Page 15 of Her Beast

“What are you doing in my chambers, Netta?” she demanded, cutting an accusing look at her maid, Mary, who was cowering behind the older woman and wringing her hands, a guilty expression on her pretty face.

“Why were you flittin’ about the house all but naked?” Netta retorted.

Julia’s face heated. “I’mnotnaked! I’m wearing my dressing gown. As to what I was doing,I went to fetch a book from the library, not that it’s any of your concern. Now, I’m tired. So, tell me what you want and then get out.”

The older woman’s mouth tightened at her rudeness. “I’m here to discuss your willful behavior today.”

“Oh, what behavior is that?”

“You sneakin’ off to Barton’s and then makin’ a scene when I told you to leave.”

For reasons beyond Julia’s ken, both her father and Nadine refused to patronize the upscale department store, even though everyoneknewthey had Worth gowns so exclusive that even Worth didn’t sell them at his own store.

“So what if I went into Barton’s? As for making ascene,I merely disagreed with you—does that now qualify as a scene?”

Netta held up the distinctive white and pink box that Mary had smuggled into Julia’s room earlier that day. “Just what is this, Miss Julia?”

Julia cut her maid—who was supposed to have hidden the box—a look of disbelief. Once again, Mary shrugged, her expression aggrieved and pitiful.

Well, Julia could hardly blame the girl; Netta was a force of nature. Like locusts or a plague of toads.

She forced a smile. “Why, that is a pastry box and those are called pastries, Netta. I’m surprised you’ve never seen such a thing before. Please help yourself. I recommend the cream cakes.”

“You know you’re not supposed to be eating sweets.” Netta raked Julia with a scornful look. “You’re fat, Julia. So fat that we’ll have to alter your wedding dress to fit you—if that is even possible.”

“For your information itispossible to alter that particular gown in time for the wedding. That’s why I spoke to the woman at Barton’s.”

“You wouldn’t need an alteration if you weren’t such a piggy.”

“I’m still lacing to twenty just as I have for a year, Netta. As for being a pig? I ate a piece of bread, an apple, and one miserly slice of ham for dinner. I’m so hungry I can scarcely see straight.”

“You know the mistress ordered your gown to fit eighteen inches.”

“Well thenshecan wear the vile thing!”

Nadine’s mania for an hourglass figure had gone past the point of sanity and Julia’s father did nothing to stop her tyranny.

“It is my job to see that you can fit into that gown. Your father paid—”

“Shut. Up. You. Horrid. Old. Hag.”

Netta gasped. “Why you little—”

The bedroom door swung open and Carl stood on the threshold.

Julia gave an astonished squawk. “How dare you just walk into my chambers?”

“You needed me?” Carl asked Netta, ignoring Julia as if she’d never spoken.

Netta nodded grimly. “I’m at the end of my tether, Master Carl. Nothing I’ve done works and—”

“You mean starving me?” Julia spat. “Or do you mean boring me? Or perhaps you mean tying me to thatbloodyboard so that—”

Carl closed the distance between them with only a few strides and slid a huge hand over Julia’s mouth, while his other snaked around her waist and pulled her tight to his body.

Julia’s screams were muffled by his meaty paw and when she tried to push away from him it was like attempting to shove an omnibus.

Netta marched toward her, the pastry box still in her hands, a nasty smirk on her ugly face. She spoke to Carl, but her gaze never left Julia. “Do whatever you must, Master Carl. I wash my hands of her. Mary,” she barked at the cowering maid, making her jump. “You come with me.”

---