Chapter Thirty-Nine

N ick couldn't help but cast Pippa a smile. And when she caught his pleased look, she gasped and covered her heart with both hands. Tears filled her eyes.

"It worked," Lance whispered. He blinked repeatedly as if he struggled to focus, but that was normal. Then, he trailed his hand along the soft waves of Isabel's hair. He reached out, his hands trembling in awe, and cupped her face. He laid his hand on her cheek, where the pigment blemish was, and he brushed his thumb over it as if it was just another part of Isabel that he admired and loved. Nick wasn't sure if he could see it, or if he cared at all. If Nick hadn't been able to see Pippa for years and could suddenly see her, no matter how blurry, he'd kiss her senseless, and there would be no blemish in the world that could stop him.

"Isabel…" Lance began, his voice choked with emotion. "My love." No time for further conversation. He kissed her with an urgency that needed no additional explanation.

A collective sigh filled the room, a mix of relief and joy. Andre and Felix, standing by the door, exhaled deeply, their faces breaking into relieved smiles. Even when Andre breathed, his accent danced elegantly on his lips and attracted the girls' attention. Understanding the intimacy of the moment, Alfie subtly gestured to Nick, indicating it was time for them to leave the couple alone.

But Nick had already understood.

He stepped away from Lance, whose lips had found Isabel's. She let out a sigh of relief, and Nick's heart swelled with satisfaction as he shut the door behind him, leaving Lance and Isabel alone. As odd as it was, after years of marriage, Lance needed to get to know his wife. He'd seen her for the first time.

Nick had done it. He had given Lance his vision back. It was like a huge weight he didn't know he was carrying—or maybe he did—lifted from him, leaving him light and full of joy. That joy only increased as he stepped out into the hallway, he found Pippa still waiting, her eyes wide with anticipation. "We did it, Pippa," he said softly, his triumphant sounding in his voice. "We did it."

"You did it," she responded. "It was all you, Nick."

Wendy squealed with joy, and Alfie rubbed Nick's back appreciatively. "The best oculist ever."

And in the hall, Felix, Andre, Wendy, and Alfie stopped. They stared at Pippa and Nick, the next couple in the room that needed rescuing. Unbeknownst to Nick, he'd taken Pippa's hand. All eyes were on them. But he didn't care, and he squeezed it gently. Lance had his lovely wife and Nick had Pippa—and he'd do anything to make her his wife. And, Nick humbly admitted to himself, he had much to learn from Lance in how to fight for love.

As if she'd been privy to his thoughts, she formed an o with her lips and blinked at him and then looked into the round eyes of the others. The world around them faded away, leaving only the doctors from 87 Harley Street standing together as if they'd been called to organize a putsch to bring their Lady Philippa Pemberton into their little family. It was a moment of profound joy, a testament to the power of love, resilience, and the will to succeed.

*

"You performed a miracle," Pippa said in awe. She said it to all of them, but then she looked at Nick, and her insides hurt. She knew she needed a miracle, not a medical one, but one for matters of the heart.

"It's the same operation I've done a thousand times," Nick said humbly, but Felix and Alfie huffed.

"You did well; it was a long and difficult surgery."

Wendy squealed with joy. "Oh, can you imagine their happiness? He can finally see his wife!" She twirled around the landing and down the two top stairs, holding the railing like an opera singer performing a grand declaration of love. She was quite the romantic. As usual.

"So, what now?" Andre asked, leaning against the railing.

"Now it's Operation Nick and Pippa," Alfie said. "I have everything ready downstairs."

Pippa searched Nick's eyes. "Are you sure you still want to risk everything just to be with me?"

Nick frowned and gave her a puzzled look. "How could you ever doubt my love?"

A man's feigned moan came from the staircase. "Oh, drat! Another one bites the dust." Andre turned and waved as he walked down the stairs. For someone who had conquered so many hearts, he was surprisingly resistant to romance. "Let me know when and where to show up for the wedding. I can't watch all this tender love, it makes me—"

"It just makes you realize what you're missing," Felix called after him, following down the stairs. Felix had once loved and lost but never given up hope to find her again. He waited for the return of his beloved Maisie but that was another story.

"You do-a too much-a missing!" Andre said playfully to Felix in his Italian-enunciated manner of speaking.

"That's not even a sentence!" Felix called out before his voice became indiscernible. There was a story about the love Felix had lost and the woman he missed, but Pippa didn't know the details. Not yet.

"So, how do we get your father in the same room with Nick?" Alfie asked, the last spectator who remained in the hall with Pippa and Nick.

"And how do we get a few doses of ipecac and charcoal in his system before then?" Nick asked.

She grinned. "The plan's already in motion."

Pippa was overcome with emotion; so much had happened. In less than twenty-four hours, she'd been threatened with her mother's machete, run away from home, taken Isabel to the Langleys, and hatched a plan for her future, but truth be told, she didn't know how to go about any of it. A little voice in the back of her mind told her that none of it might come to fruition. She knew how easily a carefully nurtured plant could not bear fruit in one year. It happened all the time. And if her plans didn't work, she'd be alive but stuck, like a bare little fruitless shrub.

"I need the plans to work," she whispered to Nick, who'd wrapped his arms around her warmly. He just held her in the hall. All the rules of the Ton didn't apply here; matters of the heart took precedence, except that the Ton threatened Nick and the practice. If Pippa's plan didn't work, they would lose their livelihood.

"The Earl of Langley will help me, and I have nothing to lose at the Ton. The Langleys will throw a ball and we are the guests of honor."

