yes, that's fine. If there's nothing more for the moment, I'll leave you."

Isabel gets told some more

Midge said "Wait." She turned to Kitty, "Should we tell her now?" Kitty nodded, "I can't, but she should know." Daniel asked "About what you told me before?" Molly said "Yes, and something else, but we don't know what it means." Isabel said "If it's things wrong at the school, I should know as soon as possible, so should the investigators. There's no point going off at half cock."

Chloe couldn't contain herself. "They've made us infertile, we can't have babies." Isabel looked aghast. "What? Why? How? All of you?"

Kitty was in tears, Molly and Midge told how all four had been with boys, how Molly and Midge were caught. Chloe explained that the twins would deliberately get caught to allow Kitty and Chloe to sneak in without being seen. Midge and Molly continued with how they were punished, then getting pregnant and having abortions, and they thought that Kitty and Chloe, because they were close to the twins, were sterilised. They knew at least a couple more who were treated the same.

Kitty moved to Audrey, curled up on her lap, head buried in Audrey's chest, gently crying.

Isabel asked how they knew they were infertile, Midge just said "We can feel it." Isabel asked "How do you mean, 'feel'?" Midge answered "You once broke your arm. It's healed, but we can feel it." "How?" "Putting a hand on you, we just know." "When did you put a hand on me?" "At Derek's, you hugged each of us." "Which arm?" Molly went to Isabel, put her hand on the left forearm, then the upper part, moved to her right forearm. Molly said "this one, I'd guess when you were around eight."

Isabel sat there, frowning, then quietly said "Seven."

Even Daniel was taken aback, then he said "I never did ask how you knew. Can you do that for anything? Anybody?" Midge replied "Usually only people we have come into some sort of close contact with. Just as well, really." Molly added "And not everything, though we may sometimes know something is wrong without knowing what."

After a bit of a pause, Daniel asked "You said there was something else." Midge answered "Sometimes girls would disappear for a few hours or days." Molly: "They didn't know where they'd been." Midge: "They were usually bruised or sore." Molly added "And sometimes we never saw them again." Midge: "We tried asking the nuns where they'd gone, we were told to mind our own business." Molly: "Caned if we asked again."

Daniel looked at Isobel, "Enough. We have to start this now." Isobel nodded, stopped her recording. "I'll have to tell Ed everything you've told me, let him listen to the recording." Daniel "Not the broken arm?" Isobel shook her head, mouthed 'No' to herself, then "Only what's about the school."

Daniel asks "Can you edit out the parts that are, shall we say, not relevant?" Isabel replied "Not a problem, I'll do that now." She put some earpieces into her ears, sat quietly for several minutes. Then she said "Do you want to hear it?" Daniel said "Not necessary, thank you. But could you let me have a copy?" "I'm emailing it to you." She asked "You're seeing Ed in the morning?" "Yes. You could come in, we could discuss it after I've finished his business, say about ten?" "I'll be there. And the girls?" "No, we'll leave them out of it for now, your recording should be enough to start the ball rolling."

Isabel said her goodbyes to Daniel and Audrey, she hugged the three girls on the settee in turn, she went to Kitty, whispered "We will stop any more." She gave her a kiss on her forehead, Daniel showed her out, Crutch on his lead.

When Daniel returned, Kitty lifted her head and said to him, "Have we done now? I'm tired." Daniel nodded, I think so." Kitty got off Audrey, kissed her. Then to the three on the settee, "Come on, I'm ready for my bed." The three got up, all four thanked Audrey for the meal and Daniel for what he was doing for them, and left.

Next day, around twelve, Midge got a call from Daniel. He said that Ed would call in the investigators that afternoon, the investigators would handle how things went. They probably wouldn't hear anything for a day or two, but they could be called in to the newspaper offices to talk to them. Daniel said that he'd asked for afternoons only for the girls so as to give the least interruption to their schooling, and insisted he must be there for any such meeting. The girls weren't to speak to anyone involved with the newspaper without him being present, not even Isabel.

Midge passed it on to the others.

First meeting with Philip

Two days later Daniel phoned again, "Can you come to my office for a quarter to two? We'll go round to the newspaper for a two o'clock meeting, an investigator will be there."

That afternoon, Daniel walked with the four girls to the newspaper offices. Isabel was waiting for them in the reception area with Crutch, he immediately ran to the twins, who started fussing over him. Isabel led them to the conference room. Ed and another man were already there, they stood up. Ed said, "This is Philip, he's leading this investigation. Philip, these are Kitty if I recognise you from the photographs, the twins are Midge and Molly, I've no idea which is which, but it doesn't seem to matter, and Chloe, hope I've got you two right." The two nodded, the girls all said "Hello." "And Daniel, their solicitor and the twins' legal guardian." Daniel shook hands with Philip.

The girls sat along one side of the table, the twins in the middle, Kitty and Chloe outside them, Daniel sat at the end. Sitting opposite the girls were Ed at the end nearest to Daniel, then Philip and Isabel. Daniel and Philip exchanged business cards.

Ed started, "Philip, I think you wanted to do your own introduction." Philip nodded, "Yes, thank you. Midge and Molly, I'm sorry about your parents, I found out they were two of the good guys." Midge and Molly just said "Thank you".

Philip continued, "I've been doing a little snooping about you four, I like to know who we're working with. Kitty, Chloe, I know you've both come from, how shall I say, difficult backgrounds, which is why you went to that school."

Seeing two very worried‑looking faces, he added "It's all right, I'll say no more about that.

"Midge, Molly, you two are an enigma. You had a very good home, but you were always naughty. However, as far as I can tell, you were never nasty with it, you never hurt anybody."

Midge interrupted "Except our parents." Molly added, "But we loved them." And in unison "We still do."

Philip nodded. "That's what I understand. Oh, my wife was at the funeral, what she told me was, on the face of it, unbelievable, but everyone I've talked to said the same. And, something else I've gleaned, you two have remarkable physical strength, and are not afraid to use it with considerable skill and to good effect, if 'good' is the right word for the outcome."

Midge was about to speak, Daniel cut her off, "I think 'No comment' is the right response to that."

Philip nodded, "Probably. I have also found out from contacts at the hospital that you two have remarkable healing ability from injuries that appear to be the result of, shall we say, over exuberant play. I've also heard you have a talent for helping other patients in the hospital in their general well‑being and possibly with their illnesses, though no one knows how that help comes about. You certainly cheer everyone up, staff as well as patients."

The twins remained silent.

Philip continued, "Okay, that's really to let you know I am aware that you are somewhat special.

"Now, the real business. I've listened to Isabel's recording. I've noticed it's had bits removed from it, Isabel assures me these are personal snippets that have no bearing on the issue at hand.

"If what you say is true, this suggests major crime on several fronts. Oh, I'm not doubting your word, I am assured by all who know you that you don't lie. But the problem is proof. If we were to take this to the police now, I don't think this would get anywhere. I have a feeling there may be some high‑level involvement that is protecting the school. But that is just a feeling, nothing more.

"Right, we can divide things into several areas.

"Sterilisation. We need both to confirm it happened and prove the school was behind it.

"Illegal punishment, cane and whipping. Indeed, any corporal punishment is illegal, but these are the ones that will really hit home. Oh, no pun intended.

"Disappearances. Where are these girls going to, and for what?

"The really difficult one. How come they've been managing to get away with this for goodness knows how many years?"

The girls were holding hands, all had tears running down their faces. Isobel put her hand on Philip's arm, quietly said to him, "Please remember, even though they've experienced a lot in life, they are just sixteen‑year‑old children." Philip nodded, "Yes. They do seem very strong, but you're quite right." Daniel: "Thank you Isabel. Ed, could we have a short break? Maybe some coffee?"

Fifteen minutes later, they resumed. Philip: "Let's start with the sterilisation. I'm afraid the girls will have to be examined by a specialist who will be accepted as an expert witness by a court. I know of one, I'll get in contact, see what he says, and what he'll charge. These things won't be cheap. Ed, that will have to be added to our usual rates."

Ed nodded, "Let me know, I'll have to get it cleared."

