SOMEWHERE OUTSIDE LONDON

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Lillian Mercer had grown up.

The bony girl from all those years ago was gone; she had been eating proper meals to make up for the poverty and starvation she had suffered through. There was always bread on her table, jam and lard in the cupboard, a cut of lamb in the back. 

She may have not been the most qualified of young women, but she had managed to get a fairly well-paid job at a department store merely by mentioning her sister's name. She lived alone. She made her own decisions. She had friends - real friends, who either didn't know about her past or didn't care, who looked out for her, who laughed with her. 

She was an adult.

Her sister didn't seem to have realised that yet.

Dorothy was sat across from her in a train compartment, smoking out the window. Her lanky, odd-looking assistant was sat beside her, reading a newspaper. And Lillian was sat with her arms folded, doing everything in her power to contain herself.

"Laurie said this place is a right shithole," Dorothy suddenly spoke up, still looking out the window, a small smile on her face.

"I'm sure, boss," Claude said, not looking up from his paper.

Lillian said nothing. 

"I'm sure it's a little like Camden," she continued, before throwing glances at Claude, then Lillian, taking a drag. "We can handle it, yeah?"

"Certainly," her assistant continued distractedly.

Lillian still said nothing, staring her sister down.

"Anyway, I'm sure we'll all have a fun time," Dorothy said, her voice dripping with irony as she blew smoke out of the window. "Claudia told me the nightlife there is gr-eat." 

Lillian scoffed, looking away. "Just shut the hell up," she muttered.

Claude looked up from his paper.

The oldest Mercer stopped chuckling, and her smile slid off her face. 

"Come again?" she said coldly, turning her cigarette over in her hand.

Lillian looked at the two adults sat across from her, both watching her with wide eyes. The train compartment seemed to grow smaller. She cleared her throat, unfolding her arms and leaning toward her sister. 

"Dot, just tell me what's going on. Please," she added, as an afterthought. 

But there was little point to manners at this point. The situation was rapidly approaching a point of no return. 

Dorothy took another drag, and leaned back in her seat. "Claude, go and sit with the lads," she said softly.

Without hesitation, Claude rolled up his newspaper, rose to his feet, and slipped out of the compartment with a quick nod in Dot's direction, sliding the door shut.

"I'm tired of you hiding things from me," Lillian said the moment he was gone.

"Please," her sister answered shortly, tapping her ash out the window.

"You send me out of rooms when things get too gritty, you don't tell me about your work, and you're shipping me off to some shitty city up North for no reason. You're taking me away from my job and my friends and my life - "

"Lil, I don't tell you things that I don't want you to hear," she said, focusing her attention on her cig.

"Dorothy, I'm twenty seven."

"And I have nine years on that, Lillian," Dorothy returned stiffly.

"I'm an adult!" Lillian cried. "Stop treating me like I'm still sixteen!"

The oldest Mercer scoffed, and her indifferent demeanour dissolved. "You know fucking well that I'm only keeping you safe," she said, hurling her cigarette out the window, leaning forward and stabbing her finger at Lillian. Her voice broke when she continued, but she covered it up quickly. "You have no idea what it feels like to watch the only family you have left suffer."

"Well, I have an idea of what it's like to watch your older sister whore herself out for money." 

Lillian had said it before she could think.

And the moment she saw her sister's face drain, she wished she could take it back.

Silence fell over the compartment. It pressured Lillian to say more. But even as she spoke, she wanted to shut herself up.

"You think that doesn't hurt?" she said, her voice trembling.

"Shut up," Dorothy spat. "You take that back, you little bitch."

She was in too deep now. "I won't," she insisted, sitting very still.

Lillian couldn't have explained it, but she felt as if Dorothy was about to hit her.

As small children, they had fought both in joking and in seriousness. Nobody had ever become a reigning champion, but as Dorothy was the eldest and stronger, she had usually won. 

But today, she was older and even stronger, and she could have destroyed Lillian if she wanted.

However, Dorothy only slumped back in her seat, rubbing her brow. "Jesus Christ."

She looked so hurt.

Lillian could have apologised. She wanted to. She had to. 

But she couldn't.

Their compartment was completely silent for the rest of the train ride.