Mandm

Mandm
Part 10.040 - More introduced

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.

Plan to gather evidence

Wednesday afternoon, Midge said to Kitty and Chloe "We're going to see about the school records. We're going to go in again, but this time we won't be caught." Kitty and Chloe were both upset, but both knew that if the twins' minds were made up, nothing would dissuade them.

Kitty suggested that if they found records, they should photograph them, leave them so the nuns wouldn't know. They talked about this, but since it would have to be in the middle of the night, they were worried about having enough light for their phone cameras, and they certainly didn't want to use their phone's own flash.

Chloe asked "Would Derek have some sort of low light camera you could borrow?" Midge replied "Worth a try." Chloe said "I'll go round, see what he says." The other three laughed, "Good excuse." Chloe retorted "Why not? Not seen her for a while." Midge said "Seriously, I think we should all go." Molly: "So we all understand the camera if he's got one." Kitty: "At least three of us can talk to Derek." All four laughed, they set off to Derek's.

When they arrived, Riana was in the outer office, she immediately gave Chloe a hug. "Long time no see. But I guess you didn't just want to see me if all four of you are here." Kitty laughed, "We had to find an excuse for her to see you. We'd like a quiet word with Derek, if that's possible."

Riana: "He's not with a client, come on through."

After the initial greetings, Kitty said "We'd like to photograph some writing in very low lighting, let's say starlight. Can you help us at all?" Derek, with a bit of a frown, "Is this something that's illegal?" Kitty answered "I won't be doing anything illegal."

Derek: "Hmm. How to answer a question without answering a question. I don't want to know.

"I have got a camera that I got to take photographs of wildlife at night, it's infrared sensitive. No colour, you'll get black and white images. Will that suit your purpose?" Kitty replied "Sounds perfect. Could we borrow it for a few days, maybe a week or so?" She glanced at the twins to make sure they were happy with her suggested time frame, Midge gave her an almost imperceptible nod.

Derek went to his cupboard, took out a camera, small enough to be held comfortably in one hand. "This is the camera. I've not used it in ages, let's see if it still works. Kitty, you'd better watch so you know what to do." Kitty said "I'd like us all to watch so we all know."

Derek glanced at her, then at the other three. "I definitely don't want to know. Okay, then, batteries. It takes four AA cells, standard ones will last a few hours standby or maybe a couple of hundred photographs, but not both. Make sure you have spares." He got four AA batteries from the cupboard, pointing out which way round they went as he put them in. He inserted a memory card.

"Make sure it's turned off when you're not using it, saves the battery. Starting from scratch, you turn it on like this." He turned the camera on. "This memory card is not prepared as the camera wants it, I'll just let it format the card, you won't need to do this unless you put in a different card." The camera's screen was already showing the request 'Format card? All data will be lost.' Two options were also displayed. 'Yes' and 'Cancel', Cancel was currently highlighted. Derek showed them how to move the highlight between displayed options, he highlighted the 'Yes' option and pressed the camera's 'OK' button. The screen changed to 'Are you sure?', again 'Cancel' was highlighted, Derek selected 'Yes' then pressed 'OK', the camera showed an hourglass for several seconds.

Derek said, "You probably won't have to do that. If you look at the display now, you can see it shows a count of the number of photographs it estimates the card will hold, if a couple of thousand isn't enough, I'd be very surprised. The screen is showing what the lens is seeing, which at the moment is grey because the lens cover is on. You take it off like this ⁠…" he squeezed two tabs on the cover, removed it "…⁠ now look at the display." It showed a strangely shaded black and white view of the studio.

He showed how to take the photograph, "This is the shutter release. It's set to auto-focus, a half press lets it focus, full down for the picture." He did that, the display momentarily froze the view, then continued to be live. "To see what you've taken, this is the playback button, it will show the last picture taken." He pressed it, the image appeared on the screen. "You can zoom it and pan it like this, you can look through previous images like this, only there's only one on the card at the moment of course.

"Here, Kitty, you try it." Kitty took the camera, she saw the live display. She pointed the camera at Chloe, half pressed the shutter button, then took Chloe's photograph. She switched to playback, "See, Chloe, I always thought you were weird." All of them laughed.

Derek said "I have a sneaking suspicion you don't want anyone to know what you are doing. To that end, I'll give you a pack of batteries, No one will know you've got a lot. I don't know if your computer has a slot for the memory card, here, borrow this, it just plugs into a USB port." He handed Kitty a USB adaptor for the memory card. "Here's a carry case for the camera, it has a compartment that will take eight cells if memory serves, that'll give you quite a session. Oh, make sure the camera is turned off when taking out or inserting memory card or batteries. And keep the lens cover on when not in use, protects the lens and the image sensor."

"All understood?" All four girls nodded. "Practice with it a bit, get familiar with it. Try it with something close to your final use for it. Phone if you have any problems. Okay?"

Kitty thanked him, all four gave him a kiss on his cheek.

Kitty took the camera, erased the pictures they'd put on the card. Seeing Kitty doing this, Derek said "Remember the contents are recoverable unless you do a secure erase, check the Disk Utility on your Mac, look for 'Erase' and security options. I don't know why I'm telling you this, but as I said, I have my suspicions. Okay?" Kitty replied "Okay, thank you, I'll make sure I know how to do that." She put the camera into its case.

Midge asked Derek "Please promise you won't tell anyone about us borrowing it." "All right, I don't think I want anyone to know that I've lent it to you anyway."

Chloe went to Riana, "Will you come round again?" Riana looked at Derek, he smiled and said "I could use a cup of the girls' tea. This evening? Maybe seven‑ish?" Riana and Chloe both went to him, Chloe gave him a hug, said "Thank you." Riana just gave him a kiss.

As they were thanking Derek, Riana disappeared into the 'Private' room, came out with a plastic carrier bag. "Here, carry it in this if you want to be a bit clandestine." Kitty thanked her, slipped the camera and the box of batteries into the bag, "Perfect."

Derek said "Please be careful, whatever you are doing."

The girls left Derek's. As they were walking home, Molly said "Something else we need." Midge: "Black jumpsuits and gloves." Chloe: "You need a shop that sells theatre costumes." Kitty: "Of course, scene changers wear black to be invisible." Midge: "Chloe, you are a genius." Molly: "It's seeing Riana." Midge: "Brings out the best in her." Chloe gave all of them a punch. Kitty: "Why me?" "Do I need a reason?" They all laughed.

Kitty: "But where is one? "Midge: "There's an amateur theatre group somewhere around, I'm sure I've seen some flyers." Molly: "Isabel would know." Chloe: "I'll ring her."

Chloe had quite a long conversation with Isabel, ending with Chloe saying "No, you don't want to know. But thank you, that's very helpful."

Kitty: "So?" Chloe: "There's a group that puts on shows in the scout hut occasionally, usually Christmas pantos and suchlike. She thinks there's a room there that they use to store their stuff. We might find something there."

Midge: "Sounds good, buying what we needed would lead a trail, if we can borrow it and put it back, no one's the wiser." Molly: "We'll go after dark tonight, see what we can find." Kitty: "Watch out for cameras, they work with street lighting. No idea what security the scout hut might have."

Back at home, Kitty put the carrier bag with the camera in their bedroom wardrobe.

Chloe and Riana have fun

They made some sandwiches for tea, sat around talking about the twins' mission. At about half past six the doorbell rang, Chloe was there like a shot. Once again she grabbed Riana and dragged her upstairs. Derek called out "Anyone else at home?" Kitty came to him, "She's eager. Riana's good for her, though." "Glad to hear it" said Derek. "And that works both ways."

Kitty led Derek into the sitting room, Midge and Molly brought some tea in. Derek spotted the picture of Kitty wearing the black dress, "That's one of my very favourite photos. It may only have been taken with my phone, but it's the subject." Kitty said "I think the photographer had something to do with how he positioned me." Midge: "Kitty looks gorgeous in the dress." Molly: "We love the picture."

They looked at the picture in silence for a few seconds.

Kitty started asking Derek about what he looks for when framing a picture, also technical questions about depth of field, difficulty of keeping focus while zooming on a moving subject. The conversation went on for quite a while, the twins just listening.

A little later Riana and Chloe came into the sitting room. Their hair was wet, they've had a shower. Riana went to the settee where Derek was, Chloe sat on Riana's lap.

Riana asked "Any coffee? I need something after that." Chloe started nuzzling Riana's neck.

Midge and Molly got up to make some coffee, Kitty seemed mesmerised by what Chloe was doing. Derek was trying to ignore it, but he was biting his lip, eyes watering. In the end, he whispered in Riana's ear, "You aren't going to leave me, are you?"

Chloe heard this, she immediately reacted by using her knees to walk onto Derek's lap, facing towards him. She took his face in her hands, looked at him in the eyes and said "There is no way she would leave you for me, or anyone else for that matter. Her and me? It's just fun. Now, give her a kiss."

Chloe got off Derek, went to the settee, sat beside Kitty, as Midge and Molly returned with coffee. They put it down and squeezed in by Chloe.

Riana turned right round until she was sitting on Derek's lap. She took his face in her hands, started a long kiss. Keeping a firm hold on his face, she levered him off the settee onto the floor, he landed on his back, Riana lying on top. A little later, Riana said to him "Now say you think I might leave you."

Derek looked around, realised where he was, that they were being watched by four grinning girls. He started to say "Oh, god, sorry, you sh…" Riana put her finger on his lips, "If Chloe's anything to go by, what we've shown them is nothing. She's a very experienced young lady, she's certainly taught me a thing or two." A perhaps slightly embarrassed Chloe said "That goes both ways." Riana laughed, "She must be the most delightful, the most wonderful girl I've ever come across."

Midge: "We're actually⁠ …" Molly: "… quite proud of her."

Riana looked at the coffee, "We seem to have let it get cold, could we warm it up, please?" Chloe got up, said "My pleasure", took the cold mugs away. Derek and Riana sat down again, Riana holding Derek's hand.

When Chloe brought back fresh coffee, Derek said, "Change of subject. Camera okay?" Kitty replied "We've not tried it in the dark yet, we'll do that tonight." Midge added "But it looks perfect …" Molly: "… for the job."

Camera test

Later that evening after it had gone dark, the girls took the camera into the dining room, shut the door, closed the curtains, making it as dark as they could. Midge tried it first, she photographed an exercise sheet she'd printed out for her schoolwork, looked at the image on the camera's screen, though she had to fight the others off to see it. By zooming in, she found the writing wasn't as sharp as a normal camera would give, but it was perfectly legible. She showed the others, sounds of approval.

Kitty said she should try getting the image onto her computer. They turned the room light on, Midge turned off the camera, took out the memory card. Kitty logged onto her computer, she looked round its ports, it did have an SD card slot, Derek's adaptor wasn't needed. She plugged the card in, a second later the Finder window showed a drive labelled 'CAMERA'. Kitty clicked on it, to the right a folder appeared named 'DCIM', another click, then 'Images' appeared. Clicking on that, to the right was a file with a name ending '.JPG'. "Oh", she said, "its date and time are wrong. Expect the camera needs setting." Kitty double clicked on the filename, the computer's image viewer started up, the page Midge had photographed appeared. It was sideways on, but perfectly legible.

"Okay, we can work with it as it is" she said. She clicked on the 'Eject' icon, it came up with a window 'Device in use. Force eject?' with 'Yes' and 'Cancel' buttons. Kitty clicked 'Cancel'. She closed the photo viewer window, clicked the 'Eject' icon again, this time the drive disappeared from the Finder window. She took the card from the slot, passed it to Midge. "Check the image is still there." Midge plugged the card back into the camera, turned it on, "yes, it's still there. What about the 'secure erase' Derek mentioned?"

They put the card back into her computer's SD slot. Kitty took it through the 'Secure erase' procedure, it took several minutes, finally it said the card was empty. Put back in the camera, the camera put up its 'Format card?' prompt, Midge let it do it. Kitty suggested doing no more, as far as possible leaving no clues on the card that might identify them.

Midge passed the camera to Kitty, "Best set the camera's time up." Kitty looked at the camera, there was a button on its back saying 'Menu". She pressed it, she went through its menu structure until she found the date and time setting, she set it to be the same as her computer, she said "That should do it." She turned the camera off.

Costume acquisition

"Right", said Molly to Kitty and Chloe, "Midge and I want to go scouting." Midge: "We'll go after midnight." Molly: "Don't want anyone to see us."

One o'clock in the morning, the twins got out of bed. Midge said "You stay here, we won't be long." The twins left the house, Kitty said to Chloe, "This bit isn't dangerous." Chloe replied "But illegal."

The twins ran along a route they knew wouldn't show on any road cameras, it ended up with them pushing through a hedge behind the scout hut. The hut was in darkness, all windows and doors were locked. Midge whispered to Molly, "Bet there's a key hidden somewhere." They looked around, there was just enough moonlight.

Eventually one of them found a stone that wasn't heavy enough to be a stone. "Think I've got it." She opened the disguised container, inside was a Yale key. They opened the front door, one held it open while the other returned the key to its hiding place. When both were inside, they shut the door.

They opened doors to the few rooms that were there until they found the storage one. Inside were various cupboards and a chest of drawers, in one of the drawers they found a couple of black cat suits, complete with whiskered heads. "Just the job." "Make sure we remember" "where they came from."

