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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?”
    T he 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