“The last words he said to me when I bade him good-night were:Tell Amy it's no good coming after me. Anyhow, I shall change my hotel, so she wouldn't be able to find me.'My own impression is that she's well rid of you,' I said.My dear fellow, I only hope you'll be able to make her see it. But women are very unintelligent.”

“I bade good morrow,And thought to leave her far away behind;But cheerly, cheerly,She loves me dearly;She is so constant to me, and so kind.- To Sorrow”

“And I need you, my love," he said. "I need you so much that I panic when I think that perhaps I will not be able to persuade you to come back with me to Enfield. I need you so much that I cannot quite contemplate the rest of my life if it must be lived without you. I need you so much that—Well, the words speak for themselves. I need you.""To look after Augusta?" she said. She dared not hear what he was surely saying. She dared not hope. "To look after Enfield? To provide you with an heir?""Yes," he said, and her heart sank like a stone to be squashed somewhere between her slippers and the parlor carpet."And to be my friend and my confidant and my comfort. And to be my lover.”

“I took a deep breath and kept my focus fixed on her. "Making me chase you wouldn't be a good idea right now, flower," I stated, fully aware of my Wolf."No, it wouldn't, but you need to stay over there," she said firmly.My brow furrowed. "Why?""Because, if you come near me, I will want to kiss you," she said, nibbling her lower lip the way I wanted to."Well good, because I want to kiss you too." I moved back the way I had come, and so did she. "Clare—""No, not good." She shook her head. "Kissing leads to touching, or grinding, or"—she shuddered as her energy suggestively brushed against mine— "or petting, and almost stripping.”

“He doesn't realise how much it hurts me when he's so curt," his mother said sorrowfully. "He doesn't mean it," I said. "It's just calving. I expect every dairy farmer in the country is being rude to his mother just now.""It's Rose, too," she told me. "He's such a dear boy Josie; it's tearing him apart to see her so unwell. Perhaps-" she paused and looked at me with a Madonna-like expression of patient and loving reproach - "perhaps it might help if you didn't expect him to dance attendance very spare minute, hmmm ?"My hand clenched on the handle of my fork as I considered throwing it at her like a spear. I've got pretty good aim - I'd probably be able to get her in the side of the head from here. But the consequences wouldn't be worth the fleeting satisfaction. I dropped my eyes to my plate and nodded."You're a sweet girl. I know you don't mean to be selfish.”

“She angled her chin proudly. “Very well. If you insist.I’ve come to invite you to my wedding.”He shook his head sadly. “That I cannot do, mylove.”“But it shall be the talk of London. I want you there.Desperately.”He gazed out to the sea. “I never thought you to becruel, Tess. I can deny you nothing. But please don’task this of me.”“But if you’re not there, my dear, dear Leo, thenhowever shall I marry you?She watched as the shock of her words rippledover his beloved features.“Me? But you always said no when I asked for yourhand.”“I was a foolish woman. Lynnford was the love of myyouth. And as we have talked these many weeks aswe’ve not been able to talk in years, so wediscovered that neither of us is the person that eachof us fell in love with. We were holding onto someonewho no longer exists.” She took a tentative steptoward him. “You love me as I am now. And I shall loveyou always. Marry me, Leo. For God’s sake, marryme.”