They brought the cat suits back to their house, again making sure they weren't seen. Kitty and Chloe were in the sitting room, "Couldn't sleep with you out there." The twins dumped the suits, hugged Kitty and Chloe, took their hands, led them upstairs to bed.

In the morning, they ignored the suits, just did their schoolwork. They stopped for a sandwich at lunchtime, drank some tea, then the twins decided they wanted to try on the suits. They took them into the bedroom, dropped their dresses. Kitty and Chloe helped them get in, but they were very tight. "Must be for youngsters." "Never mind, they'll stretch enough."

"What about the tail?" Molly had reached behind, she was now twirling her suit's tail round, "I like it, but it could get caught up somewhere." Kitty: "We could take it off, stitch it back on later?" Chloe poked her finger into Midge's bottom, "No, it's sewn into the seam, too difficult." Molly: "Wear them inside‑out."

So they took them off, pulled them inside out, put them on again. The tails now were inside, going up their backs. "Will the head still attach?" "No problem, it's buttons and buttonholes. They'll still do up." Kitty asked "How will you carry the camera?" The twins thought for a second, "Mummy's" "bumbag." "Where?" "Handbags."

In the wardrobe they found the bumbag. It was black, easily big enough for the camera in its case. Midge put it round her waist with the camera in it, "Perfect."

Midge asked "When?" Molly: "Tonight, half moon." "Spare batteries?" They found the packet of thirty‑two that Derek had given them, filled the space in the camera case with eight. Kitty suggested putting fresh batteries in the camera. Midge got another four from the packet, replaced the ones in the camera. "Here" she said, passing the camera to Kitty, "Check it hasn't forgotten the time."

Kitty went through the menu again, found the time setting option. "No, date and time still correct." She turned off the camera, handed it to Midge who put it into the bumbag. Molly said "All ready."

They took off the suits, put their dresses back on, went downstairs to continue their schoolwork, though they found it difficult to concentrate. Three o'clock, Kitty said "Shoes." Midge: Oh, we need black, but our school ones or our funeral ones are clunky." Molly: "Trainers." Chloe: Holly's sister."

They all trooped out, went to the shoe shop. They were greeted by Henrietta, "How are you all?" Kitty answered "We're fine."

In rapid fire from the girls, Midge: "Trainers." Molly: "Black." Kitty "White as well?" Chloe "For all of us." Henrietta almost collapsed with laughter, "Let's see what we've got."

She came out with a bundle of trainers, she already knew their sizes. They each tried on a pair of black then a pair of white, chasing each other round the shop to test them. All seem perfect. "Thank you, we'll take them." Midge paid for them, each gave Henrietta a hug, they raced back home, leaving Henrietta and her colleague trying to recover from the whirlwind.

Back at home, Kitty asked "Won't the trainers squeak on the floor there? It's polished wood." And highly polished, one of the tasks the nuns gave them was to polish all the wooden floors. Midge and Molly looked at each other, then "Mummy and Daddy's winter socks." "We can put them over our trainers." "Won't be able to move quickly." "Won't need to."

Evidence gathering part 1

Midnight, the house door opened, two shadows emerged. It would have taken someone exceptionally observant to see them make their way, always keeping to the shadows, always out of site of surveillance cameras.

Three quarters of an hour later, they were over the spiked gates and standing at the front door of the school building. They listened for a moment, not a sound. Once again, Molly picked the lock, they slipped inside. Having pulled the socks over their trainers, they made their way to the abbess's study, it was locked. It took Molly about ten seconds to pick it, they went in, closed the door.

There was just enough moonlight coming in through the window for them to see everything in the office. They went to the desk, on top was a blotter, to the side a wooden box with two drawers in it. Midge slid one of the drawers open, it was a hand written card index system. When Midge had readied the camera, Molly took each card out, laid it flat on the desk, Midge photographed it, Molly put it back. There must have been fifty or sixty cards in the two draws, it took about ten minutes to photograph the lot. Finished with that, they tried the desk drawers. There were three down either side, all were locked, but the centre one was unlocked. In it were just a few sundries, but towards the back were three keys, one fitted the other desk draws, this saved them the time it would have taken for Molly to pick the locks.

They repeated the photographing exercise on every piece of paper, through a couple of ledgers, everything that had writing on it, it took another hour to get through them. Partway through, the camera displayed a low battery warning. After another five pictures, Midge turned the camera off, took the flat batteries from the camera, put in fresh. The old ones she carefully put into the bumbag, she was making sure they'd leave no trace of their visit behind.

They finished the desk, checked everything was as they found it. Another of the keys in the desk fitted the filing cabinet, they went through the many files, photographing as before. Halfway through, the camera again gave its low battery warning, the last set of batteries went in. They finished the filing cabinet, realised that it was getting on for four o'clock. Midge whispered "Must go now, they will be up at five."

Making sure nothing look disturbed, they listened at the door, heard nothing. They opened the door, Molly relocked it, though it took her a couple of minutes. They crept back towards the front door, but the lounge door started to open, light flooding into the corridor. The twins pressed themselves against the wall, stayed absolutely still. A nun walked right by them, but didn't see them in the shadow. She opened another door, went inside the room. She turned the light on, but left the door open. The twins crept up to the door, a glance round showed the nun at a bookcase, she was facing away from the door. They sidled past, moved towards the front door. They froze again when the room light was turned off, the nun returned to the lounge, shut the door. The twins waited a minute, then opened the front door, went out and closed it. Molly managed to lock it, then, socks stuffed into the bumbag, the twins became shadows as they made their way to the perimeter wall door they used before. Joggled, it opened, they were out, the door was closed.

They gave each other a quick hug, the two shadows set off, half walking, half running, always staying away from lights and cameras. A little after five, they got to the house, rang the bell.

Inside, Kitty and Chloe had been in the sitting room, they'd been hugging and crying, so worried about the twins. After letting them in, it was several minutes before they released the twins from the hug they held them in.

Kitty asked "Did you get anything?" Midge replied "A lot, but not all." Molly: "We just photographed" "everything" "we could do" "in the time." "Batteries almost" "all flat" "as well."

Chloe: "We should all get some rest, we can see what you've got tomorrow." Midge and Molly both nodded, the other two helped them off with their suits, they took them and themselves to the bedroom. The twins just flaked out on the bed, Kitty and Chloe got in as well, pulled covers over themselves. The twins were already asleep, Kitty and Chloe took a while, but they eventually also fell sleep.

It was half past nine when Midge woke the others. "Come on, Zooming in a few minutes."

They were up and dressed in no time, a quick bowl of cereal each. They took mugs with water into the dining room, just in time for Tom and Fea's call.

They broke off their school work at twelve, went into the kitchen, made sandwiches and tea which they took back into the dining room. Kitty plugged the camera's card into her computer, the drive appeared in a Finder window. She clicked on it, then down its folders until, after a couple of seconds, a long list of image files appeared. She randomly clicked on a few, images of various pages were perfectly legible on the screen.

Kitty said "I'll copy them onto my computer, but I want it to be in a passworded folder, don't want anyone finding them here."

She did a bit of Googling, found a utility that would create a file that was a passworded virtual drive. It took her ten minutes or so to sort it, she wasn't exactly helped by the pushing and shoving behind her, and the usual singularly unhelpful suggestions she was given, but in the end she copied the images from the memory card into her newly created secure area, in a folder with the date as its name. She also checked on how much space was left on the card, it had used only about a quarter, so she didn't erase any.

Molly suggested telling Philip what they've got, Chloe rang him. After the usual greetings, Chloe asked if he could talk, he asked her to wait a moment. A few seconds later, she could just hear a door being closed, then he said "Alone now." Chloe told him that they've managed to acquire pictures of some documents from the convent, she said that there may be more. He said "I'll take whatever you've got, can I come round now with a memory stick?" Chloe asked the others, they all nodded. "Yes, that's fine." "Okay", he said, "See you in a few minutes."

Kitty ejected the camera card, unplugged it, passed it to Midge. "Put it in the camera, put the camera out of sight. Oh, three sets of fresh batteries."

Chloe asked "Should we tell Daniel what we're doing?" The twins' reply: "It's easier to ask for forgiveness" "than it is to get permission1."

About ten minutes later, Philip came. They took him into the dining room, Kitty showed him the list of photos, she clicked on a few to display them. "No idea what's here" she said. Philip said "I'll take them, we can go through them. I take it these were obtained illegally?" The silence from the girls gave him his answer. "Okay", he said "it's a matter of knowing what might be admissible in a court. Just so long as I know, we'll use these simply to direct otherwise legal investigations. Which in itself is legally questionable, but we have to do this."

Philip passed Kitty a USB memory stick, "Can you copy them onto this?" She did so. The computer popped up with a progress window, it showed it would take a while. While they were waiting, Philip said "Chloe suggested there might be more, is that so?" Molly replied "We don't know." Midge "Let's just say there might be. If there are any that we can get, it will be within a day or so." "Okay." from Philip. "Please be careful whatever your method of acquisition. Looking at those few pictures, I can guess what that method is. I don't want any comebacks from Daniel. Or Audrey for that matter. And I personally wouldn't like it if any of you got hurt again, once was quite enough for this investigation."

Chloe and Kitty were just looking down, they were already worried enough. Midge said "We'll be⁠⁠" Molly: "careful."

Evidence gathering part 2

The twins decided to go again that same night. As before, they got into the abbess's study without incident, found that the third key in the desk drawer opened the cupboard. Inside was stored office stationery and the like, but also the whip and several canes. Midge photographed them without taking them out. There were also three bottles with pills, they photographed these. Molly got three envelopes from one of the piles of stationery, took a pill out of each bottle and put in its own envelope. The envelopes she put into the bumbag, carefully replacing each bottle exactly as it was.

There was a stack of folders, also what seemed to be year books. They went through these, photographed every page that had photos or writing on. Then the folders, Molly holding each page as flat as possible for Midge to get the least distorted image.

This took them about three hours, and two changes of batteries, but they managed to get everything that looked potentially useful. They locked the cupboard, replaced the key.

Outside of the study, again it took Molly a little while to lock it. Just as she managed it, the lounge door opened, a nun came out, immediately saw them. She started to open her mouth, Midge got to her before she could utter a sound, put her in a sleeper hold with one arm. She put her free hand on the nun's forehead, Molly put a hand with Midge's. They whispered alternately into the nun's ears "I must have fainted." Midge relaxed the sleeper hold as the nun sagged to the floor, unconscious.

The twins moved silently to the front door, exited it, Molly locked it. The twins seemed to vanish, to reappear a while later at their front door. Midge rang the bell, once again it was opened in seconds, once again both twins got hugged by Chloe and Kitty.

Released, Midge said "We got everything⁠" Molly: ⁠"that was there." Kitty "Thank goodness." Chloe "We were worried sick." Midge "Had to" Molly: "be done."

The twins insisted on a shower before getting the last couple of hours of sleep, Kitty set the alarm on her phone to make sure they woke in time for their morning Zoom session.

After their morning's work, Kitty copied the remainder of the images into another folder, she said "I'll erase the card when Philip has the images safely."

The twins got the cat suits, decided to wash them. They put them on a cool wash, Midge: "Don't want to change them from black to grey." Molly: "May need to use them again." Kitty and Chloe in unison: "I hope not." All four laugh at this, Midge and Molly in unison say "That's our game." All four immediately hugged each other, all were relieved that this part was over.

They finished the day's school work, it was after four when Kitty phoned Philip. She just said "Last lot ready." Philip answered "Half an hour." When he arrived, he produced a memory stick, handed it to Kitty, who started the copy process. Midge got the three envelopes, handed them to him, "These were in the cupboard, photos of the bottles in there somewhere." "Will they know they've been taken?" Molly: "Unlikely, all the bottles were half full, one missing won't show⁠⁠" Midge: "unless they actually count them." Midge: "Sorry, don't know which pill came from which bottle." Molly: "We were sort of in a hurry."

Philip said "Don't worry. You've given us a goldmine of information, it'll take days to sift through it. Oh, something that is very important to us all, from the index cards we think we've identified the abortionist. That's one major piece of information. There are other contacts that look very interesting, we need to study them further. As I said, several days, maybe a week or so to go through them, filter out what's useful. All I can say is well done."

Midge said "We did have one possible problem. Molly: "We were seen in a corridor." "We put her to sleep⁠" "Hopefully we planted⁠" "a suggestion" "⁠that she'd just" "⁠fainted."

Molly said quietly "No one would believe her that she was attacked by two big, black Manx cats." Kitty and Chloe both laughed somewhat nervously, Philip didn't understand the reference, but he nodded. He asked "Did you hurt her?" Molly replied "Very tempted." Midge: "No, not at all." He then asked "Was everything left as it was where you found it?" In unison, the twins said "Oh, yes, we were very careful."

When Philip left, it was about five o'clock. Midge wanted to return the cat costumes that evening, Kitty suggested that they got the camera back to Derek as soon as possible. Kitty phoned Derek, he said they'd left the shop for the day, but he could come round, pick it up. Kitty asked the other girls, Chloe said "You know my answer." Kitty grinned. To Derek she said "I've been told you have to bring Riana." He asked "Have you eaten yet?" Kitty told him they hadn't, he suggested they could pick up a Chinese on the way round. Again, Kitty asked the others, all nodded. "Yes please" she said into her phone, "save them from my cooking." "Be with you in half an hour."

