My Darling Duke

You are the only person I've ever wanted to share my silence

But my heart trembles with it when I think of losing you forever...when I think there may be a day that I open my arms, and you do not walk into them.

Be my friend…be my wife…my duchess. I promise to love you with every breath in my body and every emotion in my heart until the end of my days, Katherine. I vow it.

I believe people look away because it is uncomfortable to gaze upon another’s pain when it is bare for the world to see. How do they relate? Or offer words of compassion when they truly cannot understand your pain?

I would lay the world at your feet if I could, Katherine." "I do not need the whole world. Just a little bit of you, Alexander

The beauty of silence is that it simply is. In the stillness and tranquility, I find peace. Instead of being afraid of the void, I embrace it.

There is something wonderful between us, and it sparks to life from a mere glance and transcends into something so profound at times that I am breathless, unable to believe such a feelings for this person could be real. I am certain, so certain that the duke feels it, too! The wretched, odious man!

Impudent wench! He indulged her, did he? And not just the regular kind…but shamelessly.

I can feel your heart racing,” he murmured, his expression one of passionate need. She suddenly could not hold his eyes. Would you always look at me so? Please, God, her irrepressible heart prayed. Let Alexander look at me in this manner—with hunger, tender desire, and admiration—always. Her forehead fell to his shoulder, and he cupped the back of her neck firmly, as if encouraging her to stay there forever. “I am so tempted,” she whispered into the crook of his neck. “So very tempted.

She was fighting to keep her wits about her; nothing was making sense. For all she knew, he could be withholding flatulence. Gentlemen tended to do that in a lady's presence.