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probably. I wish I knew where Theo was.”
    Emily wasn’t the only one wishing that. In the parlor Elinor was listening to the earl’s succinct proposal in stunned silence.
    “I believe such an arrangement will make the transition easier for everyone,” Sylvester said at the end of his explanation. “It will be more comfortable for you in the dower house if one of your daughters lives at Stoneridge Manor. And I will undertake to dower my wife’s sisters.”
    “You are most generous, my lord,” Elinor said faintly, although she felt that the dispassionate tone in which he’d laid out his plans was anything but warm. But he could have no motive other than generosity and some kind of family feeling.
    That was a novel thought—a Gilbraith having family feeling for a Belmont.
    “I take it you agree to my plan, then, ma’am?” Sylvester paced the small room, trying to hide his impatience. Four weeks was a very short time to court and wed, but if the knot wasn’t firmly tied at the end of the month, the true conditions of the earl’s will would be revealed. He needed the absolute support of Lady Belmont from the beginning.
    “Pm not prepared to coerce one of my daughters into marriage, sir,” Elinor said with some asperity.
    “No, of course not. I wasn’t suggesting such a thing,” he said brusquely. “But I would like to feel I had your approval. My intentions are, after all, of the most honorable.”
    And so they were in all essentials, he quieted his conscience.
    Elinor was silent for a minute, regarding her visitor gravely. His cool gray eyes returned her scrutiny without flickering. There was a restlessness, a pent-up tension in the man, almost like an aura. And something else … some pain, she thought, deep inside him. He had the Gilbraith looks—lean features, strong jaw, well-shaped mouth, and the physique of an athlete … a man who took care of himself.
    Elinor realized as she took inventory that she was responding to Sylvester Gilbraith as a man—a fiercely attractive man, despite the scar. When had she last recognized a man’s sexual attraction? It shocked her and she stood up abruptly, turning her back on her visitor as she pretended to search for something in her desk.
    What kind of husband would he make? Gentle … generous? Not gentle, she decided. Not a husband for Clarissa.
    But maybe for Theo. Theo, who’d twisted the gouty, irascible old earl around her little finger. Theo was not intimidated by strong men; indeed, she would not be happy with anyone who always deferred to her own powerful will. She could well become distinctly shrewish, if her challenges went ignored. Elinor couldn’t suppress a half smile. A shrewish Theo was not to be contemplated.
    And as Lady Stoneridge, she wouldn’t lose her beloved house and estate. The earl’s proposal was not an outlandish suggestion; such marriages were often arranged in entail situations, and the kinship was so distant there could be no bar there.
    But could Theo be brought to accept a hated Gilbraith, even with such powerful inducements?
    Elinor turned back to the earl. He’d taken a seat beside the window during her cogitations, and she was pleased to see that he knew when to curb his impatience.
    “If you wish to press your suit with my daughter Theo, my lord, you have my approval,” she said formally.
    Sylvester frowned. “I had thought to address Lady Clarissa, ma’am. She is the elder, it seems only appropriate.”
    “Maybe so, but you and Clarissa would not suit, sir.”
    Sylvester absorbed this firm statement in frowning silence before saying, “Forgive me, Lady Belmont, but since I haven’t had the honor of meeting Lady Theodora, I don’t know how to answer you.”
    “No, it’s most vexing, I agree,” Elinor said. “But Theo doesn’t bend easily, to my will or anyone else’s. However, you’ll meet her shortly. You’ll find her knowledge of the estate useful to you. She knows more than the bailiff about most matters