Loretta Chase Quotes & Sayings

Oh, it's ridiculous. I ought to laugh. But I can't. You won't believe it."
"Of course we will," Sophye said.
"He offered you a carte blanche," Leonie said.
"No, he asked me to marry him."
There was a short stunned silence.
Then, "I reckon he's in a marrying mood," Sophy said. — Loretta Chase

We're of one mind, Grenville and I, and the mind is hers, on account of my being a man and not having one. — Loretta Chase

Dain wasn't certain what exactly was wrong with her, but he had no doubt that something was. He was Lord Beelzebub, wasn't he? She was supposed to faint, or recoil in horrified revulsion at the very least. Yet she had gazed at him as bold as brass, and it had seemed for a moment as though the creature were actually flirting with him. — Loretta Chase

That is what I like about you, Mr. Dashwood," she said. "You are so decisive. It saves me the bother of thinking for myself."
"That is what I like about you, Mrs. Dashwood," he said. "You are so sarcastic. It saves me the trouble of trying to be tactful and charming. — Loretta Chase

And so I beat him and beat him until he kissed me. And then I kept on beating him until he did it properly. — Loretta Chase

I know why you want to wear the plum," Marcelline said. "It's ravishing. It'll make Longmore swoon."
"It might make him do some things," Sophy said. "But swooning isn't one of them. He's the sort of man who tells a girl he l-loves her - and then l-laughs. As though
it's a j-joke. — Loretta Chase

Women do not lie, my lord Dain," came a faintly accented voice from the door. "It merely seems so because they exist in another reality. — Loretta Chase

Silk and Shadows is something else. Like brilliant. It got under my skin as very, very few books have. It's still under my skin. Mikhal was haunting. — Loretta Chase

If you want respect, you must take your medicine like a brave aristocrat," he said. "Think of the French nobles who walked to the guillotine, double chins aloft. — Loretta Chase

I expected a good deal more from you," Marcelline said, "You bungled it."
"Yes," he said. "What else could I do? I was asking the wrong woman to marry me. — Loretta Chase

You've been playing on my sympathies as though they were harp strings. You-'
'What do you expect me to do?' he cut in. 'Play fair? With a woman who makes up her own rules as she goes along?'
'I expect you to take no for an answer!'
He rose. 'I should like to know what you're afraid of.'
'Afraid?' Her voice climbed. 'Afraid? Of you?'
'The only reason I can think of for your rejecting an opportunity to run the world as you see fit is fear that you can't manage the man offering the opportunity. — Loretta Chase

Shall we proceed, and ought I do so with my knife drawn?"
"You'd better keep it where it is for the moment," he said. "Otherwise you might stab me to death accidentally." .
"If I stab you to death," she said, "it will not be accidental. — Loretta Chase

Oh, Genevieve. He was so adorable. I wanted to kiss him. Right on his big, beautiful nose. And then everywhere else. It was so frustrating. I had made my mind up to not lose my temper, but I did. And so I beat him and beat him until he kissed me. And then I kept on beating him until he did it properly. And I had better tell you, mortifying as it is to admit, that if we had not been struck by lightning - or very nearly - I should be utterly ruined. Against a lamppost. On the Rue de Provence. And the horrible part is" - she groaned - "I wish I had been."
"I know," Genevieve said soothingly. "Believe me, dear, I know. — Loretta Chase

Jessica: "You great drunken jackass!"
Dain: "I did not give you leave to use my Christian name. — Loretta Chase

What would you have done?" Esme demanded. "Screamed for help, of course. But it would never occur to you to call for help. You don't just think you're a warrior. You think you're a whole army. — Loretta Chase

Women don't have a sense of humor," Bertie said. "They don't need one. The Almighty made them as a permanent joke on men. From which one may logically deduce that the Almighty is a female. — Loretta Chase

In the real, grown-up world, unicorns were more plentiful than Prince Charmings. — Loretta Chase

Jessica frowned at her. "It was very difficult to keep a straight face - but that wasn't the hardest part. The hardest part was - " She let out a sigh. "Oh, Genevieve. He was so adorable. I wanted to kiss him. Right on his big, beautiful nose. And then everywhere else. It was so frustrating. I had made up my mind not to lose my temper, but I did. And so I beat him and beat him until he kissed me. And then I kept on beating him until he did it properly. And I had better tell you, mortifying as it is to admit, that if we had not been struck by lightning - or very nearly - I should be utterly ruined. Against a lamppost. On the Rue de Provence. And the horrible part is" - she groaned - "I wish I had been. — Loretta Chase

