a chance to say hello, the girl with the plaits elbowed her way between them.
‘It’s Lady Amelia, isn’t it?’
‘Millie, actually.’
She smiled triumphantly. ‘I thought I recognised you! You were presented at Court last year, weren’t you?’
Millie frowned at her, trying to place her face with its turned-up nose and pert mouth. ‘Were you there?’
‘Well, no, actually – but I saw your photograph all the time in Tatler. My mother and I follow the Season every year. I’m Lucy Lane, by the way. My father is Sir Bernard Lane. Lane’s Lightbulbs?’ She waited expectantly. Millie tried to look impressed.
‘I was thinking of doing the Season myself last year,’ Lucy went on, ‘but the headmistress of my school was determined I should stay on. She wanted me to take the Common Entrance Exam, you see. She told my father I was easily bright enough for Oxford . . .’
Millie put on her best listening expression, the one she had cultivated from endless cocktail parties, while she searched for Dora out of the corner of her eye. She was nowhere to be seen.
‘. . . and I have to share a room with the most dreadful Irish girl. So common, I can’t tell you,’ Lucy droned on. ‘Terribly religious, too. I could hardly sleep last night for the sound of those rosary beads clicking. Who are you sharing with?’ she asked, pausing for breath at last.
‘Doyle.’
‘Really? Poor you!’
‘Why do you say that?’ Millie asked, puzzled.
‘Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? She’s hardly our sort, is she?’ Lucy gave her a conspiratorial smile.
‘Our sort?’
‘You know what I mean.’ Lowering her voice barely a fraction, she added, ‘I wonder if we could get Doyle to swap with me? I’m sure she and O’Hara would get on. Then we could share. It would be so much fun, wouldn’t it?’
Millie couldn’t think of anything worse. But mercifully she was saved from replying as they were summoned back into the classroom.
Chapter Seven
BY THE TIME they returned from their break, the bookseller had set up his stall in the classroom, with boxes full of textbooks on display. The new girls swarmed all over them. Millie, who already had all her books from her first stint in PTS, sat at her desk watching them.
‘Sister Tutor says we don’t need to buy all of them, but I thought I might as well.’ Lucy Lane sidled up to Millie, her arms full of books.
She nodded politely but her eyes were fixed on Dora as she picked up one of the books, flipped it open then quickly shoved it back into the box again.
‘I know what you’re thinking,’ Lucy gave her a knowing smile. ‘It’s pitiful, isn’t it?’
Millie glanced at her. ‘What is?’
‘Doyle, of course. Look at her, staring at those books. Like a starving dog at a butcher’s shop window. It’s obvious she can’t afford to buy anything.’
Millie looked back at Dora. Poor girl. She herself was so used to having anything she wanted, it hadn’t even occurred to her that someone might not be able to buy a few books.
‘Look, Sister Tutor is talking to her now.’ Lucy craned forward eagerly. ‘I bet she’s asking her why she hasn’t bought anything. Let’s listen.’
‘I don’t want to,’ Millie said, turning her head away. But it was impossible to miss what was being said.
‘You know, Doyle, if you are unable to afford new textbooks, we do have a few available secondhand. They’re rather worn and a little out of date, I’m afraid, but at least they are better than nothing.’
Her words made all the other girls stop dead and turn around.
‘Oh, heavens, how embarrassing!’ Lucy giggled. ‘I’d simply die if that were me, wouldn’t you?’
Millie felt mortified for Dora, whose face flooded with colour up to the roots of her fiery hair. She couldn’t hear her mumbled reply, but Sister Parker said, ‘Very well, but you will need textbooks if you are to continue with your preliminary training. And you will certainly need them if you are to pass your state examinations.’
‘Honestly, I really don’t know what some people are even doing on this course if they can’t buy a couple of books.’ Lucy tossed her plaits indignantly. ‘If you ask me, she’s taking a place that should have been given to someone who can afford to be here.’
She said it so loudly Dora whipped round to look at them. Millie found herself caught in the full force of her baleful stare.
‘Oh dear, do you think she heard us?’ Lucy smiled maliciously.
Soon afterwards it