“Whatever mischief you're up to, I'll be there for it. Besides, someone must ensure that you behave like a lady."I skittered to a stop. "Like a lady? Which is how exactly?" My voice was shrill. He had picked a poor moment to antagonize me."Biddable.""Biddable? Biddable!" Somehow my pitch was even screechier than before. I kicked my bottom high and dipped my chest low-a perfect display of the Grecian bend. "It it's a camel you wish to have,sir,then you are on the wrong continent!”

“Well, I can admire stubbornness in a man. There is little to a man who's too easily biddable.”

“Furthermore—”“There’s a ‘furthermore’?” His voice was utterly inflectionless.“—I’m not a child. I’m a lady born of one of England’s finest and oldest families, and I daresay even you know how to behave in the presence of a lady. Regardless of the inconvenience I’ve caused you, I’ll thank you to remember whatever manners you’ve managed to feign to date, because the ones you’re exhibiting do you no credit and merely reinforce the prevailing opinion, Captain Flint, that you are a savage.” She delighted in giving the S a serpent-like sibilance. “The measure of a gentleman is how he behaves when he hasn’t an audience to witness the beauty of his manners. And I wouldn’t expect you to understand this, my lord, but centuries of fine breeding have ensured that I need not, as you say, exert myself if I choose not to. Only the likes of you equate the actual need to work with virtue. It is in fact due to the work of my ancestors that I no longer need to, and my family considers this a mark of honor.”

“If you must know, I-I had never in my life kissed a young lady, and you are far too beautiful to me to want to get it wrong!”

“Jules wants me to tell you that it's a shame you have to fall for someone as boring as myself. He wishes he could take my place and show you how well an older man can treat a lady." He talked back to the air. "Yeah, right, buddy. What are you, like twenty-seven years older than me? Well, at the moment we're both nineteen, so back off.”

“He drew in a harsh breath before he whispered, "The love I have for you gives me breath and strength. you will always hold my heart. Let it give you the strength to dowhat must be done. For you will be my lady, forever.”