“No soft-skinned, lace-covered, dandified profligate would ever take this house and make it his.Ever.”

“Angus, when you're done with the brick, I shall add some oiled rags. That will make it smoke even worse."Angus turned an admiring glance at his partner in crime. "Miss,ye've a gift fer this,ye do."She chuckled,the sound just as seductive, except for the hint of mockery. "I'm becoming as adept at this as the new owner is at shirking his duty.""Now,miss,he might have a good reason not to rush here.""Like what?""I don't know.Perhaps he won several houses at the card game and has been visitin' them all.""It's far more likely he was waylaid by a lass with loose morals. From what I hear, the man's a lace-bedecked profligate."Blast the woman and her rude assumptions! He may have stayed in Stirling to sample the charms of a widow, but that did not make a lace-bedecked profligate.What burned the most was that she was correct in her assumption about what had kept him away from his new acquisition.”

“Why would he bother? He has no more wish to wed than I.”“How do you know?” Anthony asked. “Did you ask him?”Her face heated, and Anthony covered his eyes. “Pray do not say another word. I don’t wish to know.”“Bridgeton had a choice, Sara,” Marcus said. “And he chose marriage.”“Get married or die. I vow, how did he make up his mind so quickly?”“I wanted to shoot him,” Anthony offered. “But Marcus would not allow it.”“You are both insufferable!”

“So he’s harmless, then.”“I wouldn’t say that, exactly.”“No?” “I would n’t slip up behind him with a knife, for he might retaliate.” Michael shrugged. “But that’s to be expected. He kills only when necessary.”Mary covered her face with her hands and moaned.”

“When you get to Lady Kincaid's house, don't leave until you've had a chance to talk to the man, even if you have to drag him by the ear. It may take a bit of persistence."Sophie grinned, feeling better already. "That I have in abundance.”

“As Dougal ushered them into the dining room, he wondered if Sophia's father and her grandfather would both wish to stay at MacFarlane House with them.But as he looked into Sophia's smiling eyes, he realized it didn't matter. So long as she was by his side, life would be a grand adventure.And no man could ask for more.”

“One good thing that comes from living the nomadic life demanded by an expedition is that one sheds the fake skin donned from living too closely among society. For those of us who live for the freedom of such a lifestyle, that skin is dry and itchy and ill fitting. From my observances, that skin is much like a callus caused by the pure irritation of being forced to spend so much time with one’s fellow man. Thank God I am spared such nonsense.”