Devil In Spring Quotes
"There's nothing more important than my grandchildren. And I enjoy spending time in the nursery—it reminds me of when my children were small."
"No one could look into those remarkable light blue eyes, alive with glints of fire and ice, without recalling that he had once been the most wicked rake in England."
"Why did you come to find me?" Evie asked languidly, her head tilting back as his lips slid to her throat.
"Time had treated Sebastian lovingly, and always would."
"I’m trying, but it’s a very awkward position."
"Why should any of these people"—Pandora cast a quick, wary glance at the crowd in the ballroom—"care what I choose to do?"
"Approximately a year ago, her older sister Helen had married Mr. Rhys Winterborne, a common-born Welshman, and they were exceedingly happy."
"I didn’t plan to make ill use of my Season," she mumbled. "I just didn’t realize how difficult it would be."
"Whether or not your husband likes you is immaterial. Marriage has nothing to do with personal feelings. It is a union of interests."
"I would rather be a charwoman than a peer’s wife."
"I don’t give a pickle about what Dolly and Mr. Hayhurst were doing on this settee, I just want to be out of it. Will you help me now?"
"I’ve just received news about your son." "Which one?" "Gabriel. There’s been a scandal."
"I believe you may have just now." The earl glanced back in the direction Lady Pandora had gone. "A wallflower," he said softly, with a faint, reminiscent smile on his lips.
"I can’t marry you," she said numbly. "I’d lose everything."
"I know you’re trying to do the right thing, my lord, but I don’t need you to save me or my reputation. Please go home."
"Hold your tongue. Have you taken leave of your senses?"
"I’ve never wanted to marry. Anyone who knows me will tell you that."
"At my brother’s wedding, they handed out slivers of wedding cake to all the unmarried girls and said if we put it under our pillows, we would dream of our future husbands. I ate my cake instead. Every crumb."
"I’m so sorry for intruding on your happy hunting grounds."
"Not every girl who attends a ball wants to be Cinderella."
"I’ve made plans for my life that don’t involve becoming anyone’s wife."
"What the bloody hell were you doing at the ball in the first place, if you don’t want to marry?"
"Is that how men think of it? No wonder I hate balls."
"Worse things can happen to a woman than a ruined reputation."
"I’ve become so obsessed with her that I haven’t even visited my mistress."
"Forgive me," he said quietly, looking down at her. "I had intended to be waiting here, appropriately attired, when you arrived. I don’t want you to think your visit isn’t important to me."
"I rarely walk in a straight line," she confessed. "I’m too distractible to keep to one direction—I keep veering this way and that, to make certain I’m not missing something."
"Who cares what the temperature is? I want to talk about things like . . . Darwin. Women’s suffrage. Workhouses, war, why we’re alive."
"No one’s ever explained it that way before," Pandora said with a touch of wonder.
"Doing nothing is exhausting. I need to rest in case we do nothing again later."
"Regardless," he said, "you have nothing to lose now."
"I’ll never be good at it, but the important thing is to keep trying."
"I’m not responsible for what just happened. I have a nervous condition."
"Flirting is like playing. It’s a promise you may or may not keep."
"The fact that I asked you to be a chaperone should have made it obvious that I didn’t want a chaperone at all."
"A wife trades her independence in return for a husband’s protection and support."
"Any man who chooses to believe women’s minds are inferior is underestimating them at his own peril."
"Marriage is far too important a matter to be decided with reason."
"Every night for the rest of my life, I’ll dream of the afternoon in the holloway, when I was waylaid by a dark-haired beauty who devastated me with the heat of a thousand troubled stars, and left my soul in cinders."
"Being imaginative and playful doesn’t make you any less of an adult."
"If I were married, I would have no choice but to fulfill my legal spousal obligation. But I still wouldn’t want to."
"Don’t be so sure. I have persuasive skills you don’t know about yet."
"You’re worried that you might do something naughty with me and enjoy it."
"Let fate decide. What’s the worst that could happen?"
"I’ll leave you a virgin. Only a little less innocent."
"Take a risk. Have a little adventure with me."
"I’ve been flamboozled. You’re not a mediocre player at all, are you?"
"A midnight rendezvous was supposed to be romantic and daring."
"You’re safe in my arms. Nothing’s going to harm you, my sweet girl."
