Mariah grimaced.

‘I’ve heard her talking to herself and all. That’s how she was before, when it all started. She’s definitely out of her tree. I don’t know what’s going to happen once the child comes. I’ll look after it, and she’ll have to go back to Sea View, I suppose. I feel like shaking her sometimes, telling her to pull herself together, but of course, I don’t.’

Mariah sighed softly.

‘It must be hard, Briony.’

‘It is. Watching someone you love going down hill by the day, and unlike the doctor I don’t think it’s the pregnancy that’s making her ill. I remember her as she was before. It’s a symptom, but not the whole reason, if you know what I mean. I don’t think the pregnancy’s helping, but I think she wants to die. Honestly, that’s the conclusion I’ve come to.’

Mariah got up and put her arm around her little friend’s shoulders.

‘You can’t know that, Bri. No one wants to die.’

Briony smiled grimly.

‘I know Eileen. She’s weak, God love her, and too much has happened to her. She ain’t like us, Mariah. She’s different. Highly strung, me mum calls it. “Sensitive” the doctor calls it. I call it plain and simple nuttiness. She’s as daft as a yard brush, and that’s the truth of it. I only hope this nun coming will snap her out of it for a while.’

Sister Mary Magdalene cast a shadow over the house for the first few hours after her arrival. Everyone, including Briony, was watching their language, watching what they spoke about, and all were acting completely out of character. Kerry was terrified the nun would find out Liselle was illegitimate, Molly was terrified she’d find out Briony owned brothels. And Bernadette had told a rather subdued Marcus that he couldn’t stay with her while the nun was under their roof. Cissy took to curtsying at her every time she laid eyes on her, Mrs Horlock avoided her like the plague, and only Eileen acted natural around her. Natural only in the fact that she was the same as she was every day, except she smiled every now and then at the young nun.