One Dance With A Duke

I was afraid. Of getting hurt in other ways. To be truthful, I still am."
His thumb stroked her cheek. "I would never hurt you."
"I don't think you can promise me that." She squeezed his bruised fingers. "But it makes things a bit more equal, to know that I can hurt you, too."
His gaze fell to her lips. He said simply, without any trace of irony, "You are killing me."

"Proper handling of a horse like this is no simple matter. He was trained to race, from birth. Not only to race, but to be the best. Once a champion, he was spoiled with attention and permissive handling. Add to that, he's an ungelded male, with a strong natural mating drive. It all adds up to a horse with a mile-wide streak of arrogance, bloody bored out of his mind. Without proper exercise and opportunities to mate, all that aggressive energy festers. He becomes moody, intractable, withdrawn, destructive."

Ashworth raised an eyebrow at Bellamy. "Is it just me, or is this conversation becoming uncomfortably personal?"
Spencer fumed. "I'm not referring to myself, you ass.

"You are a sweet man."
-God, there it is." He flopped back on the bed, as if shot through the heart. "Repeat that to anyone, and I will have you brought up on charges of slander."
"I wouldn't dream of telling a soul."

"Forgive me for speaking frankly, but after the past quarter-hour's conversation, I am unconvinced that any of you possess the sense or sensitivity to impart the news in any respectful fashion"

The Many Sins Of Lord Cameron

No one had explained to Cameron when he was twenty years old and proud as hell that he'd managed to get his wife with child, how difficult it would be to raise a son. Nannies and tutors and schools were supposed to do that, weren't they?
But sons needed so much more than food, clothing, and tutoring. They expected fathers to know things, to teach them about life, to be there when needed.

To Scotland, With Love

"For a real knight, rescuing maidens would be an everyday event."
...
"Perhaps a true knight saves himself for the right maiden"

I dinna think tis romantic when a man says he's willin' t' give his life fer the woman he loves. Give me instead a man who'd fight to keep us both alive and kickin'! There's naught rommantic about a dead man, beau or no.

"Gregor, have you ever been in love?"
"No, I've never been that foolish."

This is the woman I'm t' marry! Where have ye been all me life, me love?"
And without a blink, I replied, "Don't start with me, ye scoundrel! If ye come with an empty purse, ye can leave now, fer I'd rather be unwed than unfed.

Oh, he rarely gets angry. But he is perpetually irritated.

"He can cook?"
"In a manner of speaking," Mrs. Treadwell said, cheerfully.
"What manner of speaking is that?"

hmmm. Didn't they say a man's feet echoed the size of his manhood? Of its own accord, her gaze darted up Gregor's leg to where his deliciously tight breeches caressed his-
"Knife."
She blinked,  her gaze jerking up to his face, her skin flushing. Please, God, don't let him know what I was thinking.
"Knife." he said again.
"Knife?" she repeated dumbly.
"Good god, Oglivie. I will need a knife if I'm to cut these vegetables.
Gregor lifted the knife and slammed it down. The tops of the carrot rolled across the table, some hitting the floor.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm chopping carrots."
"Gregor, they are carrots! not tree branches."
"I fail to see the difference."

There is nothing shameful in wanting, Venetia. There's only shame in not getting.

"She also mentioned how close my balcony was to yours; so close that even an old lady like herself could leap between the two without the least effort."
Venetia's cheek heated and she pulled her night gown closer, "Grandmama is anything but subtle."
"Almost as subtle as your mother."
"Oh no! Not mama too."
...
"Your mother was concerned I might be afraid of heights. She told me if she were thinking of jumping between the balconies and couldn't bring herself to make the leap, it might be possible to pick the lock on the connecting door with, say, a cravat pin.

A Kiss At Midnight

A lady should never feel anxious about her behavior. The status is bred in the bone. To show anxiety is to lower oneself. Anxiety is vulgar.

Lady Isabella's Scandalous Marriage

I loved and adored you, but I drained you like a thirsty man at a spring. I loved what you could give me - your admiration, your acceptance, your love, your forgiveness.  I forgot to love you for yourself.

Marry in haste, Repent at leisure.

"You are in no position to make threats to me."
"I don't have to be. Even if you shoot me, you can be sure you'll never get away from Hart. He's a fucking obsessed bastard, and he's touchy about people harming his sisters-in-law. You will be praying to have me alive once Hart is on your trail."

