The Baron of Beef pub is situated on Bridge Street in Cambridge, just across the road from the entrance to St John's College. It is best known as the site of a punch-up between Sir Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry of Acorn Computers fame in December 1984. It was also the site of the break-up of Jack Trent and Dinah Mannering nine years later.

Jack was twenty-three and Dinah was twenty-one. She had graduated from Oxford that summer and was now settling into her job as a trainee solicitor with one of the Big Five law firms in London. He had spent the previous five years since dropping out of school working as a freelance wildlife photographer, travelling to remote and exotic locations overseas for months at a time, before re-taking his A levels, doing much better in them than expected, and surprising everyone including himself by getting into Cambridge to read Natural Sciences.

He hadn't been looking forward to their meet-up. His relationship with Dinah had been rocky right from the start. Asking her out had seemed like a good idea at the time. He and his sister Lucy-Ann had been very close to Dinah and her brother Philip right through their teenage years, and it had seemed almost logical that having reached adulthood they would now end up as two married couples.

It had worked out well for Philip and Lucy-Ann up in St Andrews, but it hadn't worked out for Jack and Dinah. They were both too independent-minded and goal-oriented for each other, and their careers were pulling them in completely different directions. Dinah was ambitious, politically active and fiery tempered, and had little interest in Jack's almost obsessive passion for ornithology, wildlife and lengthy overseas trips to wild, remote places. She complained that he was more interested in birds than in other people. More to the point, he was more interested in birds than in her. He thought that she was too demanding, and that not only did she show little or no interest in his passions and aspirations, if anything she was trying to stifle them.

He was hoping that their heart-to-heart talk would at least end up with them remaining good friends. The fact that they'd agreed to meet up over a drink in a pub rather than a fine meal in a fancy restaurant such as Browns didn't bode well, and on top of that, he had gotten distracted onto something and ended up turning up half an hour late. But at least she'd given him the choice of pub. He had already settled on The Baron of Beef as his favourite watering hole. It was just across the road from the back entrance to his own College, St John's.

"Where have you been, fathead?" she said crossly as he walked through the door and up to the bar. "I've been waiting here for half an hour for you. I've a good mind to invoice you for that. And my travel expenses as well."

Jack winced. Dinah may only have been a trainee solicitor, but her hourly fees were still eye-watering, especially for an impoverished student like himself. As for travel expenses, she already had a BMW. An old one, maybe, but still a BMW. He wasn't even allowed a car at all. University regulations. He had left his at home down in Overton with Bill and Allie Cunningham.

"Sorry," he replied. "I got distracted onto trying to teach Kiki to recite Shakespeare and lost track of the time."

"All the world's a stage," said Kiki. "How many times do I have to tell you to be or not to be?"

"You're such a bird brain," sighed Dinah, rolling her eyes. "Has it ever occurred to you that your interest in all things feathered might be a bit excessive?"

"Depends what you consider to be excessive."

"Well if making you half an hour late for your girlfriend doesn't qualify then I don't know what does."

Jack didn't answer, but turned to the bartender and ordered drinks. Guinness for himself, a prosecco for Dinah, and some peanuts for Kiki. Then they headed to a table near the window.

"You know," said Dinah as they sat down, "I think you've got a decent career marked out for yourself. It's certainly healthy, getting you out and about in the fresh air, and I'm sure you'll do really well with it. I can see you taking the ornithology world by storm. Who knows, you might even achieve your dream of bringing back the Great Auk from extinction."

Jack started to feel at ease all of a sudden with the turn the conversation had taken. The Great Auk was home territory for him. He had been talking excitedly and at great length about the idea of bringing it back to anyone who would listen, ever since the two of them had gone to see Jurassic Park at the cinema earlier in the summer. Dinosaurs from 65 million year old DNA fragments might be science fiction, but the Great Auk had only been gone for less than two hundred, so that was a much easier target. Before even starting on his undergraduate degree, he had already drafted up a proposal for a PhD and started looking for potential supervisors. But hearing Dinah saying something this complimentary about it was something new. She had been pretty dismissive of the idea up to now, or at least that was the impression that he had been given.

