" JANE,” LAURENCE SAID, “will you marry me?” “Why, no, dear fellow,” she said, looking up in surprise from the chair where she was drawing on her boots. “It would be a puzzle to give you orders, you know, if I had vowed to obey; it could hardly be comfortable. But it is very handsome of you to have offered,” she added, and standing up kissed him heartily, before she put on her coat. "

― Naomi Novik , Empire of Ivory (Temeraire, #4)