Page 70 of Lord Appleby's Gorgeous Imposter
She tipped her head. “We were three blonde women and one redhead.”
“And a man,” Vaillancourt said with distaste. “Cantrell.”
Tate. Yes.
“Always a chivalrous addition to your family, isn’t he?” Vaillancourt rose from his chair and strode to his long board. There he poured liquor from a stoppered decanter into two glasses. He approached her and held out one. “Take it. You will welcome it.”
She accepted the silky crystal, cold as ice between her fingers.
“What else do you want to know, Charmaine?” His visage grew dark, his eyes slitted with evil.
“What happened to Diane?”
He got this odd mix of curiosity and humor on his face. “What do you mean?”
“Your men took her. Where? What did they do with her? Why my darling Diane?”
He burst into laughter. “I must say,” he managed between chuckles, “you always were the most audacious woman. Even at sixteen, you had the guile of a female three times your age. How did your family survive the viper in you?”
Insult for Charmaine was nothing to the insult Viv inferred against her family. “How dare you.”
He strode forward, toe to toe with her. “You came to me, my dear little wasp.”
She shivered as he reached out and traced one fingertip down the arch of her cheek.
She pulled away.
His gaze grew menacing. “You wanted me, but only so far as you could use me to get rid of your sister.”
She went to stone.No, her insides roared in denial. She glared at him.
“Your kisses, so sweet.” He leaned over to whisper, “You thought yourself so divine that I would take those as payment for my service to rid you of Diane. You were surprised when I demanded money. And all you had was two gold Louis! What a self-serving little bitch you were.”
Viv’s anger flared as hot as Charmaine’s would have.
“Your Diane was too pretty for you. Too smart. You wanted to offer me access to your sister as sacrifice for the family.”
Charmaine had been jealous of Diane?Surely not!“If that were true, why hunt my father and bring him back to Paris?”
“If that were true?” It was Vaillancourt’s turn to glare. “If?”
“Yes, why?” She took a step toward him, rage consuming her.
He stared at her. “You can remember hours of dialogue. Yet your memory really is so faulty?”
My memory?Her mouth fell open.
He gloated. Astonishment made his lovely eyes go wide. And then he smiled. Slowly. The look was that of angels frolicking on ceilings in a thousand cathedrals. Such a devil should never look so heavenly.
He took a long, leisurely draught of his liquor, all the while contemplating her as if he saw her for the first time. Then he turned away and walked to his window. “Have you packed togo yet? So many do. You want to be on the road before all the auberge are full, or you will have to sleep in your coach. If you can get one. Have you? Packed? Hired a coach?”
She blinked. He’d changed tone and subject, but she would not follow. “What did you do to Diane?”
He considered her as coolly as if she had asked of the weather. “I sent her to Carmes.”
“That I know,” Viv bit off. “What happened to her?”
“She died there.”
