One Night In Scotland

It's funny how many little things you get used to - attached to, even - and never realize until you travel abroad and those things are not available.

One of the benefits of travelling is that you learn what you truly value when you are home. And little things that you might take for granted are sweeter, softer, larger, and infinitely better for the experience of not having them.

Knowledge and action combined can win over any adversity known to man.

...we are all wont to make mistakes, but if we learn from each trick, each error, and refuse to allow it to happen again, then the experience is not a loss, but a lifelong gain. Our pride may sting for the moment, but our future will be the better for it.

There comes a time in every endeavor when one must take fate by the lapels and explain the need for urgency.

In order to understand something really and truly well, you must know where it came from. There is no other way to appreciate its value.

Frequently, things are seen as 'insurmountable' merely from a lack of know-how.

We see the world in terms of history, not money. That's the main difference between us and the rest of the world - we appreciate man's foibles, passions, and beliefs, while the rest of the world appreciates their coins.

Every day stole away more of her presence, leaving in its place faint wisps of memories devoid of color, scent, and sound.

But like all simple things, once you add the human element, all hell breaks loose.

If you ever find yourself presented with a fork in the road of life and you do not know the correct direction, close your eyes and listen to your heart. I have found more adventure, more love, more happiness, and more life by listening to who I am, rather than attempting to tell myself.

Sometimes the little things are the big things.


Excitement is never comfortable. When it comes, you just hang on and hope you don't fall off.

I wish I could tell you that I leapt to my feet anyway, snake be dammed. Or that I wrestled the snake and then fought my opponent. But I saw the icy cold disdain in the snake's eyes and did the only prudent thing I could - I froze in my place. After a long few moments, the grew bored and slithered away, as had my opponent. Yet I felt that I had won, for I lived to fight another day.

Because You're Mine

"You deserve someone better than me. Someone young and idealistic - someone who can experience things for the first time along with you. I'm not always kind, and I have more faults than I'd care to name. All I can promise is that I'll want you until my last breath.
I've needed someone like you for a long time. Now that I have you, no one is going to take you from me."

"It's not what you project... it's what you don't show."

"The audience falls in love with a leading man because he'll never belong to any of them."

"In my entire life, I've never managed to do anything that I've truly been ashamed of."

"Safe men are for marrying. Dangerous men are for pleasure."

"I'm one of those people who was meant to have a very ordinary life. I have no special talent, no great beauty, nothing that distinguishes me from a hundred, thousand other girls. But I can't go through an entire lifetime without at least one night of magic."

Scandal Wears Satin

"Go away," he said. "Do you know you've almost no clothes on?"
"Never mind. I need-"
"Never mind? Listen to me, Miss Innocence. There are many things a man can 'never mind.' A nearly naked woman isn't one of them."

"Clara will break him to bridle," Longmore said. "And if she can't cure his wild ways, who knows? Maybe he'll ride into a ditch or get run over by a post chaise, and she'll be a young widow. Do try to look on the bright side."
"Just listen," she said. "You can't kill him in cold blood."
"Whyever not?"
Ye gods grant me patience. "Because he'll be dead," she said as patiently as she could, "and Lady Clara's reputation will be stained forever. Do not, I pray you, do anything, Lord Longmore. Leave this to us."
"Us?"
"My sisters and me."
"What do you propose? Dressing him to death? Tying him up and making him listen to fashion descriptions?"

That's what brings in the customers: the combination of gossip and the intricate detail about the dresses, all related as drama. It has the same effect on women, I'm told, as looking at naked women has on men.

"Did you know you could kill a person with a hatpin?" she said.
"I did not," he said. "Do you speak from experience? Have you murdered anybody? Not that I'd dream of criticizing."

"The whole thing's absurd," he said. "Your sister married a duke. I told Clevedon . . ." he trailed off.
"What did you tell him?"
"Never mind that now," he said.
"I certainly will mind it now," she said.
"Do you want to find Clara or do you want to quarrel?" he said.
"Preferably both," she said.

"Oh, good," he muttered. "We're going to discuss it now."
"No discussion," she said. Her mind was quite clear now, as though a fire had blazed through it, burning away all confusion. "It's perfectly simple. No One Must
Ever Know."
He came up onto one elbow and looked at her. "Do you know," he said, "I can hear those five words in italics. Capitalized."

"But you are a charming and beautiful dunces, madame. And," he continued in French, "charming and beautiful woman can get away with murder. Can you imagine that any man here would prosecute you for assassinating our language?"

"I know why you want to wear the plum," Marcelline said. "It's ravishing. It'll make Longmore swoon."
"It might make him do some things," Sophy said. "But swooning isn't one of them. He's the sort of man who tells a girl he l-loves her and then l-laughs. As though it's a I-joke."
"Shockingly tactless," Lady Warford said. "Unfortunately, Longmore can be tactless quite fluently in several languages."


She's never met an adjective or adverb she didn't like.

