Page 82 of Lord Appleby's Gorgeous Imposter
He hugged her. “You cannot care.”
Louis sat on his seat opposite and watched them as if he expected a resolution.
“What do you say, Monsieur Louis, if we go to a quiet little house where no one else is about? No butlers, no maids. Only a vicar, his wife, and his oldest son?”
Viv wrapped her fingers around the wealth of Tate’s carefully tied cravat. “You know of such a place?”
“I do. The three wait for us to arrive, and then—”
“They leave?”
“They do.” He nodded. “After you and I are officially, irrevocably married.”
“You arranged this,” she said in awe.
“I did.”
“Yesterday?”
“After breakfast and my visit to obtain our marriage license, yes.”
“You are a wonder, Tate Cantrell. All my life, it seems, you have been there to grace me with the necessities of life—a cottage, a bit of money, a plot of land, two chickens to start my hutch. After that it was your friendship you gave, and lately your assistance.”
He traced the arch of her cheek. “And my criticism.”
“Justly so, too.” She glanced out the window. “I was not cut out to exact revenge—only to learn, if I could, what had happened to Diane.”
“And you did that.”
“Astonishing, isn’t it, that the scullery maid is still alive and was willing to speak to me? More surprising still that Vaillancourt told me what he did.”
Viv paused a moment, then turned to him. “Charmaine paid Jocelyn Gatel to influence Vaillancourt. He took advantage of the situation and told Gatel to get Charmaine to pay him, and he would do her bidding and kidnap Diane. He told them he wanted to learn where our father was. Whether Papa was captured because of anything Diane told them is something we will never know. But I doubt she said a word.”
She took a breath. “But Vaillancourt’s men caught Diane and sent her to Carmes. There, she—God love her—was her noble self and helped others. Standing up for those who could not help themselves, Diane made a reputation that the guards could not allow her to sustain. One day when another young woman was to be starved, Diane gave the girl her own food and the guards would have no more of her insubordination. They took her away and killed her.”
Tate held Viv against him, her tale draining her of all movement. Long minutes later, she stirred. “But the story does not end there.” She caught Tate’s gaze and held it. “Vaillancourt was not satisfied with Charmaine’s so-called payment. Two gold Louis, it was. Pitiful.” She scoffed. “How or when, Vaillancourt did not say, but he made Charmaine serve him as an agent in London.”
Tate could not say he was surprised. Scarlett Hawthorne had spoken often of those émigrés in London and Edinburgh who frequented drawing rooms where delicate political andeconomic news was often shared. Scarlett, as well as those in the Home Office, suspected many of espionage. “Is that why he had his men arrest you?”
“Yes. He meant to put Charmaine away, I do believe. Would he accuse her of dereliction of duty, perhaps? Or acting as a double agent?”
“Joseph Fouché puts people away on less evidence,” Tate said. “But Vaillancourt did not have the chance to take you away.”
“No.” She kissed him with a merry grin. “He did not. You were there. You are always there for me. Oh, that I may return the honor—”
“You owe me nothing, Viv.”
She cupped his cheek. “But I will give to you all that I am, for all my days and beyond. I love you, Tate Cantrell. I have for many, many years. I would have loved to marry you when I was sixteen. Would have loved to comfort you when you were treated so poorly by your father. But now I have the opportunity to give you all the love I bore for you then, and bear for you now, and want to share with you for all our lives.”
He kissed her then with a fierce joy that he had never before felt.
“I love you,” she whispered, and kissed him with all the caring she had held for him and had never been able to show him.
Many kisses later, Tate sat back. “So then, my darling, may I assume you like the idea of marrying me this afternoon?”
She grinned, put her hand around his nape, and sank her fingers into his silken hair. “I do. I do indeed! How do you perceive such things?”
He kissed her again. “I thought after that, we would stay in our cocoon for a few days.”
