Julia Quinn

but she had no patience for cowardice, especially within herself

no one had ever brought her flowers before, and she hadn’t known until that very moment how badly she’d wanted someone to do so.

Edwina has a novel to read. The latest by that Austen woman.

Desire certainly had a greater chance of sliding into love than did disinterest.

She is forever telling me that she knows perfectly well how to live her life and doesn’t need a dead man to give her instruction

Frankly, he saw no reason why love should be an involuntary thing.

It was at times like these that she found it so difficult to keep her heart out of her eyes.

But he did not judge her for her terrors

“I won’t offer you a penny for your thoughts, since I know they can’t possibly be worth that much, but what are you thinking about?”

He knew well the singularly strange sensation of loving one’s family to distraction, and yet not feeling quite able to share one’s deepest and most intractable fears. It brought on an uncanny sense of isolation, of being remarkably alone in a loud and loving crowd.