Eloisa Quotes & Sayings

Discretion is a synonym for intelligence. — Eloisa James

She should have read the damned play. She should have spent hours reading Shakespeare. The duke was making literature sound a lot more interesting than her governess had ever done. — Eloisa James

It's so beautiful here. You must come before you die. — Eloisa James

The path turned a hard right and then dumped into a rocky stream. It looked as if a giant had tossed white boulders and the rocks the way children toss marbles. They lay in scrambled heaps, some as large as carriages, others the size of chamber pots. A weak stream trickled around them. — Eloisa James

There's nothing I like more than meeting velvet clad peers while wrapped in a towel. — Eloisa James

Diana? Isn't she the goddess who hated men?'
He considered. 'I think of her as the goddess who tempted men by bathing outdoors, and turned them into animal life if they succumbed to the lure of bare flesh. — Eloisa James

Mr. Cope ... ' Povy began.
Jem narrowed his eyes.
'The lad has a remarkably innocent face.'
'Innocence is a time of life, not an irrevocable blot. — Eloisa James

Tess retreated toward the back of the room. How could Imogen have done this to all of them? But she knew the answer as well as she knew the question. Imogen had eloped because, even if Draven Maitland did not love Imogen the way Romeo loved Juliet, Imogen herself was every bit as passionate as the Shakespearean heroine. More, perhaps. She had simply reached out and taken what she wanted. She was no passive observer. Although, Tess reminded herself, naturally Imogen will be a great deal happier and longer-lived than Juliet. — Eloisa James

It was blue. All of it: rugs, hangings, curtains ... 'This room looks as if someone vomited the sky,' Layla said. — Eloisa James

I suppose this is your way of telling me that you are outrageously happy?'
Quill nodded. 'Of course.'
'Living with you is an act of interpretation, do you know that?'
'Living with you is ... bliss. Did you know that? — Eloisa James

So this book is my phone call
not from the top of a mountain, or even the top of the Eiffel Tower: the "here" is negotiable. It's so beautiful here. You must come visit before you die. — Eloisa James

There is no remedy for this poison,' Sudhakar said. 'You must live with the consequences, as must I.'
'Then why did you let her have it?' Quill said savagely. 'You knew she was impulsive. You should have guessed she might take it herself!'
Sudhakar looked at him. 'Now, why would that occur to me? I saw a young woman consumed with anxiety for her husband, prepared to ruin her marriage in order to save him from further suffering. I saw nothing self-destructive about her.'
'She thought it was harmless,' Quill whispered harshly. 'She had no idea. You shouldn't have given it to her.'
'Do you think she is a child? She is a grown woman. Her rash actions are her own.'
It was only when Quill fixed him with a brutal gaze that he realized that Sudhakar was also suffering. — Eloisa James

She was all that he wanted, all that he had ever wanted, even though he had lost track of that truth for a while. "James, — Eloisa James

When you fall in love, your heart will pound so much you won't be able to throw a mouse let alone a cow pat.
I don't think I could throw a mouse now. I dislike the idea of scrabbling little feet in my palm, unless they are yours, of course. — Eloisa James

The sun danced through the small leaves of the oak, turning them saffron and dappling the blankets with the ghosts of baby leaves. Ewan very seriously filled all the glasses with bluebells, and gave them water from the stream, so the picnic turned from a very formal affair, all heavy silver and starched linen, to a child's tea party. — Eloisa James

You're the only one for me. I came back from the dead for you, Daisy. Twice. — Eloisa James

She's elegant," Olivia stated. "I would kill to have her figure."
"Really?"
"Of course. I have always wished to look precisely like her. Though obviously, not enough to avoid food," she added.
"That's madness. You have everything she doesn't."
Olivia opened her mouth, ready to argue.
"Everything she hasn't."
She frowned at him.
"Including me. — Eloisa James

I very much regret to tell you that our piglet will not be able to attend, as he made good his escape while we were otherwise occupied. — Eloisa James

Olivia stated, "at — Eloisa James

A stale mind is the devil's breadbox. — Eloisa James

You know I don't know a chestnut from a conker.'
[ ... ] 'A Chestnut is a conker — Eloisa James

