“Oh, we were just going out; I suppose you’d better come in. Coats off, girls, we’ll go out shortly.”

Trish and Mima grabbed each other’s hand and dashed off to the dining room. Ms Cunningham, gasped. “Is that Patrick–I mean, Patricia?”

“The larger of the two, yes.”

“So the rumours are true, you’ve got him walking again.”

“No, I have her running again. I made a deal with Trish, that while she’s under my care, and as long as she desires it, she will be treated as female. It’s a protocol accepted by the other inhabitants of the house as well, who are well aware of her original status, except Mima, who you saw trotting off with her. They get on really well.”

“I did try to phone, but you were engaged on both occasions. I called by to see how, Patric…um–ia, is getting on with you. Dr Rose had asked and got a minimum stay with you of one month, as he said he thought you were making progress with hi…um..her mobility.”

“A little progress, as you can see. Shall we discuss this in the study?” I led her into Tom’s sanctum, and asked Simon to make us two coffees and keep an eye on the girls. Once I’d deposited her in there, I was able to quickly say who she was. He limped at the double to make the coffees.

“Is, Mima, your own child?”

“No, I can’t have children, I’m fostering her for her mum, who’s in Africa at the moment.”

“Oh, she’s lucky to have a friend like you, Lady Cameron.”

“Can I clear this up first, I’m not Lady Cameron yet, Simon and I are engaged but not yet married. So just Cathy Watts, will do for now.”

“Fine Miss Watts, or might I call you, Cathy?”

“If you wish.”

“I’m Nora.”

“Yes, so you said.”

“How did you perform this miracle?”

“I didn’t, it’s about motivation, that was all I provided.”

“I don’t follow,” she looked confused.

“Sam Rose, “ I name dropped deliberately, “told me they couldn’t find anything wrong with Trish, so he wondered if it was psychosomatic. By that I mean she had healed from her injury as Mima had.”

“What, the other little girl had been paralysed, too?”

“She was hit by a van.”

“So you are a miracle worker?”

“No, Mima wanted to walk again, I just rewarded her when she did. In the same way, I provided motivation to Trish to walk.”

“How, we had experts in, they got nowhere.”

“Because they saw her as boy pretending to be a girl. I made no such distinction, she was accepted as she was, and I used girl psychology on her. Mima borrowed a pair of my shoes and was clomping about in them, and Trish wanted to try them. What little girl doesn’t? So she did, and she walked a few steps and I took it from there.

“For her reward, I took her shopping and allowed her to pick some clothes and a pair of shoes. She’s wearing them at the moment.”

At this moment Simon interrupted with the coffees and biscuits. “Is that your manservant?”

“No, that’s Lord Cameron, my fiancé.”

“I’m sorry,” she said blushing. She took her coffee and I began to feel I had the initiative in this meeting. “He’s a nice looking young man.”

“I think so, and the girls love him.”

“The girls?”

“Mima and Trish.”

“Of course. Could I have a few words with Trish while I’m here?”

“Of course you can, shall we drink our coffee first?”

As we drank them, we chatted and she began to loosen up a little. “Patrick was a very unhappy little boy, his mother had left him because he wanted to be a girl. We had him at age three and half, he was quite sure he wanted to be a girl but of course none of us had any idea about coping with a child who was gender different.

“We called in the experts, who managed eventually to agree to let him dress as he wanted, in skirts and dresses. Sadly, this meant he became a target for the older boys and girls who bully anyone who’s different, and because it’s so obvious–the change over–it makes him an easy target.

“He spent a lot of time crying and hiding away because of the bullying. So we tried fostering him out. He went to three different families, and each time we thought they understood the concept of gender different, but they didn’t. At one place, he lasted less than a week.”

“She, Trish is a girl, so the pronoun is she or her.”

“I’m sorry, you’re quite right. She had difficulties at all of the fosterings and even more so, when she came back to us. She became very depressed, and then the accident happened. No one saw it, it might have been a deliberate attack by a boy who particularly likes to torment her, but she ended up in hospital and although she healed up, she no longer walked–until she met the miracle lady.”

“No until she met someone who accepted her for who she felt herself to be, who acknowledged that and was prepared to show it. I believe she stopped walking because she could possibly escape back to hospital, or she had less interaction with those who bullied her.”

“She probably did see less of them. What insight, and you have never been to the home have you?”

“No, I just put myself in her place and had a little think.”