The twins got the cat suits out of the drier, they were still inside out. They examined them all over, looking for any tell‑tale signs, there were a few blonde hairs on the suits and in the masks. They put the suits the right way out, did the same examination. Once satisfied, they were put into a shopping bag ready to be returned. Meanwhile, Kitty securely erased the camera's memory card.

Riana is disappointed

When the doorbell rang, for once Chloe didn't dash to answer it, she just walked. The other three followed her, all were intrigued by this change in her behaviour. She opened the door, let them in. Riana looked at her, "Have I done something wrong?" Chloe kissed her cheek, "No, just incredibly tired." Kitty went to the two of them, "None of us have slept properly for the last two nights, other things going on." Chloe said "Perhaps we eat first?"

Riana smiled, "Derek did say you might be busy. But he wouldn't tell me what. Said the fewer people that knew, the better." It was Derek's turn to get a cheek kiss from Chloe, "Thank you, you were quite right." Riana added "Mind you, considering the camera you borrowed, I can at least guess someone was taking after‑dark pictures, and knowing you four, they're not of each other.

Kitty went into the dining room, picked up the camera, checked its memory card was in it, put it in its case, then put it, the packet with a few unused batteries in it, the flat batteries and the USB adaptor into the same carrier bag they'd brought them in, placed them by the front door. Midge said "Perfect for the job, thank you, Hope you don't mind, we thought it better you take the old batteries, someone might remember us taking them in for disposal." Derek said "Quite right, I'll pick them up when we leave. Oh, glad the camera worked all right for you." Midge asked "What do we owe you for the batteries?" Derek shook his head, "Don't worry about it, in any case I don't think you want the sale of a pack of batteries on our accounts."

Riana said "Enough about cameras, let's build Chloe up."

They took two extra chairs into the kitchen, sat round the table, Riana and Chloe on one side, Derek at the end round from Riana. Kitty got some plates she'd had warming in the sink with hot water, she dried them and put them round. Derek meanwhile had placed several foil containers on the table, Kitty took their lids off, put them in the rubbish bin. No one spoke as the trays were passed round, they each put some of the contents on their plates.

They were all eating with chopsticks, but after a very few minutes, Chloe dropped hers, she was falling asleep sitting at the table. Midge got up, went round to her, said to Riana "Our fault, we had them too worried to sleep, that's two nights running. Help me get her upstairs."

Between them, Midge and Riana managed to half carry Chloe upstairs. Chloe muttered "Twin's room." They put her in the bed. Riana said "I'll stay with her, you go back down."

Kitty started talking with Derek about cameras, the advantages of a proper camera over a phone camera, "Your picture of me was amazing." He told her about lenses, raw image files, ultimate resolution, adjustments you can make to exposure to suit difficult subjects, trading aperture against exposure time and so on. After a while, Kitty was also falling asleep. Molly said to Derek, "It's not you boring her, she really is interested, but she's as tired as Chloe. Derek said "If I'd known, we wouldn't have come, it isn't fair on any of you. Should we go now?" Molly glanced to Midge, then said "Please, stay a little longer, Midge and I have a little errand to run, we'd like you to keep an eye on them while we're gone."

Derek said he was happy to do that, did they need help with Kitty? Midge shook her head, "No, thank you, we'll take her up." Midge got Kitty to stand, Molly bent down, heaved her over her shoulder, legs in front, body behind. Molly carried her from the kitchen, Midge following on. When they got upstairs, Kitty mumbled "With Chloe." Midge went in, said to Riana, "We've got another sleepyhead, can she join you?" Riana said "Of course, put her with Chloe."

Midge helped Molly unload Kitty onto the bed beside a fast asleep Chloe. Kitty turned towards Chloe, put an arm over her, and was immediately asleep. Riana asked "Are they all right?" "Just very tired." The three went downstairs, Riana went to Derek, gave him a hug, "I'll just have to put up with you." Midge said "You finish your meal." Molly: "We'll be back inside half an hour."

Midge and Molly watched for a moment as Riana and Derek started feeding each other with their chopsticks. Midge got the bag with the cat costumes, they slipped out, followed their previous route to the scout hut. They put the costumes back where they found them, twenty minutes later they were back in the house without a problem. Riana and Derek weren't in the kitchen, much of the meal was still on the table. They could hear some noises from upstairs.

They put the remains of their two meals onto one plate, put it in the microwave, heated it up for a minute or so. They sat and ate in silence, occasionally feeding each other, but no other games, they, too, were very tired.

They made some tea, took it into the sitting room, sat quietly drinking, until they fell asleep, leaning on each other.

When Derek and Riana came down, they saw the sleeping twins. They went into the kitchen, Riana cleared the remains of the Chinese into the waste bin. She washed the plates, Derek dried them, they left them in a pile on the working surface. Riana fetched the tea mugs from the sitting room, washed those up as well.

"One last look upstairs." Riana said. Kitty and Chloe hadn't moved. She gave Chloe a kiss on her cheek, She was a little surprised to get a response, "Sorry, g'night." Riana kissed her again, "Goodnight."

Downstairs again, Derek picked up the carrier bag with the camera and the batteries, the two left, closing the door quietly behind them.

In the morning, Chloe woke first, she found Kitty on one side of her, one of the twins on the other side, her arm over Chloe, probably to stop herself from falling off the edge of the bed. The other twin was curled up on the bottom of the bed. Chloe tried not to disturb the others as she stood to get off, but they all woke up. Chloe asked "How are we all?" Various grunts, one of them said "Toilet, shower."

They went to the parent's bedroom, took yesterday's clothes off, disappeared into the bathroom. Twenty minutes later they were eating their breakfast, they took the tea into the dining room, they were running a little late.

Looking at the evidence

On the Saturday, Kitty said she wanted to look at some of the photos from the two nightly expeditions. She sat at her computer, the others crowded round behind, as usual joggling Kitty's chair and making stupid comments. She tolerated this while she looked at a few random images. She said "It's annoying, most are on sideways. Wonder if I could turn them the right way?"

Molly grabbed the computer, put it on its side. "There you go" she said. Midge muttered "Typical Molly solution." Kitty righted the computer, started searching on the internet, she found how to use the Mac's utilities to rotate multiple image files. Wanting to keep the original images unchanged, she created a new folder within her secure virtual drive, copied the whole lot into the new directory. She realised that the images of the index cards were correct, it was all those taken of normal pages that were wrong. She found where the index card images ended and the ones of pages began, selected all the ones of pages, used the rotation feature in Mac's Finder. She clicked on a few, the images were now the right way up. One caught her eye, she stopped with it on the screen.

The other three girls had also stopped their shoving and rude comments, they too had seen what Kitty was looking at. It was a page at the top if which was a somewhat weird but recognisable picture of Ann, the girl who'd served them in the chemist's. The writing was a sort of summary of her time at the school, when she arrived, who her sponsor was, various dates with some sort of code listed beside. One said "AB". Midge asked "Abortionist? Was Ann sterilised?" None of them knew, of course. Midge said "Could we ask her?" Chloe "She may not know." Molly: "We'll invite her round." Midge "Try to suss her out." Kitty: "Don't want to upset her." Chloe: "But we can try."

Molly: "Let's go and ask her." Kitty: "Is the chemist's open on a Saturday?" Midge: "Probably in the morning." They set off straight away, the chemist's was open. Ann was behind the counter, there were a few customers there, the girls hung around waiting while Ann was serving.

She'd seen them, of course, and when she was free she came round, said "Hello, nice to see you again." Molly burst out "We'd like you to come round⁠ …" Midge took it up "… to have a chat with you." Kitty: "Would you like to?" Chloe: "We really want you to, the sooner the better." Ann laughed at the way she'd been asked, then "I know Midge and Molly, of course, though not which is which, no one did. And I know your two faces, but not your names." "Chloe" "And I'm Kitty."

"Well, Midge, Molly, Chloe and Kitty, I'd love to, though what you want to talk to me about so urgently I'm not sure. When would you like? I'm basically free whenever the shop is closed. I live with another old school girl from my year, Sophie, remember her?" The four girls shook their heads, Midge said "Name doesn't ring a bell, maybe by sight." Molly asked "Would she come as well?" Kitty and Chloe nodded their approval. "I'll ask her, see what she says, in any case I'll come. Love to talk. How can I contact you, can I phone you?" Midge nodded, asked "Can I give you my email and address as well? Might be useful." Ann opened her phone, readied it for a new contact, passed it to Midge. Midge put in her name as 'Midge or Molly', her phone number, email and their address. Ann looked at it, "You still don't want anyone to know which of you is which, do you?" Kitty replied "No one knows." Chloe added "Not even them." "All right then, the shop shuts at one, I'll go round to where she works and ask her, give you a ring. Got to go, customer waiting."

The four left. Chloe: "Do we need anything while we're by the shops?" Kitty: "Something for them to eat?" Molly glanced at Midge, "Got an idea." She got her phone out, Midge was grinning. Kitty mouthed to Midge, 'Who?' Midge whispered back "Audrey." Chloe muttered "Typical cheeky Molly."

After a few minutes conversation, Molly put her phone away. "She'll do all of us a meal tonight, Daniel would like to meet them. Just let Audrey know how many are coming and when, as soon as we know."

Meeting Ann and Sophie

At half past one, Ann phoned Midge. She said they'd both love to come, meet up, have a talk. Midge told her they'd arranged a meal with their legal guardians, Daniel and Audrey, "Save you from Kitty's coo… oof." Ann readily accepted, she and Sophie would come round to their house a little after six. Midge relayed this to the others, then phoned Audrey.

It was just few minutes after six when the doorbell rang. Midge answered it, gave Ann a hug and a quick kiss. Ann said "Sophie, meet Midge or Molly." Midge kissed Sophie's cheek, "Hello." Then, "Oh, I do remember you. Nice to see you again." Sophie: "Much nicer outside those walls. So, are you Midge or Molly?" Midge laughed, "Yes."

They heard a voice from the sitting room, "What's keeping you?" And another "Keeping them for yourself?"

"Come through before I get punched" Midge said, grinning.

Midge led them into the sitting room, the other three were standing. Ann said "This is Sophie, these are Kitty, Chloe and the other one of Molly or Midge." Sophie went to each, they kissed each others' cheeks.

Midge said "Sit down, please." Ann and Sophie sat on a settee, sitting very close to each other. The four girls squeezed onto the other settee, as usual with the twins in the middle.

Ann was the first to speak, she asked "So, I have to ask, how did you escape?" Kitty answered, "Midge and Molly were let out for their parents' funeral, they got Daniel to get us out as well, they wouldn't go out without us." Midge: "The nuns would have taken it out …" Molly: "… on Kitty and Chloe if" "we'd left" "them there." Chloe continued "We told them something of the treatment we got, he managed to get us out forever."

Molly said "And now we're trying to get all of them out."

Sophie asked "How can you? The school has survived as it is for years, they must be protected In some way." Midge: "Would you like to help?" Ann immediately replied, "Good god, yes." Sophie added "Good idea, but how?" Molly said "We're working on it." Midge "We have a plan." Kitty: "You could be a part of the plan."

They chatted a bit more, but the four girls wouldn't say any more about what they are doing. "We'd like Daniel to okay your involvement before we tell you."

They changed the subject. Molly asked Ann, "How did you leave the school, what are you doing now besides serving at the chemist?" Ann replied "Both Sophie and I turned eighteen, we lost our financing." Sophie: "We would have left anyway." Ann: "Didn't learn a thing there." Sophie: "Ann's working for A‑levels on line. I'm waitressing at a café. I'm much more suited to that than academic stuff."

Ann asked "So, what about you four?" Midge: "We're lucky at the moment, we're all working for our GCSEs, we have tutors that we can pay for." Sophie: "That's really good, how many subjects if you don't mind me asking?" Molly: "We're all hoping for ten." Midge: "Tutors seem happy." Chloe: "Wouldn't have stood a chance at school." Kitty: "We could probably learn enough from Molly and Midge, but …⁠" Chloe: "… ⁠we didn't really know …" Kitty: "… what we needed to know."

Both Ann and Sophie are laughing, Ann: "Do you always speak like that?" Kitty: "Midge and Molly always have." Chloe: "I think their bad habits are rubbing off onto Kitty and me."

Sophie: "It shows you are all on the same wavelength." Ann: "You must be very close." Midge: "I think we can say⁠ …" Molly: "… there are none closer."

Chloe: "Of course there is a downside." The other three girls looked at Chloe, as did Ann and Sophie. "Go on", said Ann, "what's that?" Chloe, keeping a straight face, "Well, it's the other reason we will be seeing Daniel and Audrey this evening." "What?" asked the twins and Kitty in unison. Chloe: "So we don't have to subject Ann and Sophie to Kitty's cooking."

Kitty punched Midge who was beside her. "Pass that down to Chloe." Midge punched Molly, "From Kitty for Chloe." Molly punched Chloe. "From Kitty."

Moments layer, the four girls were on the floor in a tangled heap, pinching, punching, yelping and laughing. They ended up hugging and kissing each other, Ann and Sophie just looked on, stunned.

The four got up, returned to their places on their settee, sat there as if nothing had happened. They looked at Ann and Sophie still staring at them, all four in unison said "What?"

Now it was Ann and Sophie's turn to hug each other, both were laughing until tears were running down their faces, the four girls watched as Ann started licking Sophie's tears, first on one cheek right up to her eye, then the other side. Sophie did the same to Ann. When she'd finished the second side, they looked into each other's eyes, then gave each other a full‑on kiss, totally forgetting they had an audience.

