“I have thoroughly compromised your niece," Alex declared. "Will you plase insist that she marry me?"Caroline didn't bat an eyelash. "This", she announced, "is most peculiar.”

“Not," Caroline had said, "that I disapprove of your moniker. It is simply that my husband's name is also Henry, and it's rather disconcerting for me to use it on a girl of your tender years."Henry had only smiled and told her that that was just fine. It had been so long since she had had a maternal figure that she would have been inclined to let Caroline call her Esmerelda if she so desired.”

“I don't think Henrietta suits anyone," she replied. Then she offered him her cheeky smile, and Alex saw in an instant why Dunford was falling like a rock for this girl. She had spirit, and although she didn't realize it yet, she had beauty, and Dunford didn't have a chance.”

“She was married now, and suddenly she understoodwhat it was her motherhad been trying so hard to tell her on her wedding night. Marriage was about compromise, and she andPhillip were verydifferent people. They might be perfect for one another, but that didn't mean they were the same. And ifshe wanted him to change some of his ways for her, well then, she was going to have to do the same forhim.”

“She was in big trouble now."You stupid man," she said to the body on the floor. "Why did you have to lunge at me like that? Why couldn't you have left well enough alone? I told your father I wasn't going to marry you. I told him I wouldn't marry you if you were the last idiot in Britain."She nearly stamped her foot in frustration. Why was it her words never came out quite the way sheintended them to? "What I meant to say was that you are an idiot," she said to Percy, who, notsurprisingly, didn't respond, "and that I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man in Britain, and- Oh, blast. What am I doing talking to you, anyway? You're quite dead.”

“I have friends who have children, and they have told me how remarkable it is to have a new life that is a piece of your own flesh anf blood. But I --""I realized that I didn't love her because she was a piece of me, I loved her because she was a piece of you.”

“I'd wager you have a vengeful streak a mile wide," he muttered."I am the least vengeful person I know," she said with a sniff. "And if you think otherwise, then perhaps you ought not to marry me.""You're marrying me," he ground out, "if I have to drag you to the altar bound and gagged."Ellie smiled waspishly. "You could try," she taunted, "but in your condition you couldn't drag a flea.""And you say you're not vengeful.""I seem to be developing a taste for it.”