“I promise to aid your friends in any way that I can.” Tommy took a deep breath. “And I promise to do my best to help you catch the eye of whoever you, rather than your parents, wish.”

“You are a true gentleman.” Philippa gave a small smile.

“I try,” Tommy murmured.

“I doubt you have to try at all.” Philippa smiled up at Tommy as they strolled the ballroom. “Chivalry seems to come naturally to you.”

“Or perhaps the right maiden brings out the best in—”

“Vanderbean!” came low whispers behind them as they passed.

“Don’t look.” Philippa tightened her hold on Tommy’s arm. “They’re not talking to you. They’re talking about you. About us, rather. Mother’s plan is working. Men are noticing me.”

Jealousy ripped through Tommy, hot and sour and visceral.

This was what it would mean to keep her promise. To stand aside while actual gentleman after actual gentleman pulled Philippa into his arms. Never knowing which lucky lord would be the one to keep her there forever.

She turned to guide Philippa toward her real destiny. They arrived just as the musicians ended the first song.

“You brought her back before your set was over?” Mrs. York hissed. “The least you could do was dance with her, not just parade her about.”

Tommy’s limbs turned leaden.

Dance with her?

“You wanted Baron Vanderbean to parade me about,” Philippa reminded her mother.

“It doesn’t matter,” her mother said. “Lord Charsdale asked for a dance. I dislike the gossip I’ve heard about him, but one cannot cut the heir to an earldom. I shall flag him down. He ought to be happy with half a set. Where did that scoundrel go…”

Philippa looked at Tommy. Her face was blank. Did she want Tommy to ask her to dance?

Tommy wanted to intervene. To say, Halt! This is my minuet and I mean to have it! but her throat had gone dry and her lips were stuck together.

It was like Chloe’s end-of-season gala, only worse. This was Tommy’s “end-of-Philippa” gala, and she still couldn’t force herself to take the plunge.

“There he is!” Mrs. York gave the least subtle wave Tommy had ever witnessed. “Come, come, lad, look this way, I’ve—Yes! Here! I’ve decided to grant you a turn with Philippa, my lord. No, no, she’s unoccupied.”

Lord Charsdale smirked in Tommy’s direction before whisking Philippa onto the dance floor.

Tommy curled her fingers into fists. That smug Lord Charsdale thought Tommy had just been snubbed by Mrs. York and her daughter, when in fact Tommy had managed to cut herself from a set already in progress without any outside assistance, thank you very much.