“Are you a psychologist?”

“Me? No, I’m a biologist.”

“I think you might have missed your calling, you should have been a child psychologist.”

“I think not, I’m better with dormice than people.”

“Yet you get two little girls–I remembered this time–to walk? I think you are a very talented lady, and I’m sure will be well suited as Lady Catherine.”

“Time will show, on that score. You wanted to speak with Trish, would you like to see her room first?”

“That would be useful.” I led her upstairs to the girls’ bedroom.

“The girls share this room, I decided that neither should be on their own. She sleeps in this bed, and this is her wardrobe.” I opened the doors and she gasped at the goodies hanging therein.

Nora walked to the wardrobe and examined the clothes. “She chose all of these?”

“Yes, once I told her what I was going to buy her.”

“She has very good taste.”

“She is a delightful little girl, given the chance.”

“Yes,” she blushed.

“Nora, if I might say, how can you expect the children to accept her as a girl if you have difficulties with the concept.”

“But I do,” she protested.

“But you don’t, until I corrected you, you were very ambivalent about her status.”

She went a beautiful shade of crimson, and I think may have even begun to get moist eyes before she took control of herself. “Perhaps we’d better speak with Trish.”

“Fine, do you want her on her own or with me?”

“Please do sit in, I seem to be learning so much from you.”

Now it was my turn to blush. We went into the lounge where the two girls were walking up and down the room with their dolls in the pram or pushchair. “Trish, can you show Nora your dolls?”

She stopped in her tracks and gave me a look that seemed to say, ‘Do I have to?’

“Come along, Ms Cunningham is a busy lady.”

Trish and Mima walked up to her. She pulled the doll out of the pram and showed it to Nora, who made nice comments about it. “Make sure you give the pram back to the other little girl when you finish playing won’t you?”

“Nora, it’s her pram, a belated birthday present from Simon and Mima.”

“Oh gosh, I am sorry. It’s a lovely pram, I’d have given my right arm for one like that when I was a girl. You are such a lucky girl. I hope you said thank you to Simon and Mima, and to Cathy as well?”

“I said thank you to Mummy and Daddy and Mima.”

“Mummy and Daddy?” Nora gave me an old fashioned look.

“Can we speak about that in a minute?”

“Okay, it’s somewhat irregular.”

“I suspected it was. Now, Trish, keep those clothes clean because we will be going out shortly. And you, you little urchin.” I said to Mima, who giggled and ran off with the pushchair.

“That’s a lovely dress, Trish, who chose it?”

“I did, do you like it?”

“I think it’s lovely and you look very nice in it? Do you like staying with Cathy and Simon?”

“And Grandad Tom, he reads to us every night.”

“Professor Tom Agnew.”

“Oh, he’s your father?”

“My adoptive father yes.”

“Oh, so were you in a home, too?”

“No, it’s a long story.”

“Maybe another day?”

“Maybe.”

“So do you like it here?”

“I love Mummy and Daddy, and Auntie Stella and Kiki.”

“Simon’s sister, and the dog.”

“Auntie Stella has a baby in her tummy,” laughed Trish, “I want one in mine when I’m growed up.”

Nora smiled at her, "so you love Mummy Cathy, do you?”

“Yes, I do. She lets me be a girl.”

“So I see, and buys you nice clothes.”

“Yes, she loves me and Mima.”

“I do believe she does, Trish. You go and play now while I talk to your mummy.” Nora and I went back to the study. “ We don’t usually approve of short term fostering using the M and D words.”

“Believe me, I did try to avoid it, but there was no point in making a scene. Mima calls me it because her mother encouraged it. So if she does, then so does Trish. Whenever I corrected her she ignored it and carried on calling me Mummy. After a while it seems pointless to try.”

“We are still looking for a long term fostering arrangement with Trish, obviously the home is not the best place for her. I can’t guarantee that you’d get her, but she does seem settled here and I’m sure Dr Rose could delay the return, and do his own assessment on her staying here. Obviously, you’d have to jump through the various hoops, we do have protocols in some areas. But I have never seen her looking so happy, and you have given me much food for thought. Thank you Lady Cameron.”

“It’s just plain Cathy…”

“Ah but, I believe if someone insists on calling you something, you eventually bow to their pressure, Lady Catherine.”

So there I was hoist by my own petard. Nora left and we shook hands very warmly. “I like you, Lady C.”

“You’re okay too, Nora.”