Lilies on the lake

the long version

Once, they'd loved each other with all their hearts.Now fate was giving them a second chance....Bestselling, award-winning author Katherine Kingsley brings her sizzling blend of romance and sensuality to the tale of a woman who scandalizes Victorian London ... and the man who'd follow her to the ends of the earth if it would make her love him....As the port of Alexandria came into view, Portia Merriem trembled with excitement. Here she was, the stepdaughter of a marquess, about to live an Egyptian adventure. But instead of enjoying thrilling excavations, Pip found herself on a houseboat on the Nile, praying for a miracle that would save her pregnant traveling companion.When help finally arrived, she thought she must be dreaming. He was John Henry Lovell, the friend and protector of her childhood ... a world away from this powerful man who stared at her with the eyes of a stranger. He'd loved her all his life. And now, like a ghost from the past, she stood before him as heartbreakingly beautiful as ever. She was the reason John Henry had fled Norfolk. Yet how could he abandon her now -- alone in a foreign land and determined to raise another woman's child as her own?The only way to avoid scandal was to return to England ... as man and wife. And later, when the gossip had quieted, he'd give her her freedom.How could he know that freedom was the last thing Pip wanted ... that all she needed was a glance, a word, a touch, and ten years of pain and sorrow could be transformed into a lifetime of love?From the Paperback edition.