The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics (Feminine Pursuits, #1)

by Olivia Waite

She’d felt like a book pulled down from the shelf, splayed open by a determined reader, and held firmly in place until she gave up all her secrets.

“It’s a little unusual, I admit.” Catherine’s lips quirked. “Most beautiful ideas are.”

a gathering of slender gray birches that leaned genteelly together like elven maidens at a faerie court.

“They don’t let you have anything whole, you know. If you don’t follow the pattern. You have to find your happiness in bits and pieces instead. But it can still add up to something beautiful.”

Then the countess smiled. A new smile, shy and hopeful. A smile like the first ray of dawn. Lucy was enchanted.

“You can’t always judge by what came before. Sometimes, there is a revolution.”

“This red is the right red,” he protested. “You’ve got to paint the colors right, even if they won’t stay that way forever. Nothing lasts.”

You make me feel expansive, as though my heart is big enough and strong enough to contain the whole world. As though I can become anyone I need to, or want to, without fear—I can reach higher and farther and not lose you for the striving. And oh, my love, do you know how great a gift that is?”

Forgive an old, stout man for not bending as swiftly as he ought.”

“Let’s both put our names up, and race each other to the Fellowship. Or else confuse our enemies so much they let one of us slip through in the chaos.” “And then that one can nudge the door a little wider as they go through,”