Prologue

London, England – 1876

Rain soaked the cobblestones, chasing away most of the usual market crowds that would have filled the streets and provided Tabitha Sherborne with prey. She lingered in the alley, clutching the lapels of her masculine coat about her neck, and pulled her flat cap down over her eyes. Drops of water drizzled from the brim of her cap, making it even harder to see through the downpour. Though she wore a dress underneath, her hat and coat gave her the appearance of a young man, which helped deter attention from her on days like today when she needed to be ignored.

A clap of thunder deafened her ears, and she watched the street entertainers scramble for cover beneath the narrow doorways of nearby shops. A few peddlers braved the weather, calling out for the rare passersby to have their kitchen knives sharpened or pots and pans mended. On days like these, everyone in the marketplace lost a chance to feed their families. Rain like this chased away all but the most determined customers.

A handful of young children clutched baskets of drenched lavender and violets, their sad little figures tugging at Tabitha's heart. Only the vegetable sellers and fishmongers seemed to survive in this weather.

As Tabitha continued her vigilance on the street through the falling rain, she spied a tall gentleman with a cane. He strolled down the street, his hat tipped to shield his face from the wind and rain. The fine quality of his coat and boots caught her attention. He paused, reaching into the pocket of his waistcoat to check the time. The glint of a silver pocket watch was what she'd been hoping to see. She slipped out of the alley and trailed him. It would be harder in this weather to accomplish her mission, but she had to eat, and this was the only way.

She moved from one shop doorway to another and was careful not to stare at the man. Instead, she kept him in her peripheral view while she examined a set of gentlemen's trilby hats on display in the windows in front of her. When the man stopped to speak to a young lad selling newspapers, Tabitha joined him. She pretended to wait in line for a newspaper as well.

With practiced ease, she leaned past him to take a paper from the boy. In the same swift move, she lifted her palm up and slid it into his pocket, plucking the watch out and tucking it into her own pocket. The man had only recently checked the time, so he wasn't likely to check again for perhaps another half hour. She would be long gone when he discovered the theft.

With the watch secure in her pocket, she winked at the boy selling playbills and walked away. One never ran. She stopped by one of the little girls selling violets. Tabitha dropped a coin into the girl's palm, then removed her cap and placed it on the child's head to keep the girl a little drier. The child rubbed her red nose with a little fist and murmured a shy, "Thank you." She couldn't have been more than six. Something tugged at Tabitha's chest, but she could do no more for her than that single coin and the hat. She herself had nothing to survive on. What could she do for a child who was even worse off?

The rain relented by the time Tabitha turned the corner and passed by a bountiful stand of flowers on a wheeled cart. A beautiful blonde woman in a bright sapphire-blue walking dress stood by the flower stand admiring the freshly cut blooms. Her dress trimmed with a delicate rose fringe that lined the trailing bustle and the billowing bows that cascaded down the full back of the skirt, and those skirts were carefully lifted by a strap wrapped around her wrist that kept the lovely train from dragging on the wet ground. She wore red-tipped walking boots that peeped out from the front of her skirts.

The elegant picture she painted in front of the cart of blooming flowers was stunning. Tabitha didn't often see women like her out on the streets in this kind of weather and certainly never alone.

She spoke with the woman selling the fresh bouquets of flowers. The woman in the blue gown was a fine lady, born into a life with no struggle or suffering. Her skin was pale with a hint of a blush, and her hair was coiffed beneath the jauntily perched little hat. Tabitha searched for any signs of jewelry on the woman, but she wore no rings, necklaces, or any other finery that could be pinched.

Blast!

When the lady turned toward Tabitha, her basket tumbled from her arms and the flowers spilled to the ground in a colorful, beautiful mess.

"Oh no!" the woman cried in dismay. Responding instinctively to the stricken look on her face, Tabitha dove for the flowers and tried to retrieve them. She'd felt strangely compelled to help her, but pretty ladies were always like that, weren't they? They looked so helpless and kitten-like, and it was no wonder men were always bowing and scraping to please them and take care of them. Tabitha couldn't imagine a man ever doing that for her. A sudden pang of longing struck her so hard that she blinked away burning tears in her eyes. What would it be like to live that kind of life?

Something in the lady's eyes had said these flowers mattered to her beyond a pretty centerpiece. The woman blushed. "Thank you."

Tabitha finished placing the flowers in the other woman's basket.

"Truly, thank you. I was planning to take these to my ailing mother," she confessed. "Flowers are the only thing that makes her smile these days."

