Julia Quinn · 373 pages
Rating: (28.1K votes)
“She hated that she was still so desperate for a glimpse of him, but it had been this way for years.”
“Now I want you to listen to me," he said in a low voice, taking her chin in his hand and forcing her to look at him. "And listen carefully, because I'm only going to say this once. You are going to marry me before this week is out. Since you have conveniently run off to Scotland, we don't need a special license. You're just lucky I don't haul you off to a church right this instant. Get yourself a dress and get yourself some flowers, because, sweeetheart, you're getting yourself a new name.”
“Turner let his face fell into his hands. "I'm never going to touch her again", he moaned.
"He's never going to touch me again!" they heard Miranda roar.
"Well,it doesn't look like you'll have much argument from your wife on that point", Olivia chirped.”
“Oh, very well, do you want to know why I really think you should keep a journal?"
She nodded.
"Because someday you're going to grow into yourself, and you will be as beautiful as you already are smart.”
“I have friends who have children, and they have told me how remarkable it is to have a new life that is a piece of your own flesh anf blood. But I --"
"I realized that I didn't love her because she was a piece of me, I loved her because she was a piece of you.”
“Society is capricious and rewards the bad as often as the good. But it never rewards the quiet.”
“I just -- I know my own heart and I love you, Turner. And if you have even the tiniest shred of decency, you'll say something because I've said everything I possibly can, and I can't bear the silence, and -- oh for heaven's sake! Will you at least blink?"
He couldn't even manage that.”
“And then what would she say? I just told your brother that I love him, and I'm afraid that he hates me? I can't be alone with Turner because I'm afraid he might ravish me? I can't be alone with Turner because I'm afraid I might ravish him.”
“Miranda was nineteen. Her experience with men consisted of Winston and himself. Both of whom had
heretofore been brotherly figures. The poor girl must be confused as hell. Winston had suddenly decided
that she was Venus, Queen Elizabeth, and the Virgin Mary all rolled into one,and Turner had all but
forced himself on her. Not exactly an average day in the life of a young country miss”
“Full lips are better for kissing.”
“He looked down at the first entry.
2 MARCH1810
Today I fell in love.
A tear welled up in his eye. “Me too, my love. Me too.”
“Oh, very well, do you want to know why Ireally think you should keep a journal?”
She nodded.
“Because someday you’re going to grow into yourself, and you will be as beautiful as you already are
smart. And then you can look back into your diary and realize just how silly little girls like Fiona Bennet
are. And you’ll laugh when you remember that your mother said your legs started at your shoulders. And
maybe you’ll save a little smile for me when you remember the nice chat we had today.”
“I've always thought that violet ribbons look especially nice with brown hair.”
“He did things to her, she realized. Strange, shivery things that left her breathless. He need only to look at her—not in his usual, conversational way, but to really look at her, to let his eyes settle on hers, deeply blue and insightful, and she felt naked, her soul bared.”
“Baiting her was great fun. And he didn’t feel the least bit guilty for it. For all her disgruntled behavior, he had no doubt that she enjoyed the verbal sparring every bit as much as he did.”
“I think it was your language,” Miranda said mildly. “She said most of them were idiots, too.” “That is not at all what I said,” Olivia put in. “I said they were bores.” “Sheep,” Miranda confirmed. “Goats,” Olivia added with a shrug. Turner began to look alarmed. “Good God, do the two of you speak your own language?”
“Everyone wants to feel loved, but when all you feel is alone it's tough to accomplish anything else.”
“Desire, when it stems from the heart and spirit, when it is pure and intense, possesses awesome electromagnetic energy. This energy is released into the ether each night, as the mind falls into the sleep state. Each morning it returns to the conscious state reinforced with the cosmic currents. That which has been imaged will surely and certainly be manifested. You can rely, young man, upon this ageless promise as surely as you can rely upon the eternally unbroken promise of sunrise... and of Spring.”
“Later I stirred again, knowing the night was passing, but unwilling to wake fully lest this fair vision be lost forever. There was an arm across me, holding the cloak around me; and the same old blanket covered the two of us. Darragh lay behind me, his body curled neatly against my own, his living warmth a part of me, his slow peaceful breathing steady against my hair. I kept quite still. I did not allow myself to return to full consciousness. I thought, if it all ended right now, I wouldn’t mind a bit. Let it end now, so I need never wake. And I slipped back into sleep.”
“This was the summer when for a long time she had not been a member. She belonged to no club and was a member of nothing in the world. Frankie had become an unjoined person who hung around in doorways, and she was afraid.”
“Auntie says that in the city, people gather and pay money to see beautiful women and handsome men put on a show. The people in the show are called movie stars.”
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