The Lost Duke Of Wyndham

=| I didn't think I should die but I did not know how I would Live.
=| She needed him to be him. Even if he could not be hers.
=| He would not give her up, he could not.For the first time in his life he'd found someone who filled all the empty spaces in his heart.
In this room, in this minute, she was his everything.
=| "Very well," he said with a small sigh. "Ladies today are so very capable. It breaks my heart really." He leaned in, almost as if sharing a secret. "No one likes to feel superfluous."
Grace just stared at him.
"Rendered mute by my grace and charm," he said, stepping back to allow them to exit. "It happens all the time. Really, I shouldn't be allowed near the ladies. I have such a vexing effect on you."
"I don't know what to say," she whispered.
"Normally, I'd advise 'thank you,' but as I am the one thanking you, a mere 'You are a prince among men' would suffice."
=| "It wasn't even desire. It was far more than that.
It was love.
Love. With a capital L and swirly script and hearts and flowers and whatever else the angel and yes, all those annoying little cupids wished to use for embellishment.

=| "Grace-" He scowled, then laughed. "What the devil is your middle name?"
"Catriona." she whispered.
"Grace Catriona Eversleigh," he said, loud and sure, "I love you."
=| Five years with the dowager - Good God, she ought to be given a title in her own right as a penance for such as that. No one had done more for England.
=| "It's still horrible. The whole thing."
"Dreadful," Grace agreed.
Amelia turned and looked at her directly. "Sodding bad."
Grace gasped, "Amelia!"
Amelia's face wrinkled in thought. "Did I use that correctly?"
"I wouldn't know."
"Oh, come now, don't tell me you haven't thought something just as unladylike."
"I wouldn't say it."
The look Amelia gave her was clear as a dare. "But you thought it."
Grace felt her lips twitch. "It's a dammed shame."
"A bloody inconvenience, if you ask me."
"I'm not sure what it means."
Grace frowned. "I don't think I do either."
"It sounds bad, though."
"Sodding bad." Grace said with a smile, and she patted Amelia's hand.
Amelia sighed. "A dammed shame."
"We are repeating ourselves." Grace pointed out.
"I know." Amelia said, but with a fair bit of feeling. "But whose fault is ut? Not ours. We've been far too sheltered."
"Now that," Grace announced with a flair, "really is a dammed shame!"
"A bloody inconvenience, if you ask me."

A Most Dangerous Profession

The world has no boundaries for  someone who savors success and is willing to work for it.

"Pray don't hold back," Robert said politely. "You can tell me what you really think of my valet."
Stewart broke in to a reluctant grin. "Sorry  fer bein' so forward, sir, but that valet o' yers  is nothin' but a Frenchified piece o' lace."

...you savor the things we seek to avoid.

You can get lost, pretending to be someone you're not.

The Taming Of A Scottish Princess

*** One good thing that comes from living the nomadic life demanded by an expedition is that one sheds the fake skin donned from living too closely among society. For those of us who live for the freedom of such a lifestyle, that skin is dry and itchy and ill fitting. From my observances, that skin is much like a callus caused by the pure irritation of being forced to spend so much time with one's fellow man. Thank God I am spared such nonsense.

*** "So he's harmless, then."
"I wouldn't say that, exactly."
"No?"
"I would not slip up behind him with a knife, for he might retaliate." Michael shrugged. "But that's to be expected. He kills only when necessary."
Mary covered her face with her hands and moaned.

*** But that's what happens when you allow a nice person to write a news paper serial for you; now the world thinks you're nice, too, which is silly in the extreme. Sadly, it's a burden that you must bear.

*** It's the pure excitement of the find combined with the golden possibilities  of what-may-be; one of bated breath, thundering heart,damp palms, and trembling limbs; a mixture of excruciating hope and the painfully exquisite fear of disappointment. It's a feeling that only another adventurer can truly understand.

*** "Jane?"
She lifted her brows. "Yes?"
"If you so much as hum one word, I shall stuff one of your gloves into your mouth."
"Tsk,tsk." She assumed an exaggerated sad look. "It's like that,is it?"

*** London is good for two things - excellent Scotch and leaving. I miss them both, especially as I often partake of one while doing the other. I find the company stifling, the streets foul smelling and overcrowded, the houses bland and without architectural merit, and the people banal and filled with their own consequence. No matter how often I leave London, I cannot wait to leave it again. My home is in my explorations. Those always welcome me.

*** But what Jane hadn't known about Michael Hurst until the day she stepped into his tent was that this adventurous, driven, gruff, brilliant explorer was also handsome. Blink-twice-and-try-to-breathe-and-still-think-you're-seeing-an-angel handsome.

*** "I vow, is there no man who can talk about physical pleasures without exaggerating?

*** "By Ra, you're an impertinent, saucy."
"Careful, Hurst. We just kissed, so according to you, I shall now interpret every thing you say in a very negative manner and might burst into tears and run shrieking off to a convent."