"I never want you to be in any man’s arms but mine."
"If we were to marry, I suppose I wouldn’t mind."
"I thought it better than resorting to harlotry or seducing innocents."
"I believe women should enjoy it, radical as that might sound."
"No one’s wings have to be clipped. I’ll support whatever you decide to do."
"This is why I’ve never understood why people think the devil is a hideous beast with horns and claws and a forked tail. No one would be tempted by that."
"It takes time and patience to change people’s way of thinking."
"One has to speak to people in a way they can hear."
"The law won’t change in the next two days, and you have a decision to make."
"Everyone has scattered in different directions, and the house is quiet."
"There’s very little in life that doesn’t require a compromise of one kind or another."
"But wouldn’t it be dull if ever-after was always happy, with no difficulties or problems to solve?"
"You’re the only person my hair has ever obeyed."
"No matter what you choose, it won’t be perfect."
"What if our situations were reversed? Would you give up all your legal rights and surrender everything you own to me?"
"Do you want to know why I love board games? The rules make sense, and they’re the same for everyone. The players are equal."
"What a welcome addition you are to the family, Pandora."
"No, Pandora. He learned how to love them without changing them. To let them be what they were meant to be."
"There are items in the meat larder that are older than your relationship with Pandora."
"It’s like discovering lovemaking for the first time."
"I’m as happy as a clam at high water."
"Forgive me," Pandora said, approaching them, "I wanted to ask—"
"I’m sorry," Pandora said in confusion, letting the woman bustle her quickly to the gallery and into the shop offices. "I didn’t mean to interrupt your meeting, but—"
"Thank you," Pandora said, staring at her in concern. "Again, I’m sorry if I did something wrong."
"What happened?" Dragon asked brusquely, reaching out to steer her around a rotting hole in the planks.
"No, you shouldn’t." It wasn’t a reprimand, only a quiet confirmation.
"I promise." She laid her head on his shoulder.
"Everyone admires delicate ladies," the lady’s maid informed her. "The article quoted Lord Byron: ‘There’s a sweetness to woman’s decay.’"
"What are my choices?" "They all begin with removing your drawers."
"I wish I could," she said, "but I’m too clumsy. You know I don’t dance well."
"You’re nothing but a skinny, awkward child, just as he described."
"That’s nothing but bitchful thinking," Pandora said calmly.
"I’m sure you think that’s what I should fear," Pandora said, "but I actually don’t worry about that at all. I didn’t trick him, by the way."
"You’re mine now." She smiled faintly, holding his gaze. "All mine, and I won’t share you. She’s not allowed to have even five minutes of your time."
"She can’t hurt us," she said softly. "She can glare until her eyeballs fall out, and it won’t bother me in the least."
"Wouldn’t it be strange if I died from this?" Pandora chattered, trembling against his chest. "Our grandchildren wouldn’t be at all impressed."
"There’s still time for that, bychan. Don’t worry about your game."
"Being just a little cynical will make you a much safer optimist."
"What wound? I have a wound?" "You were stabbed. By your Mrs. O’Cairre."
"Not my Mrs. O’Cairre," she said after a moment, her teeth chattering. "If she’s going around stabbing people, I’m disowning her."
"My lord," she said to Gabriel without preamble, "please bring Lady St. Vincent this way."
"It’s all right," Pandora told her sister. "There’s nothing to worry about."
"In a life that had been filled with infinite opportunities, possibilities, and alternatives than most human beings had ever been blessed with . . . there was no choice, now when it mattered most."
"We’ll make the facilities available to anyone you choose, and assist in any way we can. But you had better fetch him quickly."
"All I can do is love them, and try my damnedest to keep them safe, even knowing it won’t always be possible."
"You’re the reason the earth turns and morning follows night. You’re the meaning of primroses and why kissing was invented. You’re the reason my heart beats."
"I’m never going to obey you. But I’m always going to love you."
"Having a family has made me a happy man. It’s also robbed me of all peace of mind, probably forever. But on the whole . . . not a bad bargain."
"I merely relate the facts. How you react to them is your responsibility, not mine."
"If there’s a problem, it will occur within the first forty-eight hours."
"My lord, I never try to make people feel better by shading the truth one way or the other."