The Governess Affair Quotes

“I will not be browbeaten, however nicely you do it. I am done with things happening to me. From here on out, I am going to happen to things.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“Never hit a man with a closed fist," he told her. He could feel her pulse.

"Why? Because it gives you an excuse to manhandle me?"

He let go. "Slap his face instead."

"Ha."

"It will make him take you less seriously, and then he won't be expecting it when you knee him in the groin.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“You could make me say it again," he whispered. "Make me say it always. Make me say it so often that you never have cause to doubt. I love you.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“You can call me your friend if you like, but I think of you when I stroke myself. When last I checked, that points to feelings that are decidedly more than friendly.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“You always put things at risk. If you fell out of a tree as a child, I'd clean you up and bandage your knees, and next I looked you'd be out climbing again. You never learned your lesson."

Oh, she'd learned her lesson. Climb harder.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“An untutored observer would focus on the Duke of Clermont, apparently in full command, resplendent in a waistcoat so shot with gold thread that it almost hurt the eyes. This observer would dismiss Hugo Marshall, arrayed as he was in clothing spanning the spectrum from brown to browner. The comparison wouldn’t stop at clothing. The duke was respectably bulky without running to fat; his patrician features were sharp and aristocratic. He had mobile, ice-blue eyes that seemed to take in everything. Compared with Hugo’s own unprepossessing expression and sandy brown hair, the untutored observer would have concluded that the duke was in charge.

The untutored observer, Hugo thought, was an idiot.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“I spent my day as I normally spend my days: threatening suppliers, bullying those who are not in line with my expectations, and generally creating havoc in the lives of others. The square across the street is empty of all but the pigeons. I find myself resenting them.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“He couldn't bring himself to look directly at her. Her gown was the color of daylight just before sunset; if he looked at her too long, he feared he might be left blind once she was gone.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“I thought I had to prove myself with money and accomplishments. But those will always ring hollow. They will never be enough. I want to be somebody. Let me be your husband. Let me be the father of your child -of all your children.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“Don't imagine it would be the usual kind of marriage." He seemed to withdraw even more. "It needn't even be consummated. Any woman I liked we'll enough to marry doesn't deserve to be saddled to me. If we marry, it will be a quiet wedding by special license in a back room. At the end, we'll go our separate ways--you, to your farm, and me..." He looked around the small room at the messy piles of paper. "I'm not offering to make a life with you. I'm merely giving you the chance to make your child legitimate. Nothing more."

He watched her, his eyes hooded and wary. And deep inside... She had no notion as to what to say.

She let out a long breath. "Oh, you are romantic.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“The vicar gave him permission and he kissed her - not hard, for lust, nor long, for love, but a light brush of his lips for the brief space of time that she would stay in his life.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“No, Mr. Marshall. I will not be browbeaten, however nicely you do it. I am done with things happening to me. From here on out, I am going to happen to things.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“We are married -and maybe this is no conventional arrangement, but it is still real.

"It isn't," he said.

"It is. What is a husband, but the man who offers you support when all the world turns you away?"

Was that what he was to her? He couldn't look at her now, or she'd see how much those words affected him.

She continued. "What is a wife, but a partner who will see through to your deepest wishes? We have promised each other our deepest wishes.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“She received his note not two minutes later. She opened it, her heart pounding. But there were only two words on the paper. Marry me.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“You can’t eat justice.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“God gave one sisters to teach one to love the inexplicable.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“Hugo reached down and plucked a spare twig from the ground and set it on the bench between them. “This,” he said, “is a wall, and I will not cross it.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“Quizá Dios daba hermanas a la gente para enseñarle a amar lo inexplicable.”
― Courtney Milan, El affaire de la institutriz

“She continued. “What is a wife, but a partner who will see you through to your deepest wishes? We have promised each other our deepest wishes.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“I have a better idea,” Hugo heard himself say. “You could go on a journey.”

“A journey? Now, there's a capital idea for escaping my wife. Brighton, perhaps? Or France?”

“None of those,” Hugo said. “I was thinking that you could go to hell.”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“production, Hugo Marshall did not look up from the books. Instead he waited silently, listening to boots marking a path upon the carpet. He wasn’t a servant; he refused to be treated as one. After a moment, his patience was rewarded. “Fix it, please,” the Duke of Clermont muttered. Hugo raised his head. An untutored observer would focus on the Duke of Clermont, apparently in full command, resplendent in a waistcoat so”
― Courtney Milan, The Governess Affair

“Es imposible decirnos que no pensemos en
elefantes sin traer a la mente a esos grandes animales grises.”
― Courtney Milan, El affaire de la institutriz