Courtney Milan Quotes

“Do not pollute my perfectly acceptable figurative speech with irrelevant facts!”

— Courtney Milan

“I'm not broken,' he repeated. 'Although at the moment ... at the moment, I may be coming a bit unraveled.”

— Courtney Milan

But we're not trying to empty the Thames," she told him. "Look at what we're doing with the water we remove. It doesn't go to waste. We're using it to water our gardens, sprout by sprout. We're growing bluebells and clovers where once there was a desert. All you see is the river, but I care about the roses.

— Courtney Milan

She had taken London by storm-which was to say, as with any good storm, some people stayed indoors when they saw her coming.

— Courtney Milan

“You matter," she whispered to him. "You are important. And you are the single most magnificent man I have ever had the honor of meeting.”

— Courtney Milan

“What am I supposed to think, when you imagine me pure as the driven snow? I am not a child. If you strip me of the responsibility for my decisions, you strip me of the capacity to make them, as well. I am not a kitten, to be rescued from the jaws of a wolf. I'm a grown woman. And it is not your place to solve my problems without asking me for my opinion.”

— Courtney Milan

“What can I say? I have a thing for women who carry heavy books and know how to use them”

— Courtney Milan

“Burn that one to the ground, Violet, and dance on the ashes. And damn anyone who tells you it's selfish to do so.”

— Courtney Milan

“She had always thought that she wanted someone to love her beyond all reason. Someone who would slay a regiment of knights to save her the slightest inconvenience.
She'd been wrong. That sort of fool left nothing but a swath of bloody knights in his wake.”

— Courtney Milan

He'd fashioned himself into one hard edge. He was all blade and no handle. If she held him close, she'd risk being cut.

— Courtney Milan

“I've a goodly share of faults. I rush in, where I should tread carefully. I speak, where I should listen. But when I hear them sing, I don't just hear a hymn. They're singing to God because they haven't found anyone else who will listen.”

— Courtney Milan

“A sign on the door proclaimed: The countess is NOT to be bothered except in the cases of death, disembowelment, the Apocalypse, or the arrival of her mother.”

— Courtney Milan

I spent my day as I normally spend my days: threatening suppliers, bullying those who are not in line with my expectations, and generally creating havoc in the lives of others. The square across the street is empty of all but the pigeons. I find myself resenting them.

— Courtney Milan

“I'm asking you to marry me within the next hour." He simply looked at her. "I can't think of a reason why you should. I have no moral sense to speak of. I lie, I cheat, I steal, and I'll probably drive you away screaming within the week. But if you marry me, I'll only do those things on your behalf.”

— Courtney Milan

“No. When I was a girl, I wanted to be a pirate."
That brought up an all-too-pleasant image-Miss Marshall, the rich, dark red of her hair unbound and flying defiantly in the wind aboard a ship's deck. She'd wear a loose white shirt and pantaloons. He would definitely surrender.
"I am less shocked than you might imagine," Edward heard himself say. "Entirely unshocked."
She smiled in pleasure.
"A bloodthirsty cutthroat profession? Good thing you gave that up. It would never have suited you."
Her expression of pleasure dimmed.
"You'd have succeeded too easily," Edward continued, "and now you'd be sitting, bored as sin, atop a heap of gold too large to spend in one lifetime. Still, though, wouldn't it solve ever so many problems if you married a lord? James Delacey could never touch you again if you did.”

— Courtney Milan

“It would have been easy to shut her eyes and let him kiss her. To have the choice taken from her in one heated, passive moment, with nothing for her to do but comply. But he was asking for more than her artless submission. Not deference, not docility, but ... defiance.
'I want you to choose me,' he said, 'well and truly choose me of your own accord. I don't want you to wait at the crossroads in the hopes that I will force the choice upon you.”

— Courtney Milan

“He simply shook his head. 'If your point of reference is a glimpse you've caught of a business transaction conducted in an alley, I'd venture that you have no idea what I can do with a wall.”

— Courtney Milan

“Smite," she asked softly, "do you have any idea what to say to me in a situation like this?"
"Of course I do," he retorted. "I have plenty of ideas." He met her gaze ruefully. "Of course, they're all wrong, and so I'm totally at sea."
She patted the cushion next to her. He crossed the room and lowered himself down. And then, because he didn't seem inclined to do it himself, she picked up his hand and slid it around her shoulders.”

— Courtney Milan

For himself ... He could rarely think of how to respond when immersed in that heady back-and-forth. Sometimes he thought of clever things to say ... hours later. Usually, he committed the worst sin possible: He said what he was really thinking. That was why he came out with gems like, I like your tits. Not one of his finest moments, that.

— Courtney Milan

I thought I had to prove myself with money and accomplishments. But those will always ring hollow. They will never be enough. I want to be somebody. Let me be your husband. Let me be the father of your child -of all your children.

— Courtney Milan

And I know, despite all the constellations placed in the sky as warning, why all those Greek maidens gave it up in the end. It's because all the pain is worth it for this one moment.

— Courtney Milan

“He couldn't bring himself to look directly at her. Her gown was the color of daylight just before sunset; if he looked at her too long, he feared he might be left blind once she was gone.”

— Courtney Milan

“It was fascinating to watch her spin the tale. She'd adjusted her accent yet again, adding just a twitch of country. She looked up at him with just the right amount of girlish adoration. As if they were deeply in love and barely beginning to discover one another.
He couldn't help looking back with the same expression. He wasn't dissembling.”

— Courtney Milan

“Jessica," he said gravely. "I will be your champion,if you let me. If I have to take on the role of knight, I want to be yours. Let me be your protector.”

