Epilogue
“H old still,” Garrett Gibson murmured, gently pulling at Pandora’s earlobe as she positioned the tip of a steel auriscope tube in her ear. She squinted through an eyepiece into a microscopic magnifying lens, while Pandora sat with her head resting sideways on a leather table.
So far during the examination, they had discovered that Pandora’s left ear could detect the ticking of a watch a half-inch away and a raised voice at six feet, although she couldn’t hear a low voice at any distance.
Still holding the auriscope in Pandora’s ear, Garrett reached for a pencil, and sketched a quick diagram.
“The ear drum is called the tympanum,” she murmured.
“I can see the ragged perforation from the childhood injury, and some scarring from chronic inflammation. The tympanum is constantly replaced by the reproduction of cells, just like skin, so this type of perforation usually heals quickly. However, there are cases such as yours where it doesn’t, especially when a severe infection accompanies the initial injury.
” Carefully she withdrew the tube, and Pandora sat up to face her.
“Is there anything that can be done?” Pandora asked.
“Since the condition has persisted for so many years, I wouldn’t expect to recover the hearing completely. However, I think we can bring about some substantial improvement, as well as drastically reducing or even eliminating the tinnitus and vertigo.”
Pandora nearly quivered with excitement. “Truly?”
“We’ll start you on a daily rinse of antiseptic solution in your ear to encourage healing. After a week of that, I’ll have you come in for another appointment, and we’ll apply nitrate of silver to the edges of the perforation, to stimulate growth of new tissue.”
“How will you put it in there?”
“I’ll melt a tiny drop of the silver nitrate to the tip of a silver wire, and apply it in seconds.
It won’t hurt at all. If for some reason this course of treatment doesn’t prove as effective as I expect, I’ll consult a colleague who is having some success at using collagen membrane patches to cover the perforated tympanum. ”
“If you could make any difference at all, it would be...” Pandora paused, searching for the right word. “It would be magical !”
Garrett smiled. “There’s no such thing as magic, my lady. There’s only skill and knowledge.”
“Very well, I’ll call it whatever you prefer.” Pandora grinned at her. “But the result is the same.”
After her appointment at the clinic had concluded, Pandora walked next door to Winterborne’s, with Dragon following close behind her.
It was Nicholas Day, when the store traditionally unveiled its annual Christmas tree under the soaring stained-glass dome over the central hall.
People had traveled for miles to see the sixty-foot evergreen, every branch trimmed with magnificent figures and ornaments and swathed in glittering ribbons.
Cork Street was filled with throngs of Christmas shoppers laden with huge parcels and bags, and sticky children clutching cones of sugar-plums, macaroons, and other sweetmeats.
Crowds massed around the department store’s lavish display windows, one of them featuring an artist painting Christmas cards that were sold inside, another decorated with toy trains chugging around miniature tracks.
One of the more popular windows featured delicacies and confections from the store’s famed food hall, including a huge gingerbread carousel with a candy-paved roof, and gingerbread riders on gingerbread horses.
After they entered the store, Dragon took Pandora’s cloak and gloves from her and retreated to a position near the corner.
He had worn his livery, as he did whenever he felt a particular occasion called for the prestige of a liveried footman.
Today, a week after Pandora’s board game had been stocked in the department store, he had judged it necessary to don the hated blue and gold garments while she obtained her sales information from the toy department manager.
Feeling nervous pangs in her stomach, Pandora browsed among the displays.
There was an eye-catching grocery store sized just for children, with drawers, counters, and cabinets, a real working scale, and artificial fruits and vegetables.
Her gaze moved over china tea sets, doll houses, books, toy wagons, pop-guns, and dolls.
A smile came to her lips as she watched a pair of little girls playing with a toy stove complete with miniature pots, pans, and utensils.
By next Christmas, Pandora had already planned to publish two new board games, a set of alphabet blocks painted with animals as well as letters, and a children’s card game with a fairy tale theme.
What she hadn’t confided to anyone except Gabriel was her desire to try writing a children’s book.
Just a simple story, something lively and entertaining.
Since she wasn’t accomplished enough at sketching and painting to do the illustrations, she would have to find an artist—
Her attention was caught by the sight of a few uneasy children hovering near Dragon, clearly wanting access to a display of books behind him.
He didn’t move. Dragon knew next to nothing about children and seemed to regard them as nothing more than short, slovenly adults with poor depth perception.
A small group had accumulated around him, three boys and two girls, none taller than his waist. They craned their necks, puzzled by the somewhat outlandish figure of the muscular footman garbed in blue velvet, with a beard, a scar, and a scowl on his face.
Pressing back a smile, Pandora approached the children, crouched beside them, and asked in a stagey whisper, “Do you know who that is?” They turned to face her with round-eyed curiosity.
“He’s Captain Dragon—the bravest, fiercest pirate who ever sailed the seven seas.
” As she saw the ripple of interest that ran through the group, she ignored Dragon’s incredulous glare and added with relish, “He’s been serenaded by mermaids, and he’s battled a giant squid.
He also had a pet whale who used to follow in the wake of his ship and beg for sea biscuits. ”
A boy glanced at Dragon’s dark face with awe before asking Pandora, “Why is he dressed like a footman?”
“Seasick,” Pandora confided regretfully. “All the time. He couldn’t bear it any longer. So now he’s a footman, and on his days off, he’s a land pirate.”
The children gathered cautiously around the stone-faced giant. “Do you have a wooden leg?” one of them asked.
“No,” Dragon growled.
“Do you make people walk the plank?”
“No.”
“What’s your whale’s name?”
Dragon looked exasperated. Before he could say a word, Pandora replied hastily, “Her name is Bubbles.”
“ His name,” Dragon corrected, “is Splasher.”
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.