"You don't think I've got my head in the clouds with that?"

"Oh no. I think you're certainly capable of it. You've got the focus and determination for it. Besides, I'm a lawyer, not a biologist. I couldn't even start to tell you whether or not it's technically possible."

"So what's the problem?"

"Well you talk about it too much for starters. You can't seem to get five minutes into a conversation without talking about birds. Then you never seem to notice that the people you talk to about it are getting bored. Has it ever occurred to you that not everyone is an ornithological genius who knew the Latin names of all the birds in Europe before he was able to tie his shoelaces?"

"Philip doesn't seem to mind. Neither does Lucy-Ann. Neither does your mum or uncle Bill."

"Has it ever occurred to you that I might mind though? I can hardly get a word in edgeways about what interests me for your incessant prattling on about birds."

"Not really, no. You've never mentioned it up until now."

"I've only been rolling my eyes and shrugging my shoulders and manicuring my nails when I thought you were taking it too far. Ever heard of something called body language?"

"What are you getting at?" said Jack testily. Dinah wasn't the first person to take him to task for not paying attention to other people's body language when he was speaking. Lucy-Ann had mentioned it to him some months previously—and had told him what her psychology lectures had to say about things like that into the bargain. She had been more gracious in her approach than Dinah, but he had still dismissed what she had to say out of hand with a favourite word of Kiki's. Pifflebunk.

"I have dreams and ambitions of my own too," replied Dinah. "Ones that I'd like to talk about myself if I could get a word in edgeways," she added pointedly. "I've got my sights set high, you know. Very high."

Jack was intrigued. "How high?"

"Prime Minister. If I go to my grave without having made it to the steps of Number Ten, I will be sorely disappointed."

This was news to Jack. He knew Dinah was interested in politics, but he never realised she was that ambitious.

"I'm sure you'd make an outstanding PM," he said thoughtfully. "I'd certainly vote for you."

Dinah took a sip of her prosecco, placed the glass down, planted her elbows on the table, and clasped her hands together in front of her, resting her chin on her thumbs.

"Here's the problem," she explained. "These are two very different trajectories. You really need a girl who's going to be with you in the lab or out in the field. I need a man who's going to be at my side on the campaign trail, or possibly in my Cabinet at Westminster. We've always been good friends, you and I, and with Philip and Lucy-Ann getting married, we'll always be family. But you and me as boyfriend and girlfriend, let alone as husband and wife, I can't see it working. We'll just end up holding each other back and frustrating each other as we try to drag each other in opposite directions."

For several seconds, Jack said nothing. He had always tried to rationalise his relationship with Dinah by thinking that maybe she would be content to be a partner in a law firm in whatever university town he eventually settled in, raking in the money while he devoted his career to the birds he loved. Given her interest in politics, maybe she would become a local councillor or possibly even a constituency MP. But her aspirations to be Prime Minister drove home just how far their paths were set to diverge. He couldn't see himself as another Denis Thatcher, very much in her shadow, appearing on television at her side more as decoration than as someone who had anything to say in his own right. He would have to accompany her to state occasions, Royal Weddings, you name it. He would have to wear a suit and tie. Besides which, he had as little interest in politics as she had in ornithology.

"I think you're right," he said at length. "Perhaps we really do need to call it a day. How did we get into it in the first place anyway?"

"Probably because it seemed the logical thing to do with Philip and Lucy-Ann being a couple," she replied. "After all, the four of us have been very close all along, and I suppose with them pairing up like that, it would stand to reason that you and I should do the same. Of course, they're as happy as ever, up there in St Andrews."

