Shock is a merciful condition. It allows you to get through disaster with a necessary distance between you and your feelings.

I think you'll have to marry me, Miss Fielding." "To save your reputation?" Derek grinned, bending to kiss the flash of pale throat revealed by the robe. "Someone has to make a respectable man of me.

Anyone who had ever read a novel knew that governesses were supposed to be meek and downtrodden.

Maybe he's not college-smart, but he's smart in a way they can't teach.

Sometimes I'm not nice for a reason. It's a way to find out what someone's made of.

Sometimes a simple question could have a complicated answer.

She had always maintained a cynical facade, using it as a defence against embarrassment, fear, loneliness… but at the moment she felt unusually vulnerable.