Philip: "Girls, are you prepared for this? It won't be pleasant, but it is necessary." All four nodded.

Daniel said "We have discussed this already, they realise the importance. But I must insist that I or my wife, Audrey, goes with them, she and I are the legal guardians of the twins, and Kitty and Chloe see her as a mother figure. I'd prefer to be there, but I won't insist on that if Audrey is with them. It is our job to protect the girls. This must be factored in to any arrangements."

Philip said "You really care, don't you?" Daniel nodded. "I see them as my own children. All four of them."

All four girls got up, went to Daniel, each hugged him in turn, they sat down again.

Daniel, smiling, "They can be very demonstrative of their feelings."

Philip continued, "The punishments. There have been odd reports that girls from the convent have been to hospital for routine treatment having unusual marks on them. Nothing definitive. The only way to prove this is happening is for first hand witnessing. Girls, how often does this occur?" Midge and Molly started their alternating speaking, "While we" "were there, it" "was every couple of" "weeks or so." "But most of" "those were on" "us." ‑ The last word was spoken by both together.

Isabel, Ed and Philip were all looking somewhat puzzled at the twins, Isabel asked "How do they speak like that?" Daniel answered, "They always have, usually when they are very excited about something, or, in this case, emotional. Please listen to them as if it was one of them speaking. Don't look at them if you find it off‑putting, their voices are identical."

Philip said "I certainly understood it all right, but they continue to amaze me. Anyway, the only real proof would be if we caught them in the act. What I would like to be able to do is video it happening, though unfortunately that means there must be a victim. Girls, can you tell me the arrangement of the room where this is done?"

Midge described the abbess's study, the door at one end, a desk towards one side, and it was over that desk that whoever was being punished was held.

There's a cupboard and a filing cabinet on the opposite side from the desk, a window opposite the door. Philip asked "Can the window be seen through by anyone outside?" Molly replied "Yes, the curtains are always open, there would be no cover, anyone outside would be seen." "Is there a clear view of the sky?" "Yes."

Daniel asked "What are you thinking?" Philip replied "A surveillance drone. We use them. They are very quiet, very good optics on the camera, if it can see what's happening from the air, it will give us a good video recording. The problem is timing. They don't have a very long hover time, we would need to know when a punishment was taking place. And unfortunately, as I said, there would have to be a victim. Girls, was there ever a set time of day for these punishments?" Kitty answered, "No, it was simply whenever someone was found being naughty."

Midge and Molly turned towards each other, put their hands up, interlocked fingers and stared at each other.

After watching them for half a minute, Ed asked "What are they doing?" Daniel quietly spoke to Ed "They do this sometimes, they are communicating. Don't understand it, but it seems to work."

"Yes," said Kitty, "talking, in their own way." Daniel added "It's something they do, though this looks pretty intense, it's usually only just a second or so." Chloe: "It's unusual to see their hands like that."

Another minute passed before the twins released their hands, they nodded to each other, they turned to the table.

Isabel asked them, "What was that about?"

Midge said "Sorry, something we needed to understand." Molly: "Nothing we are going to tell you about."

Daniel smiled. "If they say they won't tell us, they won't. I suggest we take no notice, just continue."

Philip: "All right then. Ed, I'll find out about consultant's fees, let you know, should get that to you by tomorrow. Meanwhile, we'll start looking into disappearances, but it won't be easy if they've been well hidden. But that's our job. We'll think about the punishment thing."

Ed: "Anyone else want to add anything?"

Isabel: "Nothing at the moment."

Daniel looked at the girls, all shook their heads. "I think that's it for now for us. Please let me know about the consultancy." Then, "Look, we don't know who might possibly be involved in this, could we all make sure that only people who absolutely must know what we are doing are told? That all are sworn to secrecy, even from family?"

Ed and Philip both nodded. Ed did add "Getting the funding does require talking with the owners, I'll do my best."

Philip nodded, "Right. Thank you all. Girls, good to meet you, I hope we can do this for you." Midge: "It's not for us." Molly: "It's for the others." Together: "But thank you."

The meeting broke up, Daniel walked the girls back to his office. In the outer office, Audrey greeted them, gave each girl a hug.

Daniel said "Chloe, Kitty, could you stay here for a moment? I want to talk to Midge and Molly on their own."

Midge and Molly both nodded to the other two, Midge said "It's all right, we'll be safe in there." All four smiled at this.

In the office, the door closed, Daniel said "I've met you two before. I have a sneaking suspicion you are planning to do something, probably with Philip. Whatever it is, I don't think I want to know in advance, because I suspect I wouldn't allow it. Please don't do anything too dangerous. Do we understand each other?"

Midge replied "I think we do." Molly added "Not too dangerous."

Daniel gave them each a hug and a kiss on the forehead. "Please, just be careful. Now, go back to the others before they send in a search party."

Back in the outer office, the twins just smiled at the other two, then Midge said "Let's go home." They all said their goodbyes to Daniel and Audrey, walked home. Where possible they were hand in hand, four abreast. Where they had to go in twos, unusually Molly paired with Chloe, Midge with Kitty.

The twins make dangerous plans

When they got home, Kitty asked "What's going on? You don't normally behave like this."

Midge answered "We are planning something. You mustn't know about it in advance." Molly: "Please trust us, we have to do this." Midge: "We will tell you all about it later." Molly: "It will benefit everyone."

Chloe glanced at Kitty, then to the twins "We have to trust you." Kitty added "Please, be careful."

Midge and Molly gave them both a hug. Then Midge said "Can you prepare tea?" Molly: "We need a little time alone."

Chloe "All right. But we don't like it."

Kitty and Chloe went into the kitchen, Midge and Molly went into the dining room, shut the door.

Molly: "Phone?" Midge: "Daniel card desk" meaning Daniel had Philip's business card on his desk. Then, without any shorthand, "I think he knew we would want it."

Midge phoned Philip.

When it answered, Midge said "Don't say my name. It's Midge. I'm alone with Molly, can we talk?" She listened for a moment, whispered to Molly "Ed. Minute." After a few seconds, then "We want to help with the punishment bit." … "No, can we meet?" … "No, not with Daniel." … "Only later." … "Yes, we'll be here." She ended the call.

To Molly she said "Tonight, here, eight." Molly nodded.

The twins went to the kitchen, gave Kitty and Chloe a hug. Midge said "We've got to have a private word with Philip." Molly: "He's coming here for eight o'clock, we have to see him without you." Together "We're sorry, but we have to do this."

They sat at the kitchen table, Molly next to Kitty, Midge with Chloe. Both twins kept an arm round the waist of the one beside them, pulling them close, they ate one‑handed.

Tea finished, Midge said "Let's go upstairs." They went up, had a group shower. Molly led Chloe to the bed, Midge took Kitty. They climbed in, Midge and Molly kissed the other two everywhere, soon their ministrations were returned, each just kissing any of the others, a demonstration of total affection between them all.

Eventually they dressed and went downstairs, sat in the dining room, did some more schoolwork. All had finished by half past seven. They chatted about nothing in particular until the doorbell went.

Without a word, Kitty and Chloe went into the sitting room, closed the door. Midge opened the front door, showed Philip into the dining room. She shut the door, she really didn't wan't Kitty and Chloe to hear their discussion.

Midge and Molly explained their idea. They would sneak into the convent, be 'discovered' by the nuns. They would probably receive corporal punishment straight away, but they would do something bad enough to be given the whip. But before they would do any such thing, could Philip ensure the drone would get a good view of the desk? They'd want to do it late evening when it was dark, could the drone's camera see inside with the artificial light? And, no, they never drew the curtains, not even at night.

Philip was taken aback by their apparent willingness to receive a whipping. But he realised this was possibly the only way to ensure they got the video they wanted. He'd start with a daytime test of the drone just to check for the optimum position, then a test in the evening. It was pot luck whether the light was on, but he knew that the camera would work perfectly well. If that all checked out, they'd agree a date. The drone operator was his son, so would be reliable.

Midge and Molly told him to let the whole thing play out, no police, don't try to intervene in any way, he absolutely must let it go through to the end. When they'd finished the discussion, they showed him to the front door. His parting words were "And may god help you." Molly's reply: "God is the nun's excuse for doing this."