"It's no trouble," Tabitha replied. She was still in awe of the fine lady. They were of a similar age, although she guessed this woman might be a year or two older than Tabitha's twenty years. Tabitha had none of her polish or elegant glamour, yet the kindness in the woman's face drew Tabitha's sympathy rather than her jealousy.

She straightened and politely nodded at the woman before Tabitha rushed away. She couldn't stay in this part of town for long. She was so quick to escape that she bumped into a pair of roughly dressed men near a newsstand, and they cursed at her.

By the time she reached the area near Covent Garden, she felt secure enough to check on her prize. She dug her hand into her pocket, expecting to feel the cool touch of silver, but her fingers found only empty air. Tabitha searched deeper but still found nothing. She checked the lining for holes, then finally searched her other pocket, where her fingers closed around a scrap of paper. When she pulled it out, she noticed the emblem of a little bird. A robin, by the looks of it. She turned the paper over and found a handwritten note on the back:

Nicely done. We are impressed. To retrieve your item, visit us at two o'clock in the afternoon.

An address was printed neatly below.

"What the devil?" Tabitha scowled and glanced around. Someone had stolen her purloined watch. Or rather, more than one person, as the note had said "we." She hadn't felt a thing. Was she getting slow? It did happen to pickpockets occasionally as they got older. As she replayed the moments after taking the watch, she realized it must have been those two men she'd bumped into after helping that young woman with her flowers. Her empty stomach rumbled at the thought. If she didn't go to the meeting these people had arranged, it was possible she wouldn't have any luck pinching an item to sell before it grew dark. That meant she wouldn't be able to eat a real meal today.

It was a little over an hour before the meeting time specified on the card. She removed her coin purse and counted her money as she considered what to do. She could afford a penny loaf and a cup of coffee at a stall, but nothing more until she could get that watch back and fence it. She continued to debate her choices as she bought her bread and coffee. Then she settled on a portico to eat. Her belly was grateful, but she would be hungry again in a few hours.

She studied the address again and scoffed. It was a home near Grosvenor Square. That was where the rich toffs lived. Lord, what was she going to do? It was common enough for men of all classes to lure women into traps for forced prostitution—or worse. Thinking it over, Tabitha decided to go early and observe the house discreetly. See what she thought of it before meeting up with these "robin" fellows.

When she reached Upper Grosvenor Street and spotted the fancy townhouse from address on the card, she kept her distance. She lingered in the park square, pretending to take in the air now that much of the storm clouds had moved on. She couldn't see anyone coming or going out of the house.

I can leave now, or I can risk it for the watch...

Her stomach's needs eventually won out over her sense of self-preservation, and she finally crossed the street and rapped the silver knocker. She was a quarter of an hour early, but perhaps that would give her an advantage.

A butler answered. He was a tall man in his fifties with a distinguished look and a fine beard. Exactly the sort of man she expected to greet her.

"Yes?" It sounded like a challenge to prove she belonged on his doorstep. He stared down his nose at her pompously. It took her a moment to not let his tone or demeanor rankle her.

Tabitha held up the card she'd found in her pocket. "I have an appointment."

His eyes narrowed. "I was told to expect a young lady." His gaze roved over her drab gray woolen dress and tattered coat, soaked hair, and fingerless gloves.

"A lady, eh?" She snorted at his joke, but he didn't crack a smile. "Sorry to disappoint you, sir." She bobbed a sarcastic curtsy.

"This way, Miss..." He paused when he failed to have a name to address her with.

She laughed. "Oh, you're a clever one, you are. I won't be giving you my name, not so you can track me down and throw me in Newgate."

"I was not told to do any such thing, miss." He sounded as if she'd deeply offended him.

She followed the butler inside, and her eyes widened. Just beyond the door, a large hallstand with a mirror stood ready to hold coats and umbrellas. Tabitha caught a glimpse of her own appearance in that mirror and frowned at the drowned rat staring back at her. She carefully walked around the center table full of blooming flowers and glanced up at the glittering chandelier over her head.

This was a beautiful home. More beautiful than any she'd ever seen in her life. She'd never imagined people could actually live in houses like this. Tabitha shared a cramped attic space with half a dozen other girls in an old warehouse by the docks.

"The parlor is this way." The butler opened a door down the hall for her and ushered her inside. The parlor was a high-ceilinged room with bright blue-and-orange flower-patterned wallpaper that lent the room the feeling of an endless summer. It drew a smile to her lips before she could stop herself. If she lived in a place that had a room like this, she'd never want to leave. Sumptuous carpets covered the floor, and Tabitha was glad she'd wiped her boots before coming inside. Several portraits of distinguished lords and ladies hung over a writing desk full of papers and letters.

