Sybil grinned and twirled. "What do you think?"

"No one would know it was you," Mary replied.

"That is the reason we're dressed up," Edith pointed out.

It was also why Mary was wearing one of Anna's borrowed maid's outfits, which was a little too short, but it would do as long as no one looked too closely. Edith had somehow managed to get hold of a long blonde wig and a silver dress that shone in the light.

"You're very dressed up," Mary said to her.

"I'm hiding in plain sight."

"No one will be able to see your face, they'll be blinded by your dress."

"Please don't argue," Sybil interrupted. "We're here for a reason, remember?"

"All right." Mary felt that as the eldest she should be leading them.

But before she could say anything Sybil called out, "Over there." She pointed at the flower shop on the other side of the street and while Mary looked Sybil was already crossing the road.

Mary gave in. Sometimes it was easier to do that with Sybil.

Two hours later they were home and had everything they needed. None of them got much sleep that night, but it was worth it in the morning when Papa and Mama awoke to the decorations around the house.

All three of them peered out of their bedroom doors as they watched their parents discover the candles, flowers and banners in any spare space they'd been able to find by candlelight.

"Thank you, Cora," Papa said, and kissed Mama.

"I didn't do it," Mama replied. "I thought it was you."

"Then who was it?" Papa sounded puzzled, but the sisters had agreed to leave it a mystery. After all, their parents didn't celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary every day and this was the one thing they'd all been able to agree on in months.

Mary put her hands on the edge of the crib and stood on tip-toe as she peered in. She made a face at what she saw. The new baby wore lots of frilly white and looked up at her as if Mary were the most interesting thing she'd ever seen. Which might well be the case. She sighed. "Another baby." She'd known Mama was having a baby, of course, but she'd hoped it would be more exciting than this.

"I'm not a baby," Edith complained, from beside her. Sybil's gaze transferred to her other sister and Edith smiled down at her.

Mary looked round at her younger sister - one of her younger sisters - who was copying Mary's pose to be able to see into the crib. "At least you do something. Sybil just lies there." One sister was enough, no one needed two. What was she supposed to do with two sisters?

"She's boring," Edith agreed. She let go of the crib and turned around. "I'm going to play."

Edith sounded so grand, but she wasn't, she was only two and Mary was the eldest. But there was only so long you could look at a baby, so Mary followed her sister, who walked sedately out of the nursery and then ran along the corridor.

Outside, they could pretend they didn't have another sister. They forgot about Sybil completely as they chased each other, shouting and laughing. Until they were told off for playing under the open nursery window and waking the baby. After that, Mary vowed she was never going to like Sybil, no matter what.

Because they were such good friends they always played nicely together.

"Sybil, no!"

Now Sybil was older she wasn't boring any more; she was annoying instead. Mary much preferred Sybil to be in another part of the house, where she didn't have to see her, especially when she was playing with Edith.

They'd chosen Ludo, which Sybil couldn't possibly have been interested in, but she kept walking over and stealing the dice or the counters. It was impossible to play with her around. With all the servants they had, Mary didn't see why someone else couldn't have minded Sybil while their nurse was at home with her sick mother, but Mama had shut them all in a room and told them all to play nicely together. Which was a vain hope to begin with, given that Mary and Edith were both only pleasant to each other when they won.

In a fit of temper at Sybil spoiling their game by moving one of Mary's counters, Mary upended the board, sending the counters flying.

"I was winning!" Edith shouted, as she kicked the board back at Mary, which hit her in the shin.

Sybil started crying. Mary knew someone would hear and Mama would come to tell them off. She also knew she would get the blame, even though it was Sybil's fault, so she ran away to hide in Carson's office.

He was in there when she arrived. He stopped writing, stood up and smiled at her as she entered. "Lady Mary." He placed his pen down on his desk. "What can I do for you today?"

Mary sat on the chair opposite his desk with a long-suffering sigh. "I wish I didn't have any sisters."

Carson sat too and there was a hint of a smile on his face. "Then who would you play with?"

