Julianne Donaldson Quotes

“To my unsuspecting love.
When I look into your eyes, I lose all sense of time and place. Reason robbed, clear thought erased, I am lost in the paradise I find within your gaze.
I long to touch your blushing cheek, to whisper in your ear how I adore you, how I have lost my heart to you, how I cannot bear the thought of living without you.
To be so near to you without touching you is agony. Your blindness to my feelings is a daily torment, and I feel driven to the edge of madness by my love for you.
Where is your compassion when I need it most? Open your eyes , Love, and see what is right before you: that I am not merely a friend, but a man deeply, desperately , in love with you.
Longing for you.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“You stole my heart the night we met, when you sang that ridiculous song and dared me not to laugh. and every moment I have spent with you since then, you have stolen more and more of me until when you're not with me ... " He drew in a breath. "When you are not with me, I am left with nothing but longing for you.”

— Julianne Donaldson

Isn't that what a gentleman does? Rescues a damsel in distress?

— Julianne Donaldson

There's something solid and constant about trees." I said quietly. "They may change through the seasons, but they're always there. They're dependable.

— Julianne Donaldson

“I can never look at a bird without thinking of you," he said. "I wonder what you will do with your wings once you have found them. I wonder how far away they will take you. And I fear them, for my sake, at the same time that I hope for them, for yours.”

— Julianne Donaldson

Don't think because I tease you that I don't take you seriously.

— Julianne Donaldson

“I looked at the titles on the bookshelf and found a book on Greek mythology next to a book of poetry, which was flanked by a book on German philosophy. "How are these organized?"
"They're not."
I turned to him. "How do you find anything? There must be thousands of books here."
"I like the search. It's like visiting old friends.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“-Hardly knowing what i was doing, i began to hit the table with one hand as i sang in a low voice. Big cows" -thump- "lumps of meat" -thump. His widened. "Give me milk" -thump- "warm and sweet."
I stopped abruptly, pressing my lips together as I realized what I had just sung. The ridiculousness of it struck me forcibly and I knew I could not goon without laughing. We stared at each other,locked in a stalemate, his eyes brimming with laughter, his lips trembling. My chin quivered. Against my will, a sound burst from me. It was a very unladylike snort.-”

— Julianne Donaldson

“We'll have a duel in the morning on the moors. Plenty of fog. It will be quite dramatic, I daresay.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“You are brave and loyal and true. You have such a good heart." He held my hand close to his chest and covered it with his other hand. "It is only afraid. But I would take such good care of it, love, if you would give it to me.”

— Julianne Donaldson

A man does not need encouragement to lose his heart.

— Julianne Donaldson

“Philip: "You are even more beautiful when you're angry"
Marianne: "Don't be absurd"
Philip: "I'm not"
Philip: "You should see yourself, with that flash of fire in your eyes. And when you press your lips together like that, a dimple appears in your left cheek, right next to your mouth. I find it ... maddening”

— Julianne Donaldson

Kate," he whispered, stepping closer to me, "you are not like your mother. You are a different creature from your sisters. The depths of your soul are fathomless. You are brave and loyal and true. You have such a good heart." he held my hand close to his chest and covered it with his other hand. "It is only afraid. But I would take such good care of it, love, if you would give it to me." He bent his head and pressed his lips to my fingers.

— Julianne Donaldson

I could be myself and be loved deeply.

— Julianne Donaldson

“I promise, Marianne Daventry," he began.
"I promise that I do not love you for your money”

— Julianne Donaldson

“I reread my grandmother's letter and realized with a deep sense of contentment that I had not had to change at all in order to have every hope for happiness in life. I had not had to learn to sing for company or to behave like Cecily or to stop twirling. I could be myself and be loved deeply. I was, in fact, a lot like Meg, who had always been a racehorse, I just hadn't known it.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“You are bright and fun and delightfully unexpected. You are brave and compassionate and selfless. And you are lovely beyond measure. I want you, all of you, just the way you are." He drew in a breath. "If you will have me.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“Do not let anyone else's expectations direct the course of your life. I have discovered happiness in being true to who I am.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“If I leaned toward him, something would happen. I was sure of it. But if I leaned away, nothing would happen. So I stayed perfectly still, balanced between something and nothing, not knowing which way I wanted to fall.”

— Julianne Donaldson

Henry lifted his head and looked directly at me. I froze where I stood, feeling as if he had just told me a secret with that look. It was new . It was a question and a statement and a quick, hidden secret all at once..

— Julianne Donaldson

“My heart would obey me, I was certain. I simply needed to be strict with it.”

— Julianne Donaldson

I will always want her," Philip said in a quiet, furious voice. "Always! There is nothing you could do to change that.

— Julianne Donaldson

But this was one contest he would not win. For I had painted my heart into that picture, and I would not let him have it.

— Julianne Donaldson

“I had to be different ... so I would not be inferior. We could not occupy the same space together. Like horses in a race, I was tired of jostling for position and losing. I chose a different course so that losing would not be an option.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“We both stood there, as if on the brink of a cliff, and I didn't know if I moved if I would fall to hell or soar to heaven.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“I felt like I did the first time I had been thrown from a horse, with the reins yanked from my hands and the ground rushing up at me. Then, as now, there was nothing I could do to prevent the pain that was coming.”

