Page 100 of Seduced By a Scoundrel

But the dance was pleasant and he did not press or make advances, only jolly comments about the other guests. Keir stood against the wall, arms crossed, scowl scowling. He was not very good at this subterfuge business. Threat and menace boiled from him, so unlike his usual calm that more than one glance flickered in his direction. Appreciatively, it had to be said. He was rather delicious when he scowled.

She sent him a bright, cheerful smile. He only shook his head, fighting an answering smile. She could tell by the quirk of his mouth.

Someone else followed her down the deserted hall to the back of the house within a quarter of an hour.

He also went down the stairs. Headfirst.

“Surely there can’t be more of them?” Sybil asked, peering down to watch as Pierce dragged him away.

“The last one was not Minos Society, according to Gallagher,” Keir said. “But he deserves a scare for the way he tried to grab you.”

“I broke his little finger,” she said, shrugging.

Priya joined them, carrying a stack of printed flyers. Some of the ink had smeared in their haste, but they were legible. “It’s time. I don’t think your mother can fit one more person into his house.”

Sybil snorted. “She could fit all of London if we’d given her one more day.” She took some of the papers. “Even physics bows to my mother.”

Emmeline, Matilda, and Peony also joined them, carrying the same flyers. “We’re ready,” Peony said. “Everyone has gathered to watch the fire eaters your mother hired.”

Sybil grinned. “Ladies, let’s meddle in the affairs of men.”

If Sybil’s dowry of forty thousand pounds was enough to throw all of Society into an uproar, this was enough to shake them to the core.

After the applause for the fire eater had faded, the Spinster Society floated through the masked, bejeweled crowd handing out flyers.

At her mother’s signal, a spangled net released flowers from the ceiling—and more flyers.

Justice snowed down.

If the Minos Society did not wish to be named, the Spinsters would name them.

If they wanted to hide, the Spinsters would light torches in every dark corner of Mayfair.

The heiresses on the Minos initiation list had already been warned. Now it came to everyone else—especially as some of those families were complicit.

The Spinsters intended there be nowhere at all left to hide.

If Minos burned down their house, they would burn down Mayfair.

The confused silence turned to gasps of outrage, muttered curses. The names of the guilty passed from mouth to ear, like a lit fuse.

The men who had attacked them, who had planned to attack other women, were safely restrained below stairs waiting for Runners and magistrates and army men, already summoned.

It was done.

Sybil surreptitiously slipped backward through the open door onto the balcony, to finally catch her breath. She had been using it as an excuse to leave all evening, but she had not actually taken a full breath since the ball started. Since last night. An irate father passed between her and Keir, shouting for his carriage and his solicitor. Keir stepped around him, his eyes never leaving Sybil.

But it was too late.