Devoted Ladies by Molly Keane

Jessica and Jane have been living together for six months. They are devoted friends–or are they? Jessica loves her friend with the cruelty of total possessiveness. Jane is rich, silly, and drinks rather too many brandy-and-sodas. Watching from the sidelines, Sylvester regrets that she should be loved and bullied and perhaps even murdered by that frightful Jessica, but decides it is none of his business. When the Irish gentleman George Playfair meets Jane, however, he thinks otherwise–he entices Jane to Ireland where the battle for her devotion begins. A studied satire of art deco decadence and louche behavior, Devoted Ladies is a sharp and glittering satire on female love.