God, I've missed you so much — Eloisa James

Virginity, like many things connected to men, was obviously vastly over-rated. And frankly, so was sexual intimacy. No wonder Villiers didn't care if she'd had previous experiences. It was all a matter of a minute at most. — Eloisa James

To have him walk toward her with that intent look on his face, as if nothing in the world could satisfy him but her. Damn — Eloisa James

The fabric of Lady Islay's gown certainly cost as much as Claribel's entire quarterly allowance. It was a pearly silk taffeta shot with threads of silver. Her breasts were scarcely covered, and from there the gown fell straight to the ground in a hauntingly beautiful sweep of cloth.
The pink brought out the color of her hair- burnt amber enticed with brandy and buttercup. If only she had left it free around her face and perhaps created some charming curls! Claribel made up her mind to tell her privately about the newest curling irons. She herself had lovely corkscrew curls bobbing next to her ears. — Eloisa James

He shifted his weight, and she saw he was leaning on a cane. It was hard to reconcile this infirmity with the muscled brute he appeared to be, but of course there was no way that strength could compensate for a partially missing limb. — Eloisa James

You're confusing desire and love,' she said, watching him. 'They are not the same.'
'I do love you. I feel near to murder at the idea of you marrying another man, and that's the truth of the matter.'
'Desire is bloody, perjured, full of blame.'
Ewan walked up the steps to her. 'Is that poetry?'
'Yes.'
'I don't like the sound of it. There's something nasty about that poet.'
'It's Shakespeare,' Annabel said.
Ewan obviously dismissed Shakespeare as a lost cause. 'We would be happy together,' he said. — Eloisa James

And estranged though they might be, Rees couldn't stand the idea that his wife would be rebuffed at the ball. She was no Cinderella, after all, with a fairy godmother waiting in the wings.
He would just have to wave his own magic wand. He found himself grinning at that, and decided not to share the joke with Darby. — Eloisa James

I would prefer not to throw myself on a funeral pyre. Please come back to me. — Eloisa James

I need to work on developing a new, less irritable personality. though I suspect that an empty nest would be at least a partial cure, today I resorted to substance abuse. — Eloisa James

I'm fat," she blurted out.
"You are not fat. You're the most beautiful, voluptuous woman I know." His eyes moved down her body, deliberately, slowly, then back up to her face. What she saw in them sent fire squirming through her stomach and lower.
"I want every inch of you," he said, growling it. "I want to fall on my knees and worship at your hips." He reach out, shaped her curves from breast to hips with a burning sweep of his hand that a man was allowed to give only his wife. — Eloisa James

Give me one last time," he begged. "Please, please. I beg you." "I - " She stopped and started again. "I'm afraid, Gabriel. You'll break my heart." "Mine is already broken. — Eloisa James

There was laughter in his eyes now, competing with a dissolute, and altogether enthusiastic, invitation to pleasure.
In one swift gesture he turned her hand over and pressed a burning kiss on her palm, a touch so fast she didn't see it, though her hand curled instinctively, as if to protect the kiss itself. — Eloisa James

She was his heart, his other half. She filled all the empty places in his soul that he had desperately tried to paper over with pirate escapades and merry women.
-The Ugly Duchess — Eloisa James

She had the sea in her blood, and sometimes, if she lay very still at night, with one ear pressed into the mattress, she could even hear the sound of waves.
If that wasn't the sign that the sea was in her blood, what could it be? — Eloisa James

Gabriel looked up at her from under thick eyelashes. Will you please grope me under the table, Kate mine? — Eloisa James

One more time, she promised herself. That wasn't too trollopy. She wouldn't be too trollopy.
But when they actually got to the guardhouse?
Trollopy. — Eloisa James

you're delicious and the right man will adore every curve. — Eloisa James

The year Grace turned fourteen, Colin walked through the door in a uniform, and her heart gave one big thump and never beat exactly the same way again. — Eloisa James

Shame can kill the imagination. It's hard to keep writing in the face of cultural derision. — Eloisa James

I don't want to have to earn love by giving up my ability to make decisions that determine how I live. — Eloisa James

You cannot ask women to marry you whom you barely know.'
'Why not?' he asked. Compatibility is not something one discovers after five encounters rather than one. One must make an educated guess.'
'That's just it: you know nothing of me!'
'Not so,' he said promptly. Number one, you're Scottish. Number two, you're Scottish. Number three -'
'I can guess,' she said.
'You're beautiful,' he finished, a fleeting smile crossing his face. — Eloisa James

