The café was crowded after the meeting, but they got seats for everyone over a few tables. There were plenty of them who were animated and filled any quiet bits. Mostly Margaret just sat and watched it all, not talking more than anyone else, but not talking any less. She was sitting at a table with Carola and Lotte. There were other people at the table, but Margaret’s eyes always came to rest on them. Carola and Lotte were still identical and still together. Margaret had known them tangentially in the other city. Their parents had moved them here soon after it happened – to look after them. Their parents were rich, and they’d had everything they needed and most of what they wanted. Carola and Lotte were still together in a particularly successful way. They were friends and they had a house and they always seemed very, very happy, like Peggy and Greta would have been, she couldn’t help thinking. When she went up to order a coffee, another, older woman came with her. ‘They’re great, eh?’ she said.

‘Yeah,’ Margaret said.

‘Didn’t you used to be . . .’ the woman said, but she ran out of steam. ‘It’s just someone mentioned it,’ she tried.

‘Yeah,’ said Margaret, because there were people in the queue who knew, and if she tried to be cagey they’d catch her out. Margaret had always found it hard to look at Carola and Lotte, and she’d tried not to think about them unless they were right in front of her. When they’d first arrived, Heidi, Peggy and Greta had figured out which meetings Carola and Lotte went to and worked hard at never seeing them. On the whole, it worked – but not tonight.