Highly entertained, Pandora retreated while the children continued to wring information from him . . . yes, he had once seen a mermaid with green hair, singing and sunning herself on a rock. As for buried treasure, well, if he had a chest of gold bullion hidden in a secret location, he certainly wasn’t going to admit to it. Only chowder-headed pirates bragged about their loot. While Dragon kept the children entertained—or perhaps it was the other way around—Pandora decided it was time to find out about her sales.
Squaring her shoulders, she crossed to the other side of the towering Christmas tree . . . and stopped as she saw the long, lean form of her husband, half-sitting, half-leaning against a display table with his legs nonchalantly crossed at the ankles. Gabriel was all aristocratic ease and cool sensuality, the light of the overhead chandeliers seeming to strike sparks in the golden-bronze locks of his hair. His gaze fell upon her, and he smiled slightly, while his winter-blue eyes flickered with a quiet smolder.
From all the fluttering reactions and ecstatic whispering of the ladies shopping nearby, it was a wonder no one had fainted. Pandora approached him with a wry smile. “My lord?”
“I knew you’d be here after your doctor’s appointment. And while I was waiting . . . I heard a rumor about a certain businesswoman whose entire stock of board games sold out in little more than a week.”
Pandora blinked in confusion. “They’re all gone? All five hundred?”
Gabriel stood and stepped away from the table, which was empty except for a placard on a small easel.
The board game of the season,
The Great Department Store Shopping Spree
will be back in stock soon
“I spoke with Winterborne just a few minutes ago,” Gabriel continued. “It pains his mercantile heart not to be able to sell a product that’s in such high demand. He wants more games as soon as your busy little factory can produce them.”
Distractedly Pandora ran through some numbers in her head. “Blast. I’ll have to hire more women, and appoint Ida as the manager.”
“The lady’s maid?”
“Yes, she’s wanted the job for months, and I’ve resisted, but now it’s unavoidable.” Seeing his perplexity, Pandora explained, “Back in September I made a rather barbed comment about how much she likes telling me what to do, and how happy it would probably make her to have an entire crew of women to manage and supervise—and she loved the idea.”
“Why is that a problem?”
Pandora gave him a long-suffering glance. “My hair is straight and slippery and never holds a curl. Ida’s the only one who’s ever been able to arrange it and make it stay. I never expected I’d have to choose between my appalling hair and my business.”
Stepping closer to her, Gabriel nuzzled the upswept locks near her temple. “I love your hair,” he murmured. “It’s like midnight in my hands.”
She twisted away with a stifled laugh. “No, don’t be romantic in the middle of the toy department.”
“It’s not working?”
“It is, that’s the problem.”
Gabriel followed slowly as she skirted around the empty table. “What did Dr. Gibson say about your ear?”
Stopping exactly opposite him, Pandora grinned. “She says it will improve with the right treatment. No more ringing in my ear, or losing my balance, or being afraid of the dark.”
Their gazes met in a moment of shared delight and triumph. Before Pandora could move, Gabriel had reached across the table and snatched her wrist, as fast as a striking leopard. “Come around to me,” he murmured, tugging gently.
Flushing at the look in his eyes, Pandora tried to resist, her heart quickening pleasantly. “My lord,” she begged in a whisper, “not in front of all these people.”
His lips twitched. “Then find a corner where I can kiss you properly.”
Pandora found herself wandering pink-cheeked through the crowd with her husband in tow. As they paused to allow some shoppers to cross in front of them, she heard his caressing voice behind her, close to her good ear. “No matter what happens, my love, you know you’ll never have to be afraid of the dark. I’ll always be there to keep you from falling.”
As their fingers tangled together, Pandora reflected that as astute as Dr. Garrett Gibson was, she was wrong about something. There was magic in the world, and it was woven throughout each ordinary day, the same force that pulled the tides and drove the rhythm of a human heart.
Inspired by that thought, Pandora, Lady St. Vincent—a woman with admittedly poor impulse control—turned to kiss her husband right in the middle of the department store. And he—a gentleman obviously besotted by his wife—kissed her right back.
Author’s Note