There is no animal more invincible than a woman, — Loretta Chase

I reckon you must get bored more easily than other people." He came up onto one elbow and looked at her. "Yes. You'll have your hands full, keeping me excited." "I don't remember anything about that in the marriage vows," she said. "There was obey - I noticed that came first - but I privately added a lengthy footnote to that item." "This surprises me not at all. But there was the part about serving me." "It, too, needed a footnote. Then love and honor and keeping you and sticking with you and nobody else. I remember all those. But I don't recall the minister mentioning anything about keeping you excited." "That was the serve part. It had an asterisk and some fine print." "I did not hear any fine print. — Loretta Chase

Humor will relieve an awkward moment. — Loretta Chase

Prying into others' private affairs is the preferred occupation of small minds. — Loretta Chase

We've been wed more than a month. Since it appears you mean to stay, I might as well give you leave to call me by my christian name. It is preferable, at any rate, to 'clodpole. — Loretta Chase

His conscience smote him. As smitings go, it wasn't much, his conscience being in poor fighting condition. — Loretta Chase

Did you think to have me against a tree in Hyde Park? On a public footpath?"
"I was not exactly thinking," he said. "And how could you expect me to, under the onslaught of you?"
She rolled her eyes and turned away and marched down the footpath. "I can't believe you're playing injured innocence. Did I throw myself at you, my lord?"
"No, and it's extremely inconsiderate of you not to, when I've taken such great pains to make myself attractive to you. Why must I always be the one to make advances? Why can't you make a little more effort? — Loretta Chase

Dain could not decide what to do with Lady Wallingdon's invitation.
A part of his mind recommended he burn it.
Another part suggested he urinate on it.
Another advised him to shove it down Her Ladyship's throat. — Loretta Chase

Don't you remember telling me that you're the brain and I'm the brawn? Naturally I expect you to do all the talking. And naturally I shall knockheads and toss people out of windows as required. Or did I misunderstand? Did you want me to think, too? — Loretta Chase

He broke through the wall of men surrounding Olivia - dim-witted fowl clustered about a dozing crocodile, as he saw it - and offered to take her home. — Loretta Chase

Venice she is like the beautiful cortigiana - the courtesan - who has" - Zeggio frowned, searching for the phrase he wanted - "dropped on the hours of trouble."
"Fallen on hard times," James said.
"Fallen on hard times," Zeggio repeated. He murmured the phrase to himself a few times. "I see. The same but not the same. — Loretta Chase

She's never met an adjective or adverb she didn't like. — Loretta Chase

They were perfectly suited. They would speak of books the livelong day and night and bore everyone else but themselves to distraction. — Loretta Chase

A man ought to look up to a woman, literally or figuratively, because that is the proper mode of worship, and worship is the very least he can do. — Loretta Chase

The Cockney accent was almost impenetrable. *Nothing* was "nuffin," and aitches were dropped from and attached to the wrong words, and some of the vowels seemed to have arrived from another planet. — Loretta Chase

A dress is a weapon. It must dazzle his eye, raise his temperature ... and empty his purse. — Loretta Chase

Viscerally, what Genevieve felt, and it wasn't at all amusing. — Loretta Chase

If this is how it's going to be -you getting all broody and distracted every time you fall in lust with somebody -well, I haven't the stomach for it. I won't put up with it, not for a dukedom. Not for three dukedoms. I deserve better than the role of a quietly accepting wife. I'm an interesting woman. I read. I have opinions. I appreciate poetry. I have a sense of humor."
"I know all that. I've always known."
"I deserve to be loved, truly loved -mind, body and soul. And in case you haven't noticed, there's a line of men ready to give me all that. Why on earth should I settle for a man who can't give me anything but friendship. Why should I settle for you? — Loretta Chase

No good would come of trying to make something of a man with a brain like machinery. — Loretta Chase

They believe Miles can read it," she said. "Good grief. They must be completely illiterate
or desperately gullible
or
"
"French," said Mr Carsington. — Loretta Chase

Then he recalled whose daughter she was, and wondered why he wondered.
Then he recalled who it was who had a child.
A child, Noirot had a child! — Loretta Chase

