and for me to at last be able to take my vengeance on her. But the vengeance was flat and stale, like bread left too many days, tasteless and unpalatable.
'What must we do?' I asked Denis.
'We go to the Court of Doctors' Commons and begin with the separation. Then we go to the Common Law court with the trial for adultery.'
I saw Carlotta wince. A naturally shy woman, the thought of standing in open court while a charge of adultery was read out would be a horrifying experience for her. I could not imagine that Auberge would be any happier with it.
'No,' I said.
Denis glanced at me. If he felt surprise, nothing showed on his damnably blank face. 'She has had children with this man while still being married to you, so there will be no question of her guilt.'
Carlotta's gaze became fixed to the floor.
'There must be another way,' I said. 'Annulment. I will claim to be insane; half of London thinks it anyway.'
Denis did not smile. 'You must be proved to be legally insane, in any case. You have said that you are not impotent, nor have you ever been. Perhaps you could find a way to prove that you and she are too closely related?'
'No.' Carlotta looked up, her face white. 'I know we are not. My father tried to prove that when he discovered I'd married Gabriel. He failed.'
I hadn't known that. So, her father had tried to have our marriage annulled? Carlotta had never mentioned this interesting fact. My annoyance stirred, but I made a 'there you have it' gesture.
'Annulment also would mean that any children of your marriage would be declared illegitimate,' Denis said.
'That is out of the question,' I said quickly.
'Another alternative,' Denis continued in his monotone, 'is to send Mrs. Lacey and Major Auberge back to France, and declare Mrs. Lacey missing and presumed dead. She will live out her life as Madame Auberge and no one will be the wiser.'
'Unless someone, like you, discovers her again,' I said.
'If you and Major Auberge cooperate with me, I could erase any trail to her. Mrs. Lacey would, to the world, be dead. You might even inscribe a headstone,' he finished, with chill humor, glancing at me.
The idea tempted me. To simply send Carlotta away, to tell the world she'd died in France, would be the simplest route, for her and for me.
Uneasiness pricked me. I pictured myself ten years hence, happily married to Donata Breckenridge-that is, if she did not turn me away over this business-and having some busybody announcing to her that the first Mrs. Lacey was still alive and well. I would be arrested as a bigamist, Donata humiliated.
'I dislike that solution,' I said. 'Though I realize it is likely easiest. But there is more here at stake than our marriage.' I looked at Carlotta. 'I want Gabriella. I do not want her to disappear with you, never to be seen again. I want her to stay in England with me.'
Carlotta looked up swiftly. 'No.'
'She is my daughter.'
She gave me a desperate look. 'She is my daughter. I will not let you take her away from me.'
My anger rose. 'You had no qualms taking her away from me. I am her legal guardian, Carlotta, not you. I decide her fate, not you.'
'She does not even know you are her father,' Carlotta said hotly. 'She believes that Henri is.'
'I gathered that,' I said. 'It does not matter what you told her, the fact is that I am her father, and by law, you have no right to her.'
'You would take her?' Carlotta began to cry, tears pooling on her cheeks. 'You would do such a thing? Take her away from her mother and the father she knows and her brothers and sisters?'
My hand closed on my walking stick. 'Of course I do not mean to rip her from the bosom of her family. I am certain she has affection for all of you. But neither do I intend to let you shut her away from me. She is mine, and I claim her. If that means I do have to drag you through every court in England to get her away from you, I will.'
'And I will fight you,' Auberge said quietly, 'if you do.'
'You have no rights at all,' I told him. 'You stole my wife and my child, and left me nothing. I find that your threats do not concern me.'
'I was driven away,' Carlotta choked out.
'That does not matter,' I said. 'I would have let you go, because I know that in the end you hated me. But you should have left Gabriella.'
'Abandon my child?'
' My child,' I said savagely. 'But you cared nothing for that.'
She balled her fists. 'Was I to leave her to your horrible life following the drum? With mud and filth and sour food and the danger of being massacred at any time? What sort of life was that for a child?'
'I might have given up the army and taken her home to England. But you never gave me the chance.'
'You had no intention of living in England. You hated it. You loved the army. I remember.'
I could not argue this point. In England, I had my father's house to return to with my martinet father in it. I would rather submit a child to the dangers of army life than to my father and his insane rages.
'Louisa Brandon would have looked after her-gladly,' I said.
Carlotta shot me a look of pure hatred. 'Mrs. Brandon. Always Mrs. Brandon.'
'Please,' Auberge broke in. He looked at me in anguish. 'Please stop.'
I closed my mouth in a firm line. Carlotta collapsed back on the sofa, sobbing, her hands pressed to her face.
Denis had sat through the exchange impassively, watching us without expression. He must have been used to listening to histrionics, especially when called upon to dispense his own form of justice.
'I am afraid that Captain Lacey is right,' he said in his dispassionate tone. 'He is Miss Lacey's legal guardian, no matter what you, Madame and Monsieur, or even Miss Lacey herself, feel about the matter. I am certain we can come to some sort of arrangement after the marriage has been dissolved.'
Carlotta continued to cry. Auberge sat like a miserable lump next to her. My heart burned. They had wronged me, but I could not help but let Carlotta's pathos touch me. She had never been a strong woman, and from the look of things, she'd leaned heavily on Auberge throughout the years. Now Auberge was at a loss, and Carlotta could not master herself.
Denis moved the papers aside again and nodded to his stolid footman, who'd said not a word or moved during the entire encounter. He was no doubt used to histrionics as well.
'I will have the solicitor begin the a mensa et thoro proceeding at the very least,' Denis said. 'You need do nothing for now, Mrs. Lacey, but wait in your boardinghouse for my instruction. I know enough people in the right places to make this as painless as possible.'
I had no doubt. He would call in favors all over London from men too terrified of him to disobey.
Auberge rose. He gently took Carlotta's elbow and pulled her to her feet. 'We will go now. Come.'
Carlotta wiped her hand over her face. Her cheeks were smeared with tears, her eyes bright red, her nose swollen. She was not a pretty woman, I realized. What I'd been smitten with as a lad of twenty had been young limbs, a shy smile, and large eyes.
Auberge, however, looked at her with a tenderness that said he did not care a fig what she looked like. He loved her, doubtless more than I ever had.
The footman gestured Auberge and Carlotta out of the room. They went, Carlotta clinging heavily to Auberge's arm. When I tried to follow, the footman blocked my path to the door, which made me know that Denis had instructed him beforehand not to let me leave.
'I do not like this,' I said, once the door had closed behind them. 'And I do not like your offer to foot the bill.'
Denis shrugged. 'You want this divorce.'
'You may think nothing of destroying a woman for gain, but I must have compassion for her. If not for
