The Suffragette Scandal Quotes

“You need to control your wife.”

“Haven’t you figured it out?” Edward said quietly. “I married her to unleash her on the world, not to keep her under wraps.”

James blinked, as if trying to understand that.

“I married her because she made me believe in her,” Edward said. “Because I wished her beyond your power, not under mine. You have no idea of the debt I owe her. For her I’d do the unthinkable.”

He glanced back at Free.

“If she asked me to do it,” he told James, “I’d even forgive you.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“But we’re not trying to empty the Thames,” she told him. “Look at what we’re doing with the water we remove. It doesn’t go to waste. We’re using it to water our gardens, sprout by sprout. We’re growing bluebells and clovers where once there was a desert. All you see is the river, but I care about the roses.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“She wagged a finger at him. “You’re mispronouncing that word.”
“Your pardon?” He groped, trying to remember what he’d said. “Suffragette? How does one pronounce it, then?”
“Suffragette,” she said, “is pronounced with an exclamation point at the end. Like this: ‘Huzzah! Suffragettes!”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“I am small,” she said, “but mighty.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“How long did it take her? People usually react to her fairly swiftly—either love or hate, there’s rarely an emotion between. A day? A week?”

He thought of Free the way he’d first seen her: standing on the bank of the Thames, leaning forward.

“Two to five,” Edward muttered.

“Days?”

“Minutes.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“Are you really left-handed?” Mr. Marshall asked.

“No. I’ve just been pretending to use my left hand my entire life because I enjoy never being able to work scissors properly.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“Mr. Clark,” she repeated, looking up at him. “You are very tall.”

“And you,” he said in a low voice, “you, my most maddeningly beautiful, brilliant, Free. You are perfectly sized. If you Mr. Clark me once more, I shall be forced to do something dreadful, something like kiss you in public.”

Even her wildest fantasies had not had him saying something like that on arrival. She squeezed his hands and then looked up into his dark eyes.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Clark,” she said. “What did you say, Mr. Clark? Mr. Clark, I fear that I have become rather hard of hearing. The noise of the press is terribly distracting. What was that you said you’d do if I called you Mr. Clark?”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“She raised her chin and looked him in the eye. “You see a river rushing by without end. You see a sad collection of women with thimbles, all dipping out an inconsequential amount.”

He didn’t say anything.

“But we’re not trying to empty the Thames,” she told him. “Look at what we’re doing with the water we remove. It doesn’t go to waste. We’re using it to water our gardens, sprout by sprout. We’re growing bluebells and clovers where once there was a desert. All you see is the river, but I care about the roses.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“He stood in the doorway of her office. He was, as always, the consummate scoundrel. He leaned against the doorframe, smiling—almost smirking—at her, as if he knew how rapidly her heart had started beating.

If that was how they were going to do this…

She simply raised an eyebrow in his direction. “Oh,” she said with a sniff. “It’s you.”

“You’re not fooling anyone,” he said.

She could feel the corner of her mouth twitch up. Last time she’d seen him, he’d kissed her so thoroughly she had not yet recovered.

“I’m not?”

“I heard it most distinctly,” he told her. “You might have said ‘It’s you,’ but there was a distinct exclamation mark at the end. In fact, I think there were two.”

“Oh, dear.” Free looked down, fluttering her eyelashes demurely. “Is my punctuation showing once more?”

His eyes darkened and he took a step into her office. “Don’t hide it on my account,” he growled. “You have the most damnably beautiful punctuation that I have ever seen.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“So.” She picked up his paperweight and turned it over. “This was your search for a heart?”

“No.” His voice was ever so quiet. “I made that when I gave up on having one altogether. I didn’t think there was any point in looking for such a ridiculous object until I met you. At some point in the weeks of our acquaintance, I realized I did have one buried somewhere.” He looked over at her. “There’s no point in searching it out now. By the time I realized it existed, it was already yours.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“Marshall,” he said levelly, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but any organization that claims you for a member doesn’t get to call itself sinister, whether you’re left-handed or not. I would be insulted to be offered membership in such a namby-pamby organization. It would be like the Archbishop of Canterbury calling a select club of his compatriots ‘Bad, Bad Bishops’.”

Marshall sniggered.

“Watch out for the clergy,” Edward said. “They’re absolutely wild. Sometimes they have an extra biscuit at tea.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“Most people who are struck by lightning learn to keep their heads down. It’s only people like you who grit your teeth and then come out again, refusing to cower. That’s what I can’t understand about you. You’ve been struck by lightning, again and again, and still you stand up. I don’t see how you are possible.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“Thank you for everything. I’d never have been able to rid myself of Delacey without you.” She leaned up and kissed his cheek. “You’re my favorite brother.”

“I’m your only brother,” he said in dark amusement.

