Home > Work > The Earl (Devil's Duke, #2; Falcon Club, #5)
1 " There was such emotion in his eyes now, she felt as though her insides were pressing on her ribcage and twisting in her middle. For years she had thought him a stranger. Now, here, on this road by uncertain light she saw again such acute feeling in the beautiful eyes of the boy she had once adored. She let herself look at his arm so firmly about the little girl, a child he barely knew yet felt the responsibility to protect, and something hard and encrusted inside her shattered. "
― Katharine Ashe , The Earl (Devil's Duke, #2; Falcon Club, #5)
2 " Stop staring at me,” she said. “I won’t perish, except perhaps of mortification.” “I am not staring at you because I am concerned you will perish.” He was remembering the first time he had held her. His mother had insisted, saying that it would be his responsibility to care for her someday, and the sooner he learned how to do so, the better. Standing before God and their families in the chapel at Willows Hall, he had accepted into his arms a warm, surprisingly heavy little bundle of cloth, and for the first time ever had held another person’s life in his hands. As he held her, the priest had anointed her with holy water and chrism. He had been five. "
3 " Don’t you see?” she cried. “I cannot have been wrong that you don’t have a heart.”He came toward her swiftly, grasped her wrist, and flattened her hand to his chest. Through his ribs, his heartbeats beneath her palm were fast and hard. “You are denying me this?” he said close to her brow, the depth of his voice coating her rawness. “Because it has been like this since you walked through the door of that inn four days ago. It was like this when you stood across your parlor in London refusing me. And in Edinburgh in April. And each time I have seen you for longer than I can say.”“Stop. Do not say this.”“I don’t need to kiss you to feel this,” he said. “You have been turning me inside out for years. "
4 " Marriage is good for no woman, Clarice. It binds her as securely to a master as chains, and silences her voice as surely as if she had a gag stuffed between her lips. Why should I want that? I have been blessed with an affectionate, negligent father and am free to do mostly as I wish, with the resources to do it. I have no desire to subject myself to a potentially harsher overlord. "
5 " My Dear Fellow Subjects,I have recently learned a Truth that I wish to share with you: A man can be powerful, wealthy, privileged, even arrogant, yet still bend himself down to the level of the lowliest child to act with kindness, compassion, and heroism. I have witnessed it.I have been wrong my friends. In the past, cynicism and old hurt threaded through my disparagements of great men. Some men of position and wealth do serve England for their own gain. But some do so because they wish to help others and to make the world a better place. Whether it is always apparent to observers, the fact that they serve from a place of both Honor and Love – love of their families, their lands, and England.The People of this great nation and its Rulers have much to teach other. Both sides should listen.In this same manner, a wife and her husband must coexist. In sharing and celebrating their partnership, they must trust each other; depend upon each other, support each other, and raise each other up – in equal measure. For where there is Love there must always be Respect.For Respect to flourish, however, Equality must first exist. I ask you: How can a man with a single slice of bread look upon a rich man’s feast day after day, yet not come to resent him for that bounty? And how can a feasting lord look upon a pauper’s crust and not feel contempt, even judge that pauper deficient in some manner? Is not a well-fed man a happier man and a better contributor to Society? Is not an equal sharing of resources a pathway toward equal respect?In much the same way, to withhold from wives the same rights and privileges in marriage as their husbands is to sow Anger, Resentment, Fear, and Weakness into the fertile soil of this most blessed union. Instead of allowing wives equal rights and privileged as their husbands is to empower women to love and serve with Strength, Vigor, and Honesty.Dear fellow subjects, I have witnessed the intimate bond between Love and Respect: I have seen it in my parents’ marriage and in the marriages of my dearest friends. Now I have also felt it in my heart. And I have learned that without the one, the other cannot survive. Entwined together, however, they can conquer the worst of life’s challenges.In learning this lesson, I have come to understand that I can no longer hide in anonymity. In doing so, I only contribute to mistrust between the People of this kingdom and its Rulers, who should instead be united, bonded, as spouses are bonded, in Love and Respect. In remaining anonymous, I am also a hypocrite. For how can I claim that women’s voices are worthy of being heard when I have hidden my own so effectively behind this crusade that even those who I love most dearly do not know me?Therefore, today I sign off sincerely,-- Emily Vale, “Lady Justice "
6 " Someone said to me recently that a great man is not measured by the strength of his privilege, but by the depth of his heart,” Colin smiled. “She was right.” He bowed. “Thank you, my lords. "
7 " She was, after all, no longer Emily Vale, the peculiar girl who preferred books and frogs to gossip and pretty dresses; whom no one ever listened to; whom no one petted or rhapsodized over, or missed from tea or the picnic or Christmas dinner; whom no one except one boy ever sought out—until he didn’t. She had not been that girl in years. "