After a couple of minutes, Molly cleared her throat. Ann and Sophie pulled apart, they both looked at the four, both went red in the face. Ann said "Oh, I'm so sorry, I hope that didn't shock you." All four girls were grinning, Midge: "Good heavens no." Molly: "Actually we're quite pleased to see you like that." Sophie: "We've never done that in front of anyone else before." Ann: "We usually keep it for when we're in bed." Then "Why did I just tell you that? I wouldn't tell anyone." Sophie: "Like minds?"

Molly, ever the direct one, "So you sleep together?" Ann and Sophie looked at each other, Ann nodded. Sophie said "Yes. We started at school." Ann: "We just needed someone to hug." Sophie: "It sort of grew." "Ann: "Couldn't be happier with it." Sophie: "We even sometimes entertain the odd man together." Ann: "That can be pretty nice as well."

When she heard the bit about men, Kitty started gently crying, Molly put her arm round Kitty, "Shush, or I'll get Ann to clear up your tears." That got Kitty laughing, she punched Molly. Molly grinned at her, said "Good girl, they didn't mean anything." Kitty said "I know, sorry, it still hurts."

Ann and Sophie were looking at this, Ann asked "What did I say?" Chloe answered, "Not your fault, we'll tell you another time." Midge added "It's the school's fault."

Kitty asked "Can we go to Daniel's?"

Ann and Sophie at Daniel's

When they got there, Daniel and Audrey both came to the door. Kitty went straight to Audrey and hugged her. Chloe did the introductions, "Audrey and Daniel, these are Ann and Sophie." They all said their hellos. Audrey, holding Kitty, looked to Chloe, mouthed 'What?' Chloe said "She got a little upset, she's all right really."

Audrey promptly lifted Kitty up, Kitty put her arms round Audrey's neck, her legs round Audrey's waist. Audrey smiled at her, then to the other five, "Come in to the sitting room." She led the way, carrying Kitty. Ann and Sophie followed, then the three girls, Daniel bringing up the rear.

Audrey said "Please, sit down." She indicated one of the settees, Ann and Sophie sat on one, Midge, Molly and Chloe sat on the other. Audrey and Daniel sat in the two armchairs, Kitty settling on Audrey's lap.

Daniel asked "So, what made you want to bring these two ladies round? It can't just be because of Kitty's cooking." Kitty lifted her head from Audrey's shoulder, kissed her cheek, climbed off. Pouting, she moved to Daniel, punched him on the shoulder. She then climbed on to his lap, put her arms round his neck, kissed his cheek. She climbed down again, went to the settee where Ann and Sophie were, she sat beside Ann, saying "These haven't been horrible to me." The effect was somewhat lost because she couldn't stop herself laughing.

Chloe started speaking to Daniel. "You know Ann and Sophie were at the school, they were two years above us." Daniel nodded. "We thought they might be useful. We've told them we want to stop the school, we've told them nothing else. We think you should make sure we are doing the right thing before we do tell them any more."

Daniel nodded. "You are certainly right to be cautious. Let's discuss things after we've eaten, we'll get to know our two newcomers a bit better while we eat."

Audrey: "Ready in five." The four girls got up. "Bathroom?" Midge asked Ann and Sophie. "Yes please" from both. They all went upstairs, came down after a few minutes, all six were giggling. Daniel smiled, "I won't ask what's so funny." Molly's reply was "Nor should you."

They sat at the table, Midge, Molly and Chloe on one side, Sophie, Ann and Kitty on the other. Kitty muttered "She's nice to me." Midge said "Wait until we get you home." Kitty stood up, "Why not now?" Molly answered "Daniel won't let you eat if you're fighting." "Oh, yes" said Kitty, and promptly sat down again. Sophie asked Daniel "Are they always fighting?" "Yes, it's rare they don't. But they all seem to survive." Then, in a stage whisper, "I rather enjoy watching them, it's usually hilarious."

As he was speaking, Audrey wheeled in her trolly with plates of spaghetti bolognaise, she rapidly placed them round the table.

They all started eating, all were very appreciative. Even Molly seems to enjoy the meaty sauce more than playing sucking up the spaghetti.

Sophie commented "That's as good as Charlotte makes." "Who's Charlotte?" asked Molly, the only one prepared to ask with food in her mouth. Sophie replied "She's the cook at the café, she's very good. She was in our year at school."

Midge, having swallowed, asked "How many more have you kept in contact with?" Ann replied "Quite a few. We are better for each other than anyone else⁠ …" she started to get emotional. Sophie said "The school hurt all of us. We help each other where we can."

Midge asked "Do you meet up at all?" Molly: "We'd like to get to know a few of you." Chloe: "We all could use something." Kitty: "I'm using Audrey, but I must be a bit of a pain for her."

Audrey said "Never, don't think that for a moment. You are my daughter as far as I am concerned." Midge, Molly and Chloe in unison, "What about us?" Audrey laughed, "Sorry, one of my daughters."

Ann: "To answer Midge's question, every so often we do have a get‑together, there's a restaurant we go to where we have an evening meal occasionally. Something like sixteen of us, that's half of our year." Sophie: "We do it pretty much on the spur, though it's usually a week or so before we're all free at the same time."

Molly asked "It we wanted to, do you think we could join you for a meal?" Midge: "It might prove beneficial to us all."

Daniel: "The more I listen to you all, the more I think we should include Ann and Sophie in our discussions. But, over coffee."

They all went about demolishing their spaghetti, but ate in silence, each with their own thoughts. When all had finished, or stopped because there was too much, Kitty and Chloe helped Audrey remove the plates.

While they were gone, Molly asked where the restaurant was, it was one within easy walking distance. Sophie added "Not the best food in the world, but it's convenient."

The three came back from the kitchen, Kitty carrying pudding dishes, Chloe with a jug of cream, Audrey had a dish with a pie on it.

After they'd sat down, Molly asked "What are we being treated to today?" Audrey smiled, "One you've had before, apple and blackberry." Molly said "Goody‑goody, Molly likes it." Audrey laughed, "All of you seemed to like it." Nods from the other three girls. Kitty added "Even I will admit it's better than mine." Chloe grinned, then in a stage whisper, "She's never actually cooked a pie." Kitty stage whispered back "That's the only reason I will admit it."

Everyone laughed at this as Audrey served out the pie, passing generous helpings down the table. She said "If there's too much, just leave it, I won't be offended."

The cream was passed round, they all had a little, though Molly 'accidentally' slopped extra on hers. "Oh, sorry" she said. Audrey gave a laugh, "That's something else Molly often did."

Ann looked quizzically at Audrey, "Would you mind me asking, how long have you known these girls? It sounds like a long time." Audrey said "Molly and Midge we've known since the day they were born, we were friends with their parents long before that. Kitty and Chloe, only since Daniel got them from the school right after …" She stopped, not wanting to upset the twins again. Molly completed her sentence "Right after Mummy and Daddy died." Midge added "Yes, inside we are still crying our eyes out."

They finished all they could eat in near silence.

Audrey asked if anyone wanted any more, but all were full. Sophie once again said "As good as Charlotte's." Daniel asked "Coffee?" All nodded. To Ann and Sophie, "Do you like real coffee?" "Oh, yes please" said Ann. Sophie said "I'm with her, a treat, thank you." He asked how they liked it, together both answered "Black, please." Daniel looked at Audrey, but before he could say anything, she just said "I know, but it's too bitter for me."

Midge and Kitty helped Audrey carry the dishes and the rest of the pie into the kitchen, Daniel following, started to make the coffee. Kitty broke off a piece of the pie, she put it into Midge's mouth. Midge then kissed Kitty, they passed pie to and fro between their mouths until it had dissolved to nothing. Midge pulled back, "We do love you, but we like to tease you." Kitty smiled, "I know." She gave Midge another brief kiss, then saw Audrey looking at them, Audrey hadn't seen this food‑passing before.

Kitty smiled, she said to Audrey "Hope that didn't upset you." Audrey said "No, I'm aware of at least some of what you get up to, just surprised you'd do it with an audience." Kitty went to Audrey, "You aren't an audience, you're my mummy." As she gave Audrey a hug, she noticed Daniel looking at them. Kitty went to Daniel, gave him a hug, she said "Hello, Daddy." She ran away as he threatened to smack her. Midge gave Audrey and Daniel a smile, chased after Kitty. Daniel went to Audrey, gave her a kiss, said "We are clearly officially adopted by them." Audrey said "Good, that's how it should be."

Audrey let go of Daniel, went back to the sitting room, where she found Ann and Sophie sitting on one settee, on the other were the twins with Kitty and Chloe sat outside them. The girls were asking Sophie and Ann questions about what they were doing, whereabouts they lived, their jobs. Daniel came in with a tray, the two cafeterias, hot milk, mugs and a jug of hot water. He said "Too many of us, I've made it a bit stronger, I'll water it down as I pour. Hope it's all right."

He looked round at the girls and at Ann and Sophie, said "I think we should let them know what we're up to. The four girls nodded.

"First of all, will you promise us that you won't breath a word of this to anyone, not even a hint? We have to keep this very quiet."

Both Sophie and Ann nodded their agreement

Daniel asked the girls "Would you like me to summarise?" Kitty took it upon herself to say "That would be good, but when you get to it, could you let us say why we saw the specialist?" Daniel looked at the other three, Chloe nodded, Midge said "Probably for the best." The girls took each others' hands. Daniel said "Okay. Feel free to interrupt if I get anything wrong or miss anything you think they should know."

Daniel started. "I'll tell this from my perspective, mostly from what the girls have told me, starting from when I visited Midge and Molly in hospital. This was several days after their parents died. Somehow they knew, though how is a complete mystery, their parents weren't found for days. The twins were in hospital because they hadn't eaten or drunk anything for that period of time.

"They asked to stay out of school at least until the funeral, which they wanted me to help organise, and that Kitty and Chloe should be with them, but they wouldn't stay out if Kitty and Chloe couldn't be. I sorted that, and this is when I learnt that the nuns used very severe corporal punishment, the cane and a whip. Can I ask, were you two aware of this sort of punishment?"

Sophie answered, "Many of us got the cane, usually for minor or even non-existent transgressions." Ann continued "The whip we knew about, but I don't think any of our year received it. But we knew about it with Midge's year, much more rebellious than ours."

Daniel asked "Can you tell me how you knew? It might be important."

Sophie: "Mostly we just heard stories, but I did once see these two. One had been put in our dormitory probably to separate the two of them." Ann: "Her back was raw, welts all over it, blood everywhere. It was horrible. Some of us tried to help her, but she told us to stop, she just wanted her sister."

Sophie: "Her sister came in about midnight, got into bed with her." Ann: "She had similar welts as well." Sophie: "They lay there on their fronts, each with a hand on the other's back." Sophie "Just went to sleep."

Audrey had tears running down her face, Chloe got up, went to her. "It's over now." Audrey asked "But what about any others?" Daniel said "That's why we're here."

He continued "I wasn't going to let the twins back into school at all, but they said the nuns would kill Chloe and Kitty by meting out to them the punishments they gave to the twins."

Sophie quietly said: "We know the twins got that sort of treatment several times, how they survived I don't know." Ann added: "The nuns were vindictive cu⁠…⁠" she stopped herself, "Sorry, they were just horrible."

Daniel: "I managed to extract Kitty and Chloe." To himself, "Not easy." He continued "What happened next was, as it turned out, quite fortuitous. We had a bit of a run‑in with the local newspaper, which led to them wanting to help us look into the school. From their point of view it's a big story, though the reporter who took this up very much wants the school to be closed because she's also appalled by what we told her.

"The newspaper make use of a private investigator. He's started to look into things. Without my knowledge, Midge and Molly arranged with him so that he could get a video of the pair being whipped. The poor girls barely made it out of there. But we have that video."

Audrey was gently crying, Ann and Sophie were staring at the twins, Kitty and Chloe, holding the twins' hands, were just looking down. The twins were just staring straight ahead, impassive.

Daniel waited a moment or two, he was also struggling with his emotions.

He turned to the four girls, "Perhaps now's the time?" He started pouring coffee for them all.

Midge looked at Ann and Sophie, "I want to ask you a very personal question, I want Daniel to hear the answer. If you don't want to tell us, okay, but we will in any case tell you a bit more about us which might make you change your mind."

Ann and Sophie looked at each other, Ann said "You can ask."

Molly asked "Do you have periods?" Both Ann and Sophie opened their mouths, then Ann looked at all the faces looking at them. She said "This must mean something to you, so I will answer. No neither of us." Midge: "Did you ever?" Sophie answered, "Yes, I started when I was about twelve." Ann: "Same with me." Molly: "Did they stop gradually or suddenly?"

Ann: "Look, is this really important?" Chloe replied "I will tell you about us. We all had periods, we all stopped suddenly when we were fourteen. Midge and Molly were forced to have abortions, that's when they stopped, Kitty and I stopped about the same time." Kitty: "The fucking nuns did it." She got up, ran from the room, Audrey went after her.

Molly, ignoring them, continued. "All four of us are infertile. We knew anyway, but we've been properly examined by a gynaecologist, he confirmed it." Midge: "So, that's why we're asking, we think they might have done it to you, in which case they've probably done it to others."

