A Chance Encounter Quotes

“It is a rude awakening, is it not, to discover that people change, or that they have other facets to their character that we did not suspect?”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“I can't," she whispered. "I am so afraid, Robert. I am afraid to love again."

"I know," he said, "but I am afraid not to. Look ahead, Elizabeth. Ten years. Twenty years. Thirty. Can you bear to think of the emptiness? I cannot. I need you and I believe you need me just as much. Come back to me, love. Please.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“But she knew she would not sleep until she had somehow sorted through her thoughts about the night before. She pulled a chair to the window, blew out the candle, and sat looking out onto the moonlit lawns and trees.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“Life is always like that," he said gently. "We are what we are because of what has happened to us in the past. We cannot change that and we should not wish to. I love you as you are, Elizabeth. Perhaps I would not love you as well if you had not met and loved and lost Hetherington. Perhaps the experience has given you the air of maturity and serenity that I so admire in you. Give me your future, my dear. I do not ask for the past.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“What a dull and unadventurous life this is sometimes.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“It had seemed such a domestic scene and she ached now, as she had ached then, to be a part of it. Instead, she had sat twenty feet away, as far removed from him in spirit as if she had been twenty miles away. Yet she loved him still. Not as she had before, when she had loved him as if he were a prince in a fairy-tale romance. He had been perfection itself. Now she loved him as a woman, with knowledge of all his faults and with full realization that they could never be together again. But she loved him. And for the first time since it had happened, she admitted to herself that she would not have altered any of those events even if she had known of the separation and pain ahead. At least she had known love and at least there was one man in this world who meant everything to her.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“Elizabeth closed her eyes and wished herself back to that previous occasion when Robert had first kissed her and told her that he loved her. If only they could go back, wipe out the intervening years. If only she could change the way he was, make him become permanently what he had seemed to be then.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“Their love had developed out of friendship; friendship helped it deepen.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“They had sparked a note of sympathy in each other. They had found it easy to talk about their deepest feelings and dreams.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“Oh, Robert, please kiss me," she begged suddenly. "Make me forget all my fears.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“Some things always remain the same. We are not the same people we were six years ago. We will have to get to know each other again. But our love has survived, has it not? Can we not give it a chance again, Elizabeth? You do love me, do you not?

"Yes," she admitted hesitantly against his coat, "I always have."

"Well," he said, chuckling against her hair. "You have sealed your doom now, love. You cannot expect me ever to let you go after you have admitted that, you know.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“Will it be the same?" she asked. "Will the magic be gone, Robert? I am afraid to go back.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“I have excellent hopes," he said. "I have ached for you for six years, and you have suffered too, I know. I love you now as I have from the beginning, and you love me. I believe we have a chance for a good marriage.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“It had been surprisingly easy to begin a new life.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“I wonder if I shall understand you even at the end of a lifetime," he mused, folding his arms across his chest.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“No, it is too late, Robert," she said tonelessly. "There has been too much pain for you and me. I cannot face making myself vulnerable again.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“It is all over now, love," he said, a smile lifting one corner of his mouth. "We do not have to part ever again. I can take you home with me.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“This is the man who loves you, darling, who has loved you for six long and lonely years. Open your eyes and look at me, love.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“I cannot now believe that we allowed all those things to happen to us without blazing a trail back to each other. I cannot quite understand why I did not fight my way through hell, though God knows I believed I had done all I could. I was so damned young.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“I am weary, Robert," she said, turning to face him, "so weary of the misunderstandings, the waitings, the confrontations. I have trained myself since losing you to avoid strong feelings and unpredictable circumstances. I have learned to value tranquility."

"And have you been happy?" he asked gently.

"Happy?" she repeated, eyes flashing. "Happy! Happiness is a much-overrated emotion, my lord. I was very happy once and I ended up more miserable than I knew it was possible to be. I am not interested in happiness. I wish to be left in peace.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“It seems to me that the two of you have had your marriage blighted by misunderstandings and suspicions and missed opportunities.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“Do you not know me well enough," he asked, "to know that I would have come to you as fast as horse could gallop at any time I had received such a letter from you in the last six years?”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“What are you doing here?" she asked.

"It seems that you ask me that every time we meet," he said, "and I always have the same answer. I wish to talk to you.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“She really did not care. Not anymore. It was safer not to care.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“What was the point of waiting for a more pleasant post? There was no such thing as pleasure in life for her anymore.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“This is your home, but it is mine no longer. I have to find my own place.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“We know you are wretchedly unhappy and we cannot do much to ease the pain.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“Elizabeth slept for the rest of the night, somewhat comforted by her decision to do something.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“And at least then she would be certain. If rejection was to be her fate again, she could at least then begin the dreary task of piecing together a meaningless life. Anything was better than this endless waiting.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter

“But it felt so good, so good to let someone else carry her burdens for just a little while.”
― Mary Balogh, A Chance Encounter