She had not told Diantha. She had not told Annie. The only people that knew were the earl and his sisters, and she was perfectly at sea. She was coming to see that if one wished to achieve grand dreams, one needed help from trusted friends.

“Yesterday afternoon after three days of research among the gossips of London, I discovered the address of the Earl of Eads and paid him a call. He is a penniless Scotsman with an unproductive estate and seven half sisters to wed off, and I made a wager with him that if I found them all husbands within a month he must marry me.”

Her brother stared at her quite the way the earl and his sisters had the day before.

“Are you insane?”

She slumped down in a chair. “That’s what he said.”

“Sounds like a sensible fellow.”

“I am not insane. I do not wish to marry Mr. Waldon but Papa is determined, and I—”

“You think your only option to Waldon is this?”

“I cannot bear the idea of it, Toby! Merely sitting beside him makes me feel all prickly and ill. He’s not really that awful. It’s only that I am terrified of spending the remainder of my life as his chattel.”

“Well, I understand your hesitation there. Waldon’s a thorough prig. But you needn’t throw yourself on the mercy of an unknown Scot to find a husband. Diantha must know plenty of gentlemen who’d be glad to court you.”

“She and Wyn have taken me about town. But, you see, I made the acquaintance of Lord Eads when I was in town with Aunt Hortensia. Rather, not quite his acquaintance . . . But . . .” She folded her hands. “I want him.”

“You want him?” His eyes widened. “Oh, no, T. Don’t tell me that when you were here last year you—”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Because I’ve heard stories from the grooms in Father’s stables. I know that maid of yours is—”

“I didn’t do anything! I only saw him and, well, something about him . . . fits. Toby, please try to understand.”

“But this is—”

“I know!” She leaped up. “It’s madness. I have no idea why I feel so strongly about a man about whom I know next to nothing. But I know scads and scads about Mr. Waldon and I simply abhor him.”

Her brother’s brow crunched. “Those don’t follow.”

“Of course not. But I’ve done it, Toby. I’ve made the wager with Lord Eads despite his considerable reluctance. He doesn’t believe I will manage it.”

“What exactly did he say when you made this offer?”

“He said he would not do it.” She suspected he had finally agreed only to make her go away. “If a lady asked you to marry her, would you?”

“If she’d called in secret at my home and wagered herself against my sister’s future? No.”

“Why not? I am not an antidote and I do have a marriage portion.”

“T, if a man’s got any honor in him he wouldn’t treat a lady in a manner he wouldn’t want his own sisters to be treated, would he?”

He had a point. And Toby didn’t know the half of it.

She didn’t care what the gossips said about the earl’s unsavory past. He was trying to protect her from herself.

“Listen here, T, I won’t let you go near him again until I’ve spoken with him and learned something of his character and his intentions toward you,” Tobias said firmly.

“He doesn’t have any intentions toward me. I think he would rather I go away.”

“Be that as it may, he’s got fodder for gossip now that could ruin your reputation.”

“Toby, Papa and Mama have determined that Mr. Waldon is my destiny. If I ruin my reputation here perhaps he will refuse to take me.”

“And every other man!”

She shrugged. “Then it seems that my brothers’ future wives will be obliged to put up with old spinster Aunt Teresa as a permanent house guest.”

He chuckled. “Nonsense. Now come on. Collect your cloak and we’ll find some gowns and what-have-you’s so Mama will be happy you’ve done your duty to her.”

She pursed her lips and shifted her eyes away.

Her brother’s mouth flattened. “You invented that story, didn’t you?”

“I did. I came to London only to find Lord Eads and make him marry me.”

“An I for one think it a grand plan.” The voice that came from the doorway was clear and warm.

“Lady Una Eads and Lady Moira Eads,” the footman announced.

Aha! Moira was the beautiful one.

Teresa went forward. “How kind of you to call. I never imagined you would.”

Una’s vibrant blue eyes met hers honestly. “We almost didna. Ye left no card. We were at a loss until I demanded that ma brither reveal how ye kent o’ him. He refused to tell me more than the name o’ the gentleman whose house this is.”

Teresa’s heart did a little twist. He had not told her the truth. He did remember seeing her that night with Diantha at Lady Beaufetheringstone’s ball.

She recalled her manners. “Mr. and Mrs. Yale are not in now. But please allow me to make you acquainted with my brother.”

Tobias bowed. Una nodded. Moira performed a lovely curtsey, her satiny dark curls dangling about her brow and neck and her gentle blue eyes downcast.

“Miss Finch-Freeworth,” Lady Una said, “our brither wouldna explain yer extraordinary proposal, so we’ve come to make sense o’ it.”

“There is really nothing to make sense of.”

Una’s slender brows rose. Tobias folded his hands behind his back.

“I wish to marry him.”

“That we already understood,” Una said with a slight grin. “But he’s flustered enough aboot it that we wanted to hear the rest o’ it from ye.”

“You flustered an earl, T?” Tobias said. “Well done.”

“I’d the same thought maself, sir.” Una’s grin widened.

Tobias smiled back at her. He seemed completely unaffected by the Aphrodite beside her.

Teresa’s pulse was spinning. She had flustered him. “I made a wager with him that if I found husbands for you and your sisters he must marry me.”

“He told me as much, though I thought he was funning.” Una’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “In truth it seems a fine plan. But are ye a virtuous leddy, Miss Finch-Freeworth?”

“Now see here, miss,” Tobias said, his shoulders squaring. Lady Una set a curious gaze on him. “That is, my lady,” he amended. “My sister is the best sort imaginable. If she wishes your brother to court her then she must know he is an honorable man.”