“You see?” Free spread her arms. “I can’t count on any of the others to even exist when I need them.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“Now, tell me, Mr. Clark. Did you come here to allow me the chance to once again demonstrate my intellectual superiority, or did you have some actual business?” “You don’t need to demonstrate your superiority to me. I take it as a given on all fronts.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“My nerves are neither over- nor underwrought. They are wrought to the precise degree demanded by this situation.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“I believe that women are human beings. That belief is not diametrically opposed to thinking that men are human beings, and that if one human being has the opportunity to be kind to another, she should do so.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“I’m asking you to marry me within the next hour.” He simply looked at her. “I can’t think of a reason why you should. I have no moral sense to speak of. I lie, I cheat, I steal, and I’ll probably drive you away screaming within the week. But if you marry me, I’ll only do those things on your behalf.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“Unluckily,” he said, without breaking into a smile, “you are right. There are several sad, gaping holes in my logic. I don’t suppose you’re interested in marrying a failed logician with necromantic tendencies, by any chance?”

Free took a deep breath. It didn’t seem to calm the whirl of her head. “That’s…a proposal of marriage? I just want to clarify matters. You see, it could also be a madman’s babble, and I want to be certain.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“He snorted. “Are you lying to me, Miss Marshall?”

“Of course I am.” She smiled at him. “I thought it would put you at ease.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“I’m Edward Clark. Born Edward Delacey. Now, apparently, Viscount Claridge.” He shut his eyes. “You can address me by my preferred title: 'you idiot'.”

Marshall’s eyes were narrowing on this. “What have you done to my daughter, you idiot?”

“To my great regret, I…” Edward’s hands were clammy. “It’s…” God, it would be better if lightning could just strike him now. “I can’t—that is, I seem to have married your daughter.”

Marshall looked about the yard, as if searching for Free. When he didn’t find her, he turned back to Edward.

“You regret marrying my daughter.” His voice sounded calm, if one could call the cold, black embers after a fire had burnt out calm.

“No,” Edward said. “Never that. She regrets marrying me.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“No. When I was a girl, I wanted to be a pirate.”

That brought up an all-too-pleasant image—Miss Marshall, the rich, dark red of her hair unbound and flying defiantly in the wind aboard a ship’s deck. She’d wear a loose white shirt and pantaloons. He would definitely surrender.

“I am less shocked than you might imagine,” Edward heard himself say. “Entirely unshocked.”

She smiled in pleasure.

“A bloodthirsty cutthroat profession? Good thing you gave that up. It would never have suited you.”

Her expression of pleasure dimmed.

“You’d have succeeded too easily,” Edward continued, “and now you’d be sitting, bored as sin, atop a heap of gold too large to spend in one lifetime. Still, though, wouldn’t it solve ever so many problems if you married a lord? James Delacey could never touch you again if you did.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“Miss Marshall, are you trying to tell me that you didn’t dream of marrying a lord when you were young? That you didn’t play at being a lady, imagining what it would be like to be waited on hand and foot? I thought every little girl with any inclination at all to marry dreamed of catching the eye of a lord.”

“God, no.” She looked horrified. “Farm girls who catch the eye of a lord don’t end up married. If we’re lucky, we don’t end up pregnant.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“Miss Marshall spent her life daring those more powerful than her to swat her down. The hell of it was, her determination was some kind of contagion. He could feel it infecting him, making him believe. Making him tell himself lies like 'I could do some good' and 'I want her forever'.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“Yes.” Edward rolled his eyes. “It’s a terrible secret, that. I am trying dreadfully to conceal it. I openly altered my life for weeks on end for your sister. I single-handedly stopped an arsonist from setting fire to her business. When confronted with that evidence, it took you a mere three hours to determine that I harbored an affection for her. Truly, you have a massive intellect.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“Edward shook his head. “I’m going to do the same thing with Miss Marshall that I do to everyone I love. I’m going to leave before I can do her harm.”

Patrick looked at him, his mouth quirking skeptically.

“I will,” Edward said. “Just as soon as I can get everyone else to leave her alone.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“But when Edward kissed Frederica Marshall, something terrible happened—something that had never happened in a lifetime of kisses.

He didn’t see an end.

He wasn’t going to want a sweet farewell in a few weeks’ time. He wouldn’t walk away with a light heart. He was going to want more and more—more kisses, more of her, again and again.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“Don’t hide it on my account,” he growled. “You have the most damnably beautiful punctuation that I have ever seen. You make a man feel greedy.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“She walked away from him with swift, sure strides, as if she knew her destination. As if it had nothing to do with him.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“He leaned down and whispered. “I don’t have a puppy-cannon.” “No puppy-cannon?” she echoed. “No. The physics of cannons are actually really unkind for dogs. I can’t endorse the idea, however cuddly it sounds in principle. Although I have to admit that it would make an excellent parliamentary tactic. You could sit in the Ladies’ Gallery. On my signal, when someone said something ridiculous…” He made a noise that sounded something like a rocket.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal

“You dictated it to your father," the Duke continued. "And you said: Dear Oliver, please come home. What are you going to bring me? Love, your Free.' And I remember thinking..."

Frederica felt herself blush." How mercenary."

"I remember thinking," he said, as if she hasn't spoken, "that I would give everything I had for a little sister.”
― Courtney Milan, The Suffragette Scandal