Freya shook her head.
Odette placed a plate of toast and a curved pastry before the young soprano, then poured another cup of chocolate.‘Never read reviews on an empty stomach.’
Freya eyed the paper.
‘Eat,’ Odette demanded.‘Both of you.No headlines until you are done.’
Freya sat down and took a bite, chewing methodically.Cassius slid a piece of toast onto his plate.
‘Better?’Odette asked.
Freya nodded and took another bite.
‘Where are you staying?’
‘At a boarding house south of the river.’
‘You need to find somewhere new to live.You need somewhere safe, somewhere where you can be yourself.Where you can relax and not worry about the public.Daniel?’
Daniel, who had been lingering in the doorway, stepped into the room.‘Miss Delaney?’
‘Accompany Freya so she can collect her things.She can stay here until she finds more suitable accommodation.’
Anotherknock at the door.
‘I wonder who that might be,’ Odette said.‘I am not expecting anyone.’
The knock came again.
‘I’ll go,’ Cassius said.
But without anyone announcing this latest intruder, a burst of indignation filled the entrance and bounced into the breakfast room.The hairs along the back of Cassius’s neck bristled as the outraged voice of the patron crashed over them all.
Odette sat bolt upright and turned in her seat.‘This is too much.’
‘I had specific requirements!’Mrs Crofts admonished from the doorway to the breakfast room.‘I stated, with the utmost clarity, that Odette Delaney should perform in this opera.I was assured this would happen, and yet, what do I hear?That some upstart nobody from the countryside has taken over the role, and that the conductor and soprano were most indecent onstage!’
‘Mrs Crofts.How dare you!’Odette rose so swiftly the table wobbled.She ripped her napkin off her lap, flung it onto her plate, then spun to face her neighbour.‘You comment on me in the street.Lambast me in front of your society.Then, you come into my theatre and try to make me perform for you.And all the time, I am polite.I am patient.But I will not be lectured to in my own home!Certainly not by some bossy, condescending woman who has no right to judge others.If you do not like opera and its singers, then you should not go to the theatre!’
‘I had a contract that said you would perform the lead!’
‘Take it to von Miller!Besides, why would you even request me?To make me behave?To mould me into a model for your society, to make an example of me in front of those poor girls you drag along, filling their heads with nonsense?You should have known I would not obey.So why me?’
Mrs Croftsummedandahhed.Cassius almost felt bad for her as she wilted under Odette’s hard stare, retreating step by gradual step.
‘Mrs Crofts?’Odette pressed, pushing her advantage.‘Why me?’
‘Because you are the best!The most well-known!And I thought that might help Ezra with his writing and give him a future.’
‘As a flagship for your lessons?For your morals, your ridiculous standards?’Odette’s voice rose even higher.‘What do you care if some small composer becomes famous or not!’
‘Because he is my son!’
Freya’s cup slipped from her hands, and chocolate slopped into her dish.Nora gasped audibly from the doorway, and even Daniel muttered, ‘Well, I’ll be…’
Mrs Crofts bowed her head, wringing her hands before her.‘I was young.Foolish.I gave up my chastity, convinced my feelings were returned.But they weren’t, and after he left I found that I was...My parents helped me find a family to raise the baby, and I gave him up.When I married Mr Crofts, I confessed all to him, asked if I could find him and tell him I was his mother.But he said no… that our own children would come.But then they never did, and every day, I always thought of him.’She swallowed, hard, closing her eyes for a moment.‘That’s why I started my society.To help protect other women from what I had been through.He doesn’t even know who I am.Please don’t tell him.Not yet.’
A lesser woman would have marched Mrs Crofts straight to the door.And Odette had always been strong, but alongside her strength, she was also exceedingly kind.The way she melded courage and compassion, help and protection, was one of the things Cassius loved about her—that everyone loved about her.The mood in the room softened as Anton and Charlotte came in, bringing with them the lightness of children whose primary concerns were now food and play.Anton helped his sister onto her chair.
