‘Shagging?’ Nina asked now. Shagg-ing. Not a one-off ‘shagged’? Nina leaned back in her chair. ‘I thought you hated him,’ she said, in that flat, blunt way of hers as she lit a cigarette. She was so hungover her face was grey, Alice noted, thinking of Turner’s Snow Storm and unrelenting, unbidden clouds.

‘Hated Teddy?’ Alice said, as though surprised, and for the first time she thought, Is this weird for Nina? Should I have mentioned it to her first? The truth was, Alice had been walking on sunshine since she and Teddy had got together, elevated by being loved by someone like him. Someone who could have any woman he wanted, even Nina, and had chosen her, Alice Digby. She knew that Nina and Teddy had kissed after le Bal, but that was four years ago, and Teddy had said nothing had happened since, it just fizzled out. Might Nina be jealous now? It didn’t seem possible. Not beautiful Nina with the world at her feet? With her close-knit family, and her movie-star father and a recording contract on the horizon? But hadn’t Jules mentioned Nina seeming off-kilter lately? Drinking a lot. Making questionable choices with men. A little lonely, perhaps, living in a new town? But things always worked out, didn’t they? Those things were just a blip, until her music career got going? ‘No, maybe initially, you know the chunky thing…’ She trailed off, with no hint of sadness. ‘But I can see now that was less about me and more about trying to fit in with my brothers. He’s never had that, has he? Family?’

Nina’s face stayed impassive as she realised she wasn’t the only person Teddy confided in any more. How had she not seen this coming?

*

Jules watched Nina from across the table. She was being especially prickly today, not surprising given her hangover. Jules shuddered at the thought, grateful that thanks to the medication for her skin she drank little, but slightly aggrieved at the role she’d assumed lately as Nina’s chief picker-upper from whatever sticky floor she’d ended up on. It had been like this the last time Jules had seen her in London. She’d begun the evening excited, talking about how she’d reconnected with Samir, and how enthusiastic he was about her music, before growing quieter and quieter, and then suddenly loud again as she chatted someone up, or, at drinks in the City once, jumping on the table and air-guitaring along to a song. Jules had stopped inviting her to work drinks after that. ‘Where’s your crazy friend?’ the other graduates asked her sometimes.

‘Are you humming?’ Nina asked, raising her head and frowning.

‘Sorry,’ Jules said, trying not to be too upbeat. ‘I’ve got a song stuck in my head. Are you okay? You’re shivering. Here, take my blazer. My dress has long sleeves, I’ll be fine.’

Nina accepted it gratefully and surveyed Jules through squinted eyes as she shrugged it on. ‘You’ve got so perky since you started at that bank. Aren’t all bankers supposed to be miserable?’