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I hope this finds you as happily in love as ever. I think of you often, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it was worth it for you to go through so much pain and trouble, if it brought you finally to the man you love so much.
Although I’m sure the two of you wish to be alone, I fear you will have a visitor toward the end of your stay at thecottage. It is our ‘MadameVallencourt.’ She has gotten herself into some sort of trouble in London, and she will have need of her cottage for a while to hide in.
Come home soon. I miss you.
Love,
Hermie
P.S. You will find your father much improved when you come home. He has been taking exercise, and we go out for brief walks every day. His usual vigor and zest for life appear to be returning, I’m happy to say.
Within a day of Lady Josephine’s receiving Lady Hermione’s letter, Madame arrived. Lady Josephine was glad that she didn’t walk in on them by surprise and interrupt their lovemaking.
“Bonjour!” Madame called out as she entered her cottage. “Oh, there you are,mes enfants. I fear I amde trop,as the French say—I will be in your way.”
Ace and Lady Josephine hastened to assure her that they were happy to see her.
“C’est dommage,I will have to abandon my Knightsbridge shop.... Oh, damn it,” she said in her true London voice, “I have to get rid of this fake French accent. It’s causing me a heap of trouble.”
Lady Josephine asked her what happened. “The shop was so successful!” she recalled.
“Yes, but it’s practically become a crime to be French in England these days, what with Napoleon’s antics. The other night, some vandals broke my shop windows and spread filth all over the place. They wrote ‘Down with the French!’ all over my walls.”
“That’s terrible!” Lady Josephine exclaimed. “But what will you do now, Mrs. … Brown?”
“That’s ‘Miss Brown,’” the woman corrected her. “I think I will reopen in a different part of London. Maybe even a different city, such as Bath. But this time, I will pose as an impoverished Russian aristocrat, who used to make hats for the Tsarina of all the Russians. What do you think? The Russians are as popular these days as the French are unpopular. I shall have to work up a Russian accent and think of a good Russian name.”
Lady Josephine and Ace laughed heartily. So typical of cheeky Londoners—nothing was going to get Sadie Brown down for long.
The next day, the couple departed for Clover House.