Once again, Ann and Sophie were looking horrified. Ann turned to Sophie, said "Okay to tell them?" Sophie said "I will. Yes, suddenly. Both of us. We were sixteen, so it might have been about the time you stopped. Does that mean we can't have babies either?"

Molly: "I, no, we are all sorry. Probably not." Midge "Would you like to know now?" Ann: "How?" Molly: "We can probably tell you." Ann, once again, "How?"

Midge got up, crossed to Ann, "Let me squeeze in beside you." She sat down, undid the buttons on Ann's dress over her tummy, put her hand in, closed her eyes. She moved her hand to slightly different positions, pausing at each. She took her hand out, did up Ann's buttons. She put her arm round Ann's neck, kissed her and said "I'm sorry, you are the same as us." She moved her arm down, stayed hugging Ann.

Sophie asked "Me?" Molly got up, went to Sophie, pushed in beside her. She did the same as Midge had, undid Sophie's dress buttons, put her hand in. Twenty seconds later, she took her hand out, kissed Sophie, "Yes, sorry, just the same." She put her arm round Sophie.

Daniel had been watching this play out. "Molly, Midge, how certain are you?" "Certain" they said in unison. Molly added "We just know." Daniel said "All of you, how many more do you know who stopped their periods?" Molly: "I would think about half of our class." Midge: "Not all of them at once, spread over several months I'd guess." Ann, trying to control herself, "I don't know, not something we talked about." Sophie: "We'd put it down to the awful food we were given, forgot about it, we were just so used to it I suppose."

Ann asked "You all must have known for a while, why is Kitty so sensitive?" Chloe answered, "She'd just got a boyfriend. They were good together. It was her infertility that made them have to part. Nobody's fault." Molly and Midge in unison "The nuns' fault."

Daniel: "Chloe, see if Kitty and Audrey will come back, we need to discuss our next move."

Chloe got up, went to Sophie, did the dress buttons up that Molly had left undone. She kissed Sophie then Ann, whispered "We're all so sorry." She left the room, returned after a minute with Audrey carrying Kitty.

Audrey sat down, Kitty on her lap. Molly and Midge were still hugging Sophie and Ann. Kitty looked across at the four, she asked "The same?" Chloe answered "Yes."

Kitty got off Audrey, went to the four, she kissed Ann and Sophie, said "Really sorry." She gently touched a cheek of each of the twins, returned to the other settee where she sat by Chloe, they held hands.

Daniel was about to speak again, but Molly interrupted. "A moment, please." She looked across at Midge, they stared at each other for a few seconds, then Midge spoke."Daniel, we feel we can trust Ann and Sophie." Molly: "There's something we should tell you." Midge: "We've acquired some photographs" "of documents that" "were in the" "abbess's study." "We've passed them to Philip." "Couldn't tell you." "You'd have stopped us."

Audrey: "Oh, god, you've not got hurt again, have you?" The twins chorused "Not this time."

Daniel: "Tell me what you did."

Molly and Midge alternating: "We borrowed a camera from Derek." "Made him swear he wouldn't tell you." "Sneaked back into the school," "into the abbess's study." "Photographed all the documents we could find." "Lots, took us" "two visits." "No one noticed." "Well, we don't think so." "Had to put a nun to sleep." "Would have liked to" "have made that" "permanent." In unison: "But we didn't."

Sophie and Ann were laughing at the way the twins were speaking, also the cheek of what they did. Sophie poked Molly in the ribs, "We all knew these were sneaking out and back from the school." Ann took it up, "One of the few joys in that place, hearing about their escapades." Sophie "They did get caught sometimes." Kitty said "They only got caught when they wanted to be caught." Chloe "They did it to let Kitty and me get back, it was their way of distracting the nuns from us." Molly: "Least we could do." Midge: "We persuaded you to come out with us."

Daniel spoke again. "Let's get back on track. Midge, Molly, I can't say I like what you did, and, once again, yes, I would have told you not to if I'd known." Then more to himself, "But I suppose you'd have done it anyway, you usually just do what you want, regardless." Then "Well, it's done now. You say you've given this to Philip?" "Yes, made him promise" "not to tell you." "Half on Thursday" "half on Friday." Kitty added "He did say they couldn't use any of this in court." Chloe: "He said they could only use it to steer the investigation." Midge: "And even that …" Molly: "…⁠ was probably illegal."

Daniel muttered "He's right there." Then, "Okay. Ann, Sophie, I don't know how yet, but would you be happy to help actively? Oh, not to do anything like these two criminals." Ann said "I am. We didn't realise what they've done to us all." Sophie: "Me, too."

He continued, "it's Saturday today, don't think we can do much tomorrow. I'll talk to Philip on Monday, see what he's got. Ann, Sophie, you are both working full time?" Nods from both. "I'm thinking about if we need to have a meeting together with Philip or the newspaper." He thought for a moment. "Philip would be okay in the evenings, Sophie, do you work evenings?" She answered "Free after six, that's when the café closes."

Kitty said "We did look at a few random pages, we saw one with Ann's picture on it, not sure what it all meant." Daniel: "Maybe we leave it for Philip to decipher, but Ann could be key to understanding other pages."

He asked "Anyone got anything else to say? If not, we'll drop this subject for now."

Ann asked "One question, Midge, Molly, how do you know?" The twins shook their heads. Daniel said "No one understands it, not even them. They've been tested time and time again. They just know." Midge: "Not always." Molly: "Sometimes we don't."

There was a moment's silence, broken by Audrey. "The coffee hasn't been touched. Daniel, could you?" He got up, smiled, said "Back in a mo." He carried the tray back to the kitchen.

Ann and Sophie are entertained

The six left Daniel and Audrey's at about half past nine, after all had said their thanks to Audrey for the meal. Molly suggested that Ann and Sophie went back with the four, it would be nice to have a catch-up, Midge adding they'd like to talk about the others that Ann and Sophie met occasionally. So all went back went to the twin's house. In the sitting room, Chloe sat with Ann and Sophie, Kitty went into the kitchen, came back with a tray with tea for them all. She passed mugs around, then sat with Midge and Molly.

Chloe sipped her tea, she said "At least Kitty can make a decent cup of tea." Kitty smiled, "Too tired to come over and hit you. Chloe put her tea down, walked over to Kitty. Kitty stood up, but instead of punching her, she hugged her, gave her a long kiss. Finally released, Chloe asked "What's that for?" Kitty: "Can't I give you a kiss when I want to?" Chloe gave Kitty a hug, whispered "Any time you want, babe, any time. Love you." They kissed again.

Chloe sat down next to Molly, Kitty went and sat by Sophie. Midge asked "What just happened? We were hoping for another punch‑up." Chloe immediately punched Molly. Molly punched Midge. Midge stood up, walked to Kitty, punched her, went back and sat down again. Kitty took a sip of what had been Chloe's tea, put the mug down again, ran across to the other three, hurled herself to land across all of them. The ensuing fight lasted several minutes, it finished with all on the floor, just laughing.

When they'd recovered themselves, all four sat on the one settee. Ann turned to Sophie, "This is the best entertainment I've seen for ages." Sophie looked over at the four girls, they were sharing three mugs of tea since Chloe's was by Ann and Sophie. Ann asked "Don't you get a bit bruised? Some of that looked pretty real." Molly answered "No fun if it doesn't hurt." Chloe added "We get bite marks, too." Midge "Been known to have to stop some bleeding." Kitty: "But the twins fix everything."

Sophie: "What do you mean, they 'fix everything'?" Chloe: "Just that. They make us better." Kitty said "Why do you think they would seem better after they'd slept with their hands on each others' backs?" Ann: "You mean, that was something more than just comforting?" Midge answered, "We can sometimes help people who are hurt." Molly: "Something else we don't understand."

Sophie: "You're having us on. Any more party tricks?" Midge and Molly got up, walked across to Ann, put their hands, fingers interlinked, on her forehead. She was about to protest, but before she could say anything, she was asleep. She slumped across Sophie, who grabbed her to stop her rolling off onto the floor. The twins went back, sat down.

Sophie was looking shocked, "What have you done to her?" The four girls were all grinning. Kitty said "She's fine, just sleeping, it's as if she's been hypnotised." "Can you wake her, I'm getting worried." Chloe went across, whispered something in Ann's ear. Ann opened her eyes, seemed disoriented, pulled herself back to sit on the settee. She asked "What just happened?" Sophie said "I think they put you to sleep." Ann said "Oh, I remember them putting their hands on my forehead, next thing I'm lying across Sophie."

Kitty: "You did ask what else they could do."

Sophie: "Any more surprises?" Ann: "Daniel said they knew about their parents before they could possibly have." Sophie nudged Ann, indicated the girls, Midge and Molly suddenly had tears coming, Chloe and Kitty had taken their hands, squeezing them.

Ann and Sophie got up, went across to the twins, knelt facing them. Ann: "Sorry, didn't mean to upset you." Midge smiled, "Not your fault." Molly: "We shouldn't have done that to you." Midge and Molly took their hands from Kitty and Chloe, reached up to Ann and Sophie, kissed them on their mouths. It was quite a deep kiss, just seemed to happen.

The twins released Ann and Sophie, Ann said "Wow." Sophie said "I second that." Then "Something else they can do." Midge asked "Sorry, too much?" Ann replied "Quite enjoyable, actually." Sophie said "More than just 'quite'." Molly grinned, said "Why do you think Kitty puts up with all our teasing?" Chloe said "She's daft, that's why." Kitty: "Not another fight? I'm still tired from missing two nights' sleep."

Ann asked "Should we go? Leave you in peace?" Molly and Midge glanced at each other, Midge said "You could stay here the night." Molly: "We have a spare room." Chloe: "We wouldn't let Kitty cook your breakfast." Kitty got up, "That does it." She walked round to Chloe, took her hand, pulled her up. "I'm taking this upstairs, I'm going to teach it a lesson. You lot can do what you like." She looked back towards Ann and Sophie "But we would like you to stay." Kitty led the compliant Chloe out of the sitting room.

Molly and Midge weren't going to take 'no' for an answer. They went to Ann and Sophie, grabbed their hands, led them upstairs. They showed them the bathroom and the spare room. "The towels are clean." "There are new toothbrushes in the cupboard above the basin." "Sheets are clean." "If you need anything else, yell." "Make yourselves at home." The twins left Ann and Sophie staring at each other, "What just hit us?" "Some sort of whirlwind." "I feel trapped." "I do like the bait, though."

Back downstairs, the twins cleared away the tea things, washed up, turned the lights off, one of them set the alarm. By the time they were upstairs again, Chloe and Kitty were in bed, damp from the shower. They were embracing, kissing, didn't really look like sleeping. Midge and Molly went into the bathroom, have a quick shower, joined Kitty and Chloe.

A little later, Chloe got out of the bed. She walked to the spare room where Ann and Sophie were still awake. Chloe found a hand of each of them, gently tugged them. Without a word, Chloe pulled until they were off the bed. Keeping hold of their hands, she walked backwards to the bedroom, leading them to the bed with the other three on it. Chloe sat on the bed, pulled Ann and Sophie's hands back one either side of her, where they were grabbed by more hands that dragged them onto the bed.

In the morning, Molly woke up, announcing "Molly needs to pee." Chloe: "Chloe needs to pee."

Laughing, and making sure they disturbed the others as much as possible, the two extricated themselves and made their way to the bathroom. They went into the shower, Midge and Kitty joined them, the four had a leisurely shower. When they came out of the bathroom, Ann and Sophie had gone from the room, the shower in the family bathroom could be heard.

The four didn't bother to dress, they went downstairs. Kitty asked "Who wants what for breakfast?" Midge "Let's wait for Ann and Sophie, but make some tea."

Ann and Sophie came into the kitchen. Seeing the naked four, Sophie asked "Is that the required dress code for a Sunday?" Midge: "You can dress …" Molly "… any way you please."

Ann and Sophie just wanted toast, "Not because of the rumours about Kitty's cooking, just what we usually have." Kitty looked at them, "Good job you only heard rumours, or there'd be some more serious punching going on." They all laughed.

Ann looks at her page

After they've finished breakfast and cleared up, Ann asked if she could see the page about her they'd photographed. They trooped into the dining room. With Ann and Sophie just watching, and the other three doing their best to annoy her, Kitty opened up her passworded virtual drive, selected the folder with the rotated photos in it. She scrolled down the list of files until she found Ann's page, she'd remembered the filename. She opened it, the page appeared on the screen.

Sophie said "It's Ann's picture, but not very flattering." Kitty said "Infrared camera, I'm surprised it's this good. What about the writing?"

Ann looked down it, "That's certainly the date I first went there, part way down is when I moved up a year, look, that's the second year up. And that's once when I got the cane. Never knew why."

Midge: "What you know will be useful to Philip. I'll ring Daniel, tell him, I'm sure Philip will want to see you as soon as possible." Midge went out of the dining room to ring Daniel. Ann kept looking down, some dates she recognised, others she didn't. Midge came back, "He says he'll let Philip know first thing tomorrow. Ann, Sophie, would you be free tomorrow evening?" Both nodded. Molly: "Come round here after your work," Midge: "even if we don't have that meeting." Molly: "We'd like to talk some more."