Jack thought about the last time he had visited Philip and Lucy-Ann in St Andrews. He remembered meeting the two of them in Saint Whatchamacallit's—he could never remember the name of the place in the old town centre, but he couldn't help thinking just how similar it seemed to Dinah's College in Oxford and now his own in Cambridge. He remembered seeing the two of them in their red gowns, laughing and holding hands as they walked, ran and skipped together towards him across the quad. He remembered thinking just how well matched they seemed as a couple in such an idyllic setting. He remembered wondering why he and Dinah never laughed, skipped, ran together and held hands like that, but just seemed to argue so much. He remembered saying goodbye to the two of them at the front entrance, walking out and down the street towards the ruins of the cathedral where his car was parked. He remembered his sister calling out to him saying something about him having walked over some stones or other that he was not supposed to walk over. He remembered returning to his car to find he had been given a parking ticket. He remembered wondering what kind of a town it was that employed traffic wardens who gave you parking tickets for stepping on the wrong kind of stones.

A thought occurred to him.

"Do you ever think it was all about them all along?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Why Philip invited the two of us back to Craggy Tops in the first place? Did he have a crush on Lucy-Ann even then?"

"Have you only just realised that?" replied Dinah. "It was obvious to me the minute that Jo-Jo offloaded the two of you from the car. My first thought was, what do you know? First thing that brother of mine does on becoming a teenager is go off to summer school and come back with a girlfriend."

Jack frowned. This was a side to his best friend and future brother in law that he had never even considered.

"So where do I…do we…fit into all of this?" he asked quietly. "Was he just using me as cover to get his relationship with her past your mum or something? She was always quite strict about no dating before we turned sixteen."

"Oh no, he really does like you. He thinks the world of you and Kiki. Sure, he reckons you're a bit of a nerd, which of course you are, but he still says you're the best friend he's ever had. Don't forget that he was pestering you to go and join the two of them in St Andrews."

"Wasn't that just jealousy because I got in to Cambridge and he didn't?"

"Of course not. He was trying to persuade you to apply to St Andrews before you even thought of Cambridge, remember. Both he and Lucy-Ann were bitterly disappointed when you didn't. Why didn't you anyway? I thought you quite liked the place when you visited them there."

"It's a moot point," said Jack. "I did get into Cambridge after all. Besides, there were about seven or eight other universities that I quite liked as well. I only had five spaces on the form."

"Yes, but none of the others had Philip and Lucy-Ann. And you did tell them you were going to make it your second choice after Cambridge. Why didn't you?"

Jack shifted in his seat. Another reminder that he was dealing with a trainee lawyer who had her sights set on becoming a politician. Dinah had certainly learned how to ask questions that would make you squirm.

"A silly mistake on my part," he admitted. "It's a bit complicated to explain."

"Silly Billy," said Kiki. "All the world's a stage. Pop goes St Andrews. Pifflebunk."

"Go on," said Dinah. "I've got a bit of time to spare."

Jack took another sip of his pint. "If you must know, it was because I had just had two martinis when I filled out the form in a hotel room in Las Vegas. That, and I'd accidentally left the St Andrews prospectus on my bed back home in England."

Now it was Dinah's turn to be intrigued, if not a little offended. "When were you in Las Vegas? What were you doing there, and why didn't you take me with you?"

"You remember that three week photo shoot I did in the Grand Canyon a year ago?"

"The one where you had to leave Kiki behind because you couldn't get clearance for her through US Customs?"

"That's the one. Vegas is the nearest international airport to the Grand Canyon with direct flights to London. I spent a couple of nights there at each end of the trip. I had taken a bunch of prospectuses with me and I sorted through them all on my last night there before flying home, then posted the forms off from Heathrow once I'd cleared customs. I thought I might have missed something, but I'd managed to pick out five anyway so I didn't think much about it. Not until I got back home to find the St Andrews prospectus lying on my bed. I'd been reading it the night before I set off and I'd forgotten to pack it."

"You fathead," retorted Dinah, taking a sip of her prosecco.

"It didn't make any difference in the end though," said Jack. "I got into Cambridge anyway. But you're right, I did have a bit of explaining to do when I next spoke to Philip and Lucy-Ann."

"Well if it's any consolation, I didn't apply there either," replied Dinah. "It wasn't an option for me. St Andrews doesn't offer degrees in Law."

