Chapter 6
Your heart has its reasons. They ought not to be dismissed.
—From the Diary of Lillian Wright
Pippa’s heart nearly left her body. She scrambled from Nicholas’s body as the horse took off, afraid her weight would add to his injuries.
“Pippa! Nicholas!”
Pippa hardly registered the call of voices and the approaching hooves. Her entire being focused on the man lying unconscious on the ground.
“What happened?” Nancy asked, falling onto her knees beside them.
“Snake.” Dare pointed to where a snake coiled nearby. “Must have startled the horse.” He flicked it away with his cane.
“Help me lift him into the carriage,” Dare instructed Jeremy. The two of them managed to deposit him onto the phaeton with little effort.
“I’ll drive him back. Locke, you retrieve Chatteris’s horse.”
Pippa found her voice. “There is not enough space in the phaeton.”
“There’s a small seat reserved for the groom behind the body,” Dare said.
Pippa and Nancy glanced at each other.
“You go,” Pippa said to her friend. “I’ll return with Jeremy.”
Nancy nodded.
No matter how much Pippa’s heart pained, Nancy was surely just as terrified, if not more. And Pippa needed a moment to collect her wits.
“He broke my fall. A doctor …” Pippa trailed off numbly as emotion clogged her throat.
Dare seemed to understand. “Already sent my man for one.”
They delayed no more. Dare and Nancy set off with Nicholas, and Pippa and Jeremy went to find the skittish horse. It took one torturous hour before they returned home. They met Dare in the entrance hall.
“How is Nicholas?” Pippa asked urgently.
“He suffered a small blow to the head and an injury to the waist. Don’t fret, my lady. Chatteris has thick skin and an impenetrable skull. He started grousing the moment he woke up.”
“He’s awake?” Relief flooded her.
Dare nodded. “His sister is threatening all sorts of ways to keep him in bed.” Dare looked to Pippa. “Might I have a word?”
“Of course, my lord.”
“I’ll go report our return to Nancy,” Jeremy said. “She must be worried about you as well.”
“Thank you,” she said and led Dare into the nearby drawing room.
He pulled a parchment from his pocket and handed it to her.
“What’s this?”
“You dropped it when Chatteris abducted you.”
Pippa’s eyes widened as she unfolded the paper and stared at a familiar face.
Usually, this drawing was tucked safely in her mother’s diary.
Today, however, for some unfathomable reason, she’d removed the sketch and tucked it into her bodice.
In fact, she had drawn many pictures of Nicholas over the years.
But this one … this one was her favorite.
“The likeness is quite good,” Dare said, the corner of his mouth twitching. “He looks so carefree.”
Pippa trailed her finger over the soft lines she’d penciled. The very first one she ever drew of him. “The first time we met was when I caught him sniffing flowers in the garden.” She had always loved this memory of Nicholas.
Love.
Pippa loved him.
And this picture was the start of that love. Or to be more exact, the start of her obsession. The enthusiasm to tease. Fascination to taunt. Fixation to poke through that thick armor that clung to him.
Pippa met Dare’s gaze. “Thank you for returning this to me.”
He inclined his head. “I am just relieved you are unharmed.”
“I appreciate your concern.”
Dare waved a casual hand. Then he laughed. “It’s a peculiar feeling, this feeling of being used.”
“I’m not sure I understand, my lord.”
“The reason I find myself in your and Lady Nancy’s company the past two days. However, it has been quite interesting.”
What else could Pippa say but, “We didn’t actually get to the using part.”
Dare laughed again. “I’m not sure whether that’s a blessing or a tragedy.”
“A blessing for us both, I assure you, my lord.”
Excitement thrummed through her veins. The only thing left to do … Seize the man she loved.
* * *
The fifth rule of being an exemplary brother: Do not leave your sister alone in a bedchamber with another man, even if the man is the equivalent of a nursemaid.
“Why hasn’t she returned yet?”
“She is fine, Nicholas. They should be here any moment. Jeremy won’t let any harm come to her.”
Nicholas clenched his fist. He hadn’t sensed the unease of his own animal.
Now he was confined to his bed while Pippa was off, Lord knows where, retrieving his horse.
Nancy said she hadn’t been injured, but he wouldn’t be at ease until he could see that with his own eyes.
There was no containing the feelings that threatened to erupt.
He loved her.
He loved Pippa Averly.
Hopelessly.
He couldn’t even say when it happened. There had always been something different about Pippa.
He sensed it from the very first moment they met.
She represented the sun while he, the vast cold night.
But he never thought a woman such as her, so warm and spirited, would ever spare a glance his way—a man who could never match her vibrancy.
Cold.
Even Pippa had called him that. He could not do much about his personality. He just wanted to be close to her warmth. Her mere proximity could thaw the frost he exuded with his temperament.
Only her.
Nicholas met his sister’s reproachful look. She smacked his shoulder. “What has gotten into you? Do you know how the tongues are wagging? You are sure to be in the gossip pages tomorrow.”
“Let them wag.”
Astonishment flashed across her gaze. “Who are you and what did you do with my brother?” Her eyes narrowed. “What happened between you and Pippa? She is my best friend, Nicholas. If you two are at odds, I will choose her side!”
“Disloyal brat.”
She smacked him again. “What are the two of you fighting about? Something happened at the charity ball, right? Is it because of that waistcoat?”
Nicholas’s lips twitched when he thought of that ugly thing. Anything Pippa made him, he would happily wear. “We are not fighting.”
Nancy shot him a disbelieving look. “You’re not?”
Nicholas ignored her, his calm returning when Jeremy walked through the door. His gaze darted past him.
“Where’s Pippa?” Nicholas demanded, sitting up when he realized she hadn’t come with Jeremy.
Nancy pushed him back down. “What are you doing? The doctor said you should rest.”
“Devil take it! I’m fine! It’s just a bruise.”
“Your skin is black and blue!”
He twisted his torso. “See, it doesn’t hurt at all.” It hurt like hell, but he wasn’t about to admit that out loud.
“I’m sure your future wife shall be ecstatic,” Jeremy mocked.
Nicholas turned a deaf ear to those loaded words. “As if such a small mishap can foul me.”
Nancy looked at Jeremy. “Where’s Pippa? Weren’t you together?”
“Yes, why isn’t she here mocking my misfortune?”
Jeremy rolled his eyes. “We encountered Dare downstairs. She is receiving him instead of fawning over you.”
Nicholas bolted upright. A nasty curse formed on his tongue. “That libertine hasn’t left yet?”
Nancy and Jeremy shared a brief glance before she said, “Dare helped us today, should he not receive some gratitude?”
Gratitude, my ass.
Nicholas ripped the covers off himself and maneuvered to his feet. This damn heart of his. Going off again. Only Pippa could settle its tortuous rhythm. He needed her. Her scent. Her presence. Her teasing.
“What are you doing?” Nancy demanded.
“To settle a matter.”
“What matter?” Nancy snapped. “Don’t be absurd.”
“Who is absurd? Are you and Pippa not the ones bent on kissing that rake?”
Nancy’s mouth dropped open.
Jeremy frowned.
Nicholas didn’t explain further, done with them. He pushed past the pain and limped from the room with a renewed sense of purpose. She had promised she wouldn’t kiss Dare. But what if Dare kissed her? Under his roof? Not while he still had the strength to kick the man out on his ass.