To Sir Phillip, With Love (Bridgertons, #5)

by Julia Quinn

They descended into silence, but it was a comfortable, companionable sort of quietude. And as they ate, moving through the courses of the supper as they chatted about nothing in particular, it occurred to Phillip that perhaps marriage wasn’t supposed to be so hard.

Eloise knew that she tended to see the world in blacks and whites, that she sometimes leapt to judgment because she didn’t stop to analyze the gradations of gray, but of this she was certain.

“You happen to life, Eloise,” Anthony said. “You’ve always made your own decisions, always been in control. It might not always feel that way, but it’s true.”

Eloise just stared at him. As long as she lived, she’d never understand men. She had four brothers, and quite frankly should have understood them better than most women, and maybe it had taken all of her twenty-eight years to come to this realization, but men were, quite simply, freaks.

But of course that would be how she would ask it. There was nothing subtle or deniable about Eloise Bridgerton. She would never skirt around an issue when she could just walk right in and stick her nose directly into the heart of the matter.

and as I’m sure you can imagine, they were all possessed of a most foul temper. Is it my fault I am so superior? I think not. No more, I suppose, than it is their fault they were born men and thus without the barest hint of common sense or innate good manners.

And it occurred to her that for a woman who opened her mouth every other second, there was an awful lot inside of her that she’d never shared.

“I always loved that about you,” Violet said. “I always loved everything about you, of course, but for some reason I always found your impatience especially charming. It was never because you wanted more, it was because you wanted everything.”

But all she’d written was, “I hope you are well. Please remember that you are my daughter and you will always be my daughter. I love you.”

as she wasn’t the sort to tolerate an unhappy life, then she would simply have to make certain that hers was anything but.

but he resolved not to wonder at his good fortune, just to enjoy it.

He shook his head in wonder. “You are magnificent.” “I keep telling everyone that,” she said with a nonchalant shrug, “but you seem to be the only one to believe me.”