Quotes from Mary Balogh

Everyone had run to do her bidding. Soon only the three men--the three useless ones--had been left in the sitting room to fight terror and nausea and fits of the vapors. The door opened. Three pale, terrified faces turned toward it. -the three manly men waiting during a childbirth

For some people, happiness consists in waiting for some disaster to overtake them or the world

Ah, yes, Teddy, he said. Teddy was a fortunate man. Teddy is dead, she reminded him. Oh, quite so, he said. But there are doubtless many men, Diana, who would gladly die after four years with you rather than live a century without you. What utter nonsense, she said crossly. I, of course, he said, am not a romantic. I would far prefer to have you and live for a century.

you are usually in a different universe," she said, "one that revolves about you. The Peninsula was full of rude, blustering officers who believed other people had been created to pay them homage. I always thought they were merely silly and best ignored.

Butterflies were all very pretty in a meadow. They were altogether less comfortable in her stomach.

Sometimes her capacity for self-deception disturbed her.

Miss Fry had been borne off, as planned, Hugo reported, to be outfitted from head to toe for her wedding and her new life. His wife had gone with her, and so had the Countess of Kilbourne, her sister-in-law. Vincent hoped Sophia would not feel overwhelmed. "They will look after her, lad," Hugo assured him as though he had read Vincent's thoughts. "Woman power or something hideous like that. It is better to stay far away from it and let them do what they must do.

One could not change the past anyway. Why let it blight the present and the future?

All she could think of was crawling into bed and being left alone with her misery.

It was in idleness that one came face-to-face with the I AM. With simple, elemental Being.

I would not wish to deny you your dreams. But have a care. They can be dashed in one impulsive moment.

But she felt an unexpected stab of loneliness. Teddy was not there. If she were to reach out to where he had always lain beside her, he would not be there. He would never be there again. Not ever or ever or ever.

The only point that troubled me, I must confess, is that Miss Tallant dislikes being called Henrietta. But I thought people might be confused if I announced my betrothal to Henry Tallant. Some few might even be scandalized, do you not agree, Oliver?

There is a funny thing about tomorrow," he said. "It never comes. Have you noticed? For when the day that ought to be tomorrow arrives, it is actually today. And today we are in love and planning to marry.

It was almost as if she had been lulled into a sleep long ago and had been hovering on the brink of waking but had resisted doing so. Sometimes it was more comfortable to remain asleep than to be awake.

You just have not...oh, learned who yo are yet.

Why , instead of teaching her poetry and drama and needlework, had her governesses not taught the most important lesson anyone could learn - that life was really not going to be easy after one was free of the schoolroom?

Besides, how could one apologize for kissing a woman twice? Once might be explained away as an impulsive accident. Twice suggested definite intent or a serious lack of control. His

His years of dependency were past. It was time to grow up and take charge. It was not going to be easy. But he had long ago realized that he must treat his blindness as a challenge rather than as a handicap if he wished to enjoy anything like a happy, fulfilled life.

She would try to paint. She would always try, for the road to perfection held an irresistible lure, even if the destination remained always tantalizingly just beyond the farthest horizon.

She was Sophia Fry, though her name was rarely used. She was known by her relatives, when she was known as anything at all, and perhaps by their servants too, as the mouse.

when one had taken that first determined step out into the rest of one's life, one had to keep on striding forward—or retreat and be forever defeated.

It sounded very shallow put that way. Did it matter? Sometimes the human spirit needed the shallows. Sunshine danced on the shallows but was absorbed beyond trace by the depths.

Well,' Frederick had said, 'I will see what can be arranged, Archie. But I will not have the girl frightened or compromised.' 'You sound like a grandfather who has raised fifteen daughters and is now starting on his granddaughters, Freddie,' Lord Archibald had said. 'It is most disconcerting.