Nelson

Sophie: "Look, we ought to be going, Nelson will be starving." All four of the girls, in unison, "Who is Nelson?" Ann and Sophie laughed, Ann: "He's our cat." Sophie: "He sort of adopted us." Midge and Molly, together, asked "Can we come and see him?" Ann said "He doesn't like strangers, he'll run from you." Kitty said "I bet you anything you like he won't run from the twins." Ann looked at Sophie, she said "Well, I suppose …" Kitty told them "If he's shy, not Chloe or me, just Midge and Molly."

Half an hour later, Ann and Sophie, with Midge and Molly in tow, arrived at their home. It was a basement flat, it consisted of a living room and a bedroom, a kitchenette off the living room, a shower room off the bedroom. It was clean and tidy. In the living room were two armchairs and two dining chairs, the latter were by a wall on which there was a drop‑down table.

Sophie said "It's small, but we can at least afford it." On one of the armchairs was a ginger cat, he looked up as they came in. He was about to run off, but stopped, walked over to greet the four, tail raised, its tip just hanging over like a question mark.

"Wow", said Ann. "They were right, he's never like that with anyone else."

Midge and Molly both sat on the floor, Nelson rubbed himself against each of them, purred as they started to stroke him, rub him under his chin.

After a moment, both Midge and Molly frowned. Midge put a hand on one side of his chest, Molly the other. They looked at each other for a minute or two, then Midge said to Molly "Should we tell them?" Molly: "We ought to." It was very unusual for the twins to speak out loud to each other like this, as was the look of real concern on their faces. Sophie didn't notice that their manner of speaking was unusual, but she picked up on what they said and their troubled looks. "What's the matter?" asked Sophie.

Molly stayed down with Nelson, Midge got up. She went to Ann and Sophie, pulled them together in a hug. "He's very old" she said. Ann started "Yes, but …" Midge cut her off. "We are sorry, but he's⁠ …⁠" she was having difficulty speaking. Molly, from the floor, "His lungs." Molly gently lifted Nelson, held the purring animal in her arms and carried him to Ann and Sophie. Molly continued, "Something very wrong, don't know exactly what." Midge: "Take him to a vet." Molly: "But be prepared for the worst." Midge: "It's not something we can help with."

Molly passed Nelson to Ann, who took him, sat in one of the armchairs, Nelson curled up on her lap, still purring. Sophie asked "Are you sure?" Midge replied "Can't be a hundred percent, but pretty sure." Molly: "We feel he could be in a bad way."

Ann: "Is he suffering?" Midge: "Don't think so, not at the moment." Molly: "I expect he's slowed down a lot recently." Sophie: "Yes, but we'd put that down to just getting old."

Molly: "Cats can hide their hurts." Midge: "We hope it is just ageing." Molly: "But take him to a vet. He's a lovely animal." Midge: "We'd hate to think of him suffering."

Nelson got down from Ann, walked round the other three, rubbed himself on their legs. He walked towards the kitchenette, stopped, looked back. Sophie laughed, "He still gets hungry." She followed Nelson, busied herself with clearing empty dishes from the floor, putting some dried food in on a clean dish, emptying a packet of something moist into another, she replaced water in a third dish. Nelson started eating.

Midge: "Sorry to put a downer⁠" Molly: "on you like that." Sophie: "If he is …" Ann: "… ⁠⁠ill we'd …" Sophie: "… ⁠want to know." Suddenly Ann and Sophie start laughing. The twins, together, "What's so funny?" Ann managed to get out "Your way of alternating speaking …" Sophie "… has rubbed off onto us!" All four were now laughing, Ann got up, they had a group hug. They looked towards Nelson, he was staring at them. His tail, extended behind him as he was eating, now had its tip waving slowly from side to side. Midge: "If cats could talk …⁠" Molly: "… 'Stupid humans'."

After a few more minutes, Midge and Molly said their goodbyes to Ann, Sophie and Nelson. Their parting words, "Please take him to a vet" and "Come round to us after work tomorrow."

The next day, midday, Daniel phoned Midge. "Meeting tonight, half past seven at my office, probably Philip and Isabel."

Meeting at Daniel's office with Ann and Sophie

Midge got another call, this from Ann a few minutes after six, "We will be about an hour, we're at the vet's." Midge told her about the meeting at Daniel's, suggested they go straight there, she told her where Daniel's office was.

The four girls got to Daniel's at about quarter past seven. Audrey was in the outer office, she greeted them, she said "Daniel is having a pre-meeting meeting with Philip, I think about legalities. If you could wait here?" The four squeezed into one of the settees, Kitty said "Ann and Sophie will be coming, they aren't sure when." Audrey: "Oh, good, I know Daniel wants them to be here."

Shortly after, Isabel arrived with Crutch, she said hello to them all. Audrey told her that Philip was in with Daniel, but didn't mention what they might be talking about. Isabel sat on the other settee, she started chatting with the four girls about their schoolwork.

Several minutes later, Ann and Sophie came in, they said 'Hello' to Audrey. Then to the four girls, Sophie: "You were right, something definitely wrong with his lungs, they think it's an infection." Ann "I think he said 'pyothorax'." Sophie: "The vet asked how we knew so soon, he wasn't really showing symptoms yet." Ann: "Couldn't tell him." Sophie "Just said he wasn't himself."

Audrey asked "Who's this?" Ann replied "Nelson, our cat." Sophie: "The twins came to see him yesterday." Ann: "They said something wrong with his lungs." Sophie: "Told us to take him to the vet."

Midge asked "Can they treat him?" Ann replied "The good thing is it's been caught very early." Sophie "But he needs a stay in the vets." Ann: "We can't really afford it." Sophie: "We don't know what to do." Midge and Molly glanced at each other for a second, Molly asked "Which vet was it?"

Sophie told her.

Midge said "Let's put Nelson to one side for the moment, he's not why we're here." Molly: "Let me introduce you, Ann, Sophie, this is Isabel, she's the reporter we told you about. And this is Crutch." Midge was already fussing over the dog. Isabel went to Ann and Sophie, shook their hands. She was about to say something when Daniel opened his inner office door and called them all in.

Daniel introduced Ann and Sophie to Philip, then said "I've only got the four chairs in here, I'm …" Before he'd finished his sentence, the four girls had gone to a wall and sat, cross legged, on the floor." "Oh." Daniel continued, "Thank you, that solves that one." Isabel said "Go" to Crutch, he sat between Midge and Molly.

Ann, Sophie, Isabel and Philip moved their chairs a bit so they could all see the four on the floor. Ann commented "So, dogs like them as well as cats." Kitty: "Everything likes them." "Even Kitty" from Chloe. Daniel said "Stop, now." "Sorry" chorused Kitty and Chloe.

"Right" said Daniel, "Let's get started. Philip tells me he's been looking at some of the documents you, how shall I phrase it, let him get a view of. Philip, perhaps you could give a summary of what you told me?"

Philips started "As you know, there are a few hundred or so to go through, we've only just scratched the surface. A lot of them need decoding, they use some sort of shorthand." Ann offered "They showed me a page about me, I might be able to help with some of that."

"Can we put that up?" asked Philip. Daniel nodded. Philip produced a USB memory stick that he passed to Daniel, who plugged it into his computer, then glanced at the window to check that the blinds were shut. On a big display screen behind him the list of files appeared. Kitty told him the filename, he scrolled down, double‑clicked on it, Ann's page appeared. Ann got up, walked over to it.

"The dates I went there, my birthday, my year changes and when I finally left are obvious. Several more dates, that one" ‑ pointing to a line on the display ‑ "was when I got caned." Philip asked "What was that for, if you don't mind me asking?" "I don't know, they wouldn't tell me, gave me another couple for asking. They were just nasty."

Kitty asked "Do you know the date when you, you know, lost …" Ann said "Roughly." She pointed to another line, "About this time, don't know exactly." Isabel asked "Lost?" Ann replied, sitting down again, "Stopped having periods. Twins say I can't have babies." Sophie leant over, hugged her.

Isabel "Oh, god, sorry, didn't realise …" she tailed off. Sophie, sitting up again, "Me too, about the same time as far as I can remember."

Philip looked towards the twins, "And you are sure?" Midge: "As sure as …" Molly: "… we can be." Philip looked at them quizzically, "Why would you think that?" Daniel answered, "Can we just say they have a natural instinct about these things? But the loss of Ann and Sophie's periods is a very good indication, particularly as we know about the four girls."

Philip: "All right, it's just that you seem somewhat more positive than just because their periods have stopped. Well, if we need to, Ann, Sophie, would you be prepared to have a gynaecologist examine you? It's an invasive procedure, the four girls have had it, they would probably tell you about it." Before they could answer, Kitty asked "Couldn't they just have the scan? That's what gave the definitive answer with us." Philip thought for a moment, "I suppose that's true, certainly nothing like as unpleasant. I'd have to look into any legal implications should this become evidence."

Ann spoke, "In any case, we would do it." Sophie nodded.

Philip thanked the two, then asked about any other dates on Ann's sheet that looked significant. She pointed out several, Philip writing some notes in his notebook.

When Ann could think of no more, Philip asked Kitty what the filename was for Ann's page, Kitty told him. "How do you remember that?" Kitty replied "I just do remember some things." That's something Kitty is good at" from Chloe, the emphasis on 'is'. Daniel just said, quite firmly, "No." "What was that about?" asked Philip. "Just Chloe trying to start a fight." said Daniel. "Nothing unusual." Philip, shaking his head, muttered "Strange lot."

He started again, "Ann, thank you. That will give us pointers for working out many more. It seems their codes are pretty simple, 'BD' for birthday, 'EX' for leaving the school. I'll get my researchers to trawl these quickly to find the pages for the other five of you, maybe have another session. Daniel, if we do find them, do you want to be there, or can I have them on my own?" Daniel looked at the four girls on the floor, they were anxiously looking at him. "I think they want me to be there, and if they do, I do." "All right" said Philip, "I quite understand. It might be more convenient at the newspaper offices, their conference room is bigger, I'd prefer Ann and Sophie there as well if that's possible."

Daniel said "Remember they work full time, best in the evenings, or possibly weekends?" the last directed to Ann and Sophie. Sophie said "Sundays are okay, I may have to work Saturdays." Ann: "I work Saturday mornings." Philip: "Looks like evenings are preferable. Oh, I would make sure the newspaper doesn't get anything we discuss there. Whilst they are my client, I realise the, erm, delicate nature of all of this, and I wouldn't want to risk anything. Isabel, is that all right?" Isabel nodded, "Yes, totally. We've had one reporter who got something out that he shouldn't have, can't risk another. I'll have to check with Ed, though, but I'm sure he'll agree."

Daniel asked "Are we all happy with that?" The six girls all nodded. "Anyone got anything else?" Nobody responded. "I think we're done, then." Philip just said "Thank you all, I'll let you know when we have something more, probably Sophie and the four girls' pages initially."

Philip got up, shook Ann and Sophie's hands, sad "Thank you" to them both. The four girls by now were standing, he shook them each by the hand, "And thank you four." Isabel shook the hands of all six, she just said "Goodbye." She and Philip walked out together, talking, Crutch following on his lead.

Ann and Sophie wanted to get home to Nelson, they shook Daniel's hand, gave each of the four girls a hug, then they left. When they were alone, Daniel asked the girls, "Have you any more expeditions planned that I won't like?" They all shook their heads, Midge said "No, hopefully none will be necessary with what we've got." Molly: "We don't like doing it." Midge: "But if we had to," "we would."

Daniel just said "At least I know you are truthful about it." Daniel gave each of the four a hug. In the outer office they all gave Audrey a hug, then they walked home.

Meeting at the newspaper with Ann and Sophie

Three days later Daniel phoned Midge at lunchtime, "Can we meet at the newspaper at half past seven? Can you ask Ann and Sophie?" Midge told the others and sent text messages to Ann and Sophie. They each replied to Midge partway through the afternoon, they'd come to the twins' house around seven. Midge rang Audrey to say they all would be at the meeting.

A few minutes after seven, Ann and Sophie arrived at the twins' house. After they'd hugged, they sat for a while in the sitting room.

After a little smalltalk, Ann said "We got a message to ring the vets, they say that the treatment Nelson needs has been paid for already, we just have to arrange a time." Molly said "Oh, that's good." Sophie asked "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" Midge: "We couldn't let Nelson suffer from something …" Molly: "… if it's treatable."

Ann: "We can't pay you back easily …" Midge interrupted: "We don't want paying back." Molly: "This is just a gift for Nelson." Midge: "It would make us unhappy" Molly: "so we're doing it for us." Together: "We don't want to hear another word." Kitty added "Though I expect they'd like to know how he does."

Ann and Sophie got up, went to Midge and Molly, pulled them up, gave them a long hug and kiss. After a while, Chloe got up, tapped them on the shoulder, said "Come on, we need to get going."

When they arrived at the newspaper, they didn't need to ask the receptionist, as soon as they entered she nodded to them and phoned Isabel. Half a minute later, Isabel came and escorted them to the conference room, where Henry, Ed and Daniel were standing, talking.

They said the usual pleasantries, Ann and Sophie were introduced to Ed and Henry. They sat down, Kitty, Midge, Molly and Chloe along one side of the table, round from them Sophie, Ann and Daniel, opposite the girls were Isabel, Ed and Henry. Just as they were all seated, Isabel got another call from reception. She went and fetched Philip, who said a general "Hello" to the table. He sat on the opposite end from Daniel, round the corner from Kitty.

