"Yes," he said with a twisted smile. "You're here, gypsy. And you're going to help me whatever I do or say."

"You married a Belmont," Theo responded, with a smile of her own now as she heard his changed tone and saw the light in his eye. "It goes with the territory. Like it or not."

He caught her chin, fixing her gaze with his own. "I find I like it." Bending his head, he brushed her lips with his own in a kiss as delicate as the flutter of a butterfly's wings. "And we have much to talk about, madam wife."

Theo simply nodded.

Edward said somewhat hesitantly, "Perhaps you should take the curricle, and if you'll trust your horse to me, sir, I'll ride him back to Curzon Street and pick up the curricle there."

"That sounds like a good plan," Sylvester said coolly. He picked up his coat, glancing at the cot where Gerard still cowered. "I suggest you take an extended trip abroad. I shan't press for a new court-martial, but it won't be necessary once Lieutenant Fairfax has reported your confession at Horseguards."

He put on his coat and for a moment toyed reflectively with one of the dueling pistols. "I'd challenge you, but a man doesn't match his honor against a coward. Come, Theo." He swept her ahead of him out of the dingy chamber and down the stairs. A scared face peeped out at them from a door in the lightless lower hall. A door that Theo noticed had a bullet hole in it

She thought of the blood on Edward's sword and wondered how many people in this malodorous hole were licking wounds. No one hindered their departure at all events.

Sylvester tossed Theo up into the curricle and sprang up after her. "Edward, we'll see you later." He leaned down, holding out his hand. "A man couldn't wish for a sounder ally."

"What about me?" Theo demanded with a touch of indignation. "I'm a very sound ally."

"That is a matter for further discussion," her husband said, failing lamentably to hide a broad grin. "Stand away from their heads, lad."

The urchin jumped back, catching the half sovereign as it flew through the air toward him, and the horses plunged forward.

"I'm as sound an ally as Edward," Theo insisted, prepared to capitalize on circumstances, now that things had turned out so favorably. "My plan took an unexpected turn, I grant you, but the result was the same. You have your confession and an objective witness."

"True," Sylvester agreed, adding pointedly, "How's your head?"

"A bit achy," she confessed. "All right, so it didn't turn out right, but I couldn't think of anything else to do."

"No," he said. "In the circumstances, I can quite see that."

"I love you," Theo said, just in case he was still missing the point.

"Yes, I know," Sylvester responded quietly. "And I've loved you since I first laid eyes on you. You've tried my patience almost beyond bearing on many occasions, sweetheart, but never my love." He looked down at her, the stern lines of his face softened, the once cool eyes aglow. "Never in my wildest dreams, or do I mean my craziest nightmares, did I imagine falling hopelessly in love with a passionate, wayward, managing, and unruly gypsy. But that's what happened."

Theo smiled, thinking of her grandfather. Whatever had really been behind the conditions of his will, he wouldn't have intended to hurt her in any way. Had he perhaps heard something of this Gilbraith… something that made him believe he would make his granddaughter happy? He was such a devious old man, it wouldn't surprise her to discover that he'd set out to learn about his heir from the moment of Kit Belmont's death. But whatever the truth, the outcome would have pleased him as it pleased everyone else – and brought his granddaughter such sweet joy.

She moved her thigh so that it pressed hard against her husband's and allowed her head to drop onto his shoulder, a deep peace filling her, as if she'd been relieved of the most enormous weight.

They drew up in front of the house, and Sylvester jumped down as young Timmy came running to take the horses. Sylvester lifted Theo down and carried her up the steps and into the house.

"Is everything all right, my lord?" Foster asked in concern. Theo, despite her bravado, was looking rather wan.

"It will be," Sylvester said. "Tell Dora to bring a cold compress and arnica up to Lady Theo's bedroom."

Foster's air of concern deepened. "Yes, right away, my lord. Lady Emily, Lady Clarissa and Lady Rosie are awaiting your return in the library."

"Oh, well, bring it to the library in that case." Sylvester turned aside with his burden.

"Whatever's happened?" Emily jumped up as they came in. "Theo, you're as white as a ghost"

"Oh, it's nothing," Theo said hastily. "I… I… uh… I tripped on the pavement and fell in front of an oncoming carriage, but Sylvester managed to pull me back in time."

Her husband made no comment, and only Rosie noticed the raised eyebrow and the slight twitch of his lips as he settled Theo on a sofa.

A footman came in with the required items and set them on a low table beside the sofa. They all waited in silence until he'd bowed himself out. Sylvester was aware of an air of suppressed excitement in the room as he moved behind Theo and delicately parted her hair at the base of her skull, feeling for the lump.

Theo was aware of it too. "What is it?" she demanded of her sisters. Clarissa in particular was bubbling with exuberance.

"Oh, Theo, Jonathan has a splendid commission to paint Lord Decatur's daughter, so he's asked Mama for my hand and she said yes," Clarissa declared, her voice a passionate throb, her hands clasped tightly to her bosom.

Theo smiled warmly, trying not to wince at Sylvester's probing fingers. "That's wonderful, love."

"Yes, but it's not exactly a surprise," Rosie put in, peering myopically at a plate of shortbread on the table in front of her. "Clarry's behaving as if there was ever any doubt." She selected a piece and bit into it

"Well, we came to tell you that," Emily said swiftly before her sister could respond to this dampener. "But also we wished to ask Stoneridge something." She gave him a shy smile as he looked up intently from his first aid. "We're going to have a double wedding -"

"What a lovely idea," Theo interrupted. "You'll be married from Stoneridge, of course."

"But of course," Sylvester agreed.

Emily flushed slightly. "That would be wonderful, but it wasn't what we wanted to ask exactly. We wondered if you would be willing to give us both away, Stoneridge?"

"No one else feels right," Clarissa said. "Uncle Horace… or Cousin Cecil… they're not family in the same way."

A slow smile spread over Sylvester's face as he wrung out a cloth in cold water and gently applied it to Theo's bump. "I should be deeply honored."

"Will you give me away too?" Rosie piped up, brushing sugar dust off her lips. "When the time comes."

"No, I think I'll hang on to you," Sylvester responded dryly, gently smoothing arnica over the bruising. "Save some poor soul from a ghastly fate."

Emily and Clarissa chuckled, and Rosie, unbothered by the teasing, responded matter-of-factly, "Well, I don't particularly expect to marry anyway. I'd have to find someone who's particularly interested in snails and beetles and things. I don't think many men like that kind of thing."

"Oh, the right kind of men turn up in the most unexpected places," Theo said carelessly, reaching up to grasp Sylvester's wrist. "And from the most unexpected families."

"Even Gilbraiths," he said with a smile.

"You're no Gilbraith," Theo stated. "You must have been a changeling."

"Theo, my dear, whatever's happened to you? Foster said you're hurt." Elinor entered the room with a most unusual haste, her customary composure vanished.

"She fell in front of a passing carriage," Rosie informed her mother. "At least that's what Theo said. Stoneridge didn't say anything."