Two days later Midge received a text message from Philip, 'Tests good. Date?' Midge showing it to Molly, asked "When?" Molly replied "Friday. Weekend" which meant if they did it on a Friday, they'd have the weekend to recover. Midge texted back 'Friday, nine in the evening?' Philip replied 'Okay. We'll be there. But I will totally understand if you change your mind. Good luck.'

Friday early evening, eating their tea, Midge said to Chloe and Kitty, "Molly and I are going out." Molly: "We don't know when we'll be back." Midge: "If we aren't back by Sunday" "get in touch with" "Daniel and" "through him Philip." "Now, give us" "your best hugs."

Hug they did, Kitty and Chloe bawling their eyes out.

Dangerous plan carried out

Eight o'clock, the twins went out. They'd put on their school uniforms, they slipped into the night, staying clear of any security or traffic cameras. At quarter to nine, two shadows might have been seen climbing over the spiked school gates. Staying out of any lit areas, in five minutes they'd reached the front door. It took Molly about three seconds to pick the lock, they listened for the sounds of anyone in the hallway. Hearing nothing, they pushed open the door, they were inside, they closed the door quietly behind them.

At five to nine the two made sure they were discovered by stumbling just as they passed the lounge where some of the nuns would spend the evening. The door opened, the two were grabbed. They were dragged into the lounge to where the abbess was sitting. She peered into their faces, "You! What are you doing here? Missed us? To my study."

The twins were dragged by their hair, apparently making the effort to escape. Once in the study, Midge had her blouse removed, her skirt lowered, she was laid down on her front over the desk. The whip was taken from the cupboard, and used on her. Once, twice, many more times. Welts appeared on her back, several bleeding. Then it was Molly's turn, she was treated the same. Neither twin showed any sign of pain, they remained impassive and silent throughout, not even flinching as each lash connected.

They were dragged out of the study, taken through the kitchens and down into the cellar, their blouses thrown in after them. The door was shut, they heard bolts being moved across.

The twins crawled to each other, hugged for several minutes, Midge asked "How bad?" Molly: "Pretty bad, but still okay. You?" "Same." They had to talk with voices, it was pitch dark.

"It's cold in here, got your blouse?" "Yes, we must wear them." "Will stick to the blood." "Too cold not to."

They put on their blouses. "What's here?" "Racks of wine". "Whatever happens, don't drink." "Bottles can make good weapons." "What's the door like?" They crawled their way back to the wall, felt along it until they found the door. They pulled themselves up, felt round it. "Pretty solid." "No access to a lock." "Anyway, it's bolted from the outside." "Hinges?" "Old, rusty, heavy. No good."

"Need to look round." "Together."

They made their way round the walls, little to find, just rough brickwork.

"Smells a bit of coal." "Coal chute?" "Round again, feel high up." "Or any sign of light."

They went round again, at one point they could feel a draught, it seemed to be coming from above them. "Hatch?" "Probably." "How high?" "Don't know." "You stand on my shoulders, see if can reach." "Strong enough?" "Have to be."

Molly put her hands together as a step for Midge, lifted her as high as she could. Midge managed to step up onto Molly's shoulders, one hand against the wall, precariously balanced. Feeling above her, she spoke. "Wooden cover, double doors, will move a bit if I push, held shut from above. Coming down."

They collapsed on the floor, both feeling very weak.

"Maybe we could move a rack underneath."

"Is there an empty one?"

They got up, explored the whole cellar by touch. "One here with only a few bottles on it." The bottles were taken off, carefully placed on another rack, they didn't want to be tripping over bottles in the dark.

Between them, they could move the rack, jerking it an inch at a time, sometimes stopping to check they were moving it in the right direction, until it was under the chute hatch. They had to rest frequently, it took a couple of hours. After another brief rest, both climbed onto the top of the rack. They felt around, "Hinges this end move bit." "Keep working it."

Taking it in turns, it took another couple of hours, eventually the hinges gave way. They could ease the cover up, but only about six inches, something solid was preventing it opening any further.

"We crawl out, can't lift the cover any more."

With Molly using one hand to help push Midge, the other holding up the cover, Midge crawled out first, ignoring the agony from her back scraping hard on the cover. Whispering "Hurts" as a warning to Molly, it was Midge's turn to hold the cover up as far as it would go and help pull Molly through. When both were out, and keeping close to the wall, ducking under other windows as they passed, they made their way to a side of the perimeter wall where there was a small doorway. They'd used this many time to get out, the lock could be joggled in a certain way to unlock it, it would lock again when closed.

They were out.

The briefest of hugs. Keeping as far as possible in the shadows, they half ran, half walked back to their house, but had to stop several times for a rest.

They reached home at about three in the morning, they rang the doorbell. It was answered in seconds, Chloe and Kitty were still dressed, they'd not gone to bed.

Kitty started to hug one, "No, hurt." Kitty and Chloe led the twins into the kitchen. The backs of their blouses were covered in congealed blood. Midge said "My phone, Philip, last number dialled, camera." With that she collapsed on the floor, Molly was already lying face down, they managed to find each other's hand.

Ten minutes later, the doorbell rang. Both Philip and Daniel were there. "Kitchen" said Chloe.

The twins hadn't moved, their blouses were still on. Kitty said "They didn't want us to help them yet, wanted you to see them as they were."

"My god" from Philip. He got his phone out, took a few pictures. Daniel lay down full length so he could talk to them, "We'll sort this. We'll make this worth while." He got a hint of a smile from each of the twins.

Philip, to Daniel, "We should get them to hospital." Midge muttered, "No, stay here." Molly: "Kitty and Chloe look after us." Midge: "Stay blouses off." Molly: "Photographs, backs."

Midge asked "Video?" Philip: "Yes, got it. The whipping and even some faces."

Chloe and Kitty took over.

Chloe said "Sorry, we'll have to get you up a bit to take off your blouses."

"And skirts," "some on bottom" from the twins.

Kitty and Chloe helped first one to kneel up so they could undo the blouse and skirt, then the other. They dropped the skirts as far as they would go, but they couldn't get the blouses off, they were stuck to the girls' backs, so they just left them open and laid the twins back down on their fronts.

Kitty asked Daniel to find some towels to use as pillows, he came back with two folded ones, gently lifted each twin's head to put a towel underneath.

Chloe found a pair of scissors, she cut down both sides of the blouses' backs to separate it so the front and sleeves could be taken off, leaving the backs still stuck to the congealing blood on the twins' backs. The skirts they could slide from the twins's legs.

Between them, Kitty and Chloe soaked the blouses in warm water to free them from the wounds, gradually pealing them away, all the time washing their backs as carefully as they could. When the blouse backs were off, they cleaned the whole of their backs, also over their bottoms where some lashes had landed, though the latter weren't as bad. When patted dry, the two applied antiseptic, which made even the twins writhe with the stinging, but not a sound.

Throughout all of this, Philip was frequently taking photographs.

When they were as clean as they could get them, Kitty said "We won't cover them. They'll heal best in the open." They just heard a mumble from Molly, "Good girl."

Now Chloe lay down to speak to the twins, "We have to get you to bed." "Don't make me laugh" from one of the twins. "Makes it hurt" from the other. That little bit of humour was a bit of a relief for the rest.

Another ring of the doorbell, Kitty went, it was Audrey. "Daniel told me not to come, but I had to." Kitty said "They are all right really, but they look awful. Please, be ready, but they will be fine."

Kitty held her hand, led her to the kitchen. Daniel immediately went to her, held her, "They will be all right. You know them." If he hadn't been holding her, she would have collapsed when she saw the bloody welts across the twins' backs. She just gasped, she let Daniel help her to a chair.

He said "We were about to take them upstairs, you could help. Can you carry one?" She nodded. He went to Midge, whispered "Audrey will carry you, let's get you on you feet." With Daniel on one side, Audrey on the other, they lifted Midge by her shoulders, got her standing. Audrey went in front of her, bent down. "Put your arms round my neck, I'll lift you by your bottom."