Ed started speaking, "We know you would like to borrow the conference room but without newspaper representation, which we are happy to agree to, we're only here now because we wanted to meet Ann and Sophie. So, Philip tells me that you two may have, how should I put it, a similar condition to the four girls. To get you properly tested isn't cheap, but we would fund the test if you wanted certainty as to your condition. If you don't want that now, we'll leave it and maybe ask you later in the investigation should it prove necessary. Your choice."

Henry, beside him, nodded, he said "The owners, particularly those with daughters, realise that uncertainty must be difficult to live with, better to know one way or the other. If you do want it now, by which I mean when you've had time to think about it or discuss it, let Philip know. He has our authority to organise this for one or both of you."

Ann and Sophie both said "Thank you."

Ed spoke, "If you've not got any questions, we three will leave you to your discussions. Oh, I can assure you there are no recording or monitoring systems of any sort, we use this room for our own sensitive meetings."

Daniel thanked him, Ed and Henry said their goodbyes. Isabel said she'd stay in the building, perhaps have a word when they'd finished. Henry, Ed and Isabel left the room, closing the door behind them.

Daniel said "Okay, Philip, the floor is yours."

Philip started, "We've been through many pages of the documents. We've found the four for you girls and Sophie's. Midge, Molly, they've actually kept you under one heading, surprising in one way, but, of course, pretty much halves the information about you since every entry appears to refer to you both. And, whereas the other girls each have one page, you pair have quite a few. In their eyes at least, you've been very naughty girls."

Molly grinned, "In most people's eyes." Midge "We never behaved as people wanted, not even for Mummy and Daddy, …" Molly: "… which is why we were sent there in the first place." Midge: "The nuns were supposed to make us behave." Molly: "They made us even worse."

Daniel smiled, "You still don't behave, do you?" Midge: "We try not to hurt anyone." Daniel: "True enough." Molly: "Unless they deserve it." Daniel: "Yes, well, the less said about that the better."

Philip said "Okay, let's continue. I'll put up some of the pages, just a moment …" He put a notebook on the table, then got his laptop out and turned it on. He said "I'll put this up on the display screen, wait one." There was a large screen on the wall behind him. He glanced at the room's windows to make sure they were covered, and at the door to make sure it was closed.

"Hmm, can't seem to make it connect."

He'd turned to be able to see the big screen, and moved his laptop round a bit.

This let Kitty see it, she asked "May I?" He grinned, "You can try." Three seconds later, the big display lit up with his laptop screen.

"Oh", he said, "was that luck or judgement?" Kitty: "It just seemed like the way to do it." Daniel said quietly "She's a natural."

Philip logged on to his web site, he clicked a few links until a list of filenames appeared.

"Anyway, thank you. So, now we can all see, let's have a look at the twins' pages." He checked his notebook, scrolled to a file, double‑clicked it. The display showed a page, a single photograph at the top with the names of Midge and Molly. Philip used the cursor to indicate what he was talking about.

"Joined the school here, first smack the same date, I presume when you shared a bed. Then smacks on three consecutive dates, each has a figure in brackets, I'd guess the number of strokes, goes for all the corporal punishments. Then cane, and here they changed their format, instead of a date followed by infraction or punishment, they've changed to the infraction and punishment followed by a list of dates, each with a count. When the line is full they start again with a new line. So you have smacks, canings and whipping, oh, god, the number of times …" He paused, emotion stopping him for half a minute.

"Sorry, trying to remain objective, not easy. Certainly the first few tally with what you've told us.

"Now, this one, the code is 'AB'. This is about the time you say you had your abortions, the 'AB' code is also used on the contacts card we already think is for an abortionist. If we look at Ann's page …" he put the photo of it beside Midge and Molly's on the screen, "… we can see the same code here, which is just a little before you say your periods stopped. But also on the entry there's another code, 'GH', which could indicate the drug GHB, gamma hydroxybutyrate, which is commonly used as a date rape drug.

"Which reminds me, we had those tablets analysed, two were GHB, one was Rohypnol, a drug which is used similarly to GHB. That isn't indicated when the twins were so treated, which could be why they remember it.

"Mention of the drugs would lead to what you told me of girls who disappeared for hours or days and them not remembering where they've been or what happened to them. If any of you know the names of any of these, or names of girls who disappeared altogether, maybe we could tie that in.

"We will, in any case, keep trawling through these, looking for anything that looks like that. We're building a database of all we can find out from these, but it takes time. Names would give us a shortcut to finding evidence of wrongdoing."

Kitty raised her hand, Philip looked at her, "Yes Kitty? Oh, you don't need to raise your hand, just speak up."

Kitty said "It's about the visits to the abortionist. There's just the 'AB' reference for Chloe's and mine, also Ann and Sophie's. Does that mean that sterilisation was done whether or not an abortion was done? That it was a matter of course?"

Philip looked at her, "That is a very good point, one I'd not picked up on. Ann, Sophie, I'm sorry to ask you this, it's a very personal question, please don't answer if you don't want to. Could you have been pregnant around that time?" Sophie and Ann looked at each other, Sophie nodded to Ann. Ann said "No chance for either of us." She was looking uncomfortable with answering, Philip said 'Thank you, I'm sorry to have to ask, but you can see the importance.

"Kitty's point is very valid, it means they would do it for no apparent reason. There is no indication of any misdemeanour by Ann or Sophie relating to that. Oh, wait, looking at Ann's page, a few weeks before, that's when you were caned without explanation to you. Could there have been anything?"

Ann thought for a few seconds, frowning, then she said "I was once getting into bed when a nun came round, I didn't have my nightie on, didn't think she'd seen me. Oh, it wasn't long after the time when one of the twins was put with us, they never wore nighties, I was copying her. Could that have been it? Thought I was flaunting myself?" Sophie: "I remember that, I was laughing at you. Would they have done it to us for that?"

The room went silent.

Kitty was the first to break the silence, she muttered to herself, but clearly heard by all, "Vindictive cunts, the lot of them." Realising she'd said it out loud, "Oh, sorry, didn't mean …" Daniel cut her off. "Kitty, I suspect we were all thinking exactly the same thing, even those of us who haven't experienced them directly." Philip: "Daniel's right. As far as I am concerned, nothing to apologise for at all. Midge, Molly, what's the matter?"

Midge was quietly sobbing, Molly trying to comfort her, but not much better herself. Kitty and Chloe were each squeezing a hand of the twin beside them.

Molly answered, barely able to hold herself, "That we caused other girls to have that done …" Sophie interrupted, "NO", she almost yelled. "You didn't cause it, the fucking nuns caused it. Not you fault at all."

Sophie and Ann got up, went round to the twins, leant over them, kissed their cheeks, hugged them. Ann echoed Sophie, "Not your fault at all." A moment later, all the girls were standing in a huddle, all trying to hug and kiss all the others.

Daniel went round to Philip, quietly said "That's enough for now. Both men were on the verge of tears, Philip nodded, closed his computer. He said "It's so easy to forget, they're all just young kids who have put up with the most horrendous experiences." Daniel nodded.

After a few minutes, Daniel went to the group. He said, just loudly enough to be heard over their crying, "Let's pack up here, let's go home." Molly managed to ask "Could we come to yours for a bit? Sophie and Ann as well?" Daniel replied "Of course you can, any time you want, that goes for all six of you."

Philip used his phone to call Isabel, he said they were going to go, that the girls were all very upset. A minute later, Isabel came in, she had Crutch with her. Crutch immediately ran round to the group, he sat and looked at them, he whined. Seeing Crutch seemed to cheer the girls up a little, Midge and Molly bent down to him, fussed over him a bit. Soon the others were petting him, it was quite unusual for him to let anyone else, but he seemed happy.

Isabel had a brief word with Daniel and Philip, they told her just that the six's experiences at the school were the root cause of the upset, that they'd discovered specifics that had triggered this. She looked questioningly at Daniel then at Philip, Daniel shook his head, Philip said "Sorry, can't tell you at the moment, but it will come out later." She nodded.

She walked to the group of girls, all had stopped crying, it appeared that Crutch was good therapy for them, so she just stood there, watching, until the six seemed to have recovered. Midge turned to her, hugged her. Isabel just gently stroked her hair.

Philip said to Daniel, "We'll carry on trying to decipher things, we won't bother the girls unless we think it's necessary. What they've given us so far will help us with the rest, but we may want to clarify things with them later on." Daniel replied "We all understand that, particularly the girls, and I know they want to help. It may even be good for them to get some of it out, though I'm no psychiatrist. Maybe less formal surroundings another time, my house for instance."

Philip nodded. "We'll see where we get to in the next few days, I'll get in touch when we have more. Meanwhile, please keep an eye on them." Daniel smiled, "They've cast their spell on you as well, haven't they." Philip got a handkerchief out to wipe his eyes. "Too right" he managed. He turned, picked up his things, called out "Goodbye", and almost ran out of the room.

Isabel went to Daniel, "In all the years I've dealt with Philip, I've never seen him show emotion anything like that." Daniel: "I'm no better, those poor girls, I really don't know how they've survived." He paused for a moment, and, really to himself, "Maybe that's why some disappeared."

Half an hour later, Daniel and the six arrived at his house, Audrey was waiting for them. When they came in, she looked at Daniel, "What's upset all of them so much? And you, for that matter?" Daniel kissed her, "Just going through some of the things at the school. It's enough to upset anybody."

Audrey got them all into the sitting room. "I'll make some tea, anyone not eaten yet this evening?" Both Sophie and Ann said they hadn't, both said they weren't hungry. "Rubbish" from Audrey, "I'll get you something."

She came back five minutes later with eight mugs of tea and two plates, each with a sandwich on it. She put the mugs on the coffee table, passed the two plates to Ann and Sophie. Both said "Thank you" but neither seemed enthusiastic. Eventually Ann took a bite, chewed for a moment, her eyes seemed to light up. She nudged Sophie, said "Mmm", her mouth too full for real words. Sophie tried hers, she too said "Mmm", both of them ate as if they'd starved for a week.

Finished, Ann said "Maybe you should adopt us as well, that was perfect." Sophie "How did you know cheese and pickle was my favourite?" Audrey just smiled. Molly asked "You couldn't do …" Audrey got up, "How many?" Six hands went up. "Two repeats, four new. Good job the food cupboard is full."

She brought back a pile of eight, with plates for the other four girls, Daniel and herself. They all ate in silence, occasionally sipping their tea. When all had finished, Daniel went round to collect the plates. He took Audrey's last, he whispered in her ear "The queen's done good again, and gained more subjects." She laughed, gave him a quick kiss.

They chatted about nothing in particular for a while, eventually Ann and Sophie said they wanted to get back, "Some of us have to work in the morning." The two stood up, went to Audrey, who got up, each of the two hugged her, Sophie said "Thank you, that was really good." Ann added "And for your just being nice." Both went to Daniel, shook his hand. Ann said in a stage whisper, "You're a very lucky man." Daniel stage-whispered back "I know, but don't tell her I said that." Audrey just smiled to herself.

The four girls also got up, "We ought to be going as well" from Midge. Molly said to Ann and Sophie "Let us know about Nelson, and we'll have another get-together soon." They said a final goodbye to Daniel and Audrey, and left to go to their homes.

Meeting at Daniel's home with Ann and Sophie

Three days later, Daniel phoned Kitty, could they come to his tonight for a meeting with Philip at seven, preferably with Sophie and Ann? Audrey would provide a meal afterwards. Kitty let the others know, and sent text messages to Ann and Sophie.

That evening, the four girls arrived at Daniel's shortly after six, Ann and Sophie about half past. After the usual greetings, Ann said "Nelson has gone in to the vets, he'll be there for a few days. They said because he was discovered so early, the prognosis is very good." They chatted a bit more until Philip arrived. He said they'd made some more progress with the documents, he wanted to tell them really just to keep them informed, but he would listen to any comments they had.

They sat down in the sitting room. Audrey excused herself, "It's all just too upsetting for me." She went into the kitchen, closing both doors.

Philip explained that they'd gone through a lot of the pages with girls' data on them, the database they were creating was proving very useful. Some were of names that the girls had remembered in their previous meeting, most seemed to line up with temporary and total disappearances.

Entries for the temporaries had 'GH', then initials and a figure that they were guessing was money. Some of the initials tallied with entries in the contacts cards, so the suspicion was that the girls were being drugged and hired to individuals for money.

Two of the totally disappeared had, for their last entry, a drug's initials, a very large number, again probably money, and the letters 'EX'. The suspicion was that these were being sold. There were others that seemingly went legitimately, they could be found being adopted or going to other legal destinations. Philip added that he was sometimes using sources that were not really legal, these destinations were supposed to be totally confidential, so please don't say anything to anyone.

There were also a few that he couldn't positively account for, all had 'EX', some had initials then the code 'AC', possibly 'accident'. Others had the 'EX' and 'SU', his suspicion is that might mean suicide.

All six girls kept silent throughout, but all had tears. Daniel was somewhere between crying and seething with anger.

When Philip had finished, he just looked down at the floor, trying to collect himself. He added "I've a small team going through all this data, they also are having a hard time coming to grips with the implications." He then asked if anyone had any comments or suggestions, saying he'd already heard all the comments of anger, disgust, sympathy, and hatred from his team, plus a few illegal suggestions, mostly for extreme violence.

