Dulcie was still fuming about it when she sat down in Grace and Anna’s room later. She was trying to darn a pair of stockings but her hands were shaking with so much anger she could barely get the stitches in the black wool.

‘I mean, it’s bad enough that she’s stolen my boyfriend, without expecting me to trail up the aisle after them,’ Dulcie went on. ‘I’ve always thought of you as such a good friend,’ she mimicked Sylvia’s girlish voice. ‘Good friends don’t steal each other’s men, do they?’

Anna and Grace looked at one another. Anna was getting ready to go out, pulling on her coat and winding a muffler around her neck. Dulcie could see the doubt in their faces. They didn’t understand what she and Roger had meant to each other before Sylvia had sneaked in.

‘Of course, I know she’s only doing it to be spiteful,’ Dulcie said.

‘Spiteful?’ Grace said.

‘She wants to make a fool of me. She wants everyone to see that she got the man and I didn’t.’

‘Perhaps she just wants to be nice?’

Dulcie glared at Grace. Duffield drove her mad sometimes, she was always so determined to see the good in everyone.

She wished she had someone else to talk to about it. Her best friend Sadie Sedgewick would have understood, but Sadie had decided to do her district nurse training, so now she was living out in one of the district houses in Mile End.

Since she had gone, Dulcie had grown closer to Grace, mainly because she had fallen out with most of the other girls. Either she had been catty to them, or they had been spiteful to her. But it was impossible to offend Grace.

‘Nice? I doubt it,’ Dulcie scoffed. ‘No, she’s got a plan, I know she has.’ She considered for a moment. ‘She’ll probably make me wear a horrible dress. Although I daresay I’ll still look better than her … I’ve a good mind to do it, just so I can outshine her.’

‘I’m going now,’ Anna interrupted her.

Grace went to the window and peered out. ‘It’s still raining hard,’ she said. ‘And the gutter’s overflowing again. That drainpipe will be treacherous to climb—’

‘Stop worrying,’ Anna said. ‘It’s not as if I haven’t done it before.’

She put on her hat, tucking her dark hair under the brim then reaching for her gloves. ‘Don’t forget to leave the window open a bit for me, will you?’

Grace nodded. ‘I’ll listen out. And I’ll be sure to leave the lamp on so you can see where you’re going.’

‘Say hello to your fancy man for me,’ Dulcie called after her as she clambered through the window. Anna shot her a dark look but said nothing.

A moment later she was gone. Grace leaned out, watching her until they heard the crunch of feet landing on the gravel path below. Then she ducked back inside, brushing the rain off her light brown hair.