“Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron,” Sebastian said approvingly. “Excellent choice.”
“You have read this?” Alexei asked.
“It’s not as good as Miss Davenport and the Dark Marquis, of course, but worlds better than Miss Sainsbury and the Mysterious Colonel.”
Harry found himself rendered speechless.
“I’m reading Miss Truesdale and the Silent Gentleman right now.”
“Silent?” Harry echoed.
“There is a noticeable lack of dialogue,” Sebastian confirmed.”
“Are you all right?” he asked Olivia. His heart was still racing with terror that she’d been hurt. “I heard a woman scream.”
“Ah, that would have been me,” Sebastian said.
Harry looked down on his cousin, face frozen in disbelief. “You made that noise?”
“It hurt,” Sebastian bit off.
Harry fought not to laugh. “You scream like a leettle girl.”
“I also think he is given to disguises...Sometimes he wears spectacles and sometimes he does not. And twice he has worn an extremely peculiar hat. Inside.”
“Olivia: You didn't even know I was there!
Harry: Excuse me, yes I did.”
“When a man writes a romance, the woman dies. When a woman writes one, it ends all tidy and sweet.”
“She’d ceased spying upon him, that was true, but the damage was done. Every time he sat at his desk, he could feel her eyes upon him, even though he knew very well she’d shut her curtains tight. But clearly, reality had very little to do with the matter, because all he had to do, it seemed, was glance at her window, and he lost an entire hour’s work.
It happened thus: He looked at the window, because it was there, and he couldn’t very well never happen to glance upon it unless he also shut his curtains tight, which he was not willing to do, given the amount of time he spent in his office. So he saw the window, and he thought of her, because, really, what else would he think of upon seeing her bedroom window? At that point, annoyance set in, because A) she wasn’t worth the energy, B) she wasn’t even there, and C) he wasn’t getting any work done because of her.
C always led into a bout of even deeper irritation, this time directed at himself, because D) he really ought to have better powers of concentration, E) it was just a stupid window, and F) if he was going to get agitated about a female, it ought to be one he at least liked.
F was where he generally let out a loud growl and forced himself to get back to his translation. It usually worked for a minute or two, and then he’d look back up, and happen to see the window, and the whole bloody nonsense cycled back to the beginning.”
“ How I Would Like to Kill My Brother,
Version Sixteen
By Olivia Bevelstoke
No. really, what was the point? She could hardly top Version Fifteen, which had featured both vivisection and wild boar.”
“You should be thankful that dark colors suit you. Not everyone wears black well."
"Why, Lady Olivia, is that a compliment?"
"Not so much as a compliment to you as an insult to everyone else," she assured him.
"Thanks heaven for that. I don't think I would know how to conduct myself in a world in which you offered compliments.”
“And so Harry became proficient in the task of cleaning up vomit.”
“What?"
"You're so neat," she said, looking almost embarrassed.
He glanced pointedly over his shoulder. "There are four hundred on the other side of this door."
"But you're ruining me."
"I can't do it neatly?”
“She was so beautiful it made her teeth ache.
He made a mental note not to attempt poetry.”
“What part of his being hunched over a sheaf of papers was so
interesting to her? Because that was all he had been doing all week.
Perhaps he ought to liven up the spectacle. Really, it would be the kind thing to do. She had to
be bored silly.
He could jump on his desk and sing.
Take a bite of food and pretend to choke. What would she do, then?
Now that would be an interesting moral dilemma.”
“He felt a bit like Romeo to her Juliet, minus the feuding families and poison.
And with pigeons.”
“Forget Romeo and Juliet. This was much closer to The Taming of the Shrew.”
“Sebastian,” Katarina said, turning to her nephew. “You’ve grown.”
“It happens,” Sebastian quipped, flashing her his usual lopsided grin.
“Goodness,” she said with smile, “you’ll be a danger to the ladies soon.”
Harry very nearly rolled his eyes. Sebastian had already made conquests of nearly all the girls in the village near Hesslewhite. He must give off some sort of scent, because the females positively fell at his feet.
It would have been appalling, except that the girls couldn’t all dance with Sebastian. And Harry was more than happy to be the nearest man standing when the smoke cleared.”
“Most people would have probably lost count around seven. This was, Harry knew
from his extensive reading on logic and arithmetic, the largest number that most people
could visually appreciate. Put seven dots on a page, and most people can take a quick
glance and declare, “Seven.” Switch to eight, and the majority of humanity was lost.”
“Come along, Sally," she called out to her maid, who was lagging at least a dozen steps behind.
"it's eraly," Sally moaned.
"It's half seven," Olivia told her, holding steady for a few moments to allow Sally to catch up.
"That's early."
"Normally, I would agree with you, but as it happens I believe I am turning over a new leaf. Just see how lovely it is outside. The sun is shinning, there is music in the air..."
"I hear no music," Sally grumbled.
"Birds, Sally. The birds are singing."
Sally remained unconvinced. "That leaf of yours - I don't suppose you'd consider turning it back over again?”
“What is this 'baronet'?" the prince asked.
"Endlessly in between," Harry replied with a sigh. "A bit like purgatory, really.”
“It's good that you can be horrid when neccesary. It's a useful skill."
She leaned on her elbow, settling her chin onto her hand. "Funny, my brother never seemed to think so.”
“A gentleman might have stopped then. She had climaxed, and she was still a virgin, and he was probably a beast for wanting to make love to her fully, but he simply couldn't...not.
She was his.
But not, he was coming to realize, quite as much as he was hers.”
“Places I Would Rather Be, Edition 1821
By Lady Olivia Bevelstoke
France
With Miranda
With Miranda in France
In bed with a cup of chocolate and a newspaper
Anywhere with a cup of chocolate and a newspaper
Anywhere with either with a cup of chocolate or a newspaper”
“I would like to request the honor of your daughter's hand in marriage".
Olivia gasped, then squealed, then jumped up and down, which turned out to be a bad idea. "Ow!" she yelped smacking her head on the window. She poked her head back out and beamed down at Harry with tears in her eyes.
"Oh Harry", she signed.”
“He's an idiot," Harry said again. "One who doesn't deserve to lick your feet. You'll thank me someday."
"I have no intention of allowing him to lick me anywhere," she retorted, then turned utterly red when she realized what she's said.”
“Trust me,” he said. “When a man writes a romance, the woman dies. When a woman writes one, it ends all tidy and sweet.”
“If it had been a great necessity, if it had been contingents of an army meeting to overwhelm the enemy by stealth, it might not have worked out so neatly. But fate it would seem is a perfect strategist and will work miracles of timing to assist our destruction.”
“All I do is keep on running in my own cozy, homemade void, my own nostalgic silence. And this is a pretty wonderful thing. No matter what anybody else says.”
“It always comes down to two choices; Get busy living, or get busy dying.”
“Is there innocence in ignorance? And if there is, do we tolerate other for their innocence's sake?”
“Je zult zien, je zult zien, ooit wordt alles anders, morgen nog niet misschien, maar ooit wordt alles anders. Je zult zien, je zult zien, het is nog niet voorbij. Ik weet niet hoe en ik weet niet waar, maar je zult zien, ooit wordt alles anders.”
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