My duchess," James stated, his eyes sweeping the crowd with the air of a man who has ruled the waves. "She is not a swan, because that would imply she had once been an ugly duckling. — Eloisa James

A number of visitors called this morning,' Finchley announced with some pride. He took a tray from a waiting footman and displayed it as if it were a baby. Sure enough there was a little heap of cardboard bits, embossed with the names of nobility, acquaintances, friends and the purely curious. — Eloisa James

Ewan felt a searing stab of guilt. He'd taken an exquisite, laughing young woman away from the London ballrooms that were her natural milieu and reduced her to a tearful, freezing damsel in distress. What's more, he'd taken her virginity, and given her only potatoes to eat. And for what? Due to a quixotic idea that he would alleviate her fear of poverty?
No. Annabel had accused him of not being honest with himself. The truth of it was that he'd sent his carriages away out of pure, unadulterated lust, no matter how much he would like to dress it up in fancy ideas. — Eloisa James

He'd never seen a lady's hair down in a public place, and here was Miss Jerningham - Gabby - blithely shaking her curls, as if the crowd of stevedores, sailors, and boatmen around her were naught.
'A lady does not groom herself in public!'
'I'm afraid I'm used to being on display,' she said brightly. 'In the village, my father and I were the only Europeans. My hair was considered to be a good-luck charm- — Eloisa James

Marry me, Esme. Please. Honor me. I will honor you as your husband never did. Our marriage would be a remedy against sin, if anyone could ever call it a sin to love you.
Sebastian Bonnington to Esme Rawlings — Eloisa James

One didn't want to marry a man who dragged ladies off into the shrubbery for a kiss. Or worse.
The fact that she would push Ravensthorpe into the shrubbery herself, if she had the nerve, was not the point ... Lucy took a deep breath, patted her hair into place, and snapped open her fan. She had a pirate side - or so she told herself; she was certainly tall enough to be one. If nothing else, she could launch herself at Ravensthorpe and knock him to the ground when she knew Olivia and Mrs. Lytton were within eyesight.
The idea was so appalling that it had merit. — Eloisa James

Do you have a pet?'
Eugenia shook her head. 'I don't know very much about animals.'
'There's nothing much to know. You feed them; they love you. — Eloisa James

Dogs are high on life. Cats need catnip. — Eloisa James

The sky is the color of gray flannel, the darkness broken only by the dormer window of another early riser. The woman who lives in that attic painted her walls yellow, and the reflected light bounces out like a spring crocus. If light were sound, her window would be playing a concerto. — Eloisa James

Dowry doesn't rhyme with many words, so I had to rhyme dowry and peach tree [ ... ] My nephew will inherit the estate, but the orchards are unentailed and will go to you. — Eloisa James

I was thinking the other day that his life reminds me of throwing a piece of bread into a stream and watching a whole flock of little minnows come up and start nibbling at it. — Eloisa James

Gabby seemed to have made up her mind. 'I certainly wish I could help you, Lord Breksby,' she cooed, tilting her head to the side.
Quill watched cynically from the other side of the room as Breksby melted in front of his eyes. At least he wasn't alone in being bowled over by Miss Gabrielle Jerningham. Although he rather thought he, Quill, hadn't been lied to yet. If so, he reminded himself, it was only a matter of time. — Eloisa James

He couldn't imagine how he had lived without her for seven years. She was like sunlight. Like food and drink. He — Eloisa James

They continued on to London, and she's there, safe and sound, waiting for you.'
'You can't know for sure.' Piers swung up into the carriage.
'You will never know for sure if she's dead or alive unless you keep her near you all the time,' Sebastian said with perfect, if maddening, accuracy. — Eloisa James

It's as if someone knew my innermost desires, and shaped you only for me, — Eloisa James

There was some rustling as the gown was cast over the soprano's shoulders, or so Lina assumed, and then the alto and Madame Rocque started cooing.
But the soprano cut through it decisively. 'I look like an orange without its rind,' she said firmly. — Eloisa James