It was then Jessica realized he wasn't using his left hand at all, and that he held the arm oddly, as though something were wrong with it. There shouldn't be except for a minor bullet wound. She'd aimed carefully, and she was an excellent markswoman. Not to mention he was a very large target.
He looked her way then, and caught her staring. Admiring your handiwork, are you? I daresay you'd like a better look. Regrettably, there's nothing to see. There's nothing wrong with it, according to the quacks. Except that it doesn't work. Still, I count myself fortunate, Miss Trent, that you didn't aim a ways lower. I'm merely disarmed, not dismanned. But I have no doubt that Herriard here will see to the emasculation. — Loretta Chase

HOrrible. The most horrible sound on earth. The sound of death and torture and the agonies of a burning hell," Lisle said. "Damn them. It's bagpipes. — Loretta Chase

Keeping the secret was going to be more difficult than Rupert could have foreseen. Every time she met a hieroglyph, she'd act like this: vibrating like a tuning fork, the gigantic brain bubbling over and spilling out its secrets: Greek and Latin and Coptic and names of scholars and who believed what and this alphabet versus that one and phonetic interpretations versus symbolic ones. — Loretta Chase

The beasts tossed their heads and answered with evil horsey laughter. — Loretta Chase

Life had a way of wrecking her careful plans, again and again. Roulette was more predictable than life. Small wonder she was so lucky at it.
Life was not a wheel going round and round. It never, ever returned to the same place. It didn't stick to simple red and black and a certain array of numbers. It laughed at logic.
Beneath its pretty overdress of man-imposed order, life was anarchy. — Loretta Chase

Adieu, Lord Dain," she answered without turning her head. "Have a pleasant evening with your cows."
Cows?
She was merely trying to provoke him, Dain told himself. The remark was a pathetic attempt at a setdown. To take offense was to admit he'd felt the sting. He told himself to laugh and return to his ... cows. — Loretta Chase

And, while Jessica had faith enough in Providence, she preferred to seek help from more accessible sources. Her assistant was Phelps, the coachman. — Loretta Chase

You refuse to listen. Because, like every other man, you can keep only one idea in your head at a time-usully the wrong one. — Loretta Chase

Bung upwards, she means, Your Grace, a tart called out. — Loretta Chase

Gout, I understand, has reformed a great many rogues. — Loretta Chase

And I think I am about to mistake you for a volume of Ptolemy." He drew her face closer to his. "Make that Ovid," he said. His lips brushed lightly against hers. "Make that Ars Amatoria. — Loretta Chase

I am not insane," he said. "A woman of your highly advanced intellect ought to be able to perceive that I am in love. With you. I wish you had told me. It was deuced embarrassing to find it out from your *brother*. — Loretta Chase

In my dictionary, romance is not maudlin, treacly sentiment. It is a curry, spiced with excitement, and humour, and a healthy dollop of cynicism. — Loretta Chase

I must be besotted," he said evenly. "I have the imbecilic idea that you're the prettiest girl I've ever seen. Except for your coiffure," he added, with a disgusted glance at the coils and plumes and pearls. "That is ghastly."
She scowled. "Your romantic effusions leave me breathless. — Loretta Chase

Coward he said softly. She stopped and turned and marched back to him. She dropped her reticule, grasped his neckcloth, cupped his face, dragged his mouth to hers, and kissed him. — Loretta Chase

Orphans? Would you really? Adopt children?"
"There are advantages. If they turn out badly, we can blame their natural parents. We can also choose our own assortment of ages and genders. We can even get them ready-grown, if we wish. — Loretta Chase

I don't ravish women, if that's what you're thinking," he said.
"Oh, no," she said. "I had supposed that women stood in line waiting for you to relieve them of their virtue. — Loretta Chase

Out of the darkness came Mr Carsington's deep voice, cool and calm. Pray don't trouble yourselves, gentlemen. It is merely a villain come to cut our throats, rob our stores and ravish our women. No need for alarm. Mrs Pembroke has the matter in hand. — Loretta Chase

The boat lurched.He fell against her, and she fell back, onto the divan.
For onwe glorious moment she lay under him, her magnificent bosom crushed against his chest. His heart leapt into a gallop and his privy councilor leapt to attention. He lifted his head and looked down at her. She looked up at him, eyes wide and dark as an evergreen forest. He felt her breath on his skin, and heard it, soft and hurried. Her lips parted. He lowered his head.
She shoved a fist against his chest, and "Get off!" she snapped. "Get off, you great lummox! Someone's coming! — Loretta Chase