The fireplace was surrounded by towering bookshelves, each filled to the brim with books. She'd learned to read long ago and had vowed to never let that skill lapse. Her father had told her that a woman who could read had the world at her fingertips. Old memories, ones she kept close to her heart to relive whenever a deep pain threatened to surface.

She turned her attention to a display case in one corner of the room, which was filled with silvery objects that would be worth a fortune if she could sell them. She deliberately turned her focus away from temptation and studied the rest of the room.

There were two settees and a tea table arranged artfully near the fireplace. Despite the room's size, it felt cozy, like the set of rooms she and her father had lived before he'd died. The wallpaper had been peeling at the edges and the furniture worn and dusty, but it had been cozy like this. Again, her heart stuttered in a painful off beat.

"Please wait here." The butler's words broke her free of the past. He stepped into the corridor and closed the door, leaving her alone. Tabitha examined the room again before approaching the display case. Decorative trinkets, silver bowls, sculptures, and other things that looked heavy and expensive called to the thief within her. Her hands itched to touch, but she didn't dare. She did remove a letter opener from the nearby desk and slipped it into her pocket, in case she needed to defend herself. If the men who had summoned her here had any ideas about grabbing her, they'd get a nice little poke in the gut.

When the door to the parlor opened again, Tabitha gasped as a woman stepped inside. It wasn't just any woman. It was the one who had dropped all those lovely flowers at the market. The woman turned and closed the door behind her, her beautiful bustled blue skirts whispering over the carpets as she moved. Despite the voluminous fabric of the gown trailing behind her, she moved easily. Tabitha envied her careless grace that such ladies seemed to be born with. Tabitha might have the nimble moves of a thief, but she had no grace.

The woman smiled at her warmly. "Thank you for coming. I'm Hannah Winslow." She held out her hand to shake as though they were gentlemen at a club meeting for the first time.

Strangely, Tabitha liked the woman's frank, forward nature, but she couldn't afford to forget the potential danger. This woman had distracted her once, and she couldn't let that happen again.

"Where are they?" Tabitha demanded as she ignored the woman's offered hand.

"Who?" Hannah asked, her hazel eyes wide with confusion.

"The men who pinched my watch."

"You mean the watch you pinched first?" Hannah asked politely.

"Yes." Tabitha kept her eye on the parlor door. Any moment those men would come in here and... do whatever they planned to do.

"There were no men. Only me... and Julia, of course." The door opened and another woman entered as if she'd heard her name called.

"Sorry I'm late, Hannah—oh, she's here!" This new woman, Julia, paused in the act of unpinning her hat from her russet hair, and her warm brown eyes swept curiously over Tabitha.

"She's early," Julia observed as she set her hat down on a side table and smoothed her hands over her burgundy velvet walking dress. It was rich with embroidered patterns of robins, just like the emblem on the card.

"Yes, it seems she is," Hannah said with an amused chuckle. "This is my friend, Julia Starling."

Tabitha stared at the two women, utterly confused. Where were the pickpockets who'd taken her watch?

Julia slipped a hand into a hidden gown pocket at her hip and pulled out the silver pocket watch. It dangled in the air beneath her hand, spinning slowly in circles, the light glinting off its etched surface.

"How did you get that?" Tabitha demanded.

"The same way you did. I stole it." Julia's brown eyes lit with mischief.

"But—" Tabitha couldn't believe it. A fine lady had pinched the watch from her? She tensed when the parlor door opened again, but it was only a maid carrying a tea tray.

"Please sit, Miss... Oh dear, we still don't know your name." Hannah gestured toward one of the two couches by the fireplace.

Tabitha hesitated. She didn't trust these women, but this wasn't the danger she had expected to face.

"Please, we don't mean you any harm. We won't be calling the authorities. We invited you here to ask you something."

"Then go on and ask," Tabitha said.

"Would you sit and have some tea first?" Hannah offered.

Tabitha reluctantly lowered herself onto one of the two couches. Her empty stomach gnawed at her, but she wasn't going to let them know just how desperate she was. The two odd ladies sat opposite her, and Hannah poured tea for the three of them. Tabitha took the offered cup hesitantly, but when she caught a whiff of its aroma, she sighed with pleasure. Real tea. How long had it been since she'd tasted that?

"We saw you lift that pocket watch," Julia began as she handed the timepiece over to Tabitha. Tabitha snatched it and tucked it away in her pocket. "We were quite impressed."

"We were," Hannah agreed. "That brings us to why we invited you here."