Here, drink your liqueur," Henry said, tossing back her drink. "I carry it with me everywhere because it's the only kind of drink that Leo doesn't like, so there's a chance I'll still have some tomorrow. — Eloisa James

I think only someone I loved as much as you could make me behave like such an idiot. — Eloisa James

I have always thought, Mr. Bitts, that a hard man is good to find. — Eloisa James

Cam was filled with the rage of a man unable to rescue his lady, even though she was only debatably in danger. — Eloisa James

How many times would I damn myself for you? Ask me that."
"How many?" she said faintly, her eyes searching his face. She stopped breathing to hear his answer.
"Till the gates of hell close," he said flatly. — Eloisa James

Then he just blurted it out, with no preparation. 'The truth of it is that whether your mother arranged our marriage, or whether it was all an illusion, I must be horribly obtuse, because I can't talk myself out of being in love with you. — Eloisa James

I didn't leave you. We couldn't-you have to- — Eloisa James

He rarely saw a doorway without advancing through it as if he owned it. Since he owned a good many doorways, he would have pointed out that this was a reasonable assumption. — Eloisa James

Annabel pointed out. "I don't think any of us doubted our marriageability." "My new governess, Miss Flecknoe, would say that was an utterly improper comment," Josie commented, raising her eyes from her book. "I can say that without hesitation because Miss Flecknoe finds any realistic assessment of relations between men and women improper. — Eloisa James

The only part of the evening I really enjoyed was when Lord Pomtinius told me a limerick about an adulterous abbot."
"Don't you dare repeat it!" her sister ordered. Georgiana had never shown the faintest wish to rebel against the rules of propriety. She loved and lived by them.
"There once was an adulterous abbot," Olivia teased, "as randy-"
Georgiana slapped her hands over her ears. "I can't believe he told you such a thing! Father would be furious if he knew."
"Lord Pomtinius was in his cups," Olivia said. "Besides, he's ninety-six and he doesn't care about decorum any longer. Just a laugh, now and then."
"It doesn't even make sense. An adulterous abbot? How can an abbot be adulterous? They don't even marry."
"Let me know if you want to hear the whole verse," Olivia said. "It ends with talk of nuns, so I believe the word was being used loosely. — Eloisa James

Offended you again," her godmother said with satisfaction. "Come along, then. We'll go to my chambers. The butler put me in one of the towers, and it's utterly heavenly, like being stuck in the clouds except for the pigeons crapping on the windows. — Eloisa James

I have come to the conclusion that silence and time are the most precious commodities. — Eloisa James

Will Peter be joining us for tea, do you think?'
'I doubt it. Peter rarely returns home before late in the evening.'
'Oh.'
Quill felt as if he had told a baby chick that his favorite dish was roast fowl. — Eloisa James

We all think we have time, you know. It's this miracle substance and there seems to be so much of it, and then all of a sudden, it's gone. — Eloisa James

There was no point in taking issue with Marilla's overweening self-regard. It was as infinite as a starry night. — Eloisa James

So our chess game begins tonight, Duchess. At eleven o'clock. I will give you one hour to try to win, blindfolded or no." His teeth showed very white when he smiled. "And then I shall win."
Jemma sniffed and turned up her nose. "Pride goeth before a fall, Duke."
"You will fall before me," he said, his smile a blatant challenge. "Backwards. — Eloisa James

Piers took a leisurely look at Linnet. There was the beauty, sure enough. But it didn't detract from the intelligence in her eyes. And in his opinion the slightly cynical lilt in her voice just made her all the more beautiful, as if Aphrodite had been crossed with Athena. — Eloisa James

Grace leaned against Colin, who was silently watching the lively chatter. That was characteristic of him, actually. And then she realized that they were a pair, a silent, observant couple.
Still, in the circle of his arm, she wasn't a lonely observer. She wasn't a wallflower, anymore. She could be herself rather than wishing she was more vivacious, more full of chatter, more like Lily. — Eloisa James

She was everything he'd ever wanted in a woman, and nothing he'd ever thought to find in a lady. — Eloisa James

It was a stupid thing to hold onto, but when one doesn't have much to celebrate in the way of physical attributes, ankles matter. — Eloisa James

He breathed a power brewed from masculinity and intelligence, not from an accident of inheritance. — Eloisa James