He'd forget all that, just as he would forget this night.
The memories would linger for a time, but they'd grow dull. The ache he felt now, the frustation and anger and sorrow - all those would fade too.
She'd given him a night to remember, but of course he'd forget. — Loretta Chase

Good God!" she cried. She rolled off him, tugging down her clothing. "Are you mad?"
He blinked and dragged in air. "Well, yes," He said thickly. "Lust does that to a man."
"You thought we would
you would
do ... that in public?"
"I wasn't thinking about where we were." He said.
Her eyes widened.
"I'm a man," he said with what he was sure must be, in the circumstances, saintly patience. "I can do one or the other. Lovemaking or thinking. But not both at the same time."
She stared at him for a moment. Then she drew up her knees and folded her arms upon them and buried her face in her folded arms.
She did not pick up the rifle and knock him on the head with it.
Perhaps all was not lost.
"Somewhere else then?" He said hopefully. — Loretta Chase

I deserve passion," she said. "I deserve to be loved- in every way. I deserve a man who'll give his whole heart, not the part he isn't using at the moment.. — Loretta Chase

No its you," she said. How far away her voice sounded, as though it had traveled to London already, ahead of her. "Your ducal self assurance. Everything will give way to you. Even Satan's own storm."
"You are definitely improving," he said. "Full mocking sentences. — Loretta Chase

Surely she'd heard voices like his, so low-pitched as to make every commonplace utterance seem of the deepest intimacy, every cliche a delicious secret. — Loretta Chase

Men are the inferior sex. Adam was made first, and the first effort is always the simpler and cruder one, non? With the second, one refines. — Loretta Chase

Due to not getting pumped regular, females take the oddest fancies, such as imagining they can think. — Loretta Chase

I have always believed that anyone who must violate the law to achieve his purposes must lack either intelligence or imagination, probably both. — Loretta Chase

Dain kept his gaze on his plate and concentrated on swallowing the morsel he'd just very nearly choked on. She was possessive ... about him.
The beautiful, mad creature - or blind and deaf creature, or whatever she was - coolly announced it as one might say, "Pass the salt cellar," without the smallest awareness that the earth had just tilted on its axis. — Loretta Chase

It's about time you saw how fortunate you are. You have ... the most virile man in the world." He grinned, and in his eyes, black as sin, she saw the devil inside him laughing. But he was her devil, and she loved him madly.
"The most conceited, you mean," she said.
He bent his head until his great Usignuolo nose loomed as inch from hers, "The most virile, " he repeated firmly. "You are pathetically slow if you haven't learned that by now. Fortunately for you, I am the most patient of tutors. I shall prove it to you."
"You patience?" she asked.
"My virility. Both. Repeatedly." His black eyes glinted. "I will teach you a lesson you'll never forget. "
She tangled her fingers in his hair and brought his mouth to hers. "My wicked darling," she whispered. "I should like to see you try. — Loretta Chase

You needn't consult me about redecorating. I know no female can live two days in a house and leave anything as it was. I shall be much astonished if I can find my way about when I return. — Loretta Chase

Masculine pride is an exceedingly precious and fragile thing — Loretta Chase

Life is not an opera. Scenes belong on the stage. — Loretta Chase

Jessica, I know I've been ... difficult," he said. "All the same - "
"Difficult?" She looked up, her grey eyes wide, "You have been impossible. I begin to think you are not right in the upper storey. I knew you wanted me. The only thing I've never doubted was that. But getting you into bed - you, the greatest whoremonger in Christendom - gad, it was worse than the time I had to drag Bertie to the tooth-drawer. And if you think I mean to be doing that the rest of our days, you had better think again. The next time, my lord, you will do the seducing - or there won't be any, I vow. — Loretta Chase

With the world securely in order, Dain was able to devote the leisurely bath time to editing his mental dictionary. He removed his wife from the general category labeled "Females" and gave her a section of her own. He made a note that she didn't find him revolting, and proposed several explanations: (a) bad eyesight and faulty hearing, (b)a defect in a portion of her otherwise sound intellect, (c) an inherited Trent eccentricity, or (d) an act of God. Since the Almighty had not done him a single act of kindness in at least twenty-five years, Dain thought it was about bloody time, but he thanked his Heavenly Father all the same, and promised to be as good as he was capable of being. — Loretta Chase

I want you," she said.
"I told you so," he said. — Loretta Chase

Beaumont wanted Esmond very badly. Esmond wanted Beaumont's wife. And she didn't want anybody. — Loretta Chase