As soon as Audrey got Midge's feet off the floor, Midge hoisted herself up a bit, wrapped her legs round Audrey's waist. Audrey started up the stairs, Chloe following closely behind. Midge muttered "Toilet", Audrey took her to the bathroom, sat her on the toilet. When she was done, with Audrey supporting her, she managed to get up and walk to the bed. Audrey pulled back the covers, Midge crawled on, moved towards the middle, laid down on her front. Chloe leant over, gave her a kiss on her cheek.

Kitty and Daniel got Molly up, she clung on to Daniel in just the same way, he took her upstairs, sat her on the toilet. He went out of the bathroom leaving Kitty and Chloe to help her walk to the bed, she got in beside Midge, they held hands, seemed to be asleep immediately.

The others all went downstairs and into the kitchen, where Philip was just sitting at the table. Audrey asked "You knew they were going to do this? How could you?" Philip replied "Daniel didn't know, Midge and Molly came up with the plan, insisted we should do it." Daniel said to Audrey "I knew they were planning something, they wouldn't tell me what. I'd have stopped it if I'd known."

Philip said "I just didn't realise how bad it would be, thought it would just make some marks. God knows I would never have agreed to this if I'd known. Did they even know?" Kitty answered. "They've come back to the dormitory several times a bit like that, this wasn't the worst. And they wouldn't tell us what they were going to do." Chloe added "They would have done it anyway, even without the drone, just to show the result, that's the way they are."

Audrey was just staring at the bloodied blouses, cloths and cotton wool still on the floor. She got to her feet, "I need some tea." She put the kettle on, readied the teapot, found some mugs, got milk from the fridge, put some in the mugs. Kitty picked up the pieces of one of the blouses, said "Don't know whether to wash them or throw them away." Philip said "Let me take them as they are. Have you got any sealable bags they would fit in?" Kitty opened a couple of drawers until she found some large freezer bags. She brought out two, put the remains of a blouse in each, handed them to Philip. He was taking photographs of Kitty putting the pieces in the bags, then he used a ballpoint pen to write the date and the time on each bag on the bags' white panels. He photographed them again, "Chain of evidence" he muttered.

Audrey poured out the tea, put the mugs on the table. But Kitty suddenly said "I've got to go to them. She ran out, closely followed by Chloe. The two ran upstairs, took their dresses off, laid on their fronts one either side of the twins. Audrey and Daniel came up, whispered "Good night", left the four.

When they came down, Philip was looking at his phone. Daniel asked "Did you get enough?" "Yes" answered Philip. Do you want to see?" Audrey immediately said "No." Daniel nodded, "I'd better." He took the phone from Philip. Philip said "This is on our web site, but not available without logging on. We've taken off the beginning and the end where there's no activity. It totals about two hours, this part is about half an hour."

The video started with a wide angle view of the side of the building. A light was seen coming on in one of the windows. The picture zoomed in to just the window, inside could be seen the desk, the whipping the twins got, and the way each twin was yanked off the desk by her hair. Occasionally a nun would move so that her face was towards the window, the view good enough so that they might possibly be recognised later. When the light in the window went out, the picture zoomed out to once again show the side of the building, then it ended.

Daniel watched it impassively from start to finish, but by the end there were tears streaming down his face. Philip commented "My son was controlling the drone and the camera. He wanted to call the police as the first stroke hit the girl. But the twins were absolutely adamant that we should let it continue. I found it very hard to do so, but equally I didn't want to go against their wishes. They did seem to know what they were doing."

Daniel replied "Yes, they usually do, but this was …" His voice tailed off, he just shook his head. Then "Where do we go from here?" Philip said "I'll show this to Ed tomorrow. It's Saturday, not much else can happen until next week. This will certainly make sure we get the funding to continue the investigation."

Daniel went to Audrey, "Do you want to go home, or do you want to stay here?" "Can we both stay?" "Of course."

Philip asked "Will they be all right?" Daniel answered "I am sure they will, but I don't know how long they'll be incapacitated. That depends on whether they can heal as quickly as they usually do."

Philip: "I'll go now, but please ring me in the morning, let me know how they are." Daniel nodded. They said their goodbyes, Daniel closed the front door. He went back to Audrey, "Spare room?" "Yes" she said. She washed up the tea things, put them away, then they went upstairs. Audrey went in to the girls' bedroom, touched Chloe on her shoulder, whispered "We're staying." Chloe nodded, whispered back "Thank you." Audrey pulled a sheet to cover as much of the girls as she could without touching any wounds, then left them.

In the morning, Audrey and Daniel were down first, Audrey made some tea. A little while later, Chloe popped her head round the door, "Not dressed yet, we are going to give them a shower." She disappeared. Daniel managed "At least she's showing some modesty." Which made Audrey smile.

A little while later, all four girls came down, Chloe holding one twin's hand, Kitty the other's. Audrey jumped up, went to them, looked at each twin's face in turn, asked "How are you?" She got the reply "Hurting" "but we'll" "be okay." "We've had" "worse." Audrey shook her head, then "Can I cook you breakfast?" "Oh, yes please," "anything not to" "have to eat" "Kitty's cooking." Audrey, Daniel and Chloe laughed, Kitty came to them, grinning, threatened to punch them, ended up kissing each full on the mouth. "For once I wanted to hear that."

The twins sat down at the table, they were being very careful, they didn't want to undo any healing that might have gone on overnight. Chloe got two teacloths out, went to the twins, "Hoist your skirts up, sit on these. Don't want your dresses stuck to you. We can rip these off easily", the last part said with a grin. Both twins managed a laugh, they did what Chloe suggested, then "Thank you" in unison.

Kitty showed Audrey where all the supplies were, Audrey cooked a full English. At Chloe's suggestion she did two eggs for each of the twins, "They need protein" she said.

The twins ate slowly, but in the end they were the only ones to clear their plates. The twins looked at Audrey, "Thank you, that was delicious." Then they grinned and winked at Kitty. Kitty told them "Make the most of it, it'll be back to my cooking again soon." All laughed at this, all knew they shared the cooking.

Midge and Molly both stood up, they eased away the teacloths that had started to stick to them and let the skirts drop. They stayed standing to let the wounds on their bottoms relax.

Kitty and Daniel washed up the breakfast things. As they finished, Daniel got a call. He listened, then asked the twins "Can Philip come round with Ed and Isabel?" All four girls nodded. Molly said "Good." Midge: "Need to tell everything." Molly: "Then we'll go back upstairs." Midge: "Must use up some protein." Both twins grinned at Chloe.

Chloe said "I'd better do a bit of shopping, need to top up supplies. Kitty can stay here with them." Audrey offered to go with Chloe, who readily accepted. They got some shopping bags and went out.

Ten minutes later, the doorbell rang, Kitty answered it, Isabel, Ed and Philip were there. Seeing Isabel's concern, she just said "Kitchen." Isabel ran there, Ed and Philip following. Isabel knelt in front of the still standing twins, "I saw a bit of the video, how do you survive?" Midge answered "No choice." Molly: "It had to be done."

Ed said "I'm glad that you can at least stand. That was horrendous." Isabel asked "Can I record this?" Daniel nodded, "Same rules though, we may ask you to stop, even delete something." Isabel nodded her agreement.

Daniel suggested they go into the sitting room as there were more seats. They went in, Midge and Molly remained standing. Isabel asked "Can't you sit down?" Midge replied "Not good to sit."

Molly asked "Where do you want us to start?" Isabel replied "From when you were outside the school." Midge said "Let's make if after we were in the grounds. Don't want to let anyone know how we got in or out." "No" from Molly, inside the building." Midge "Right. I'm slipping, don't want anyone to know that, either."

Kitty was looking worried at them, a slight difference in their thinking. Midge picked up on Kitty's look, "Sorry, not at our best." Molly: "Don't worry, we'll be back to normal soon." Philip and Ed looked puzzled, they weren't yet used to the twins apparent total like‑mindedness, so didn't understand what was worrying Kitty, but they said nothing.

