tree often. More often than he cared to think about her endangering herself. She thrust her hands onto her hips and glared at him. “Tell him.” Then she smirked. “But you will have to wait unless you plan to travel to the Cotswolds to do so.”
By God, she was magnificent in her confidence.
“Now if you will kindly excuse me.” She tried to sidestep him, but he easily blocked her path.
“I will tell him, Lilias,” he said, sure she was bluffing about being unconcerned. “I’ll tell him, and you know he’ll demand you cease this. Owen is a proper rule follower, and he has never been the adventurous sort.”
He hated when her shoulders drooped. The last thing he wanted to do was make her feel defeated. She glanced at him from under her lashes. “You are undoubtedly right,” she said, sounding miserable, which made him feel worse. “He will very likely demand I stop my work with—”
Her words came to a halt, and she bit her lip.
“SLAR,” he supplied, not sure why.
Her eyes widened. “How do you know about the Society of Ladies Against Rogues?” She sounded both outraged and wary.
“I have my ways,” he replied. He did not want to tell her that Carrington had told him about it.
“Carrington,” she said, her tone derisive. “It had to be him. You may as well admit it.”
“I’ll do nothing of the sort,” he replied, rather than lying to her about it.
“If Carrington told you about SLAR, then he must have told you of the important work we do.”
“He did,” Nash agreed. He rather liked the idea of a group of women banding together to stand against rogues. He just did not like the idea of Lilias endangering herself.
“Let me ask you this,” she said, her voice taking on a sweet note that made him suspicious. “What if it were your sister who was in need? What if the missive I received tonight was to aid Lady Adaline? Would you not want me to help her?”
“No. I would want you to contact me immediately,” he replied, crossing his arms.
She crossed hers, as well. “What if I could not find you? What if a woman with no brother or father needs someone to protect her?”
“All women have fathers,” he said, mentally cursing himself the minute the idiotic words left his mouth. “God, Lil, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t call me that,” she said, her voice hard.
“You still wish me to call you Lady Lilias?”
She sighed. “You may call me Lilias. For now. Unless you give me reason to wish you to call me Lady Lilias again.”
“Such as?”
“Well,” she said, “such as trying to stop me from going where I need to go tonight.”
“Lil—”
“Just listen,” she interrupted. “Guinevere’s sister Lady Frederica needs my help. It was her I was aiding last night, as well. There is a manuscript that has been written by a well-known Society mistress. It recounts all of the men she has bedded. In great detail. It seems some of her patrons did not pay her what they promised they would, and she wrote it with the intention of publicly shaming them.”
“Seems fair to me,” he replied.
“Well, I suppose,” Lilias said, “they should have paid her for services, er, rendered, but one of the men, a marquess who was her patron, also had an affair with a naive, unwed lady, and apparently, in the chapter about the marquess, the young lady’s name is mentioned, along with the fact that the marquess had intimate relations with her. It’s dreadful. She’ll be ruined.”
“Did you tell the mistress—”
“Mrs. Porter,” Lilias supplied, thinking to keep the woman’s identity secret if she could. “Yes, she knows. She was actually already very remorseful about writing the manuscript and had decided not to publish it. But she gave it to her brother, and he will not return it. I must obtain that manuscript before the brother and the publisher he’s working with release it. Lady Frederica cannot get away from her home tonight, so it’s up to me to ensure it does not get published.”
Lilias’s big heart and admirable ideals will get her killed.
The thought made him feel as if his blood had turned to ice in his veins. “If I help you obtain the manuscript, do I have your vow that you will quit your work with SLAR?”
“You’ll help me?” she asked, her surprise evident.
“I don’t see that I have a choice.” He didn’t say that the thought of her possibly being injured made him want to do all manner of