— Julianne Donaldson

Where is your compassion when i need it most? Open your eyes, love, and see what is right before you: that I am not merely a friend, but a man deeply, desperately, in love with you.

— Julianne Donaldson

“It is so refreshing to be treated with contempt.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“Big cows,"
thump
"lumps of meat"
thump
. His eyes widened. "Give me milk"
thump
"warm and sweet"
thump.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“You don't want to be loved for your misfortune; I don't want to be loved for my possessions. Are we not similar in that way?”

— Julianne Donaldson

“I am not going to pretend to write a love letter to another man.”

— Julianne Donaldson

You needn't believe in something for it to be real, miss

— Julianne Donaldson

“He held my gaze for a long moment. I realized that the fire was very warm, and that I was standing very close to a very handsome gentleman who held my hand in his. Philip looked down. "You brave girl," he murmured, running a light finger along my palm. It was so soft a touch that it did not hurt at all. But it did send a wave of feeling through my hand, up my arm, all the way to my heart. I had never experienced such a sensation before, and I found it completely unnerving.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“When I look into your eyes, I lose all sense of time and place. Reason robbed, clear thought erased, I am lost in the paradise I find within your gaze.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“The sensation I
had experienced vanished like smoke from a snuffed candle, leaving behind wisps of nameless
longing.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“Did he hurt you? The emotion I was trying to suppress clawed at my throat, unleashed by the gentleness in Philip's voice. Without warning, a tear slipped down my cheek. I swiped it away.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“I did not want Philip-that handsome, incorrigible, charming tease who stole hearts he had no intention of keeping.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“Philip Wyndham! That is the most inappropriate thing I have ever heard, and if your mother were here she would give you the scolding of your life! In fact, I have half a mind to go tell her what an atrocious, incorrigible, scandalous tease she has raised." He didn't look the least bit chagrined. He just smiled and said, "If my mother were here I wouldn't have said it. That was for your ears only." And then he winked. I stared at him in disbelief. There was no stopping him. He had no limits to how far he would go with his outrageous flirting.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“What have I done to deserve that look? He asked in a low voice so that nobody else could hear.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“Very well." In a voice as cool and detached as if he were critiquing a work of art, he said, "Starting at the top: your brow is marked with intelligence, your gaze is direct, your features are delicate, your skin is fair, your voice is refined, your speech reflects education ... " He paused. "Even the way you hold your head is elegant." I was suddenly, excruciatingly self-conscious. I dropped my gaze, my face on fire. "Ah, yes," he said softly. "And then there is your modesty. No milkmaid could have blushed like that." To my mortification, I felt my blush deepen until the tips of my ears were tingling with the heat. "Shall I continue?" he asked with a hint of a laugh in his voice. "No, that is quite enough, thank you.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“I promise not to love you for your misfortunes”

— Julianne Donaldson

He looked heavenward with a sigh. "Are you always this stubborn?" I thought about it for a moment. "Yes, I think I am." Philip's expression wavered between exasperation and amusement. Amusement won with a reluctant laugh.

— Julianne Donaldson

“Don't think because I like to tease you that I don't take you seriously," he said in a quiet voice. "It is an honor to know what's in your heart, Marianne.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“I think of marriage differently. A Companionship of like minds. A tie that binds, yes, but in the binding comes strength. A lifetime with your dearest friend as your truest and best companion. That is what it can be. I believe that.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“His arms surrounded me, pulling me close, holding me as if I was infinitely precious. I burned and trembled in his embrace.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“Are you ready for your lesson in romance? Philip asked with a teasing gleam in his eye.”

— Julianne Donaldson

“I felt a crack in my defenses-a weak place where truth knifed and twisted and pried for an opening”

— Julianne Donaldson

I stood up, suddenly very upset, and took a step away from him. Philip grabbed the hem of my gown. "Wait," he said, laughing. I looked down at him, my hands clenched into fists. "Please don't leave," he said, a cajoling smile turning his lips up charmingly. "I won't do it again." Well, at least he knew why I was upset. But the idea of him not doing it again? Hah! I raised an eyebrow in deep skepticism. "In the next five minutes," he added with a chuckle.

— Julianne Donaldson

Of course, one must always take into consideration the modestly of the lady. Too subtle and she may miss your meaning all together. Too strong, and she may never look you in the face again.

— Julianne Donaldson

“What do you think, Philip? Won't she be all the rage?" I couldn't look at Philip. He would undoubtedly say something polite, which everyone would know was a lie. But then, when he didn't immediately answer, I had to look at him. I was so surprised by what I saw that I looked twice. Philip held his mother's gaze with a hard look in his eyes. A muscle jumped in his jaw. He almost looked angry, but I couldn't fathom why her words would spark such a reaction in him. Lady Caroline's smile turned hard-almost mocking-from across the table. After a tense silence, he finally said, "Undoubtedly.”

— Julianne Donaldson