The ton will be all atwitter about last night — Loretta Chase

I love these pet names," she said, gazing soulfully up into his eyes, "Nitwit. Sap skull. Termagant. How they make my heart flutter! — Loretta Chase

She was a dreamer and a schemer & one didnt dream and scheme without hope. — Loretta Chase

The bourgeoisie is so tediously self-righteous. — Loretta Chase

But you are a charming and beautiful dunces, madame. And," he continued in French, "a charming and beautiful woman
can get away with murder. Can you imagine that any man here would prosecute you for assassinating our language? — Loretta Chase

It wasn't the time and place.
He oughtn't to rush his fences.
But she'd waved her arms, and that made her womanly parts jiggle and he could only keep one idea in his head at a time, and in any case, oughts never went down smoothly with him.
He was who he was, and that wasn't a good boy. And so down he went, and crushed her sulky little mouth under his. — Loretta Chase

He pulled away the glove, and at the first glimpse of her fragile, white hand, all thoughts of negotiation fled. "I don't see how matters could become worse," he muttered. "I am already besotted with a needle-tongued, conceited, provoking ape leader of a lady."
Her head jerked up. "Besotted? You're nothing like it. Vengeful is more like it. Spiteful. — Loretta Chase

Hers was a tone and manner that assured the listener they had only two choices; obedience or death. — Loretta Chase

He cleared his throat, "Zoe, i think you said you love me."
"I did say it. I do love you with all my heart."
"I see." There was a long pause, then he said, "For how long has this been going on?"
"I don't know," she said, "Sometimes i think it started a long, long time ago."
"You might have mentioned it."
"I didn't want to encourage it," she said, "I thought it was a bad idea. — Loretta Chase

I tell you Dain is a splendid catch. I advise you to set your hooks and reel him in."
Jessica took a long swallow of her cognac. "This is not a trout, Genevieve. This is a great, hungry shark."
"Then use a harpoon. — Loretta Chase

In all the excitement, I seem to have put my foot under yours," he said. "I do beg your pardon. — Loretta Chase

Let me explain something to you, he said. If you want to get something out of a man, dashing out his brains against a lamppost isn't the way to do it. — Loretta Chase

I'll be glad to be rid of you. When a man sinks to reading fashion journals - no, it's worse than that. When a man finds himself plumbing their depths, seeking arcane knowledge of no use to him whatsoever ... Oh, it's your corrupting influence. I shall be glad to see the back of you, Noirot, and return to my life.'
'It annoys you to be a guardian angel,' she said. — Loretta Chase

But women had to overlook men's personality flaws, else nobody would ever wed and/or reproduce and the human race would come to an end. — Loretta Chase

If Lady Brentmor told the prime minister to jump off a bridge," Fiona had once remarked, "Wellington would meekly ask, 'Which one? — Loretta Chase

Miss you, he said. It was the barest murmur, scarcely a sound. — Loretta Chase

It was hard to hide one's emotion from one's own kind. — Loretta Chase

THE Right Honorable Edward Junius Carsington, Earl of Hargate, had five sons, which was three more than he needed. — Loretta Chase

I love you madly," she said. "I shall make you happy if I have to kill somebody to do it. But that ought not to be necessary. — Loretta Chase

Jessica swallowed. "I think you had better stick to English."
"But Italian is so moving," Dain said.
"To ho voluto dal primo che ti vedi." I've wanted you from the first moment I saw you.
"Mi tormenti ancora." You've tormented me ever since. — Loretta Chase

Hell, what was one more scandal? — Loretta Chase

I can do one or the other. Lovemaking or thinking. But not both at the same time. — Loretta Chase

Hypocrisy seemed to be the fashionable equivalent of propriety, discretion indistinguishable from morality, and the — Loretta Chase

Mama, you know, lost all her enthusiasm for mothering by Baby Number Seven. What a pity she did not lose her enthusiasm for Papa at the same time. But then, I doubt she was ever altogether clear on where babies come from. She was very much astonished each time she found herself enceinte. Papa was naughty not to explain her. — Loretta Chase

Bathsheba looked at Benedict. "You never told me they were matchmaking."
"He didn't notice!" said his father before Benedict could answer. "He didn't notice handsome young misses of unexceptionable family. He didn't notice beautiful heiresses. We tried bluestockings. We tried country girls. We tried everything. He didn't notice! But Bathsheba Winngate, the most notorious woman in all of England, he noticed."
"We notorious women tend to stand out," she said. — Loretta Chase