She needed something that was actually distracting. She needed Tiglet. He was twisting side to side on his back. She finished her pie and scooped the kitten onto her lap. He purred when she rubbed behind his ears. There. Now she had something to think about besides Tommy.

“I intended to wait until we had news,” Tommy said. “But when I received your message, I moved our plans to today.”

Philippa’s message. Ha. She narrowed her eyes at the purring kitten. Even Tiglet ran off and made important decisions without consulting her.

“It’s a good thing you didn’t wait. I don’t know when we’d be able to meet privately. There are to be no more reading circles until I’m betrothed.”

Tommy’s face jerked over toward Chloe.

Chloe gave a subtle nod. “Done.”

Philippa dug her fingernails into her palms. Why was it so impossible to be included, even now? “Could you please decide with me instead of for me?”

“I’m sorry.” Tommy looked stricken. “I thought you would like the reading circle to stay together.”

“I would like that,” Philippa said. “I’m the hostess and the leader, and yet whatever you two have just decided makes me not part of the circle at all.”

“You can still be both,” Chloe said quickly. “As long as you don’t mind doing so from my home instead of yours. We can tell your mother it’s my gathering, so she doesn’t stop you from attending, but your friends will know the truth.”

Philippa stroked Tiglet’s soft fur, his purr rumbling into her fingertips. She probably sounded ridiculous to the Wynchesters. They were so used to being captains of their own ships. To having their own ships and somewhere to sail them. Philippa appreciated being taken along, but she wanted to be a fellow sailor.

“We don’t mean to take charge,” Tommy said. “Or rather, we’ve had to take charge of ourselves and each other from such a very young age, we don’t know any other way.”

Philippa glanced at the basket. Meat pies.

Chloe and Tommy hadn’t lived her charmed life. The adults who were supposed to be taking care of them hadn’t even been feeding them properly. Philippa might be stifled by her parents and their ambition, but at least she had parents. She hadn’t been faced with the choice to steal or starve, as Chloe and Tommy had.

She lifted her gaze. Her community project was no longer for lonely girls like she herself had once been. It was for the Chloes and Tommys who had no one to rely on but each other…and for the children who had no one at all. Philippa could not provide each child with a Baron Vanderbean, but she could give them a small escape, and knowledge, and hope.