Life isn’t about crawling under a rock and watching the world go by, desperately hoping it won’t touch us.” He knelt down and began to help her gather the pins. “Life is about taking chances, about reaching for the moon.
I love you,” he whispered. “In all my life, its been only you.
He wasn’t sure how it had come about, but her good opinion meant a great deal to him. Of course, he needed her approval in his much-neglected suit of Edwina, but there was more to it than that. She’d insulted him, she’d nearly dunked him in The Serpentine, she’d humiliated him at Pall Mall, and yet he craved her good opinion.
When my father grew ill, he had so many regrets. There were so many things he washed he’d done, he told me. He’d always assumed he had more time. That’s something I’ve always carried with me. Why on earth do you think I decided to attempt the flute at such an advanced age? Everyone told me I was too old, that to be truly good at it I had to have started as a child. But that’s not the point, really. I don’t need to be truly good. I just need to enjoy it for myself. And I need to know I tried.
I won’t offer you a penny for your thoughts, since I know they can’t possibly be worth that much, but what are you thinking about?
Kate, on the other hand, always stood with her shoulders straight and tall, couldn’t sit still if her life depended upon it, and walked as if she were in a race – and why not? she always wondered. If one was going somewhere, what could possibly be the point in not getting there quickly?
It was easy to assume that you didn’t care about the opinions of others when those opinions were consistently favorable.
Did words have meaning if they were never heard?
A lady must have her own private reserve of secrets and strength,” her grandmother continued. “Trust me.” She took a sip of her drink, let out a contented exhale, and took another. “Once you are married you will understand what I mean.
He wondered if everyone’s lives had a dividing point. A moment which sat clearly between before and after.
And her lips, he realized now that she wasn’t hurling insults at him, were utter perfection, full and pink, and touched with just the right sort of curve. They seemed to tell a man that she knew things, that she knew how to laugh, and if he only laid down his soul for her, she would light up his world with a single smile. Sarah Pleinsworth. Good God, had he lost his mind?
It means that love isn’t about being afraid that it will all be snatched away. Love’s about finding the one person who makes your heart complete, who makes you a better person than you ever dreamed you could.
But a truly smart person learns from other people’s mistakes.
You are the bane of my existence and the object of all my desires.
Yes, that’s exactly what he would do. Avoid her. How difficult could that be?
And then there was Kate Sheffield. The bane of his existence. And the object of his desires. All at once.
He didn’t often talk about his father, not even with his family. He’d told himself that it was because it was so much under the bridge; Edmund had been dead for over ten years. But the truth was that some things simply hurt too much. And there were some wounds that didn’t heal, not even in ten years.
For one split moment, he had the bizarre thought that she somehow knew everything about him, every last detail from the moment of his birth to his certainty of his own death. It seemed, in that second, with her face tipped up toward his and her lips slightly parted, that she, more than anyone else who would ever walk this earth, truly knew him. It was thrilling. But more than that, it was terrifying.
And in that moment he realized that this was about more than love. This woman made him a better person. He’d been good and strong and kind before, but with her at his side, he was something more.
Really, if people weren’t so intent on keeping young women completely ignorant of the realities of marriage, scenes like this could be avoided.