Page 51 of The Earl and the Reluctant Lady
Her friends nodded knowingly but made no further arguments.
“Matilda, why do you hate Sullivan?” Agnes asked.
“He is a cad. And his brother has made my sister miserable. He has been unfaithful. She desperately wants a child.”
“Is her husband withholding his affections so that she cannot get pregnant?” Agnes asked.
“I don’t know precisely,” Matilda said.
“Still, what does any of that have to do with Sullivan?”
Matilda sighed. “I realize that you and he are friends and that he is kind to you. But I have only ever known him to be an arrogant, lazy man with no regards for anyone’s feelings but his own.”
Agnes had no reason to defend him. Though she’d never experienced anything of the kind with Sullivan, Tilly knew him better and had known him longer.
“In fact, I have decided that as much as I do not wish to converse with him, his slothfulness must be addressed.”
Agnes hid a smile. “You intend to reform Sullivan of his laziness?”
Tilly nodded once. “I very well do.”
