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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