She shrugged. "I'd find someone." But she didn't know who. None of the grown-ups ever had time to play Ludo with her. Or any other game. Grown-ups didn't play games.

"In the meantime, why not help me count the wine?" He stood up again and held out his hand.

She grinned and took it. Counting the wine with Carson was almost as much fun as playing. And he always told her how good she was at it.

They always shared all their toys and never fought over them.

"It's mine, give it back!"

"No, it's not, it's mine."

Sybil, quite unfairly, had stolen Mary's doll and had been attempting to carry it off to her hiding place to play with it. Mary, having caught her, was trying to get it back. It was only fair - it was hers after all. Now they both held one of the doll's legs, struggling to get the other to let go. Mary didn't even know why Sybil wanted her doll, but she wasn't going to let her have it.

Edith stepped in and grabbed the doll by its head. Mary turned on her, but before she could say anything, Edith, never one to miss a chance to annoy one or both of her sisters, twisted the doll's head off.

Mary dropped the leg she was holding and stared at her, horrified that Edith could do anything so awful. Sybil clutched the doll's body to her chest and burst into tears. When Sybil rushed off to tell whoever would be sympathetic (Mary could never keep track of who was Sybil's favourite), Edith smiled victoriously.

"If you're going to fight, neither of you can have it," she said, echoing Mama.

Mary glared at her, not giving Edith the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

If she'd been younger she would have done the same as Sybil and told Carson what Edith had done. Now she was older she knew that method got her sympathy for a while, but didn't allow her to escape a telling off when Papa or Mama found out what had happened. So instead she stalked off to play on her own and wait until Sybil told one or other of their parents what Edith had done. Then, when Mary was called to tell her side of the story, she would calmly explain the situation, conveniently not mentioning that she had any part in it. Then she wouldn't get any of the blame, but Edith and Sybil would get the punishment they deserved.

All three were all good girls and would never do anything not befitting their station.

Mary stood just inside the front door beside Sybil, covered in mud, her face set at the treatment she'd received. Papa hadn't even said anything yet, just looked cross as he'd hauled her and Sybil inside, but she knew she couldn't escape what was coming next.

"What were you thinking?" Papa asked, staring down at them both.

Rather than face him, Mary looked at her feet - she'd been forced to take her shoes off before she got more mud in the house.

Sybil, however, was still young enough to be scared of their father when he was angry. "We were only playing," she said.

"Only playing!" Mary chanced a look upwards to see Papa was going red. That was never a good sign. "The next time the gardener's boy teases you, come to me, don't start a fight."

"Yes, Papa." Sybil sounded contrite.

"And, you." Papa took a step to the side to stand in front of Mary, who had to look up at him now. "You should know better than to encourage her."

Of course she would get the blame, just because she stuck up for Sybil. But she knew complaining at Papa would just make this go on longer, so she said, "Yes, Papa," in the same tone as Sybil. But she wasn't sorry about what she'd done. The gardener's boy deserved what he'd got for sneering about girls.

Papa sighed, realising that he wasn't going to get any more out of them. "Don't let it happen again. Now go and have a bath before you get mud everywhere."

Mary and Sybil fled, albeit at a walking pace so Papa couldn't say anything about that. As they approached the stairs Mary saw Edith crouched down at the top of the staircase where she could hear without being seen. Mary didn't know whether she'd told Papa what they'd done or not, but she did know Edith wanted to feel that she was better than her older sister. So Mary did the one thing she could to take that away from Edith and make her sorry: she just walked past and pretended Edith wasn't there. She carried on pretending Edith wasn't there for the rest of the day. And Sybil, keen to copy her eldest sister, did the same. Mary was sure that after that, Edith would never tell on them again.

They all slept in one big bed and were very happy.

"Sybil, go back to bed."

Mary hadn't woken up when her bedroom door opened, but she did when Sybil slipped into bed beside her, pressing her cold feet against Mary's warm legs. Sybil never did like to wear slippers when no one could see her. Mary moved further over to the edge of the bed, but Sybil just followed. Mary sighed. "What do you want?"

