“Leofgifu was skeptical, but then she always was with men. None of them could be trusted; they covered you in kisses and promises, then vanished, leaving nothing but a torn heart, and ofttimes a swelling belly.”

“I will never get enough of you. Don't leave me," he murmurs and kisses my belly."I'm not going anywhere, Christian, and I seem to remember that I wanted to kiss your belly," I grumble sleepily.He grins at my skin. "Nothing stopping you baby.”

“He promised her that he would give her everything, everything she wanted, as men in love always do. And she trusted him despite herself, as women in love always do.”

“Many perfumes promise to lure men to women. None of them smell of motherhood. None of them proclaim the wearer to be tidy, thrifty, and sensible.”

“The greatest fools are ofttimes more clever than the men who laugh at them.”

“She said that her grandmother was skeptical of many things in this world and of none more than men. She said that in every trade save war men of talent and vigor prosper. In war they die. Her grandmother spoke to her often of men and she spoke with great earnestness and she said that rash men were a great temptation to women and this was simply a misfortune like others and there was little that could be done to remedy it. She said that to be a woman was to live a life of difficulty and heartbreak and those who said otherwise simply had no wish to face the facts. And she said that since this was so nor could it be altered one was better to follow one’s heart in joy and in misery than simply to seek comfort for there was none. To seek it was only to welcome in the misery and to know little else. She said that these were things all women knew yet seldom spoke of. Lastly she said that if women were drawn to rash men it was only that in their secret hearts they knew that a man who would not kill for them was of no use at all.”