…having you as a friend wasn’t second prize. It wasn’t something to chafe against. It was an honor.

I’d tell you to fetch a match, but you have always had your own spark.

They caress their falcons to remind them that they are bound. Touch smacks of ownership, and I am weary of being a possession.

After everything we’ve done for each other, a few harsh words hardly signify.

If it must be done, it’s best done bravely.

One mustn’t justify day-to-day morality with extraordinary circumstances. Otherwise, we would all feel free to rape and murder at the drop of a cat.

This is why people are so hard to understand. I cannot even estimate their gravitational pull.

Let them say what they wish behind your back. You need only be strong enough that they don’t say it to your face.

is pronounced with an exclamation point at the end. Like this: ‘Huzzah! Suffragettes!

If people did not fear me so, how could anyone tolerate me?

We are married -and maybe this is no conventional arrangement, but it is still real.”It isn’t,” he said.”It is. What is a husband, but the man who offers you support when all the world turns...

Do not pollute my perfectly acceptable figurative speech with irrelevant facts!

Libraries are the future of reading. When the economy is down, we need to make it easier for people to buy and read books for free, not harder. It is stupid to sacrifice tomorrow’s book...

What you did when you were young could kill you. It just might take years to do it.

I assumed I would be better off telling you about this, rather than waiting for the entire thing to blow up in my face.

When someone else’s safety and acceptance in society is on the line, your personal discomfort comes in a very distant second.

Your boy here-” Ware jerked his head in angry indication “can’t explain himself worth a damn.”That;s hardly news to me. Nonethelss,” Gareth said, “I can’t allow you to kill him. His death would be a...

The dog looked up in entreaty. Liquid brown eyes begged: Take me with you. I’ll be good. Oh, the lies that dogs told.

He wasn’t good with this sort of thing – with the back-and-forth dance between man and woman. He wasn’t even sure if they were dancing, or if she was merely being polite.

Why did you do it? Give up everything to raise another man’s son?’His father did look up at that. ‘I didn’t raise another man’s son,’ he said sharply. ‘I raised my own.

I’ll be your friend in daylight. I’ll treat you as a comrade in every gas-lit ballroom. But alone, under moonlight, I’ll not pretend that I want you for anything but mine.

Miss Edmonton: I don’t even know where to start. It’s too horrifying to even speak of.Jenny: Nonsense. Let’s start with the basics. What did your aunt tell you?Miss Edmonton: My aunt said that my husband...

Her lips found his and a stab of exquisite desire shot through him. This is what he’s been waiting for all this time. Not a stolen embrace. A gift, freely given. One that he would...

I only said I would stop talking to you, he’d written. I never promised to stop loving you.

Over the years, everyone stumbles. That’s why I’ll be here for you — and you’ll be there for me. I don’t expect perfection. I want you, and you’re a thousand times better.

Miranda shook her head slowly. ‘Good heavens. That’s quite an act you put on.’He drew himself up haughtily. ‘I beg your pardon.”An act,’ Miranda repeated. ‘Stand as tall as you like, and frown at me...

I fear that one day I will no longer understand desperation, and with that, I will slowly stop listening to what others have to say.

A man must claim responsibility for his own temptation, and not pin it on the woman who arouses him. It’s a gown, Sir Mark. Not even one of my more daring ones.

Maybe that’s what I have been looking for. When storms and rockslides threaten, I am looking for someone who will hold on to me and not let go.

I’m not broken,’ he repeated. ‘Although at the moment . . . ‘ This was what came of violating the sentimentality quota. Everything he kept bottled inside him came out. He shut his eyes and...

I keep everything hidden because there’s nothing about my true self that anyone likes. I’m not difficult, Sebastian. I’m the easiest person around. I don’t belong, and I spend all my time pretending I do....

I hate that if a woman missteps once, she is condemned forever, and yet the men who follow you can tie a simple ribbon to their hats after years of debauchery, and pass themselves off...

Friendship was a concept men bandied about to save face when they were rejected.

I’m not difficult,” Violet said. “I’m simple. I like good books and clever conversation and being left alone much of the time. How does that make me difficult? I make sense? I don’t talk about...

Three quarters of respectable England hates you.””Half,” Sebastian replied with a smile. “It’s really only half. Judging by my correspondence, it may be as little as forty-eight percent. And of those, only a small number...

What would one do if one were forced to choose between saving an innocent child’s life or engaging in unchaste behavior? This is, after all, the choice that some unfortunate women are put to—sell their...