Fragile Blossoms by Dodie Hamilton

war-mongering shysters!’
    When Julia stared he spread his hands. ‘Excuse me, I’m just back from the Transvaal and saw too much. Mrs Dryden?’ He leaned forward. ‘I must speak with you. It concerns Norfolk and where you live.’
    ‘The cottage? Whatever can it be?’
    ‘Ah there you are?’ The door to the Box opened. ‘Beautiful Julianna, bird of Paradise, you haven’t flown away yet?’ Freddie was back with the rest of the party and all private conversation ceased.
    The last curtain call echoing they fought to get out. It was madness out in the square people surging up and down waiting for their carriages.
    ‘Bit of a scrum here, John,’ said Daniel Masson.
    ‘It’s always the same after a concert good manners go down the plug-hole.’
    ‘Freddie!’ Mr and Mrs Scholtz were first to leave. ‘We can take you and Mrs Dryden! We’ve room and it wouldn’t be out of our way.’
    ‘We’re fine, thanks,’ Freddie grasped Julia’s elbow. ‘We’ll take a cab.’
    Having suffered his fidgets throughout the opera Julia was determined not to be alone with him. ‘I’d like to go with Mr and Mrs Scholtz.’
    ‘You’re with me.’ Freddie pushed toward the kerb. ‘You’re delicious candy, Ju-ju, sugar frosting outside and hot spice beneath. I must open you up.’
    Seeing him bent on making some kind of display Julia held back. She’d not be alone with him. Her feelings showed. A cab drew alongside and she was lifted inside. ‘See Mrs Dryden back to the Square, will you, Paul,’ said Daniel. ‘John and I will shuffle Carrington along.’ Paul Hellue climbed in. Daniel tapped the door, the cab chugged away Freddie left arguing on the path.
    From one unhappy situation to another, Julia set foot in the door and Evie came at a run. With a grasp not unlike Freddie’s, hotly proprietary, she dragged Julia into the hall. ‘How dared you to do it,’ she spat.
    ‘What?’
    ‘How dared you lure Bella to your home?’
    ‘The maid?’
    ‘Yes the maid! How dared you interfere in the running of my house?’
    ‘I didn’t think I interfered. I offered a place to stay, that’s all.’
    ‘Well you’d no right to without talking to me.’
    ‘You’re right. I should’ve spoken to you but things strained between us there wasn’t the opportunity. I honestly I didn’t think you’d mind.’
    ‘You didn’t think I’d mind.’ Evelyn’s grip tightened. ‘How little you know of me and the workings of my house. I do mind, Julianna. I am offended and can’t think of any of my connections that wouldn’t feel the same. You have undermined my authority and exposed me to ridicule.’
    ‘How have I?’
    ‘Bella was a personal maid. She wasn’t out of sight scrubbing pans. She was intimate to me, helped me bathe and disrobe. She knew my ways and was privy to situations personal to me. How could I or any other sensitive woman be comfortable knowing her in the employ of an acquaintance?
    ‘I see. Put like that I understand your concern, though I assure you I’d never enquire of your doings as I’m certain Bella would never tell.’
    ‘How do you know she wouldn’t? These girls have eyes and ears. They see and hear things and can be induced to reveal much for money.’
    ‘Not Bella! She seems a nice girl.’
    ‘Pregnant at sixteen? Yes that is nice. Of course she’d tell. A personal maid to Lady Evelyn Carrington, she’d spill the beans to anyone willing to listen.’
    ‘I don’t know what to say to you, Evie, other than I wouldn’t pry into your life and I’m sorry you think I would.’
    ‘Don’t be naive, Julianna! You must see how awkward you’ve made things.’
    ‘But she was desperate! She had nowhere to go.’
    ‘Then she should have come to me instead of tattling behind my back. I would’ve found a place. Now she’s nowhere to go and is without character.’
    ‘Why without good character? She’s not to blame. I suggested Norfolk.’
    ‘And you shouldn’t as she shouldn’t have got