A Perilous Undertaking (Veronica Speedwell, #2)

by Deanna Raybourn

Men, I had often observed, were never happier than when they believed they were imparting wisdom.

That was the true measure of his character; even at the height of his irritation he would never let me fall.

“I wasn’t speaking of your body,” he replied. “Did I not just tell you? Bodies are quite insignificant. The soul is a thing apart. When you decide to share that with someone, then you will know what it is to live.”

“Fair or plain, a woman must be complimented upon something she believes she possesses but no one else has ever noticed. That tells her that you alone see her for who she truly is. And then she is yours.”

It has been my experience in dealing with the male of the species that the easiest way to get one to do as you wish is to encourage him to do precisely the opposite.

“When I most had need of you, you did not leave me. Whatever this thing is that makes us different, this thing that makes quicksilver of us when the rest of the world is mud, it binds us. To break that would be to fly in the face of nature.”