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two-thirds of them girls.
    It was a warm spring morning in April 1996, the sun shining on what the Middletons hoped was an auspicious newbeginning. As Carole and Michael arrived at the school, they were characteristically optimistic and upbeat. Dressed in her new uniform of a dark green kilt, round-necked navy sweater, and blue-and-white striped cotton shirt, Kate knocked—a little tentatively—on the front door of her new home, Elmhurst, an impressive Victorian house with a modern extension. Her housemistress, Ann Patching—who became something of a surrogate mother during the school year—was there to greet her. Kate said good-bye to her parents and went upstairs to her room, her trunk packed full of notebooks, mementos, and pictures of her family and friends, plus a pretty bedspread Carole had sent along to make her feel at home.
    Kate wasn’t the only pupil to join halfway through the academic year: Sebastian Robles-Rudd, a boy from Argentina, also arrived on the same day. As a governor of St. Andrew’s, the headmaster of Marlborough, Edward Gould, was aware of the circumstances under which Kate had left Downe House, and he took her under his wing, inviting her to join him and his wife for occasional mealtimes so that he could keep an eye on her. According to another pupil, Gemma Williamson, who lived in Mill Mead boarding house a short walk away, Kate arrived a slip of a girl and painfully shy. “Apparently she had been bullied very badly at her previous school and she certainly looked very thin and pale. She had very little confidence,” she told the Daily Mail .
    Kate’s residence house tutor, Joan Gall, recalled how timid she was on arrival and that she suffered from mild eczema, often a result of stress. “When she first arrived, she was very quiet. Coming into a big school like Marlborough was difficult, but she settled quickly,” she recalled. Ann Patching, who worked at the school for over a decade and was married toMitch Patching who taught rugby and French at the college, said that Kate didn’t talk about her past experience. “She didn’t make a big deal about it. I can’t remember if it was her or Carole who mentioned Downe House. It was a concern, but they were determined to move on.”
    Another pupil, Hannah Gillingham, who was in Kate’s boarding house, was assigned to look after her, but Kate made friends quickly and was affectionately known as “Catherine Middlebum.” An early riser, she had no problem with the 7:00 A.M . wake-up calls and was always the first at breakfast, where she typically enjoyed fresh croissants. Lessons started at 8:45 A.M . and continued until lunch at 1:00 P.M . Afterward, pupils played sports until 4:00 P.M ., when it was time to head back into the classroom until supper at 6:00 P.M . Mealtimes were relaxed and pleasant in the atmosphere of the Victorian dining room, complete with its original arched beams. According to Mrs. Patching, Kate had a healthy appetite and soon put on the weight she had lost at Downe House. “Catherine loved eating. She loved lasagnas and pasta bakes, good old carb stuff. I used to do a chicken pesto. The girls were great to cook for because they would eat anything. Catherine always stayed very slim but she always had a very healthy appetite.”
    Students did their homework, or “prep,” in the communal dormitories from 7:30 until 9:00 P.M ., with house tutors on hand to help. There was then time for some rest and relaxation. Walkmen were the latest thing, and Kate loved to either listen to music or read a novel. Her favorite TV show was Friends . According to Miss Gall, she was such a fan of the American sitcom that at one of the end-of-year concerts known as the “House Shout,” Kate belted out the theme tunewith her friends. Lights-out was at 10:30 P.M . Mrs. Patching had a no-nonsense approach, and any horseplay would mean being assigned an early