The girl doesn’t need a violin,” he added. “She needs to have her hands bound so she can never touch an instrument again.

A duel, a duel, a duel. Is there anything more exciting, more romantic ... or more utterly moronic?

Annabel looked down. Her hands were shaking. She couldn't do this. Not yet. She couldn't face the man she'd kissed who happened to be the heir to the man she didn't want to kiss but whos she probably was going to marry. Oh yes, and she could not forget that if she did marry the man she didn't want to kiss, she was likely to provide him with a new heir, thus cutting off the man she did want to kiss.

I'm not a gentle pony... I promise you, you will have to work to keep your seat.

If he was planning to attack and ravish, he gave no indication of being in a hurry to do so.

It was funny, he reflected later, how one’s life could alter in an instant, how one minute everything could be a certain way, and the next it’s simply ... not

Suddenly it was too hard to be in his presence, too painful to know that he would belong to someone else.