Quotes from Linda Lael Miller

Couldn't you stay?" she whispered. "Couldn't someone else go on that cattle drive?" He shook his head, then bent to kiss her lightly on the mouth. "Be ready," he told her, when it was over, "because when I get home, I plan to take you wherever I find you." With that, he gave Emma a little pat on the bottom, put his hat on, and went whistling down the walk to the gate. Emma

with his arms resting across the back. "We're witnesses

When it comes to letting another man lay his hands on you, I have no honor," he said bluntly. She

Well, I won't be here when you get back." He grinned at her, but there was no fondness in the expression, no light in his eyes. "You won't get far, will you?" he asked, and Lily saw mockery in the curve of his lips and the set of his shoulders. "I'll wager you don't want to face even Gertrude without my wedding band on your finger." He

She was going to have to be careful not to forget that Caleb's intentions were not honorable. To him she was just an amusement, something to play with. His interest in her was as selfish and thoughtless as Isadora's had been. With

Steven's patience had been taxed to the limits. He'd never in his life laid a hand on a female in anger, but he was sorely tempted to haul this one off to the woodshed and blister her backside.

Emma. He smiled in the darkness, thinking what a fool he'd made of himself. Because of Chloe, he'd assumed he was in a whorehouse, and he'd taken Emma for a fresh young flower in the madam's bouquet. Instead she was a librarian, and there was every likelihood that no man had ever laid a hand on her. Steven

She came into the room, carrying a kerosene lantern this time, and Steven couldn't help cringing when he thought of the damage that could do. But

He ached, not just to have her beneath him, but to have her beside him. He wanted to tell her why he needed to go home and face Joss, why he was tired of the army, why he wanted sons and daughters. He wanted her to hold him in her arms and tell him that everything would be all right, that they would work out all their differences and learn to live together in peace. It

Steven cupped his hands behind his head and gazed up at the ceiling while he imagined how it would be if everything was all right in New Orleans, if he could take Emma to Fairhaven and make a life with her there. He even went so far as to think about the children she might bear him, to picture them playing on the green lawns and sliding in their stocking feet on the slick floor of the ballroom. He

Steven couldn't help laughing at the somber dignity of her expression. Her very primness lured him, made him want to bring out the wildcat he expected she was hiding from the world and maybe even herself.

He's never made you feel like a woman," he said, with insultingly accurate perception. "You're as luscious as a ripe peach, and the fool's left you on the vine. To my way of thinking, that makes him an oddity, like the mummified Indian I saw once.

Stay there," he rasped, "or I swear to God, you'll still have the imprint of my hand on your ass when you're ninety!" Joellen

Wilbur looked patently horrified. "Surely you wouldn't consider living on Suds Row," he said. Then he lowered his voice. "If the major won't marry you, I will." Lily was now exasperated as well as winded. "Of course I don't mean to live on the Row," she answered, ignoring Wilbur's whispered offer to make an honest woman of her.

No," Jack struggled to quip, "but

You were the one who brightened up the dull days, Gram, Hadleigh thought now. You, with your love and your laughter and with that magical smile of yours.

Steven longed to comfort her, but he didn't dare. After all, he'd practically called her a prostitute earlier, albeit by mistake, and despite the sponge bath he figured he most likely smelled like a mule fart.

den a lot of times myself," she confessed.

He caught her left hand in his and lifted it so that the diamond sparkled in the firelight. "I see you haven't cut off your finger yet." Lily smiled sleepily. "That would have hurt too much.

Insanity, the saying went, was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get different results.

If I were you," she countered, "I'd get the major's weddin' ring on my finger, and his baby in my belly, and I'd forget this whole stupid idea of homesteadin'!" Insulted

Courage, like so many other things, was not something one did or didn't have; it was a decision, a choice.

You delight in making a fool of me," she accused in a furious whisper. "Not true," Caleb replied smoothly. "But I do like watching the sparks catch in your eyes when you realize you've just been had. May I walk you home, Miss Chalmers?" "Certainly not. In fact, I would deem it a great favor if you would simply stop bothering me, Major.

Steven Fairfax was nothing but a saddle-bum—maybe he was even wanted by the law—and bathing him was not a ladylike thing to do. Still, there was the way he smiled. And that glint of mischief in his eyes, overpowering the pain he must be enduring. And the soft, distinctly Southern way he spoke—it was like listening to warm rain fall on the summerhouse roof. Emma