She didn't stay long after that. The two of them agreed to go their separate ways and look for love elsewhere, but to stay in touch anyway and still meet up from time to time as their respective schedules permitted. That said, she downed the rest of her prosecco in a single take and headed off, leaving Jack staring pensively into his pint. His mind was a jumble of thoughts.

For a moment, he wondered how she was going to get back to London. Had she come by car, and if so, was she intending to stay in a hotel rather than drive straight back? He thought it best not to ask her, but just to leave her to make her own decisions. They were both adults now, after all.

At the same time, he was a bit stung by some of her criticisms. Her comment about body language had hurt, partly because he realised she had a point. And what did she mean, "a bit of a nerd"? What did Philip really think of him? What had Philip really thought of him all along? The one consolation was that the conversation had ended up peacefully. He had been in far too many conversations with Dinah that hadn't.

He was still thinking about these things when a voice penetrated his thoughts.

"I say! If it isn't Jack Trent and Kiki!"

Jack looked up to see who was talking.

"Well well well," he replied. "Dick Kirrin! What a surprise meeting you here!"

Dick sat down in the seat that Dinah had vacated and placed his glass of Stella Artois on the table.

"So," he said, "What brings you to Cambridge then?"

Jack took a sip of his pint. "Something called university," he said modestly. "Somebody told me it would give my career a boost, so I thought I'd give it a try. Natural Sciences. I've just started."

Dick raised one eyebrow. "You here as a student?" he asked, surprised. "How did you manage that? I never thought of you as an academic type. And a Natsci as well."

"A secret weapon, you could call it," said Jack, hoping that Dick wouldn't probe any further. The help that Lucy-Ann had managed to get him that had unlocked his full academic potential was something he didn't like to talk about.

"You tired of travelling the world then?"

"Oh no. You never tire of travelling the world. But there's only so far you can go as a freelance wildlife photographer unless you're also able to write, research and teach about your subject in depth as well. I was faced with the choice of either expanding into weddings and portraits, or giving my A levels another shot then getting a degree. Anyway, what brings you to Cambridge? I thought you were in St Andrews."

"That would be my brother Julian," said Dick. "I've been here in Cambridge all along. I've just started in a PhD up at the Cavendish. Thin film magnetism."

"Sounds attractive."

"You could say that. So what's up between you and Dinah? That was some discussion the two of you were having."

"You don't want to know," replied Jack. He was still smarting from the break-up.

"I think you need something to take your mind off it. Try something new. Expand your horizons."

"Any suggestions? I've already signed up for the Cambridge University Ornithological Society. That's probably going to keep me busy enough when I'm not studying. Or writing a proposal for a PhD. Did you see Jurassic Park? It's quite an idea that, bringing back extinct species by inserting their DNA into…"

"You can tell me later," interrupted Dick. He knew what Jack was like when he got on to talking about birds. Jack and Dinah had spent a week with them on Kirrin Island the previous summer. It was meant to be a holiday for both of them, but Jack had spent the entire time photographing the birds there and talking about all the photographs he had been taking on his world travels. It had taken the combined efforts of Dinah and George to draw his attention to the fact that they were both starting to get bored.

"Sorry," said Jack. "Getting a bit carried away with myself again. I guess I really do need to expand my horizons as you say. Have you any suggestions?"

"Ever thought about trying your hand at acting?"

"Acting?" Jack was intrigued. "I took part in a school play once. It was a great laugh. I did think at the time I ought to do things like that a bit more often. Do you have anything specific in mind?"

"As a matter of fact I do," replied Dick. "I'm involved in a student theatrical society called the Cambridge Thespians. We're casting for a production of Romeo and Juliet at the end of term."

"Romeo and Juliet?" said Jack. "How interesting. I was just trying to teach Kiki to recite Shakespeare this afternoon. Go on Kiki, show Dick here what you can do."

Kiki raised her crest. "All the world's a stage," she said solemnly. "How many times have I told you to be or not to be?"

Dick laughed. "Eat your heart out, Laurence Olivier," he said. "Come along to the ADC Theatre, mate. We're auditioning this evening. I reckon that despite everything, you'd make a pretty decent Romeo."