The twins, in their usual alternating manner, described everything from stumbling outside the lounge door through to getting out of the coal‑chute hatch. No one interrupted, Isabel was in tears, Ed and Philip had very grim looks on their faces, even Daniel was frowning.

Philip said "That was horrible, how on earth could you let yourselves in for it?" Ed managed "Awful." He didn't dare say anything else. Daniel said "If you have any questions, please make them brief, these two need to lie down."

Ed and Philip all shook their heads. Isabel said "Maybe later when this has sunk in a bit, but certainly not today."

Midge said "Daniel's right, we do need to lie down. Kitty, come up with us."

Philip stopped his recording, then said "Can I photograph your backs again?" The twins looked at Daniel, he nodded. Midge said "We'll go up to the bedroom, you can do it there." Molly: "in a couple of minutes Kitty will fetch you."

With Kitty following them the whole while, the twins went upstairs, went through the bedroom into their bathroom, They dropped their dresses, used the toilet, then back into the bedroom and laid face down on the bed. Midge said to Kitty, "Timer for half an hour, no more." "Will I be able to wake you?" "Should be fine." "Okay, I'll get Philip up to photograph you." Kitty set her phone timer and went downstairs, beckoned Philip. She led him up to the bedroom, where the twins appeared to be asleep, Midge's hand was resting just below Molly's neck. Their wounds were mostly dry scabs, a few were still weeping.

Philip took a few photographs, including some closeups. He muttered "Who'd spoil such beauty like that?" Kitty, looking at him, "Fucking nuns, that's who. Oh, sorry, didn't mean to say that out loud." Philip, still looking at the twins, "I do agree with you."

Kitty got out two clean dresses, laid them on the bed for the twins. She picked up the ones they had worn, there was blood on them. The two went downstairs, Kitty put the dresses by the washing machine and walked into the sitting room.

As she was doing so, Audrey and Chloe came in, each carrying two laden shopping bags. Chloe saw Kitty going into the sitting room, just dropped her bags, went to Kitty, who said "Upstairs, they've started." Chloe brushed past Audrey, ran upstairs, she sat on the bed and started gently crying. Kitty picked up Chloe's bag and followed Audrey into the kitchen.

"I'll put the stuff away, you can go to them." Audrey nodded her thanks and went upstairs, sat with Chloe, hugging her. Chloe told her "Seen this before. One's helping the other. They'll take it in turns, rests between. I expect they've told Kitty when to wake them."

Audrey said "Let's go down, they're safe up here." Chloe got up, hand in hand they went downstairs, to find Daniel had made them all coffee. "All right?" he asked Audrey. "I suppose so" she replied.

Audrey sat down beside Daniel. Kitty sat on Audrey's lap, curled herself up, buried her head in Audrey's chest, Chloe did the same with Daniel. Daniel started stroking her hair, he said to Philip, Ed and Isabel, "As legal guardians of the twins, and being seemingly adopted by these two as their parents, Audrey and I couldn't have four nicer kids."

They sat in silence, the adults sipping their coffee. After a while, Kitty's phone beeped. She got off Audrey, without a word she went upstairs, Chloe following. They each shook a twin's shoulder, both opened their eyes, smiled at each other, then Midge said "I sleep now." Molly knelt up, kissed her sister's cheek, climbed off the bed. She gave Kitty a little hug, then Chloe. She put a dress on, they went hand in hand downstairs. As they went into the sitting room, the adults all looked at her, she smiled, said "Worst of the pain gone. I'll go upstairs in a bit, return the favour."

Philip asked "Is this what I've heard about? Helping others feel better?" Only Molly said anything, "She just rested her hand on me for a while." Philip shook his head.

Ed turned to Philip, "I think we should leave these good people." Philip said "Yes, oh, Daniel, the video, both the one you saw and the original complete one." He handed Daniel a memory stick. Isobel stood up, gave Kitty and Chloe a brief hug. She went to Molly, held her face in her hands, kissed her forehead. "Give your sister a kiss from me."

They all said their goodbyes, Daniel showed the three to the door, he returned to the sitting room. "Shall we go?" he asked Audrey. Molly said "We'll be fine, worst is over. Well, except for Kitty's cooking, of course." That made them all laugh. Kitty said "Taking advantage of our condition, are we?" "Of course, why not?" Kitty went to Molly, kissed her. And, quietly, "Love you."

Audrey said "If you need anything, or want me back here, just ring." She and Daniel said their goodbyes.

Straight away, Molly took off her dress, "Don't want to risk getting it stuck." Kitty and Chloe immediately examined Molly's back. Chloe said "It's started, but a long way to go." Molly nodded. "Still hurts like anything. Does it need cleaning?" Kitty replied "We should do it anyway. Can't risk infection. Come upstairs again, oh, you're okay to go up and down?" "Should be okay. But definitely not myself."

They went upstairs, Molly had a look at Midge as they went into the bedroom, but didn't disturb her. Kitty and Chloe took their dresses off, the three went into the shower. They washed Molly down, they very gently used their fingers along the wounds on Molly's back. Any seepage they washed off, any loose scabs they took off, didn't disturb anything else.

They all got out of the shower. Between them, Kitty and Chloe carefully dabbed Molly's back dry, let her dry the rest. When Molly had finished, Kitty, then Chloe, dried themselves with the towel. They just looked at Midge as they went by the bed, then went downstairs.

Kitty said "Lunch." To Molly, "What's best for Midge and you? Audrey bought us enough to feed us for a month, and a selection of just about everything that's edible."

Molly replied "Anything that's healthy, meat or fish, vegetables, carbs, anything like that." Chloe said "Sit yourself down, Kitty and I will do something. We assume Midge will be down within twenty minutes?" "Should be, she's only sleeping the effort off."

They grilled some steak to have with potatoes, cabbage, peas and carrots. Midge came down, gave each of the three a kiss, gingerly sat down on the teacloth that had been left on her chair. They ate their fill. Finished, Kitty cleared the plates,

Chloe got a dinner plate, went to the working surface where much of the shopping had been dumped. She got a selection of fruit, apples, pears, bananas, oranges, put them on the plate. She brought it to the table, "You did say healthy. Audrey insisted on getting these." Midge said "Can't be bad." Molly, biting into a pear, "Not bad at all, very tasty." Midge tried one, "You're right, it's really good." Together the twins said "But then, Kitty didn't cook these." All four girls laughed, Chloe and Kitty hugging each other. Midge and Molly had to control their own laughter so they didn't move too much.

As she was sitting down, Kitty said to the twins "Thank you for that, but you are really going to get it when you're better."

Molly suggested that Kitty and Chloe should eat the other two pears, saying "They won't last another day." Kitty and Chloe each took a pear, "These are really nice." "Never had one before." "Nor me."

Kitty made some tea, all the while smiling to herself, so pleased that the twins could find humour. After the twins had finished their tea, Molly said "We'll go upstairs again, could you come with us?" Midge "Stay with us until we're on the bed?" Kitty held Midge's hand, Chloe held Molly's, they led them upstairs to the bathroom. Midge used the toilet, she and Kitty went into the shower, easier to avoid hurting the twin with just the two of them. Molly used the toilet, stayed sat there until Midge and Kitty were out, then she and Chloe went in.

When they'd dried, Midge was already lying on the bed. Molly laid down beside her, said "Half an hour, please." She put her hand just above the highest weal on Midge's back, both twins closed their eyes.

Kitty set her phone timer, she and Chloe went downstairs, cleared up, washed the dishes and pots and pans. They'd just finished when Kitty's phone beeped, they went up, once again woke the twins. Molly took her hand off Midge, whispered "Thank you", promptly closed her eyes. Midge climbed out of bed, just looked at Molly, then hugged each of Chloe and Kitty. "Could I have some more tea?"

They took it into the sitting room. Kitty went upstairs and brought down a sheet to cover a settee so Midge could sit there. They drank tea in silence, after a while Molly came down, sat beside Midge, the twins kissed. Molly said "Any tea left, even if cold?" Kitty said she'd make some more. When she returned with a replenished tray, Midge asked "Can you two keep doing the half hour wakings the rest of the day and through the night?" Molly added "It would help us recover quickest." Kitty and Chloe spoke in unison, "Of course we can." Kitty added "Whatever you need." Chloe "We'll do whatever is best for you."

