From the end of the west wing corridor, she could see Molly, Emma, and Lexi on their knees at the window seat, peering down into the garden. Silent, Kate stopped in the doorway.

“Look at her dress,” Lexi said, completely unaware of Kate leaning against the doorjamb. “She’s so daggy she’s almost hipster.”

“Maybe she is a hipster,” Emma reasoned.

“Nah, she looks too sweet,” Molly said. “She’s definitely just a dag.”

“She’s flatter than a washboard,” Lexi murmured. “Even Emma has bigger tits than her.”

“Fuck you,” Emma said.

Kate cleared her throat.

She’d never seen three heads whip around so fast.

“Tilly is a lovely person. If I hear another negative word about her, I’ll change the Wi-Fi password for a month.”

Emma smiled as she climbed down from the window. She reached into her open suitcase and threw her toiletries bag onto her bed. “You wouldn’t,” she said, grinning.

Kate quirked an eyebrow. “Try me.”

Just before midday, the heavy click of the double front doors echoed down the corridor of the boarding house to Kate’s office. She spied out.

To the noise of the girls unpacking upstairs, Tilly stood in the middle of the sun-drenched foyer looking up at the chandelier. Her slender figure was bathed in sunlight, highlighting the auburn in her hair, her skin flushed from being outside all morning. As she tugged off her gardening gloves and set them on the side table, it wasn’t so hard for Kate to remember Tilly standing in the same spot at sixteen, her white uniform blouse buttoned higher than the other girls, her blue tartan skirt an inch or two longer. She’d been so pretty as a girl. Now, she was stunning.

Something hot seized in Kate. She wanted to know everything about Tilly—her missions overseas, her time at university, her early years teaching. She wanted to know all that had built her up and brought her down, every small, insignificant choice Tilly had made in the past twelve years that had set her on the path that led back to St. Joan’s, placing her here at the same time as Kate.

Fate’s hand at her back, Kate started down the hall.

The moment Tilly saw her coming, her eyes snapped to Kate’s.

“You okay?” Kate asked.

Quickly, Tilly nodded. “Fine.”

Noise swept into the foyer from every direction. The voices of her seniors in the east wing of the ground floor were distinct. “This way,” Kate said, “I’ll introduce you to a few of the girls…”

They ventured down the corridor, past the enormous dining room, until they reached the kitchen.

Seated at the counter island and sharing a bowl of green grapes, Molly and Emma laughed at Lexi, who, for whatever reason, had her arms locked around Sister Ellie’s shoulders, playfully irritating her Food Technology teacher as she prepared lunch. When they laid eyes on Kate and Tilly in the doorway, the kitchen fell silent.

“Girls,” Kate said, sliding her hands into her back pockets, “this is Ms Wattle.”