“How long has it been since you’ve slept?” Chase asked.“I sleep.” Not much.“How long since you’ve slept more than an hour here and there?”“I do not require a mother.”Chase lifted a brow. “Perhaps a wife, then?”Bourne wished Chase were in the damn ring, too.”

“Chase picked up the card. “I’m happy to share from my personal experience, if you like.”Temple grinned at his hand. “And I.”It was all too much. “I do not need advice. She enjoyed it immensely.”“I hear they don’t all enjoy it right off the bat,” Cross said.“That is true,” Chase said, all expertise.“It’s fine if she didn’t, old man,” Temple offered. “You can try again.”“She enjoyed it.” Bourne’s voice was low and tight, and he thought he might kill the next person who spoke.“Well, one thing is for certain,” Temple said, casually, and Bourne ignored the pang of disappointment that the enormous man was very likely the only one at the table he could not kill.”

“Silly girl ... because chasing you makes for more of a challenge -- and more of a reward."Alex offered an amused snort. "I assure you, my lord. Considering my feelings about being 'caught,' I would provide little, if any, reward.”

“First, I thought we'd already established that I am not a gentleman. That ship sailed long ago. And second, you'd be surprised what gentlemen do...and what ladies enjoy."~Lord Bourne”

“Brilliant blue gazes met. “I swear before you and God that I will. But if something should happen, and this morning should go awry, promise me you’ll take care of her. Promise me you’ll tell her…” Ralston paused.“Tell her what?”Ralston took a deep breath, the words bringing a tightening in his chest. “Promise me you’ll tell her that I was an idiot. That the money didn’t matter. That, last night, faced with the terrifying possibility that I had lost her…I realized that she was the most important thing I had ever had…because of my arrogance and my unwillingness to accept what has been in my heart for too long…” He trailed off. “What the hell have I done?”“It appears that you’ve gone and fallen in love.”

“{Calpurnia)"My mother…she’s desperate for a daughter she can dress like a porcelain doll. Sadly, I shall never be such a child. How I long for my sister to come out and distract the countess from my person."He joined her on the bench, asking, "How old is your sister?""Eight," she said, mournfully."Ah. Not ideal.""An understatement." She looked up at the star-filled sky. "No, I shall be long on the shelf by the time she makes her debut.""What makes you so certain you’re shelf-bound?"She cast him a sidelong glance. "While I appreciate your chivalry, my lord, your feigned ignorance insults us both." When he failed to reply, she stared down at her hands, and replied, "My choices are rather limited.""How so?""I seem able to have my pick of the impoverished, the aged, and the deadly dull.”

“Dear Sixpence,I saved them all, you know. Every letter you ever sent, even those to which I never replied. I’m sorry for so many things, my love: that I leftyou; that I never came home; that it took me so long to realize that you were my home and that, with you by my side, none of the restmattered.But in the darkest hours, on the coldest nights, when I felt I’d lost everything, I still had your letters. And through them, in some small way,I still had you.I loved you then, my darling Penelope, more than I could imagine—just as I love you now, more than you can know.MichaelHell House, February 1831”