"I had a bad dream."

Sybil did sound a little upset about it, but Mary wasn't going to turn over and look at her. "Go and see Mama, then."

"There's more room in your bed." That didn't explain why Sybil had to lie so close.

"What about Edith?" Mary still refused to move, hoping Sybil would get the hint.

"I wanted to see you."

Mary smiled in the dark because Sybil had chosen her over Edith. She would never have admitted it, but it meant she didn't make Sybil go back to her own bed. There was plenty of room in Mary's, after all. "Go to sleep, then."

"Don't you want to hear about my dream?"

She didn't want to end up not being able to go back to sleep herself. Sybil had far too good an imagination. Her dreams were odd affairs that stayed in your head and came out when you were alone in the dark. "No. Tell Mama in the morning." After that Sybil was quiet and they both slept.

There were no secrets between them.

Mary knocked on Sybil's door. It was the middle of the afternoon so Sybil was hardly likely to be doing anything in there that she didn't want Mary to see, so she opened the door without waiting for a reply and frowned as she saw Sybil and Gwen talking. That was the second time this week she'd found them shut in a room together.

Sybil turned to face her. "What do you want?" she asked, not sounding at all happy about being interrupted.

"Excuse me, my lady." Gwen nodded at Sybil and scurried out of the room.

Mary waited until she'd left before saying, "I think I left my hat in here."

Sybil sighed, then picked it up off the end of her dressing table and handed it to her sister.

Mary took the hat, but didn't leave. There was something going on and she was determined to find out what it was. "What were you two doing in here?"

"Nothing you need to worry about." Sybil folded her arms.

Mary raised her eyebrows, wondering what Sybil could possibly be up to. With Sybil, anything was possible.

She shook her head. "It's not like that."

"If you won't tell me, I'll just have to guess." She smiled, but Sybil wouldn't take the bait. She stepped around Mary and left the room.

Mary watched her go. She was determined to find out what Sybil was up to. Especially if it was something she didn't want Mary to know about.

They were always understanding of each other.

"What are you going to do?" Sybil asked, as she followed Mary upstairs. She'd said she was going to help Mary unpack from London, but Mary knew she'd really wanted to gossip.

"I don't know." She shrugged, wishing there was an easy answer to this. "Avoid Matthew for as long as possible while I decide." And hope that he would be understanding when she did make a decision.

Sybil caught up and they ascended side by side. "Either you love him or you don't. If you do, then marry him. If you don't, then don't."

Mary rolled her eyes at her sister's naivety. "It's not that simple."

"Why not?"

There were so many reasons it was hard to know where to start, except with the most important. "I can't marry a solicitor."

Sybil frowned. "Why not?"

Mary stopped and stared at her sister. "Really, Sybil, you're not three."

"Sorry." She smiled in apology. "But I think you're over-complicating things."

Mary shook her head. Sybil still had her head so full of romantic notions, even though she was an adult. She would never be able to make her understand.

Whatever happened, they all loved each other very much.

"We'll miss you," Edith said, as she held out a dress for Sybil to pack.

Mary sat on the bed watching them both. "It won't be the same without you."

Sybil smiled as she folded the dress and placed it carefully in her suitcase. "I'll write. And you can come and visit any time you like."

Mary frowned. She couldn't imagine the world Sybil would be living in. She wondered if Sybil would even have one spare room. She certainly wouldn't have any servants. "I can't believe you're the first of us to get married."

Sybil smiled. "Neither can I. Who would look at me when I've got two older sisters?"

"The chauffeur, apparently." Mary sounded as if she was sneering, but Sybil had flattered her and she was going to miss her youngest sister, so her heart wasn't in it.

"If it's youngest first, maybe I won't be a maiden aunt after all," Edith said, forgetting the packing and leaning against one of the bedposts.

Sybil smiled at her. "Oh, you'll find someone. I know you will."

She sounded so sure that Mary and Edith both smiled back.