“See. I told you I would get that boy to the alter eventually. All I had to do was pretend I was a loon.”

“I mean, I'm happy to see you, but why aren't you home?""Wherever my wife sleeps is my home.”

“Those aren't from my mother's garden, are they? She'll throttle you.""No," he said, making a grand show of looking insulted. "I would never.""Sorry," she said with a cringe."They're from your neighbor's garden, actually.”

“I never smiled much." His voice was a low purr in the shadows. "Don't be silly," she replied, taking a step closer to the next portrait--and farther away from him. "You smile all the time." "At you," he conceded, "with you, because of you.”

“You are beautiful and humble and sensitive and the keeper of my heart.I know it will take some time, growing up with a beast of a guardian as you did, but there will come a day when you no longer criticize yourself, no longer believe less of yourself, and you will come to love yourself just as much as I love you.Well, almost as much, I imagine.-Gabriel Devine, Duke of Wolverest-”

“By some miracle, Charlotte's polite smile never wavered. It was a proud moment for her. After all, it wasn't every day that a little old lady told you right to your face that your bosom was as flat as a flounder.”

“What have I done to her?" Gabriel muttered to himself as he crossed the room to crank open a window. Cool air washed over his skin. "What the devil did she do to me?”