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here.”
    As she hurried up the stairs he stared after her. She was
right to be afraid. Lady North had the money and the influence to disrupt his
plans. Wednesday next was not going to be soon enough.
    He rang the bell and a maid appeared. “Can a messenger be
sent for me?”
    “Of course, sir. What message?” The woman was very young and
sly-looking. But perhaps Perry was getting suspicious due to the circumstances.
    “I would like my man of business to meet me here. Can
someone fetch him for me?” He placed a coin in the maid’s hand.
    She bobbed a curtsy and sped out of the room. Yes, Jaimison
would have to roust up the priest and the brother for an early wedding. Lady
North would waste no time in blocking any marriage that might lead to Sarah’s
happiness. The woman had viciously spread the gossip the Duke of Kent had
begun, even though the truth was well known to her.
    Forty minutes later Jaimison appeared, his face flushed and
his reddish hair tousled. “What has happened?”
    “Lady North.”
    Jaimison’s eyes narrowed and he nodded. “What’s to be done
then?”
    “Sarah is to go to Madame de Laval’s.”
    After everything Jaimison had seen in the years he’d dragged
Perry out of brothels and dens of iniquity, apparently he could still be
shocked. “But she—”
    “She is eminently respectable these days,” Perry said,
amused. “Her harrowing experience in a French prison as a child during the
Terror and her manuscripts on the subject have made her something of a
personage in the ton.”
    “Her escapades since then too, I imagine.” Jaimison had regained
his composure and his tone was dry.
    “There is more to her than that.” Perry had met the woman in
a brief, mysterious encounter that had haunted him. But soon after their
meeting she had left England for the wilds of Mother Russia. She was
unconventional but an oddity whom the ton seemed to accept. She was an older
lady now and many had forgotten her scandals and improprieties. The ton had
forgotten that she had been divorced and disgraced by her husband. Now they only
remembered her tragic past of French terror and tyranny.
    “I hope you know what you are doing.” Jaimison gazed at Perry
with a concerned expression.
    “So do I. Take this around to Madame de Laval. Use my horse.
You brought my carriage, I hope?” He handed Jaimison a brief note. Madame
Louise de Laval did not need many words.
    “I did. Does Sarah know where she’s going?”
    “Not yet. I’m sure she will object. But Madame’s
questionable residence is infinitely better than the infamous Wolford House.”
    “True.” Jaimison frowned. “Your nuptials will not wait.”
    “No.” Perry sighed. “She will hate me all the more. You’ll
have to get the priest and I’ll get her brother. Though I think he may be aware
already, if I know Lady Marion North.”
    Jaimison clapped Perry on the shoulder and left without
another word. Five minutes later Sarah appeared with a small bag and a hatbox. That
was all.
    Her meager possessions, so neatly packed, almost broke his
heart. She deserved so much more and he hoped to provide it. The question was
whether he would survive his own wedding night once she learned of their
destination and his plans.
    * * * * *
    “Madame de Laval?” Sarah almost shrieked the name. In the
confines of the carriage she sounded shrill and tried to moderate her tone. “The
woman is divorced.”
    “The woman is in her forties and accepted by the ton.” He
didn’t mention that Madame de Laval flouted many traditions still, as Sarah was
well aware, though only in private. The ton looked the other way because Madame
de Laval had two important things—money and beauty.
    “Accepted but not approved,” Sarah said primly. She knew she
was being stubborn. Her knowledge of Madame Louise de Laval was only what she had
heard as a debutante. Shockingly unconventional, Madame attended the galas and
stole every available man without lifting a finger. She was