Seeking Persephone Quotes
"I assume there is no way for me to have him disinherited."
"Well, then, before I die I intend to burn Falstone Castle to the ground."
"I plan to travel to Town and wager half a million pounds on the turn of a card."
"Grasp of the alphabet ought to be a prerequisite to becoming a duke."
"I am surprised you believe the rumors about my having sold my soul to the devil."
"And you wonder why Jones thinks the worst whenever you’re angry with him."
"So you are spending your wedding night in a chair in your book room because your new wife’s parents had a rather classical taste in names?"
"I ought to have written, then? ‘By the way, I have a mutilated face that you will be forced to see day in and day out for the rest of your life. Hope that’s not a problem.’"
"‘I should mention that I am often cranky and will probably bite your head off at every little thing. And it would be best if you came to Falstone a day or so ahead of time so you can get a good look at me before making any of this irrevocable.’ That would have been a good idea, you know."
"Ain’t her fault you ended up with every man’s idea of a perfect wife."
"If one does not know a house, it cannot be one’s home."
"You are no quitter, Persephone Iphigenia La— Boyce."
"Every situation had a glimmer of hope, she’d discovered early in her life."
"I doubt I remind you of your rapscallion grandfather in any way."
"I would wager a pony he hasn’t an ounce of fear in his entire body," Harry said. "And if he does, he squelches it with alarming finality."
"Do not be intimidated. Do not pity," Persephone whispered.
"Adam would never admit it," Harry said, "but he knows I refuse to be bullied, and I think he respects that."
"It is a great deal different to Adam," Harry said. "Adam likes his mother."
"Most people do not even try." Harry’s smile was full of sympathy. "Give it some time. I have a feeling you will come up with a few theories of your own."
"Something about you has ruffled him." Harry narrowed his eyes a little. "And nothing ruffles Adam."
"I have always thought it a very touching story," Persephone said, in obvious disagreement with Adam’s assessment.
"Then you have never truly ridden?" Harry sounded astonished.
"I didn’t poison the port." Adam and Hewitt sat in uncomfortable silence after dinner the night after the interloper’s arrival at Falstone. "It’s actually quite good."
"You cannot ride without a proper riding habit." Adam employed the tone he used that generally made her feel rather slow-witted.
"No one has ever worried about me, Persephone." It was a simple statement—no self-pity, no bitterness or a sense of having been wronged.
"It is not necessary for you to say anything." He held his hands fisted at his side. "I only wished to explain why it was the wrong color."
"I have no idea what to say, Adam," Persephone whispered, her hand brushing the habit but her eyes fixed on him.
"You seem thoughtful, Your Grace," Mr. Hewitt said, breaking into her thoughts.
"I think it the perfect color," Persephone said. "It may not be black, but it is a very deep blue, quite nearly black. And I can use it after my period of mourning is complete."
"Good heavens," Persephone whispered. Could the angry, snapping, aloof man actually be covering his own shyness? It seemed absurd, and yet . . .
"You’ve missed your riding lesson this morning." Adam’s voice suddenly sounded from the doorway of the breakfast room.
"I’m losing my bloody mind." It was not a comforting thought.
"I wonder what Persephone will think of that." The moment he spoke the thought, Adam clamped his mouth shut.
"You’ve been out in the cold all day, Adam," Persephone said. "You should get some rest as well."
"I will have the kitchen send you up a hot dinner." Persephone stepped back from his doorway.
"He’d never known another person whose proximity he missed so immediately."
"A good night’s sleep, Adam told himself. That was all he needed."
"You’re a sop," he told himself, even as his eyes darted again to the connecting door between his chambers and Persephone’s.
"Persephone seemed to sigh, a sound of immediately recognizable relief. ‘Oh, Adam,’ she whispered."
"At least," Adam whispered almost silently, "she doesn’t snore."
"Adam wanted to tell her she wasn’t the coward she’d labeled herself."
"‘Ridiculous! Bloody ridiculous!’ He’d have hit something if everything in the room hadn’t been made of either solid stone or hardwood."
"‘Forgive me these lies,’ she silently prayed. ‘But I cannot make my sister unhappy.’"
"‘Smile, child.’ Persephone did. A smile shouldn’t look unhappy."
"Adam felt like an ogre. The law gave him the right to dictate everything in his home. But his conscience began to decree otherwise."
"Adam felt nearly glad he’d slipped from his usual approach to life."
"Suddenly Persephone understood why her dear friend Harriet Upton had allowed their lifelong friend George Sanford to kiss her in the apple orchard three years earlier."
"Adam would never have said so out loud, but Harry was more correct than he realized."
"For one thing, he had a wife whom he had inadvertently discovered he very much enjoyed kissing."
"Every creature has someone who could save 'em if only they would try."
"People depend on dukes. Dukes do not depend on people."
"Perhaps the cold's too much for 'er,'Tis bitter out today."
"My father taught me a few manners before she disappeared."
"You have the same eyes. And there is something very similar about your mouth and the shape of your face."
"It makes far more sense than your going to Newcastle."
"You didn’t expect me to eat the entire chicken, did you?"
"Go, then. Go wherever you bloody well want to. I don’t care."
"Obsessions cannot possibly be good for a man."
"The pack answered with a fearsome chorus of howls."
"Be quick about it. The pack won't stay spooked for long."
"No," came the sob, tiny and quiet and filled with fear.
"I cannot hold on to both of you at the same time."
"You are going to have to hold on to me instead of the other way around."
"Hold fast," he said. "If I find the road, we are going to run."
"Are we safe now?" Persephone asked as quietly as before.
"I am never going to ride again as long as I live," she declared feebly.
"And when has the Duke of Kielder cared what was usual?"
"’Twould ache any man’s heart to have to see his wife’s blood that way."
"If you will stay with me," he answered silently.
"No one is as dangerous as the Duke of Kielder."
"What happened today, I don’t believe was an accident."
"He tried to kill my wife," Adam threw back. "If the wolves don’t tear him to pieces, I will."
"Shovels and picks and axes make effective weapons."
"Desperation made a man unpredictable and, thus, extremely dangerous."
"A single blow produced enough blood to prove the man’s nose was broken."
"You’ll hang for that!" John Handly shouted at the man.
"Deep in a laudanum-induced sleep, Persephone did not even stir when Adam stole into her bedchamber late that night."
"I am sorry, Persephone," he whispered to her as she slept. "But I cannot let you go."
"You are more suited to the navy than we originally believed."
"If I had known, Midshipman Lancaster, that your intention in visiting here was to make your sister cry, I would not have invited you."
"Every young navy man wishes to bring his female relatives into varying states of hysteria on every possible occasion."
"She was battered and bruised and, if not for the laudanum, would have been in too much pain to even sleep."
"Of course I loved your father. He was a good man, despite his implacableness."
"I was waiting, in my foolishly romantic heart, for him to come for me."
"But did his Persephone love him in spite of his flaws, in spite of all he’d done to her?"
"Am I too late? Is there nothing I can... nothing to..."