That was such a good night! I love you ladies! I just did somthing stuuuupid. I’ll tell you in the morning. Love Alice x x x x x

She’d sent it from her room, while they slept behind walls either side of her. They’d felt so united then. Anger, which had recently begun to dissolve, flared again in her chest: They didn’t even want to find out what I’d done. She meant so little to them and they meant so much to her.

She glanced around the room again as she considered what to do. When she looked back down at her phone, Nina and Jules had disappeared. They were no longer online, a passing eclipse. That’s that then, she thought, the window of opportunity slamming shut.

Alice didn’t know that Jules had just said goodbye to Paul and had also been sitting staring at their group, wondering if she should try to reconnect before the shame of the last few months came cascading over her. Or that Nina had left Ted’s office and was willing herself to call Alice: Call her and tell her now! All she knew was they’d abandoned her long ago without an explanation and she couldn’t forgive them.

Vita called up. ‘Come! Lunch has arrived!’ and Alice descended the stairs to a Greek feast: triangular pastries stuffed with feta and mint, freshly grilled lamb and soft, doughy pitta bread.

‘Do you get this delivered every day or just the days I’m here?’ Alice asked.

Vita shrugged. ‘I hate cooking. Christos and the boys love food. What can I do, I can’t spend my whole day at the stove?’ For each husband Vita had gained a son and they all lived here with her and Christos. ‘Have you thought about an interior design course?’ Vita asked with sudden interest. ‘Maybe it would give you a much-needed boost?’ She looked her up and down. Alice was wearing a pink floral dress with a chunky blue jumper and boots. ‘At least we got you out of that stinky sweater,’ she winked.

*

A month later and Alice strode confidently out of the first day of an interiors short course at an art school in Chelsea. It was only a six-week course one day a week and with no entry requirements, but it suited her perfectly. She had some experience – her own home, Jules’s, the Mantels and now Vita’s new wing – but she needed help pulling it into a ‘compelling proposition’ as her tutor, Ashley, had indicated all the students needed to do. This was what Alice was lacking but the course would provide: business direction. She needed to learn how to work with clients, to be clearer from the outset on their objectives so she could deliver. Her work wasn’t for everyone and that was okay too. She felt shot through with motivation as she boarded a bus up to Paddington station to get the train back to Oxford. She replayed Ashley’s feedback on the photos she’d brought with her: