Quotes from Deanna Raybourn

It sounds ghoulish, but it would have been fascinating to be in Paris in 1789 and watch the revolution begin. I can't even imagine what the energy must have been like that year with all of that change crackling in the air.

If you were a man, your ladyship, I would cordially horsewhip you for that remark.

Now I was more certain than ever of my decision. I could not love a man who did not love Jane Austen.

To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband's dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.

I abhorred weakness of any kind but most particularly in my tea.

Fate is by far the greatest mystery of all.

Mrs. Clutterthorpe, I can hardly think of any fate worse than becoming the mother of six. Unless perhaps it were plague, and even then I am persuaded a few disfiguring buboes and possible death would be preferable to motherhood.

Oh, yes. I mean to marry him. But not because I want him to give me a life. I want to marry him to share the life I already have. The difference, I think you will find, is a significant one.

O, the perfidy of men." "What have I done?" he protested. "Nothing at present, but you are the only representative of your sex I have at hand to abuse. Take your lumps for your brothers.

I stepped closer still. He closed his eyes again and covered my hand with his own. 'You smell of violets. You always smell of violets,' he said. 'You've no idea how many times I have walked these moors and smelled them and thought you were near. On and on I walked, following the scent of you, and you were never there. When I saw you in the hall tonight, I thought I had finally gone mad.

What virtue is there in a man who demonstrates goodness because he has been bred to it? It is his habit from youth. But a man who has known unkindness and want, for him to be kind and charitable to those who have been the cause of his misfortunes, that is a virtuous man.

If you were a man, your ladyship, I would cordially horsewhip you for that remark.

Now I was more certain than ever of my decision. I could not love a man who did not love Jane Austen.

Because there is no power on earth that could make me abandon our friendship. There is no deed you could confess so dark that it would make me forsake you. You said of us once that we were quicksilver and the rest of the world mud. We are alike, shaped by Nature in the same mold, and whatever that signifies, it means that to spurn each other would be to spit in the face of whatever deity has seen fit to bring us together. We are the same, and to leave you would be to leave myself.

I would give up everything for you, Giulia" I smiled at him gently. "But you must understand. I should never want a man to give up anything for me. I should want him to feel in winning me he has won the whole world...

One cannot innovate new improvements without understanding old failures.

I adored history, not the dry dates and boring battles, but the stories and the people who populated them.

After a moment, he turned sharply to me. 'Are you quite all right?' 'Yes, perfectly. Why do you ask?' 'Because I have just called you contrary and you did not bother to contradict me. I thought you might be ill.

One is not born English without knowing how to converse easily about the weather.

I am sorry " I murmured. "I know. I ought not to have threatened to beat you " he returned. He pressed a kiss to my hair. "I just cannot bear to be kept out of your life " I said into the dark. He gave a sigh. "Julia you daft woman. When you will you understand You are my life.

I have faith that men can be as reasonable and logical as women if they but try.

He considered that a moment, rolling the sweet over his tongue. "There are times when it is entirely safe to show one's vulnerability, to roll over and reveal the soft underbelly beneath. But there are other times when pain must be borne without a murmur, when the pain is so consuming that if you give in to it, even in the slightest, you have lost everything.

Stoker's smile was slow and terrible. 'You think that is love, brother? That I should kill for her?' He shook his head, his eyes locked with mine. 'You are the fool, Tiberius, because you still do not understand. I do not love her enough to kill for her.' He stepped to the edge of the rock. 'I love her enough to die for her.' And without another word, he disappeared over the edge of the rock and into the blackness of the sea.

But this is a thing that I know--to live with fear is not to live at all. A man will die every moment he is afraid.