They continued this sequence, the twins together, one's hand on the other's back for half an hour, the 'giver' sleeping for a while, the 'receiver' getting up until the sleeping one woke, then swapping. They stopped at teatime to eat sandwiches, the twins also ate an orange each. They continued with another break in the evening, the twins wanted to eat something with energy. Chloe suggested some chocolate cake that Audrey had bought, seemed perfect for the twins.

They had another shower. When Kitty and Chloe examined the weals, none showed any sign of bleeding, most scabs had gone, leaving angry‑looking scars. Both twins said they were itching more than hurting.

They continued into the night. About three in the morning, instead of starting a new session, the twins said they wanted to just sleep, and please leave them until they woke naturally.

All four went to sleep, none woke until Audrey came in, she touched the nearest to her which was Kitty. Kitty woke, immediately sat up, then realised it was Audrey. "They wanted to be left to sleep, they've been hard at it the rest of yesterday and most of the night." Chloe sat up, said "Hello." She and Kitty got out of bed, put on dresses, went downstairs with Audrey.

Daniel was there, he'd made some tea. "All right?" he asked. Kitty replied "Yes, they just wanted to sleep normally for a while." Chloe said "They are much better, but more to do." Kitty: "This must be why they chose the Friday, to give themselves the weekend to recover some." Chloe: "Fea and Tom will be here on Monday." Kitty: "They'll be well enough by then." Chloe: "But a few more days to be back to normal." Kitty grinned, said to Audrey, "We've experience from school. Chloe: "We've a good idea on how many sessions are needed."

Kitty said "Change of subject, getting that fruit was a really good idea, twins loved it." Chloe mumbled "Not cooked by Kitty." Kitty set upon Chloe, they started their usual fighting on the floor, but ended up hugging and laughing. Daniel said "For once I'm glad to see you fighting." As he was speaking, the twins walked in, Midge said "Can't leave them alone …" Molly completed "… for a moment." Then in unison, "Hello."

Audrey asked "How are you?" "A lot better, thank you." "Itches rather than hurts." "No bleeding." Audrey asked "Can I see?" Both twins undid the top buttons of their dresses, turned their backs to Audrey and slipped the tops down. Daniel, for once, didn't leave the room, he wanted see just as much as she did. "May I touch?" he asked. "Go ahead."

He felt along one or two of what were becoming scars. "Remarkable." Then "No more photographs, it'll look as if they weren't as bad as we know they were." Audrey said "Seeing you like that does make me feel a little bit better, thank you." The twins did up their dresses again.

Kitty said "Breakfast." Molly immediately replied "Only if Audrey cooks it." Kitty went to Molly, stood really close, noses almost touching. "You know you said you were much better?" Molly said nothing, barely able to stifle laughter. "Well, this is what you deserve." She gave Molly a prod on her shoulder with a finger. "Hope that hurt." Molly grabbed Kitty, hugged her. "Love you" she softly said.

Kitty pulled herself away, said to Audrey, "Could you, please? Even I will admit your cooking's better than mine."

All six of them laughed, Audrey set about breakfast for the girls. "We've had ours" she said as she put four plates on the table. Daniel had fetched a couple of chairs from the dining room, he made some tea. They all sat while the girls finished eating. As each girl finished, she said "Thank you."

When they'd finished drinking their tea, Midge asked "Did you want to talk about anything?" Molly: "If not, we'd like to go upstairs again." Daniel said "You go ahead." Kitty asked "Half hourly?" Molly replied "Three quarters." Midge: "It's getting easier as we mend." Molly: "We may wake ourselves anyway." Midge: "But do time us to be sure."

With a thanks to Audrey, the twins went upstairs, Kitty set her phone timer.

Daniel said to Kitty and Chloe, "Girls, yesterday we joked about you adopting us as parents. We've thought about becoming your legal guardians, taking you off the council books. I'm sure the council will go for it, and we'd have to talk to your trustees, see about your financing. But, frankly, we'd support you even without such funding, at least until you get control of your own funds. Would you like that?"

Kitty and Chloe looked at each other, one ran to Audrey, one to Daniel, hugged them, and with tears rolling down their faces, they said in unison "We'd love that." Daniel grinned, "The twins' influence is rubbing off on you." Audrey, smiling, "In this case it's a good thing."

Daniel: "I'll set things in motion, but no guarantees yet. If you are all right, we'll leave you." Kitty and Chloe swapped who they were hugging. Kitty asked "Can we tell the twins?" "Of course. We wanted to get your reaction without any influence from them, and I know they will like the idea."

They said their goodbyes, Daniel and Audrey left. The two girls grabbed each other, twirled round each other, moving right round the kitchen until one banged into the table. "Ouch." The other said "Okay, washing up to do."

A little later on, Midge came into the kitchen. "Hello, any coffee going? Molly's sleeping now." Then "And what are you two so excited about?" Kitty answered "We'll wait until both of you are down, tell you together." Midge: "Okay, anything I should be worried about?" Chloe: "We'll have to wait for your reaction. Anyway, how are you?" Midge: "Improves every time. A bit more, only a few scars left."

They made coffee, chatted about nothing in particular until Molly came down. "Do I smell coffee? And, what's everyone excited about?" Midge glanced at her. Molly said "Oh, a secret from both of us?"

Kitty and Chloe told the twins what Daniel had said, both twins were delighted. "Ooh, more sisters." said Midge. Molly added "Can tease you extra hard." Kitty laughed, "It may not be possible, Daniel's got to look into it." Chloe said "But he's hopeful."

They made more coffee, when they'd drunk it, the twins went upstairs again, Kitty set her timer just in case.

The day continued, the twins alternating their treatment of each other. They stopped for lunch, Kitty saying "Sorry, but you're stuck with my cooking." Molly: "Hate to say this …" Midge continued "… but it's worth it." All of them laughed, all had helped prepare their lunch.

They stopped again around seven for a late tea. The twins said they'd done enough, they felt perfect, just a few marks left, and they were thoroughly worn out. After they'd eaten, Molly suggested a shower, they left the tea things, went upstairs, had a group shower.

They ended up in bed, no covers, playing with each other. After half an hour, Midge said "Enough, we were tired before we came up." Molly: "We've proved we function as we should." Midge "Now, clear off the pair of you." Molly: "Even if you are extra sisters." Kitty and Chloe laughed, got off the bed. Kitty said "That's extra sisters we hope." Chloe "Anyway, we'll do our Cinderella bit, do the washing up." Kitty "But at least our two sisters aren't all that ugly." The twins, in unison, "Go away, need sleep."

When Chloe and Kitty went to bed that night, as usual they got in, one each side of the twins. What wasn't usual was that each twin turned towards her new arrival, hugged and kissed her, held her hand while they all went to sleep.

In the morning, Midge and Molly woke first, Molly said "Come on, sleepyheads, today's a schoolday." Midge: "Tom and Fea coming."

Invasive examination

A few days went by, schoolwork continued to more than satisfy their tutors. On Thursday, Daniel phoned Midge at lunchtime, told her that the consultant was organised to do their tests. He would do them on Saturday afternoon, two o'clock if that was okay. Midge asked the others, there were no objections. Daniel said it would be at the hospital, the consultant would probably need to use a scanner, he'd booked it from three in the afternoon.

They arranged that Daniel would pick them up at half past one, and they weren't to eat a big meal at lunchtime, Audrey would feed them in the evening.

Saturday afternoon found Daniel and the four girls sat in an otherwise empty hospital waiting room. Shortly after they arrived, Philip came in, "Got to keep track of events first hand, I'll stay until all of you have been examined."

The consultant arrived with a nurse. He introduced himself as a consultant in the gynaecological department, "Call me Clayton, this is Wendy, she will attend all examinations." Philip introduced himself, then Daniel, who shook Clayton's hand, Daniel told Clayton he was a family friend, solicitor and legal guardian of two of the girls, hoping to make it of all four. The girls were sitting in a row holding hands, Daniel pointed to each girl in turn, said "Kitty, Midge and Molly, Chloe." He added "I'll tell you now, all four will want to be there as you examine each of them, hope you don't mind."

