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?”
“I have.”
“Which won’t be necessary at present,” Teresa said, “as our business today is entirely of the feminine sort. But you are certainly welcome to come along if you wish, Toby.” She forced her attention away from the earl and studied his sisters gathered around. Their gowns were threadbare and their slippers scuffed. That could be easily remedied; between her and Diantha’s wardrobes they would find gowns and whatnot to suit. “We must return to my lodgings and . . .” She could not say what she intended. She could not shame him like that. “Make some plans,” she finished. “On this occasion I should like to take Ladies Moira, Lily, Abigail, and Una.” They were the prettiest, excepting defiant Effie. “May I, my lord?”
He nodded. “Ye heard the leddy,” he said to his sisters. “Be aff wi’ ye.”
Elspeth’s nostrils looked pinched. “I will remain here and read to my sister from my latest treatise on the proper comportment of modest females.”
Effie’s brow was dark. “I dinna think I like ye, Miss Finch-Freeworth. Ye remind me o’ our old nurse.”
“That’ll do, Effie.” The earl’s voice was a warning growl.
Teresa went forward and looked Effie directly in the eye. “Do not fret. I have great plans for you, Lady Effie.” Making certain she didn’t lose her innocence to a two-penny ex-soldier, for instance. She lowered her voice. “But now I need you to arrange Lady Elspeth’s hair in a fashion that will not frighten off crows. Will you do that for me?”
Effie wiggled her brows. “I may like ye after all.” She pulled Elspeth out the door.
“The carriage awaits, ladies,” Tobias said.
Lily went out with a light step, Moira following. Abigail trailed reluctantly behind. Teresa bit her lip. Perhaps the bookish sister shouldn’t be thrown into socializing immediately.
“She willna be alone, Teresa,” Una said. “We’ll be wi’ her.”
“How did you know what I was thinking?”
“Because I’ve the same worry.”
Teresa took Una’s hand. “I think I will be fortunate to have you as a friend.”
Una’s eyes crinkled at the sides. “Yer the first English leddy who’s spoken kindly to us since we’ve been in London. I’m already the fortunate one.”
