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Theo felt herself relax. “Do you think it will take you long to win over my brother?” she asked arching her eyebrows.

Clem laughed again. “He thinks I’m a boorish philistine and will no doubt be appalled that I’ve carried off his sister and mean to muscle in on his theatre.”

Theo smiled automatically. He spoke nothing but the truth. It was gallant of him to make mention of her before the theatre in his list of acquisitions though. Gallant, but unnecessary. She did not want him to start thinking she was some deluded little fool with her head in the clouds.

“Clem—” she started awkwardly, but the hackney lurched at this instant, and she jolted violently and would have tumbled off his lap altogether if his arms had not closed about her like steel bands.

“Pothole,” he murmured against her ear, for her bonnet had been knocked quite crooked. “Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”

Theo blinked down at him. “I’m not worried,” she said simply.

“Aren’t you?” He gazed back at her. “Not even a little bit?” She shook her head, and a faint frown marred his brow. “Well, maybe you should be.”

“Why?”

He gave her a very level look. “You’re taking a man home with you, Theodora. You ever done that before?”

“Of course, I haven’t.”

“Well, your family is going to judge you on the manner of man you chose. They’re going to be shocked as hell you spent a night with me and even more shocked that you gave me your hand in marriage.” She opened her mouth, but he didn’t let her get the words out.

“They’re also going to be pissed that you’ve given me sway in the family business and they’re going to give vent to those feelings. Maybe not right away, with me stood by your side, but they’re going to say things.” He hesitated. “Ugly things. They’re going to try and convince you that you’ve made a bad bargain taking me for a husband, Dora.”

“Well, I’ve been ‘pissed’ as you call it, for a whole month and a half with them by this point,” Theo pointed out with spirit, “so I don’t much care about their opinion on the matter!” Clem made a sound in his throat which sounded like half laugh, half snort. “And why do you keep saying ‘my family’ in any case? It is only Felix at home these days since my sister has eloped.”

“Did you not say Allsop is like a sort of cousin?” he asked in a suddenly silky voice.

To her annoyance, Theo felt herself color up. “Yes of course,” she agreed,” but Harold really does not count, for he is on our side.” Clem’s face registered extreme skepticism. “It is true!” she insisted.

Clem’s gaze slid from her face, and he shrugged. “If you say so.”

“I do say it!”

“And I said that is fine,” he replied smoothly but somehow Theo did not quite believe him. Ah well, when he met Harold, he would soon see what a dear he was.

The rest of the journey seemed to take twice as long as usual, as it was so cramped and uncomfortable. When they finally pulled up at the familiar frontage of her family home, Theo breathed a sigh of relief. She started to clamber down from Clem’s lap, but he tightened his grip on her, holding her in place. “I want you to remember what I said, Dora,” he said in a low voice. “Remember how we entered into this, as equal partners. Don’t let anyone tell you you’re a fool.”

She patted his shoulder. “You need not be concerned for me, Clem,” she assured him. “Just let me do the talking and don’t let Felix’s bluster concern you. It is all just sound and air.” A curious expression passed over Clem’s face, but she forged on with what she wanted to say. “Just promise me you won’t let any empty words offend you,” she added, “for they certainly won’t me. If Felix calls me a gullible idiot, or even a batty old maid, it really will not bother me.”

“Maybe it won’t you, but it will me,” Clem responded with alacrity. “You cannot expect me to stand idly by while someone insults my wife, Dora.”

Theo felt a momentary panic. “Clem, he’s my brother, please do not punch him.”

The tenseness left his shoulders at once. “Dora, my sweet, he’s half my size, you really think I’d go toe-to-toe with him?”

She let out a relieved breath. “For a minute I confess it did enter my head—”

“’Ere, you lot gettin’ out or wot?” called down the indignant cabbie. “Only, I ain’t got all bleedin’ day to ‘ang around!”

Clem released his hold on her waist and Theo scrambled down from the cab, dislodging one of the cases in her awkward descent. She had only just retrieved it when Clem extricated himself from the hackney with athletic grace and dragged the other cases out. “Leave that there,” he said. “Do you have a latch-key?”

Theo was just fishing around in her bag when the cab pulled away and the front door opened. Felix stood on the threshold, clearly in the grip of some deep emotion. He came striding out of the house without his coat or shoes and hurried down the front path in his stockinged feet.

“Him?” he shouted accusingly. “This is who you’ve been consorting with this past month? Dabney?”

“Consorting?” Theo echoed in surprise. She would have sworn Felix had been wholly oblivious to her every move.

“Allsop finally told me you had a-a cicisbeo in the early hours of this morning. After we sat up all night fruitlessly waiting for you to return, I might add!” he said bitterly. “I could scarcely believe you were capable of such folly! Even so, it never once entered my head that you could have taken up with this … this …” Words clearly failed him at this point.