Clayton smiled, "Not uncommon to have one family member in, I'm sure it'll be all right, so long as they are quiet." All four girls nodded. He added "A bit lacking in chairs, we'll bring …" Kitty interrupted him, "It's all right," Chloe completed the sentence, "we'll sit on the floor."

Midge and Molly let go of the other twin's hand, used the freed hand to prod Kitty and Chloe in the ribs. "That's our" "game." Kitty and Chloe were about to dig the twins back, Daniel said "Stop." Then, to Clayton, "They are all sixteen. Sometimes they act as if they are forty‑six, but all too often as if they are six. They can behave if they want to." The twins took each other's hand again.

"No problem" said Clayton, "I'm used to dealing with difficult youngsters." Daniel muttered "There's difficult and then there's difficult." Then, in a normal voice, "They'll be fine, but they might get emotional. Leave them to comfort each other if they do." Clayton nodded, "All right girls, in you come." He opened his consulting room door, the girls went in, still holding hands, Wendy following. Clayton nodded to Daniel and Philip, and followed the others. When he got in, he closed the door, looked round to see the girls sitting cross legged on the floor against a wall, still holding hands, all looking at him, Wendy sat in a chair to one side. Clayton went to his desk, sat at it, turned to the girls.

"Right", he said, "the good thing about you all being in at once is that I only have to give my introduction once.

"First of all I'll ask you some questions, they will get personal. The questions to each of you may differ, they will depend on previous answers. I'd like no interruptions from the others, I want each of you to answer for yourself. Understood?" The four nodded. "After that I'll get Wendy to take a blood sample from you, then I will ask you to get on the couch. I will examine you, it will get intimate, it has to for me to do my job. If you want a rest at any time, just ask, but, as I say, I need to complete the examination to do my job." Again, four nods. "When that is done, if I haven't found any obvious sign of sterility I will ask for a scan. We'll all go together, I gather that is how you want it?" Four nods again.

"It's Kitty on the end? You first?" Molly squeezed Kitty's hand, let her go. Kitty got up, went to the chair beside the desk.

"So, initial questions. Periods?" Kitty shook her head. "Have you ever had them?" "Yes, started about twelve I think." "When did they stop, and was it sudden or did they peter out?" "Stopped dead. Fourteen." "Had you been with a boy?" "Several." "Okay, did you get pregnant?" "Don't know." Kitty's eyes were beginning to water. "I have to ask, why don't you know?" "I may have had an abortion, I don't know." "The big question, why do you think you are infertile?" "The twins told me." "How do they know?" "They felt me." "All right, I don't think that's a good enough reason to know." Kitty was about to say something, Midge quietly said "Just let him do his thing." Molly added "We're not relevant." Kitty nodded. "Please, just do your thing."

Clayton looked at the others, frowning. "I have heard some strange rumours, but I have to stay objective, this is for a legal issue. That's finished the questions. Now, Wendy, could you take the blood sample, please?" Wendy came over, put on surgical gloves. She told Kitty to relax her arm, lean it on the desk, elbow a little bent. "Don't watch if you don't like to see blood." Kitty did watch as Wendy pushed the needle of a syringe into a vein, drew blood into the syringe. She got a spill of cotton wool, held it over the sample site as she pulled the needle out. She held the cotton wool there for a few seconds, lifted it, nodded, pushed it back, stuck a strip of tape over it to hold it in place. "Keep it on for two hours, if it's still bleeding, put a plaster on it."

Wendy labeled the syringe, put it in a small box.

Clayton: "I'll give you a physical examination now if that's all right. If you could lie on the couch, I'll pull the curtains round …" Kitty interrupted him, "No curtains, I want to be able to see the others." "All right, your choice. Take your knickers off, lift your skirt, lie on the couch for me." Before he'd finished, Kitty was on the coach, she'd raised the skirt of her dress to her waist, no knickers. She lay there, staring across at the other girls.

Clayton put on some surgical gloves, first he felt all round her tummy, down to her pubic area. He got some gel, put it on his middle finger, said "Sorry, here we go." He pushed it into her, Kitty's only movement was to widen her legs so Clayton could fully insert his finger. He muttered "Good girl." He moved his finger round, feeling what he could, pulled it out.

"All right, now the endoscope." He took off his gloves, discarded them in a yellow surgical waste bin. He wheeled up a trolly with a computer on it, an endoscope was attached to it. He operated the computer for a moment, "We record it all, I can look at it later if I need to." He put on another pair of gloves, cleaned the endoscope with a couple of wipes, smeared a little gel on it, and did his examination. It took several minutes as he moved it around, looking at the computer screen all the while.

At last he withdrew it. Kitty was gently crying, but she had remained still for him the whole while. He cleaned the endoscope again, looked at her, "Well done, you made it easy for me. You can get dressed now, we've finished this bit. Thank you." Kitty jumped off the couch, ran back to the others. She smoothed her dress and sat down, she hugged Molly, then gripped her hand tightly.

He had Chloe next, pretty much the same responses as Kitty, his reactions the same, frowned again when she gave the same response to 'Why do you think you're infertile?', but he didn't comment.

When he'd finished with Chloe, he asked for Molly. Both twins stood up, they walked to the patients chair, one sat down, the other sat on the floor, still holding hands. "All right" he said, that's fine."

He started with the same questions, but when asked 'Did you get pregnant' Molly answered "Yes." "What happened?" "They made me have an abortion." "Who, your parents?" Both twins screamed, "NO. THE FUCKING NUNS." Kitty and Chloe both rushed to the twins, both shouting "DON'T." Molly looked at them, managed to shake her head. Reluctantly, Kitty and Chloe went back, sat down again.

Clayton was looking perplexed. "What was that about?" Molly was breathing hard, desperately trying to control herself. Midge, not much better herself, said "You suggested our parents might have done that, they never would, they'd have helped us. They loved us." Kitty spoke from the wall, "The twins might have done something to each other, had to stop them." Clayton said "Oh, like at the funeral? I heard about that. Unbelievable. I'm sorry, Molly, I didn't mean to upset you, it's a standard question because it usually is the parents if they knew."

Molly looked at him, "Not your fault. You'd better carry on."

After a moment, he continued. "Okay, next nasty question, was the abortion legal?" "No. Taken to an ordinary house somewhere." "And how do you know you are infertile?" "I feel it in myself." Clayton sat back. "This 'feeling', how does it manifest itself?" "Just know." What about Kitty and Chloe?" "Put a hand on them, it's obvious." "What's wrong with me?" Molly took his hand, after half a minute she said "You seem healthy. You have had some sort of abdominal injury, don't think it's wrong now. I'd have to touch your tummy to know more."

Clayton was intrigued. "Would you do that now?" "If you undo your shirt, best touching your skin." "Okay, we'll try." He undid the lower buttons on his shirt, spread it so Molly could put her hand on him. She closed her eyes for several seconds, opened them, "I think you've had your appendix out. Maybe three or four years ago." She took her hand off.

"You're right. Did you see the scar? You didn't find that on the internet somewhere? Asked anyone about me?" "Couldn't see the scar. Didn't know who you were until you introduced yourself."

Chloe quietly said "They don't lie."

"Okay, a mystery for now. We'd better continue. I think that's enough questions. Let Wendy take your blood, then you can get on the couch for me"

When Molly got on the couch, Midge stood beside it, still holding Molly's hand.

He repeated the internal examination of Molly. When completed, without being asked, Midge sat on the patients chair, Molly sat on the floor and held Midge's hand. His questions to Midge were almost identical as were the answers, but he didn't ask about any parental involvement.

When he'd finished with her, he said "Okay, I'll talk to the others for a moment, I'll get them in." He opened the door, Audrey was there, she'd come to the hospital. Clayton beckoned them in, the girls all stood up, went to Audrey, just clung to her. Daniel looked at them for a moment, then to Clayton "This is my wife, Audrey, she had to come. All four girls are her children as far as she is concerned. And mine for that matter." Philip spoke, "Daniel had to hold her back when we heard one of the twins shouting." Clayton said "Yes, I'm very sorry, something I asked hit a nerve. Should have been a bit more sensitive."