Dearest Mac,
I love you. I will always love you.
But I can live with you no longer. I've tried to be strong for you, for three years I have tried. I have failed. You tried to remake me in your image, dear Mac, and I tried to be what you wanted, but I no longer can. I am sorry.
I want to write that my heart is breaking, but it is not. It broke some time ago, and I have just now realised that I can leave me heartbreak behind and go on.
The decision to live without you was a painful one and not lightly made. I realise you can legally cause me much harm for taking this step, and I ask you, for the love we once shared, not to. It could be that I will not need to leave forever, but I know that I need time apart, alone, to heal.
You have explained that you sometimes leave me for my own good, so I will have a chance to recover from life with you. Now I am doing the same, leaving so that both of us have a chance to breath, a chance to cool. Living with you is like being with a shooting star, one that burns so brightly that it scorches me. And I am watching the star burn out. In the end, Mac, I fear there will be nothing left of you.
I know you will be angry when you read this, because you can grow so angry! But when you stop being angry, you will realize that my decision is sound. Together, we are destroying each other. Apart, I can remember my love for you. But you are burning me. You have exhausted me, and I have nothing left to give.
Ian has agreed to bring this letter to you, and he will inform me of what steps you decide to take. I trust Ian to help us through. Please do not try to seek me yourself.
I love you, Mac. I will always love you.
Please be well.

Isabella

Since The Surrender

Even cliffs are vulnerable, Captain Eversea, she thought. The sea gets at them, eventually, reshaping them inexorably, giving them no choice at all in the matter.

Some of us walk about with the burden of old wounds. What must it be like to have the burden of healing?

"No, Kinkade," Chase said thoughtfully. "I don't think a woman can destroy you. You can't be destroyed because there's nothing to destroy. I warrant that you just reflect whatever's near you. Like a puddle of mud. You reflect honor if you're near it. You reflect decay if you're near it. Left to your own devices, you've no moral center at all, no concern except for your own pleasure. This is the result."

A Notorious Countess Confesses

Vicars, he often thought, are essentially God's lawyers on the earth. Interpreters of the law, the finders of nuance, sifters through rationalizations to get at the truth or the need of the moment.
Guessers, in other words.

Now, here's a philosophical dilemma for a vicar - is it a lie if you don't know you're lying? Is it a lie if you're lying to yourself?

"Is it a sin if I tell my cousin to bugger off?"
"Have you ever been in love?"
"Colin. For the love of God."
"I have," he said bluntly. "And when you lose love, it tears a hole out of you. The pain can be gruesome. I thought I lost Madeline once, and I swear for a few days I thought I might never be whole again."
"Perhaps you should write a poem about it. Add another verse to your song."

Charm is an essence, not a facade.

How had she ever thought his blue eyes placid as a lake? But there was untold power in any water: to buoy, to drown, to toss, to carry one to the safety of shore.

Two is my number as well, Lady Balmain.

Sometimes, the only way out of the fire is through the fire, m'boy.

No one moved. No one spoke. They seemed be riveted by whatever it was they saw in his eyes.
"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave."
A few gasps erupted.
His voice rang out, bold, clear.
"It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away."
It was safe to say everyone was awake now. He'd startled most of his parishioners and aroused the rest of them.
"Evie Duggan,"
And all the heads official swiveled to follow the beam of the reverend's gaze. Then swiveled back to him.
Then back to Eve.
Whose heart was in her eyes.
"You are the seal upon my heart. You are the fire and flame that warms me, heals me, burns me. You are the river that cools me and carries me. I love you. And love may be as strong as death, but you, I know now you are my life."
A pin would have echoed like a dropped kettle in the church then.
Eve was absolutely riveted. Frozen, her eyes burning into his.
"And though I wish I could have protected you and kept you safe from some of the storms of your life, I find cannot regret any part of your past. For it has made you who you are. Loyal, passionate, brave, kind, remarkable. You need repent nothing."
The last word fell like a gavel.
Not a single person moved or breathed.
"There are those who think good is a pastime, to engage in like embroidery or target shooting. There are those who think beauty is a thing of surface, and forget that it's really of the soul. But good is something you are, not something you do. And by that definition, I stand before you today and declare that Evie Duggan is one of the best people I have ever had the privilege of knowing."

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a woman, I put away childish things.