“Aye, he is. A’ times too honorable for his own guid.”

Moira looked between them, a little smile playing about her rosebud lips.

Una nodded decisively. “Weel, I dinna suppose we’re helping ye match-

make by holding ye here nou, are we? Ye’d best get on wi’ it, Miss Finch-

Freeworth.” Her eyes sparkled.

Teresa’s breath shot out in relief. “Do call me Teresa.”

“If we’re to be sisters,” Moira said sweetly, “ye must call us by our given names too.” She extended a delicate hand for Teresa to shake. “I’m Moira, and I hope ye marry our brither, Teresa.”

Tobias cleared his throat. “Ladies, with all due respect to my sister’s uncanny sense of a man’s good character and to your filial loyalty, I insist on meeting Lord Eads before this outrageous program proceeds any further.”

“Naturally,” Lady Una said.

“And I should like your word,” he said, his face becoming very sober now, “that news of this project will remain among us.”

“Sir,” Lady Moira said softly, “since she’s to be our sister, it wouldna serve us otherwise, would it?”

He looked to Lady Una who smiled.

“All right.” He stepped forward and took Una’s hand on his arm. “Shall we be off?”

The sisters had walked over. Teresa was accustomed to walking miles in the countryside, but not in London.

“We’re no living in the flat nou,” Una said. “We anly walked ten blocks.”

Tobias met Teresa’s gaze and he nodded once. Her heart warmed. He would find a carriage for them. She suspected he had plenty of things on which to spend his allowance, especially now that he was currying favor with gentlemen who could help him find a position in the War Office, which was his fervent hope. But he would help the poor Eads sisters because it meant helping his own sister. He was a prince among brothers.

He sent a footman to the corner to hail a hackney cab and they set off.

When the carriage drew up on the outside edge of the fashionable quarter of town before a tall, many-windowed building flying the flag of Britain, Teresa’s brow wrinkled.

“This is a hotel. It cannot be—”

“Home,” Una said. “Aye, ’tis nou.”

Neither elegant nor shabby, fashionable or dowdy, the Hotel King Harry was a modest place with rugged, sturdy appointments and equally rugged and sturdy footmen. Una and Moira led them toward a door from which issued forth the uncertain notes of a pianoforte.

The scene within was considerably worse than that which Teresa had witnessed at the earl’s flat.

In the center of the parlor young Effie, giggling raucously, twirled about between two grinning soldiers in grimy uniforms. Her twin sat at the piano, poking out the tune, with Elspeth glowering at her shoulder. In a corner Abigail was curled up in a chair with her feet tucked under her, a book on her knees. A birdlike, grey-haired lady garbed entirely in black lace and wool sat at a window amidst the sisters, her gaze trained on the street.

“Good gracious,” Teresa uttered under her breath.

Una’s lips twitched. “Meet ma sisters, Teresa.”

Lady Effie twirled around. “Miss Finch-Freeworth! Ye needn’t find a husband for me. I already have two suitors.” She giggled again and threw her hand into a soldier’s.

Her twin’s playing faltered. “Oh! She is here!” She stood and knocked the sheet music off the stand with her elbow. “Welcome back, miss.”

Lady Elspeth frowned. Lady Abigail’s head came up as though she were waking from a deep sleep.

With a decisive breath, Teresa marched into the room. “Good day.” She went to the closest soldier. He smelled of ale and something else that was very nasty.

“Well there, miss. Come to join the dancing?” He leered at her bosom.

“We’d like that, wouldn’t we, Ned?”

Ned smirked.

“Sir,” she said bracingly, “I regret to inform you that these ladies are already spoken for by respectable gentlemen who will be calling shortly,” she fabricated. “I recommend that you depart before they discover you here.”

The soldier gave Tobias an assessing look. “Is this one of them?”

“This is my brother. He is with the War Office and it is his job to detain and interrogate former soldiers who have no gainful employment.”

The soldier’s eyes narrowed. But he said, “Come on then, Ned. No fun to be had here.”

Teresa released a silent breath of relief, never more grateful that her brother was a well-built man. He’d drawn himself up to his full height, and as the soldiers passed him at the door they gave him wide berth.

Una’s eyes twinkled. “Are ye with the War Office, sir?” she said when the soldiers had gone.

“I have hopes.” His smiled and Teresa’s heart swelled with affection.

Effie’s twin came forward. “I’m Lily. Have ye truly found husbands for us all?” Her eyes were nearly as pretty as Moira’s, and considerably more candid.

“No.”

Effie’s mouth set in a pout. “Then why did ye send those lovely gentlemen away?”

“Because they were not in fact lovely or gentlemen.” Teresa looked about at the seven people staring at her. The old woman in black had not removed her attention from the street. “If we are to do this successfully, we must do it right, which means socializing only with men suitable to court an earl’s sister.”

“But—”

“Listen to the lass, Effie,” the earl said in his deep, delicious rumble behind her. “She’s got yer best interests in mind.”

Teresa turned to him and was glad there were eight other people in the room or she might have done something astoundingly forward. He looked as rough and barbaric and thrillingly virile as the day before, and she was convinced that the devil himself had created the Earl of Eads to make her think wanton thoughts.

“Havena ye, lass?” he said.

“Yes. As well as my interests. But I would prefer it if you did not call me lass.”

“Would ye?”

“I would as well,” Tobias said firmly and moved beside her.

Lord Eads frowned. “Suitor?”

“No, Duncan.” Una grinned. “This is Mr. Finch-Freeworth. Teresa’s brither.”

The earl’s shoulders seemed to relax. He nodded at Tobias. “Come to chaperone?”