At some point Ewan had taken off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. His forearms were bulging with muscle, and his shoulders appeared likely to rip through the thin linen of his shirt. Annabelle swallowed, thinking of Ewan without his shirt at their picnic. He wasn't even breathing hard.
"Where do you get all these muscles?" she asked.
"Lifting damsels in distress." He grinned at her, and there was a slight lurch as he leaped off the carriage and landed with a splash in the ditch. — Eloisa James

The boy in me will always love you," he said, disarming her with a smile. "The man I am doesn't know you yet." And now there was a look in his eyes that she recognized, that resonated deep within her. — Eloisa James

I did it," Gabriel said, conversationally. "I met the woman, the only woman for me. I met her, and now . . . I'm going to meet my wife. — Eloisa James

I love you," he said, his voice catching. "When I thought you were going to die, I wanted to die. — Eloisa James

I didn't realize you needed a response. When Hamlet is giving a monologue, he just goes on and on by himself. — Eloisa James

She found a small picture made entirely of feathers and was trying to decide whether it depicted a monkey climbing up the back of a man - or possibly a person climbing a flight of stairs or perhaps a cow next to a tree, when she saw a chess piece, sitting by itself on a small pedestal.
It was the white queen, carved from ivory. She stood with a regal frown, her body shadowed by the enormous crown that bloomed on her head. The crown was a hollow sphere, exquisitely carved with open work, and when Jemma peered inside she saw inside another sphere, also open, and inside that, yet another. — Eloisa James

Bea had to admit that the landscape was rather pretty, with all those sparkling drops hanging off branches (waiting to destroy one's clothing, but one mustn't be squeamish about it). And the birds were singing, and so forth. She even saw a yellow flower that was rather nice, although mud-splattered.
"Look!" she said, trying to be friendly. 'A daffodil!'
'Yellow celandine,' her companion said curtly.
After that, Bea gave up the effort of conversation and just tramped along. — Eloisa James

The pigs are confiscated until these two idiots work out heir marital problems. Gowan, Once Upon a Tower by Eloisa James — Eloisa James

I do not diminish his love for me,' Imogen said. 'I would never do that. I know precisely how much he loved me: as much as he was capable of loving any woman, probably. He loved me somewhat ... after his stables, perhaps more than his mother.'
'Oh, Imogen,' Annabel said. 'Why dwell on such a-'
'Grief is like that!' Imogen snapped. 'You can only fool yourself so far. — Eloisa James

It's better to live like a flame, to know a man and love him even if he can't be yours, then never to love at all. — Eloisa James

It's not just that,' she said, trying to explain in a way he would understand. 'My life - any lady's life - is made up of morning calls, and musicales, and balls. I would be thrown out of society. No one would receive me or send invitations. That's what it means to be ruined. — Eloisa James

No one had ever taught him - and he had never imagined the necessity of learning - how to betray the one person whom you truly cared for in life. The only person who genuinely loved you. How to break that person's heart, whether it be tomorrow, or five years or ten years in the future. — Eloisa James

Life without a phone is riskier, lonelier, more vivid. — Eloisa James

You don't know how easy death is. It's - it's like a door. A person simply walks through it, and she's lost to you forever. — Eloisa James

He had told her that he would never care deeply for her, that he was incapable of strong feelings. Tess would - would /spit/ before she believed that nonsense. — Eloisa James

Theo is like the huntress Diana," Cecil said, rocking a little on his heels. He was thoroughly enjoying the burst of popularity his cousin-by-marriage was experiencing. "Beautiful and yet slightly deadly, ready to to whip out a bow and arrow, or turn a man into a squealing swine. Sensual, and yet with just a snowy touch of the virginal about her. — Eloisa James

Where did you go to school?" Piers inquired. "Your all together too literate for a butler. Most bulters I know say things like as you wish, my lord, and leave it at that. Our conversations should be along these lines: Prufrock, bring me a wench and then you would say, as you wish. — Eloisa James

Layla, darling, I shall be ready whenever you decide to retire to the country and commence on a life of unending debauchery. — Eloisa James

Dogs do tricks. Cats play tricks. — Eloisa James

And his celebration woke up Henry and Leo — Eloisa James

Nothing I do is princely since I met you — Eloisa James