“ She feigned a sip of her wine. It was claret, not port. It was, she thought, very like Nicolas to travel with his own cellar into a region famed for its wines. I shall always think of you as a friend.… Lauren Willig
“ LIPID (Last Idiot Person I Dated) syndrome: a largely undiagnosed but pervasive disease that afflicts single women. Lauren Willig
“ He appreciated her as a companion; he admired her as a comrade; he wanted her as a lover. All innocuous enough each on its own. Put together . . . Christ. What a coil. Lauren Willig
“ He admired her for throwing off her aristocratic shackles -- his terms, that -- and making her own way in the world.He didn't realize that the truth was so much more complex, so much less impressive.… Lauren Willig
“ Freethinking, Lady Frederick? She hated that name. It was like a shackle around her neck, engraved with the name of her master. She took a step back, her face openly mutinous in the light of the singl… Lauren Willig
“ There was nothing the least bit radical about her. In fact, she was the most conventional creature alive. She believed in true love, and loyalty to one's monarch, and death before dishonor. It was jus… Lauren Willig
“ There was a curiously ferocious quality to their lovemaking, as if it were a competition to see which of them could elicit the greater response from the other. It was as though they were trying to sco… Lauren Willig
“ The urge to turn his back until his stepmother went away was strong, but the urge to talk about Jane was stronger. You were her chaperone? Jack said, the words half lost on the wind.Chaperone, second… Lauren Willig
“ Such kindness wasn't a gift but a goad, scraping against one's skin like a yoke of thorns. She would have preferred him stiff, defensive, even offensive. Lauren Willig
“ Richard! On Hortense’s lips, the name was soft and exotic, Reeshard.She demanded of him in French, When did you return?Richard bowed over Mme Bonaparte’s hand before kissing her daughter’s. I returned… Lauren Willig
“ Our guest—she gave Nicolas a hard look, willing him to behave himself—is not bound because Monsieur le Comte de Brillac has expressed a desire to become our ally.Miss Gwen snorted. Oh, is that what he… Lauren Willig
“ Jane leaned her head against a rough bit of brickwork. She couldn’t say that she hadn’t been warned. She’d known what Jack was before they began working together.But she hadn’t known all the other thi… Lauren Willig
“ Jack reached up to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear. The perfume was growing on him. How are your blisters?It didn’t work. They sting, said Jane shortly. But I didn’t mind that. I didn’t min… Lauren Willig
“ It was the usual sort of academic battle: footnotes at ten paces, bolstered by snide articles in academic journals and lots of sniping about methodology, a thrust and parry of source and countersource… Lauren Willig
“ Her mother would be appalled, but she wouldn't say anything. She would just telegraph her distress with tightened lips and raised brows. She was good at that. Clemmie's mother's brows were better than… Lauren Willig
“ With the complete lack of shame of the extremely deaf and the complete lack of grammar of the extremely inbred. Lauren Willig
“ What is love?Jane had asked Nicolas, when he had professed that emotion, unasked. It hadn’t been coyness. It had been a genuine question.She knew what the poets said of love; she knew what great men a… Lauren Willig