*** "I wish we hadn't kissed at all," he snapped.
"So do I, but we can't unkiss, so we must deal with it as best as we can."

*** "I'm surprised a person with your experience in telling elaborate fables should have difficulty in thinking up such a simple tale, but I suppose it's a different issue when you have to think quickly rather than spend time thoroughly developing your story."
"I'm  sure that's it," she replied blithely, cutting her bacon into small bits. "I'm also sure that my skills will grow over time. I just need to practice, practice, practice. Did I ever tell you about the dragon I owned when I was a child?"

*** "Jane, last night was..” he raked a hand through his hair "..nice."
Her expression could only be described as crestfallen.
"No," he hurried to say. "Don't look like that! I didn't mean "nice." In fact, it wasn't nice at all."
Her brows lowered. "No?"
"No. I mean, yes! Yes, it was nice, but it was also very, very," He tried with all of his might to grasp a word that would encompass that heart - pounding exertion that even now was making his balls hum,but to his horror, he heard himself say once again, "..nice. But really, really, really nice."

*** "...then tossed the coat into the water."
"Hurst! That's a perfectly good coat!"
"Yes, and I have a perfectly good life. One of those two things is not replaceable."

The Secret Mistress

This was it. This was what she had longed for throughout the lonely years of her girlhood. Suddenly she felt lonelier than she had ever felt. And so excited she could barely breathe. Tresham stepped up beside her, drew her arm through his again, set his free hand lightly over hers, and said not a word. She had never loved him more.

Was something worth having, though, if it didn't present a challenge?

I would not wish to deny you your dreams. But have a care. They can be dashed in one impulsive moment.

(Edward describing Angeline's bonnet) "Then it is overbright and those colors should never been seen together upon the same person, not to mention the same garment." he said. "And it actually suits you perfectly. It suits your character."

"You just have not...oh, learned who you are yet."

Why, instead of teaching her poetry and drama and needlework, had her governesses not taught the most important lesson anyone could learn - that life was really not going to be easy after one was free of the schoolroom?

Tell me, Lady Angeline, is there a color not represented in your rather splendid riding hat? It would be a shame if there were. It would be sitting all alone on a palette somewhere, feeling rejected and dejected.

He knew he was alive when he was with her, whatever the devil that meant. Whatever the devil it did mean, it made all the difference. And he was not even sure what that meant.

"Eunice Goddard," he said, all pretense of sleepiness gone from his eyes, "will you marry me? I have no flowery speech prepared and would feel remarkably idiotic delivering it even if I had. Will you just simply marry me, my love? Because I love you? Will you take the risk? I am fully aware that there is a risk. I can only urge you to take a chance on me while I promise to do my very best to love and cherish you for the rest of my days and even perhaps beyond them."

"May intelligent, bookish ladies sometimes be reformed?" he asked her. She thought about it. "I suppose it may be within the bounds of possibility," she said, "even if not of probability."

How To Abduct A Highland Lord

   It took all of her moral strength not to kick him, just a little, while he was so conveniently at her feet.
   "Stop flirting. With you, every sentence is an offer."
"And with you, every sentence is a challenge."
   Shoes really did lead the perfect life. They were polished and taken care of and not
expected to do anything more painful than occasionally step in a bit of mud or a rare puddle. She'd wager her shoes never wished they could just disappear.
   "Her honor will come to no harm at my hands," Jack said.
"'Tis not her honor but her tender heart that I worry about," Alexander said.
"She's a delicate lass," Hugh added.
"Aye," said Gregor. "A Scottish rose."
"Your tender, delicate rose had me ambushed, knocked unconscious, and forced to wed," Jack ground out. "Facts you all know, if you've spoken to Hamish."
Dougal grinned, his teeth flashing whitely. "She has the devil's own temper, our Fiona does."
   It does not pay to be possessive of a man determined to remain free.
   Jack took the note:
My lord, Lady Kincaid announced she would be out this evening. When I asked where, she said she was going 'carousing.' That is a direct quote. Please advise. Devonsgate.
   "My marriage to Kincaid is a bit more complicated than I thought. There are certain things we don't agree on, and-"
"You wish to change his mind about something," Gregor finished.
"How did you know?"
"I've noticed that women often have a desire to change men, even the ones they love."
"I've noticed that, too." Dougal frowned.
   Jack looked at the paper. Devonsgate had listed all twelve footmen: John, Mark, Luke,
Thomas! Bloody hell, his butler had hired the entire New Testament.
   As Jack began to climb the stairs, Fiona looked up at her new home. Five stories of stately mansion rose above her head. Heavy molding around the large windows and doors bespoke a quality and craftsmanship that was obvious even in the dim night. "Good God! It's massive!"
Jack paused with his foot on the last step. "I do wish you'd keep those comments until we are in bed, love. I would appreciate them all the more there."