Page 83 of Lord Appleby's Gorgeous Imposter
“A week.”
“Very well. A week.”
“Or two?”
He laughed. “Two!”
“Wonderful! By then you will be very bored with just me and ready to greet your friends.”
He clamped her closer. “I have a few things I wish to teach you that are far from boring.”
Her eyes sparkled with interest. “Begin now, my darling. I love you, and I promise to be a good student.”
Chapter Seventeen
The things TateCantrell taught Viv about love had as much to do with erotic delights of the flesh as they did the tenderness of the heart. They required only the intimacy of a great room in their cozy cottage with a fire blazing and baskets of bread, fresh vegetables, and a stout roast of beef delivered now and then.
Tate learned his new wife was adept at cooking in a fireplace. Viv learned that her husband was a fine hand at washing dishes—and at sweeping her up into his arms and taking her to their little bed after lunch, dinner, and sometimes in between.
As when they were young, she beat him at chess. He beat her at cards. “You really are quite awful,” he told her. After that, she rose, hands on her hips, removed every stitch of clothing she wore, and led him, awestruck, to their bed.
“I think we will play cards every day, wife.” He laughed.
To which she rolled over him and teased and fondled him so unmercifully, he was too breathless to make love to her again.
*
With their twoweeks gone, they reluctantly left their cottage and returned to London.
There, their life became more regular. Though for another week they did not rouse from their bedroom until well after noon, they set about creating their place in the town. Theyannounced their wedding formally with cards to friends and neighbors. The announcement appeared in theTimes. They called upon distant relatives of Tate’s, then made their calls upon Scarlett Hawthorne in her offices in the city, and the Ashleys and Ramseys, each couple at their home.
Their visits were short, meant as courtesy calls only, and so in mid-July, Viv and Tate sent out an invitation to their first dinner party as husband and wife. Lady Ashley had given birth in May and still recovered. Lady Ramsey was great with child and was very selective about which events she attended in Society because she lacked stamina.
Viv liked Augustine, Lady Ashley, and Amber, Lady Ramsey, very much, and took recommendations from them for a modiste and a hatter. Viv had no need for new staff, except for a new cook and a lady’s maid for herself. Augustine had a good suggestion for an agency to hire new servants. Amber proclaimed she was no help at all for a cook.
“I find no one who can please me,” she told Viv with a smile. “I prefer to shoo them out of my kitchen and do it myself. Ram is horrified. So is my mother-in-law and my grandmother-in-law, but we eat well, don’t we, darling?”
The man rolled his large, dark eyes and proclaimed, “I do not argue with my wife, especially when she wants to cook dinner!”
After dinner, Viv had a moment alone with Augustine and Amber when the men retired for brandy.
They sat on either side of Viv on a settee. Augustine took her hand. “We have heard what you faced in Paris. I am glad our Aunt Cecily was helpful to you.”
Amber was more solemn, with tears in her eyes. “I want you to know that it is very difficult for me to speak of what happened in Carmes in any detail. I doubt I ever will be able to. But I want you to be very, very proud of Diane. I know nothing of how your sister died. But I do know how she lived. She was a noble girl,joyous and bright. Irrepressible with herjoie de vivre. She lifted everyone’s spirits and demanded fair treatment and humane consideration for all of us. She suffered for that. The guards and the concierge could not allow her to win. They tried to beat it out of her and failed. Time after time, they could not discourage her, and so she was one day taken away for her demand that one young woman receive her own daily bread.”
Viv could not control the sobs that shook her. All three women sat together and cried.
“I thank you both for this,” she said at last. “I am proud of Diane. She was the best of all.”
“You,” said Augustine, “were brave to face Paris and learn what happened to her.”
“I had to. I felt guilty for many years that I had not gotten out of the carriage and chased after her.”
“You could not have done that,” Amber said. “Face it. Tate could not do that. I doubt anyone could do it. René Vaillancourt knew what he was about. Few can defeat him.”
“Ramsey did,” Augustine said with a smile.
“And Ashley,” Amber said around her grin.
