“Is your head bothering you?" Louisa asked. But she wasn't paying much attention. Frederick, her ridiculously fat basset hounds, had spotted a fellow canine in the distance and was yanking on the lead. "Frederick!" she yelped, tripping on a step or two before she found her footing.Frederick stopped, althought it wasn't clear if it was due to Louisa's hold on the lead or outright exhaustion. He let out a hugh sigh, and frankly, Annabel was suprised that he didn't collapse on the ground."I think someone has been sneaking him sausages again," Louisa grumbled.Annabel looked elsewhere."Annabel!""He looked so HUNGERY," Annabel insisted.Louisa motioned toward her dog, whos belly slid along the grass. "THAT looks hungery?""His eyes looked hungery.”

“You've already danced with him," Louisa said.Annabel nodded. "I know.""People will talk."Annabel turned and blinked, trying to set her cousin's face into focus. "People are already talking," she said.Louisa opened her mouth as if she planned to say more, but then she just smiled. "Annabel Winslow," she said softly, "I do believe you are falling in love."That snapped Annabel right out of her daze. "I'm not.""Oh, you are.""I hardly know him.""Apparently you know enough.”

“When he looked up at Annabel, he was just a man, looking at a woman, praying and hoping that she loved him the way he loved her.”

“Today I glory in my sixdom.""Sixdom?""Sixitude."Annabel started to grin."Sixulation," Louisa proclaimed.”

“I miss my dog."..."What was his name again?""Mouse.""That was very unkind of you.""Naming him mouse?""Isn't he a greyhound?""I could have named hum Turtle.""Frederick!"..."It's better than Frederic," Annabel said, "Good heavens, that's my brother's name.”

“Annabel looked down. Her hands were shaking. She couldn't do this. Not yet. She couldn't face the man she'd kissed who happened to be the heir to the man she didn't want to kiss but whos she probably was going to marry. Oh yes, and she could not forget that if she did marry the man she didn't want to kiss, she was likely to provide him with a new heir, thus cutting off the man she did want to kiss.”

“Sophie stared at the door, trying desperately to keep her eyes focused on anything but Benedict. She'd spent all week hoping for a glimpse,but now that he was here, all she wanted was to escape. If she looked at his face, her eyes inevitably strayed to his lips. And if she looked at his lips, her thoughts immediately went to their kiss. And if she thought about the kiss..."I need that thimble," she blurted out, jumping to her feet. There were some things one just shouldn't think about in public."So you said," Benedict murmured, one of his eyebrows quirking up into a perfect-and perfectly arrogant-arch."It's downstairs," she muttered. "In my room.""But your room is upstairs," Hyacinth said.Sophie could have killed her. "That's what I said," she ground out."No," Hyacinth said in a matter-of-fact tone, "you didn't.""Yes," Lady Bridgerton said, "she did. I heard her."Sophie twisted her head sharply to look at Lady Bridgerton and knew in an instant that the older woman had lied. "I have to get that thimble," she said, for what seemed like the thirtieth time. She hurried toward the doorway, gulping as she grew close to Benedict."Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself," he said, stepping aside to allow her through the doorway.But as she brushed past him, he leaned forward, whispering, "Coward.”