"You dread balls," Nick said.

"I can weather a ball if it means being able to marry you. But are you certain you want to risk everything for me by announcing our engagement?" Pippa asked.

Nick disentangled himself from her and tilted his head toward hers. "I'd risk everything for you, Pippa. I already did."

Her heart swelled. "I love you, Nick. So much! But I'm—"

He placed a gentle finger on her lips. "I love you, too." And then his mouth took the place of his finger.

And just so, Pippa's whole body soared with love for him. And need.

She opened her mouth, but it was nothing compared to her heart.

"I don't even know where to go."

"What do you mean?" They spoke into each other's mouths.

"I ran away from home."

"So, you come live with me."

"I cannot live here with you, Nick. And you mustn't lose the respect of your noble patients by keeping me here without my father's consent. I'd be in the way of your success, Nick."

"You're never in the way as long as you are with me."

"Nick, I cannot just move in here. We're not even married."

"So, we get married." He stepped back. "Come with me."

"I cannot elope, Nick. It will only fuel the damage Mr. Matthews and his daughter can do to your practice."

Nick laughed. "I'm not suggesting we elope. It's still my intention to request your father's blessing." He took her hand and led her up a flight of stairs.

When he turned the knob of a humble wooden door, Pippa realized that this was his bedchamber. It was small, with a bed centered against a wall and a window facing the alley. The room was neat, but the bookcase was overstuffed. An armoire in the corner, smaller than Pippa's hat wardrobe, probably held all his clothes.

She stood in the room momentarily, and Nick closed the door. He walked to the armoire, turned the key, and opened the double door with a screech. He retrieved a box from a drawer at the bottom of the little armoire. And from the box, a small velvet pouch.

Then he approached her again.

"Pippa, I'd like to offer you my mother's ring." He untied the little pouch, and Pippa saw that the velvet had rubbed off the sides. "It's the only jewelry she ever had and is probably not worth very much."

Pippa's breath caught in her throat. Nick took out a plain gold ring with a single round diamond on six prongs.

"This is a diamond," Pippa said. "Your family heirloom?"

Nick nodded. "I was always meant to give it to my wife someday. It's old; it belonged to my father's mother and then to my mother."

"I'd be honored to care for it and look after it in custody for your family until we pass it on to our son." Nick's eyes locked with hers. "I've never meant anything more earnestly, Nick. I love you from the bottom of my heart, and if you'll have me, I'd like nothing more than to spend the rest of my life trying to live up to the goodness in your…" But then she choked, and tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Pippa, what's the matter?" Nick brushed the tears off her cheeks with the balls of his thumbs.

"I wish you could have met my mother. She wouldn't have let any of this happen. She would have welcomed you into the family as a person without regard for anybody's station and she would have loved you because you love me exactly as I am."

His eyes softened. "I'm sure you're right, Pippa. I don't care about society, Pippa. I only care about you."

She nodded, unable to speak. "Then I'll go back to scheme with the Langleys later?"

Nick gently took her hand and pushed the ring onto her finger. It fit perfectly. It was old fashioned but classic, with an innate beauty only a natural diamond could possess.

"It's beautiful, Nick. I'll try to honor it." She held her hand out and regarded the ring and the way it fit her finger and shimmered in the light.

Nick watched her with hungry eyes.

After all, she stood in his room, wearing his family's heirloom as an engagement ring. And they'd done more than declare their love already.

Pippa reveled in Nick's intense gaze on her hand and brought it to her bodice. She unhooked the first, second, third, and then all the hooks. Pippa felt a little like a blossom emerging from the sepals when her dress split in the middle and fell off her shoulders.

Her décolletage was exposed, and Nick bent down to kiss her collarbone. Then lower.

"You are so beautiful, Pippa."

She tilted her head back, and Nick's hands came to the back of her head, supporting her. He kissed her neck and returned to her jawline and then her mouth.

Pippa melted into his embrace and gave herself over, for the feeling was so strong that it made no sense to resist. She was his and wanted nothing more than for him to devour her.

She unbuttoned his shirt, and he stepped backward, another step and another until his legs touched the bed.

"I'm afraid my bed is not as comfortable as yours," Nick said when Pippa pulled her fingers over his strong shoulders and peeled off his shirt. She kissed the broad expanse of his chest, and her hand drove along his body.

Nick unbuttoned his breeches and gave her access. She inserted her hands in the waistband and pushed his breeches down along with his underthings while he unwrapped her from the day dress she'd borrowed from Violet along with the sinful undergarments Violet possessed these days.

They let the fabric pool on the floor, and Pippa was in front of him in only her corset, garters, and stockings. Then, she unlaced the corset and dropped it on the floor.

Nick turned her around and pulled her stockings off one by one, replacing the warmth of the sheer fabric with the heat of his kisses. When Pippa was in the nude, Nick lay her on the bed. The linens were cool and crisp, plain white cotton. They'd serve their purpose wonderfully.

Pippa nestled into the sheets, and Nick bent over her, unhooking each garter and rolling it down her thigh, over her knee, and then off her foot. Then the other.

He kissed her belly as he pulled the garter off.

"Are you keeping these on?" Nick nudged the bridge of her glasses.

She beamed at him. "You gave me the gift of sight but the even greater one is looking at you."

Then he climbed into bed and lay on her. The length of his manhood pressed onto Pippa's center.

"I want to feel you," Pippa said hoarsely, driving her hands through his hair. Her hand, with his family heirloom diamond ring, looked grown up. And she felt different. She'd blossomed and was ready to fight for love.

But first, she'd make love.