Tabitha held her cup and waited for whatever bad news was to be delivered.

"We are on a mission to help those less fortunate. We want to do more, but even as well off as we are, we need a way to supplement our causes."

"That's where you come in." Julia grinned.

"I don't understand," Tabitha said. "How can I possibly fit in?" She took a hasty sip of her tea, anything to get something in her stomach. "Surely you fine ladies don't need a resident thief."

The two women exchanged glances, and then Hannah leaned forward. "That's exactly what we need."

Tabitha choked on her next sip of tea. "You're joking."

"We certainly aren't," Julia said. "We want you to continue to ply your trade."

"You want me to steal for you?" Tabitha asked, slowly voicing the question to make sure she'd heard them correctly.

"More like with us. We stole your watch, after all. We aren't without skills," Julia reminded her with a grin. "But we need a third person to do this properly. We need someone who understands the city and its streets in ways that we do not if we're going to pull off bigger heists than mere pocket watches."

Tabitha's head was spinning. "Heists?"

"Oh yes," said Hannah. "We have a target in mind, and it is my opinion that we need two people to distract the target and a third person to retrieve the jewels."

These women were mad, surely, Tabitha thought.

"You plan on stealing from a jeweler or?—?"

"No, that's the best part. We only intend to steal from those who are... well... undeserving of them," Hannah said.

"What she means is someone bad, or otherwise quite terrible."

"Right...," Tabitha drawled. "You want to steal from the rich?—"

"Only the terrible ones, yes, and give to the poor." Julia passed over a card, one similar to the kind that they had put in her pocket.

"We call ourselves the Merry Robins. You see, our emblem is a robin." She pointed to the bird that was drawn on the card.

Tabitha inwardly groaned. The Merry Robins? Like Robin Hood? These women thought they were like the old English legend of the man who'd robbed from the rich to give to the poor. They couldn't be that na?ve, could they? Surely they realized how silly that was.

"And where does the money go from the items you sell?" she asked. "You said the less fortunate, but I expect you don't intend to drop a bag of coins on people's doorsteps, do you?"

"Of course not." Hannah got up and went to her desk to retrieve a written list. "These are the orphanages, workhouses, soup kitchens, and other places that desperately need help. Even those in debtors' prison need assistance for the sake of their families. The charities we have on our list are run by good people. They do not embezzle money they receive or do anything that we consider immoral. But they also do not receive enough support from society to be as effective as they could be."

Tabitha still couldn't understand why these two women, who seemed to have everything, would care for those who had nothing. It made no sense.

"Why?" Tabitha asked. "Why care? You have your pretty palaces and your pretty gowns, and all that's ever expected of you is to attend teas and balls. You don't have to care about any of this."

For the first time, Tabitha saw a crack form in the politeness of the two women. Hannah's kind eyes turned hard as steel.

"Because we can help. Women and children are the ones who suffer the most when there is inequity in the world. I am tired of letting men make our gender victims, and I'm tired of seeing children starve on the streets. Have you ever seen the tide at the waterfront?"

Tabitha shook her head. The docks were a dangerous place to be, especially for a woman, no matter the time of day.

"When boats are stuck in the mud during a low tide, they can't do what they are meant to... which is sail upon the water. When a tide comes in," Julia explained, "it rises everywhere along the shore. As it does, it lifts every single boat floating nearby. That tide lifts everything. What if we became the tide? What if we lifted up our fellow humans? More food in their bellies, less moth-eaten clothing, more chances to find a home with shelter for the winter months. The more hope someone receives, the more they are lifted, you see. And when lifted by hope... they can find their way to sailing again."

The fine hairs on Tabitha's arms rose. These two women actually believed. And what was more, Tabitha started to as well. She began to imagine what good they could actually do. No more children selling wilted violets and lavender on the street. No more boys chasing carriages in the dark, begging gentlemen to buy newspapers. No more bodies frozen on the pavement, no more crying babies who had no milk, no more pain and suffering.

"Is a world like that even possible?" she asked aloud, even though she hadn't meant to.

"Our world will never be perfect, and it will be a fight every day. But wouldn't you rather put your head on your pillow at night and sleep better knowing that you were a part of that fight?"

Tabitha was quiet a long moment as she considered what joining these women could mean, not just for herself but for others.

"Let's say that I agree. Who would we steal from first? And what would we be stealing?"

Hannah beamed at her. "Well, I believe we should practice a bit first before we hit our primary targets, but the man that we eventually plan to steal from is a particularly rude and arrogant duke who has far too many diamonds..."