Page 61 of Lord Appleby's Gorgeous Imposter
“I do.”
She rounded on Tate with wide eyes. She could not imagine how he’d know. “Tell me.”
“A friend of mine is acquainted with a lady who was in Carmes.”
“The prison?” she whispered in awe.
“Yes.”
Viv blinked. A memory crossed her mind, and so did anger—and she quickly defined why she was agitated. “Charmaine hadonce talked about a Paris prison near Saint Germain where she thought Diane might have been sent. I always wondered why she would think that.”
“Perhaps she had heard much about the place,” Tate offered.
A hand to her mouth, Viv made an ugly sound. “Or she knew Diane had gone there.”
Tate could only stare back at her, sorrow in his gaze.
“And this lady who was in Carmes? Who is she? Can we speak to her?”
“The English Countess Nugent, Cecily Struthers-Sumner. Well known to Society.”
“The woman who was mistress to the old Duc d’Orleans, the liberal Bourbon prince who was guillotined?” Viv asked.
“You have heard of her, then?”
“Who has not? The duke was one my father knew and worked with. I had no idea the countess still lived in Paris.”
“She does. A close friend now of Josephine Bonaparte. Both of them survived a sentence in Carmes.”
Viv could not catch her breath. “I must call on her.”
Tate stood and took two strides to take her in his arms. “I will go with you.”
*
Late that afternoon,Tate saw Viv to her home in the same unmarked old carriage they had used to go to Passy. They had agreed on a few things. First, he would talk with his friend Ramsey and ask for an introduction to the infamous Countess Nugent, then write to ask for an audience with her.
While they waited for the woman’s response, Viv agreed to prepare to leave Paris. She would order her household staff to begin to close the house. She would also order Alice to return home tomorrow, and take little Louis with her. Viv told the maidshe must not go to visit Charmaine, but take rooms in London to await her mistress’s return. She gave her an address of a small hotel near the city, respectable and quiet. Alice would want to wait for Viv to travel with her, but Viv had no idea when or if she could meet with Countess Nugent. The maid and Louis were to go. Tonight, however, Alice and another upstairs maid would pack Viv’s trunks and the majordom would make arrangements to send them via barge toward London. The address they were to be sent to was Tate’s house in Berkeley Square.
“I will perform tonight,” she told him as the carriage stopped behind her house. “This is too late to cancel. After this performance, I give my notice. Come here when you know more about when we might meet with the countess.”
He kissed her to seal their agreement. “Have a valise ready and sew your passport into your clothes.”
“Into the hem of my shift.”Like I did more than a decade ago.“I will.”
“I will call for you tonight at the close of the play.”
She beamed at him, the novel security of being with him enveloping her. “Thank you. You will stay the night with me, I hope. I do not wish to lose you now that we have found each other again.”
“Never worry,” he whispered. “We are one; the world is right. That will not change.”
Chapter Thirteen
Tate ordered hiscoachman to Ramsey’s house in rue d’Orleans. But Ram’s staff were in an uproar.
“We are dispersing, Monsieur Appleby.” His majordom looked exasperated. His hair was on end, his cravat a simple mess. “My master has told me to close the house.”
“Do you have any idea where he is?”