— Courtney Milan

“Mr. Clark." Free almost wanted to laugh. "Do you suppose I had myself committed to a hospital for prostitutes afflicted with venereal disease by telling everyone the truth all the time? Sometimes, the truth needs a little assistance.”

— Courtney Milan

Miss Marshall looked up at that moment and made his decision for him. She looked at him and then her whole face lit up. He almost staggered back under the force of her smile. It made him feel ... reckless. A man couldn't disappoint a smile like that.

— Courtney Milan

“Jenny's admonition had the desired effect. Ned drew a deep breath and thrust his arm gingerly into the bag, his mouth puckered in distaste. The expression on his face flickered from queasy horror to confusion. From there, it
flew headlong into outright bafflement. Shaking his head, he pulled his fist from the bag and turned his hand palm up.
For a long moment, the two men stared at the offending lump. It was brightly colored. It was round. It was
"An orange?" Lord Blakely rubbed his forehead. "Not quite what I expected." He scribbled another notation.
"We live in enlightened times," Jenny murmured.”

— Courtney Milan

If people did not fear me so, how could anyone tolerate me?

— Courtney Milan

“Ash." Margaret knew her voice was trembling. "Why are you doing this?"
"Because I adore you. Because you looked so stricken when I saw you and I couldn't bear not to comfort you." His voice was warm breath against her skin. "Did you know, when you left that room, you took all the light with you?”

— Courtney Milan

“Do you suppose I would learn you the way a scholar learns a book? That you are nothing to me but a collection of suppositions, to be stored in my memory and written down for verification? No, Margaret. I know you.”

— Courtney Milan

“Edward had the odd notion that after years of drab motionlessness, his entire world had suddenly begun to spin about him. He'd had that feeling ever since he'd been pulled into her orbit on the bank of the Thames.
She gave him the most astonishing vertigo. He should have hated it.
But he didn't-not one bit.”

— Courtney Milan

“Sometimes I wish that this quest had not come to me. Justice is an impossible beast to track. The trail is lonely, and she offers no reward when she's caught but the promise of another hunt.”

— Courtney Milan

He wasn't good with this sort of thing - with the back-and-forth dance between man and woman. He wasn't even sure if they were dancing, or if she was merely being polite.

— Courtney Milan

“What would one do if one were forced to choose between saving an innocent child's life or engaging in unchaste behavior? This is, after all, the choice that some unfortunate women are put to-sell their bodies, or see their children starve.”

— Courtney Milan

“If he were another person entirely, he might burst into flowery speech. If he did, she'd probably laugh at him. Besides, he didn't believe in pretending to be anyone other than who he was. Even if she swooned at whatever poetic nonsense he managed to spout, she would only be disappointed once they grew comfortable with each other and he went back to making jokes about death and gonorrhea.”

— Courtney Milan

Ned: I figured it was time for a picnic by the menagerie.
Jenny: And you brought me? Why not take the woman you're marrying?
Ned: She's grown up with the Duke of Ware. Lions seem less ferocious.

— Courtney Milan

“Tell me if you want me to change anything out-move some of the lace, mayhap, or use less of it. Poor Mrs. Sandeston. She said those words the way a man scheduled to be hanged this afternoon might talk about the weather on the morrow-wistfully, as if the thought of less lace were a luxury, something that would be experienced only by an extraordinary and unlikely act of executive clemency.”

— Courtney Milan

“I believe," he said, "that there is a special place in hell for those who steal truth. And that man-whoever he is-I hope he is burning there.”

— Courtney Milan

“Her kiss didn't sweep away the dark anguish he felt in his heart. Instead, it embraced it. It acknowledged it.”

— Courtney Milan

Oh, thank God. It wasn't the pens talk.

— Courtney Milan

“Rest easy, Miss Charingford," he said. "I wasn't attempting to seduce you. I had come to no conclusions about your virtue. I was only talking to you because you were the eleventh prettiest young lady in Leicester.”

— Courtney Milan

“The only thing worse than an unlovable woman was an unlovable woman who whined about not being loved.”

— Courtney Milan

“I would call him an ordinary man, but, well."
Another grin.
"Even I am not capable of such delusional self-effacement.”

— Courtney Milan

I hate having second thoughts," he muttered. "Necessary, for second chances," Dalrymple put in.

— Courtney Milan

Wallflowers may not be the prettiest of blooms, but at least they don't get trampled. So

— Courtney Milan

“You're unmoved by the protestations of the rabble. When they gather outside your house, massed in numbers larger than you can count, you'll laugh in their faces.'
'Shut up, Marshall,' Bradenton growled. 'Shut up.'
'Yes, that's a good one. Tell them that while they're chanting. "Shut up." That might work. Maybe they'll listen. Or maybe they'll stop talking and start throwing rocks. Did you know they played the Marseillaise near the end of the demonstration?”

— Courtney Milan

If eyes were windows to the soul, hers had been bricked up to avoid taxation.

— Courtney Milan

“This wasn't a case of gilding the lily. If there was a lily underneath all that, it had long since been crushed to a pulp. The party stopped in its tracks as she took off her cloak, frozen in wordless contemplation of a wardrobe that made the word "gaudy" sound sweet and demure by contrast.”

— Courtney Milan

I'm tired of having to remind myself that the women who are after me wish only an experience or a reputation and not a lifetime. I'm tired of holding myself back. I'm tired of having to flatten all but the barest hint of affection."
Her breath caught.
"I'm tired," he said, "Of not letting myself fall in love.

— Courtney Milan

“That's the way things were; people liked Lily, and while they were busy liking her, Violet got things done.
It never bothered Violet. She liked having things to do, and if her sister hadn't been there, they wouldn't have liked Violet any better. They'd only have ignored her more.”

— Courtney Milan