Seeing Dora in the nursery bathing the sleepy new-born, before dressing her in one of the Home’s sweet little white nighties hand-stitched by the nuns in the convent, Edith watched her tenderly rocking the baby to sleep in a manner she knew she could never do. She knew she was a competent midwife, but mothering and cuddling were not within her remit. Having been raised by a woman with a heart of stone, Edith was simply not empathetic.

Venting her disapproval, Dora, now in the sluice room with Sister Theresa, grumbled on about Sister Mann’s lack of emotion.

‘Ada helped her patients breathe through their pain but this new one’ – Dora rolled her eyes as she nodded over her shoulder in the direction of the delivery room – ‘doesn’t seem to have an instinctive bone in her body. Once she’d checked the baby was breathing and cut the cord, she didn’t give the poor little mite a second glance.’

‘You mustn’t judge too harshly, Dora,’ Theresa earnestly whispered. ‘It’s really not fair.’

Stubborn Dora set her jaw at a firm angle. ‘I can only judge on what I saw,’ she insisted.

‘Give Sister Mann a bit longer before you jump to conclusions,’ gentle Theresa pleaded. ‘And please don’t go mentioning this to Matron,’ she anxiously added.

Dora gave a dismissive shrug. ‘Don’t you worry, I won’t need to mention it. Matron’s bound to see Nurse Mann’s bedside manner for herself before long, and, believe me, Sister, she’s in for a bit of a shock.’

Sybil’s opinion of Ada’s replacement had worsened too if anything; with Ada gone, it was impossible not to notice that the new staff sister quickly assumed superiority in a way that irked Sybil and other residents too. Unlike Ada, Sister Mann took to eating her meals in her office, saying she was far too busy to have extended meal-times in the communal dining room, which the residents took as a rebuff. If Sister Ada could pass the time of the day with them, why not Sister Mann – weren’t they good enough for her? Sybil was one of the few who didn’t actually articulate her disapproval – how could she when she herself spent as little time as possible with the residents? Anyway, she was far too busy with her own plans, which had unrolled far more quickly than she had initially imagined.

Unable to get at Monty (at least for the time being), Sybil’s vindictive thoughts turned to Ronnie and Sally, who remained a thorn in tetchy Sybil’s side. As far as she was concerned, their continued presence here was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The Home had never been acceptable, far from it, but, loud with the clamour of two intolerable kids (Sally was marginally more acceptable than her odious brother), Sybil’s frazzled nerves were constantly on edge.