He continued, "Anyway, to business. I've examined all four, no obvious signs of anything, but I can only assess so much with the physical examination. We need to scan them, Wendy, can you ring, make sure they're ready for us?"

Two hours later, the scans were done. Clayton said "I'll have to examine these, can't tell anything with just a casual look. Should know something by tomorrow, can I ring you?" Philip replied, "Yes, as soon as you know anything definitive. This is urgent, it's not just these girls involved, there are others." Clayton nodded, "All right, I'll get on it straight away. Girls, thank you for being so cooperative, there aren't many who would put up with that as well as you did." Kitty spoke, "Had to." Chloe: "Others." Both together "Got to stop it."

"All right" said Clayton, I'll say goodbye at least for now." He shook Daniel's and Philip's hands. Audrey's were trapped by the girls hugging her, she just said "Goodbye, and thank you."

Clayton and Wendy walked off, Wendy could just be heard asking "How did she know?"

Philip said "We've done all we can at the moment, and we can't test other girls in the school to see if your suspicions are right. That would have to be down to the police. The next piece of the investigation would be the disappearances. We've started looking into the girls staying at the school, difficult to do without raising suspicions, but we're making some progress. Then it will be finding out who isn't there who should be, or probably more likely, if there are any who have been officially moved from the school that can't be accounted for."

Daniel said "Please keep me informed, won't you. I'd like to get these four home now, this has been a nasty experience for them." "Understood" from Philip, "I'll leave you. I'll let Ed know we've done the tests."

Philip left. Audrey had come in her own car, the four girls played 'rock, paper, scissors' to decide who would go with Audrey, who with Daniel. Chloe explained "Don't want to be seen playing favourites." In the end, Chloe and Molly went with Audrey, Midge and Kitty with Daniel. Both pairs sat in the back seats, both pinched, punched and laughed at each other all the way back to Daniel and Audrey's house.

When all were indoors, the girls went into the sitting room, Daniel and Audrey went into the kitchen. Daniel asked Audrey, "Did yours fight?" "All the way." "It's a good release for them." "Yes, it's horrible what they just went through. But they'll be all right."

Audrey set about preparing a meal, Daniel made some coffee, he left Audrey with hers and took his and the girls' into the sitting room. "Are we all right?" he asked. He got four nods. Kitty spoke, "Didn't like it one bit." Chloe: "He was gentle, didn't actually hurt." Midge: "Just very" Molly completed: "uncomfortable."

Daniel: "You don't have to answer, but what upset you in there?" Kitty answered, "He asked if it was their parents that took them for an abortion." Molly: "He didn't mean to be horrible." Midge: "Just out of the blue." Chloe: "He said it's often the parents." Daniel nodded. "He's right about that, I've seen it in my work. You're all okay about him now?" All four nodded.

They sat in silence for a while, then the girls started comparing bruises that were beginning to show on their arms. Daniel grinned at them, "No more fighting now, Audrey wouldn't like it. Personally? I don't care." He rapidly put his coffee down as four girls flung themselves at him, playfully hammering his shoulders and chest with their fists. Just as suddenly, all four gave him a kiss on his forehead, got up from him to go back to sit down again. Kitty stopped halfway, went back to pass him his coffee, then followed the others to their settee.

Audrey put her head round the door, "What's all the commotion?" Daniel said "They attacked me. Nothing out of the ordinary." Audrey shook her head, then said "Dinner in five." Audrey stepped back as all four girls rushed for the door, two fell down, probably deliberately tripped. The other two stopped, each grabbed an arm of the prone girls, dragged them through the doorway. There was a muffled shout, "Bathroom." Daniel took the coffee mugs and followed Audrey into the kitchen, put the mugs down. He just said "They're wonderful." She said "I know. Now, help me dish this up."

Clayton's report

Sunday afternoon, Daniel and Audrey came round to the girls. When they were sat in the sitting room, Daniel said he'd signed a release for Clayton's reports to be shared with Philip and the newspaper, but only for the investigation, not for publication. Daniel said he wanted to tell the girls about the report himself.

The consultant had examined the scans, there was a lot of medical jargon, but what it meant was that in all four cases a bit had been cut away that stopped egg production. It was irreparable. The consultant had said that, in its own horrible way, it was very clever.

The girls' reactions to the news were fairly predictable, Midge and Molly just looked downcast, they were already certain of the outcome. Chloe had tears, she sat squeezing Molly's hand. Kitty ran to Audrey, curled up on her lap, cried into her chest.

Daniel said "There's one more thing he said, the results of the blood test. Sorry, again. This is very personal, he said the hormone levels and relative combinations suggest all four of you probably have …" he paused, almost unable to continue, "… a very high … a very high sex drive." He was somewhat surprised that the girls barely reacted. Finally, Molly came out with "I think we already knew that." Daniel: "He did warn that this could make you vulnerable to predatory men taking advantage of you." Midge said "It's not been a problem for us." Even Kitty managed to say "It wasn't sex that attracted me to Red."

After several minutes of silence, Kitty went back to the settee with the others, she said "We'll be all right." Audrey went into the kitchen, made them all tea. It was really an excuse to stay with the girls a little longer.

Investigation approval

The following Tuesday, Daniel rang Midge, "Can I pick you up at a quarter to two for another newspaper meeting?" Midge agreed, told the other girls.

When they got there, Henry, Ed, Philip and Isabel were sat on one side of the conference room table. The four girls sat down opposite, Daniel on the end. Crutch was sat beside Isabel, he whined, looked at her, she said "Go." He ran round, sat between the twins, they fussed over him for a little while.

After the initial greetings, Isabel asked "Can I record this?" Daniel said "As far as I am concerned, yes, but as usual I may ask for the recording to be stopped." "That goes for me as well" from Philip. Isabel nodded, touched her phone a few times, spoke quietly into it saying the time, place, and who was there. Both Philip and Daniel started their phones recording.

Henry spoke next. "The owners are backing this investigation fully. The photos of your backs, that affected everyone, it was dreadful. I hope you recover okay, it must still hurt like blazes. The courage it took to knowingly put yourselves through that, it's unbelievable." The twins didn't respond, just looked at the table in front of them. Henry continued, "Then there was the medical report, two of the owners have daughters, it struck home. So, thank you girls, your ordeal has at least done that."

Then Ed. "We need a plan of action on this. Philip, can you give us your thoughts?"

Philip: "First thing I'd like to do, like Henry, is thank you four girls for all you've done so far.

"An aside, so far everything that you've told us has turned out to be true. I, at least, am now working on the assumption that I can take your word for whatever you've told us, which will help steer the investigation. Oh, sorry if that sounds like I thought you weren't telling the truth, that's not what I meant, it's just that we won't waste time simply verifying things.

"We are working on the disappearances as our priority at the moment. They are well hidden. Um, can we pause the recordings, please?"

The three phones were touched.

"We've hacked into their computer, that was quite easy. But they don't appear to keep records of the girls there, nor contact details of any undesirables. Okay, you can resume recording.

"Unless we can get some details, it's impossible. Girls, do you know the names of any that were affected, also their backgrounds?"

Midge answered, "We know a few names," Molly: "but not their backgrounds." Midge: "Most girls there don't like to talk about their past," Molly: "or why they are there."

Philip: "Well, could you give me the names? We can at least search for them in public records." Philip got out a notebook and pen, Kitty put up her finger, he passed them over to her.

Ed asked "Coffee?" Several nods. Meanwhile, the four girls were talking quietly amongst themselves, every so often Kitty would write down a name, and, if they could remember, what school year they were in and a rough idea as to when they went missing.

Eventually the girls could remember no more, Kitty passed the notebook and pen back to Philip. "Thank you, we'll start looking into these, but it won't be easy."

They carried on discussing things, but were making no real progress.

They decided to stop. Making sure the recordings were stopped, Philip remarked "If only we could access their records, but there's no way." No one noticed a momentary touch of hands between Midge and Molly.

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Introduction