After several minutes, Kitty spoke, though she found it difficult. "If there have been girls who have died, where are they now?" Philip said "We don't know. Maybe they are buried in the school grounds, maybe they have been hidden somewhere within the school building, possibly removed and taken somewhere else."

Midge asked "Could you use the drone to scan the grounds? Look for possible graves?" Philip answered "We are already looking at the possibility of doing just that. We think we've got two disappearances within the last three months from the trawl through the pages. If they are buried outside, they should show up on a thermal camera if they're not too deep. We're adapting the drone to attempt this."

Daniel asked "What do we do then? We can't do much about it even if we do find what might be graves. In any case, there must be no end of possible heat sources." Philip said "You are right on both counts. I want to do a scan, look at the results, see if there's anything that might be suspicious. There may be nothing, we won't know until we've tried."

Philip continued "Anything else? I didn't come here to do much more than tell you about the progress we've made. There are plenty of other leads from the data, but this seems to be the most significant."

Daniel said "If there's nothing more …" shakes of heads all round. Philip said "Right, I'll leave you. Do you want me to keep you all updated on what we are doing?" All of them nodded. Molly said "What you find may trigger something useful that one of us remembers." Midge: "We still want to be involved at least like that."

Daniel: "I think that's your answer, yes please. These have all given me their assurance that they won't breathe a word of this to anybody, they are aware that to do so may impede what you're doing. It's probably easiest if you just let me know anything, I can get it to the girls."

Philip said his goodbyes, Daniel showed him out.

Back in the sitting room, Daniel said "Kitty, go and find Audrey, tell her it's safe to come back."

Ten minutes later, Audrey was dishing up shepherd's pie. There was no talk for a while, all were lost in thought, and Audrey certainly didn't want to hear anything about what they'd been discussing. But, after few minutes, the magic of Audrey's cooking began to tell, appreciative noises started to be made. A few minutes later more normal chatter ensued.

When the first course was cleared away, Audrey brought in a pavlova. This caused the usual glee from Kitty and Chloe, grins from Midge and Molly, and appreciative looks from Ann and Sophie. When she tasted it, Sophie said "Sorry, Charlotte, that's better than yours." Ann: "That, from Sophie, is praise indeed. And, fully justified, it's wonderful."

A little later, in the sitting room drinking tea, Midge asked Ann, "Do you think you could organise one of your 'Old Girls' get‑togethers?" Molly: "Include us?" Midge: "Your usual arrangement?" Molly: "We'd like to meet up,⁠" Midge: "see how we are all doing." Daniel immediately said "You mustn't tell anyone else about the investigation, not even a hint." Molly said "No, we wouldn't. But we might learn something useful without giving anything away, for instance where some of the 'EX' girls have gone." Midge: "Perfectly innocent enquiries." Daniel nodded.

Ann said "I'll put out an email to them all, that's how we usually start. If I write that you two want to meet them, I think they'll all want to. Sorry, Kitty, Chloe, but these two are quite famous, often talked about." Kitty: "Exactly what we would expect." Chloe nodded and smiled, "They always were a major topic of conversation."

Molly went to where Daniel was sitting, "Could we have a private word?" Midge had stood up as well. "Unlike you to want secrets, but come to the study, we can talk there." When they got there, Molly closed the door, Midge asked him "Do you mind if we pay for this?" Molly: "I expect it will be several hundred pounds." Midge: "But it would make us …" - together - "… happy." Midge: "Ann and Sophie don't …" Molly: "… have any spare …" - together - "… money."

Daniel, trying to stop himself laughing at their way of speaking, said "It's fine by me. Do you need a top‑up to your account?" Midge "No, thank you." Molly: "We've accumulated a bit." Molly: "Cheaper to live" Midge: "as two of four."

Daniel: "All right then. If your card doesn't work for any reason, give me a ring, I'll use a credit card over the phone."

The twins gave Daniel a kiss on his cheeks, ran back into the sitting room, jumped onto Kitty and Chloe's laps, the two had been sitting together on the settee. The twins wriggled their bottoms to force the two apart until they were sat on the settee between them, the twins both had broad grins on their faces.

Daniel walked back in to see the completion of their sitting. Kitty and Chloe, although they had made it difficult for the twins, behaved as if nothing had happened. Both Ann and Sophie were looking on, very surprised expressions on their faces. Ann asked "What was that all about?" Midge and Molly together: "Secret." Kitty said "If they say it's a secret, you won't get it out of them." Chloe added "Whatever it was, I think they are happy about it."

Audrey was looking questioningly at Daniel, he mouthed 'Later'.

Old girls at the restaurant

The following Tuesday they went to the restaurant. Ann and Sophie came to the twins' house first, all six went together. The entrance to the restaurant led into a foyer, at the other end was the door into the dining area. The head waiter was George, he greeted Ann and Sophie, who introduced the four girls. "You might be seeing more of them."

George led them to the table, it was set for seven on each side and three on each end. A few girls were already seated, they were introduced by Ann. One girl, Annabel, asked Midge and Molly to sit on the centre of one side, Kitty and Chloe on the centre of the other side, "So that all of us have a chance to talk to you." Sophie sat by Molly, Ann by Kitty.

The table was set with wine glasses, Midge and Molly immediately turned their glasses upside down. When someone asked why, Chloe said "Whatever happens, please don't let them have any alcohol." Annabel quietly asked "That school episode?" Chloe was choking up, Kitty answered "Yes, they daren't, they're afraid it might happen again."

The next arrival was Charlotte. When Sophie introduced her, she went round the four girls, gave them each a kiss on the cheek, she said "I feel I already know you, Sophie's talked so much about you." It seems George was waiting for her, he came and gave her a kiss. She said to the new arrivals "We're engaged." She probably didn't notice the glance the twins gave each other.

As more girls arrived, they, too, were introduced to the four, then found places round the table.

Very shortly afterwards George came to the table, he asked if they wanted wine. Annabel gave a quick glance towards the twins, said loudly enough for the whole table to here, "No wine this time, thank you. Perhaps some water?" One or two of the later arrivals looked questioningly at Annabel, they were quickly told why by those near them, none objected.

George brought out three plates, he placed them in front of three of the girls. Sophie got up, went back with him to the kitchen. They came back out, Sophie holding two plates in her hands with another two balanced on her arms. This was clearly something they'd done before, it meant the whole table could be served in four trips instead of the seven needed had George been carrying them on his own.

They ate what was not a particularly good meat pie, with overcooked vegetables and insipid gravy. None finished their plates. Chloe said, loudly enough for the whole table to hear, "Almost as bad as Kitty's."

As might be expected, Kitty punched Chloe, "Mine's not that bad." Chloe punched Kitty. Within seconds they were on the floor, punching, pinching, hair-pulling, biting. Ann stayed on her chair, grinning. Others got up, those on the other side of the table went round so they could see what was happening, though Midge, Molly and Sophie stayed in their seats.

Heather, who was sitting beside Chloe on the table, was going to intervene, Ann called to her, "Leave them, they'll sort themselves out." Annabel looked towards Midge and Molly, "Shouldn't you stop them? They're hurting each other." Midge, a big smile on her face, "If we went round there⁠ …" Molly: "… we'd join in."

After a couple of minutes, Kitty and Chloe helped each other up, stood hugging each other, gave each other a kiss. The two parted, sat back in their seats, looked round at all the girls who were staring at them. They put on a puzzled look, in unison said "What?" All the others burst out laughing, they returned to their seats.

Sophie helped George take the plates away and bring out pudding dishes with a nondescript steam pudding and thin custard. After tasting it, Chloe and Kitty looked at each other, both grinned, Kitty announced to the table, "You can take another punch‑up as read."

When all had stopped eating, Annabel said "We'll go into the lounge for tea or coffee." This seemed to be what they usually did, saying it was for the benefit of the four new to these dinners. The lounge was quite large, furnished with four settees and several armchairs, some coffee tables.

Chloe, Kitty and the twins crammed themselves into one settee, Sophie, Ann and Charlotte sharing another settee, the others all found places to sit. George came in, asked the four newcomers whether they wanted tea or coffee, all spoke in unison, "Coffee, please." Midge added "All black, no sugar, thank you."

As George left, Midge and Molly got up, went to Sophie, pulled her up. "A quiet word." Sophie looked round, not sure what was happening, but allowed herself to be led into a corner away from all the others. Midge quietly asked "Charlotte says she's engaged to George." Sophie said "Yes, they've got a date set." Molly: "Sophie, does she know?" "Know what?" asked Sophie. Midge: "If she can have …" Molly: "… babies?"

Sophie: "Oh, my god, I don't think she does know." Midge asked "Does she have …" Molly: "… periods?" Sophie: "Again, I don't know. What do we do? It's not fair on either of them." Midge: "We'll just have to ask her …" Molly: "… same as we asked you." Sophie: "I'll get her now, get it over with." Sophie went to Charlotte, without saying a word, she led her by the hand to Midge and Molly.

Sophie started, "Charlotte, there's something we have to ask you." Midge: "It's very personal." Molly: "We wouldn't ask unless it was really important." Charlotte looked at each of the three in turn, she said "Well, you'd better ask." Molly blurted out "Periods. Do you?" Charlotte looked open‑mouthed at the three questioning faces, then said "All right, then, yes." Suddenly all three were hugging her, Molly managed a kiss on her mouth. They were getting strange looks from around the room, but were probably unaware of them.

Charlotte pulled her mouth from Molly, "I hate having periods, what's there to celebrate?" Sophie replied, "We don't have them, we can't have babies. Something the nuns did to us."

"Oh, god, that's awful. Now I see why you wanted to ask me. I'm so sorry, can't anything be done?" The three shook their heads.

Midge said "Now that's sorted, please, don't say a word about this to anyone, not to George, not to anyone, relative or not. It's very important. We wouldn't have asked you except you are marrying soon. Congratulations, by the way."

Sophie; "Thank you. But what about all the others? Shouldn't we …" Molly cut her off. "We will, but later." Midge: "Please, No one, not until we say, it's vital."

Sophie: "All right, I'll keep quiet. But what am I going to tell the others here now, we've obviously been having some sort of serious discussion." Molly grinned, "Molly fix." She walked towards where all the others were, many of whom were looking towards the huddle.

Molly spoke, ever direct, "You may possibly have noticed we've been having a little private conversation in the corner. I'm afraid the key word is 'private'. I would ask you all not to embarrass any of us by asking about it. If you do, you'll have an angry Molly to contend with." A brief pause, then "Heard any rumours?" She was greeted with laughter, there were one or two murmurings about stories to do with Molly, and for that matter Midge, in dealing with bullies and other people who had upset them.

Sophie and Charlotte returned to their places, Midge followed, but before she sat down, she smilingly announced "My sister can be a bit blunt, but the point is well made."

George brought in trays of coffees and teas, placed them on coffee tables near to whoever wanted them, he clearly had remembered who wanted what, and how they wanted them. Midge and Molly each had a sip of theirs, left them, it wasn't very good coffee.

Chloe, Kitty and the twins got up, they went round to talk individually with the others. They asked about what they were doing, sneaking in questions about other girls in their class. They were trying to keep the questions casual, they didn't want be too obvious. What they were surreptitiously doing was recording all their conversations on their phones, so as not to forget any names or anything said about them or others.

Partway through, Midge went to find George so she could pay him. Once the bill was settled, George asked "What was that little fracas about between, who was it, Kitty and Chloe? Wasn't sure whether to call the police and an ambulance, but you seemed unfazed, so …" Midge laughed, "That was nothing. All four of us look for any excuse to have a little fight, doesn't mean anything. We all tease Kitty about her cooking, although it's no better or worse than any of ours. Look, I'm sorry, Chloe said the food tonight was almost as bad as Kitty's."

George said "No, it's me who is sorry. I perhaps shouldn't tell you this, but it's the owner who thinks he's a great chef. He won't be told. Trouble is, as you can see …" he indicated all the empty tables "… we don't get a lot of custom, not even at weekends. If only he had a decent chef, people would come, it's such a convenient location. I think he's going bankrupt.

"Oh, if we had more customers, we'd need more waiters or waitresses, you saw how Sophie helped me tonight. With Charlotte in the kitchen, and Sophie as a waitress, maybe a couple more, this place would do wonders …" he stopped, then "Shouldn't be saying this."

Midge smiled, then said "I hear congratulations are in order, I'm sure you'll be happy, from what I've seen you are well suited."

"Thank you, we do love each other, but we are a bit worried about our future." He paused, then: "Again, though, why am I telling you this?" Midge: "Don't worry, lots of people talk to us, and we wouldn't betray a confidence."

Midge gave him a quick peck on his cheek, she went back to continue her rounds.

Some time later, Charlotte came to Kitty, she said "George tells me you paid for everyone, you didn't have to do that." Midge replied "It was we who asked for the meet‑up, we know at least some of you aren't particularly well off, so that's what we wanted."

A little later on, the regulars started to leave. Our four were standing, everyone came to them, they got comments mostly about the entertainment value of the fight. Occasionally the twins got sympathy about their parents. All wanted to kiss them.

Charlotte was waiting for George; Ann and Sophie were hanging around as well, they wanted a chat with the four. When only the seven were left, Charlotte said to the four, "I'd like you to come to our wedding, Sophie and Ann are maids of honour, would you four be bridesmaids?" The four in unison said "Love to", which made Charlotte Sophie and Ann laugh.

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Introduction