The Virgin and the Viscount (Lords of Vice #4) - Robyn DeHart Page 0,3
of the music, moving together seamlessly across the floor.
“Your height makes you a perfect dance partner, Matilda.”
“Thank you.” She’d always felt her height was a nuisance, so it was nice to be complimented. She smiled up at him, but found him staring across the room with a frown. Tilly turned her head to see what had bothered him so and found his brother, Sullivan, leaning against the wall. “What troubles you, Thomas?”
He glanced down at her. “I’m frustrated with my brother. It isn’t anything you need worry yourself with.”
“Perhaps not, but it is often helpful to express your frustrations to a friend.”
He exhaled slowly. “Too true. As you know, when my older brother passed two years ago, I took over managing the estates.”
Tilly nodded. The eldest Chase brother, Roderick, had died in a shooting accident. The entire family had taken it hard, especially Thomas. Now she gave Thomas’s shoulder a sympathetic squeeze as they danced. “Yes. Because Sullivan was still away.”
“Exactly.” Thomas slanted her a doleful smile.
With Roderick’s death, Sullivan had inherited the title, yet he had not returned from India right away, as expected. No, instead he continued to serve abroad for two more years. A highly unusual dereliction of his duties that Tilly had never understood.
“Ever since Sullivan has returned from the war,” Thomas continued, “he has done nothing to claim his duties as viscount and head of our family. I am still managing the books and properties.”
Indignation flared inside her, and she frowned in Sullivan’s direction. “He has been home for nearly sixteen months. That’s not right. He should be handling those things. Have you spoken to him about this?”
“I have tried, but my concerns fall on deaf ears. He seems to be interested only in enjoying the fruits of my labor, as it were.”
“How disappointing. And it must increase your worries tenfold. I am sorry you are enduring such trials.” Perhaps Thomas’s pleas went unheard, but she could certainly get Sullivan’s attention. She’d been a member of the Ladies of Virtue, a secret organization of women specially trained to deal with petty thieves and other nuisances on the streets of London, for the last four years.
It was her single greatest accomplishment and a source of pride. She took her duties with the group seriously. When Tilly’s friends and fellow members of the Ladies of Virtue suggested they take their skills to the ballrooms of London to reform the cads of the aristocracy of their sins, the seven deadly sins, they’d each selected one and then found the “gentleman” who personified that sin.
Until this moment, she’d not known whom she could address. Frankly, the very idea of reforming a gentleman in society held little appeal to her in comparison to ridding the streets of crime. So, until now, she hadn’t given much thought to which gentleman she should approach. But this conversation with Thomas cleared things up for her perfectly. Their waltz ended and Thomas led Tilly back to where she’d been standing before.
The time had come for her to confront her gentleman of choice, and for the first time in a long while, she felt a renewed sense of purpose. These last few months in particular, since the Ladies of Virtue had come under attack from an anonymous source. They were at risk of being exposed to the public, of having their identities discovered, their activities revealed, and their reputations ruined. Lady Somersby—who ran the Ladies of Virtue and trained them—had forbidden her from taking part in any of their regular activities. The months of inactivity had been miserable for Tilly. Though, admittedly, she’d snagged a couple of children thieving. More than anything, she wanted to help them, rescue them from the direction their lives were headed. Working in secret, though, without the help of the other Ladies of Virtue, she hadn’t been able to come up with any clever solutions for how to rescue the street children from their lives of poverty and crime.
It was most frustrating. She wanted to help make London safer for its weakest citizens. Instead, she spent her days dancing at balls, dodging the flirtations of men she knew had no real interest in her. But if she could reform Sullivan, at least she would have something productive to occupy her time.
Nerves ate at her insides, simultaneously flooding her with apprehension and excitement. She could make a difference, at least in Thomas’s life. She shook her hands out in an effort to calm herself.