Longing for Home Quotes

“Don’t you listen to a single word falling out of his mouth, Sweet Katie. Ian isn’t the brightest of us all. ’Tis not his fault, I suppose. He was such an ugly baby, Ma was startled every time she picked him up, and she dropped him on his head a great deal.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“You’re a tough one, Katie Macauley. But I mean to talk you round to enduring me at the least. Take a ride with me. I’ll be a perfect gentleman, my word of honor.” An afternoon away from her endless list of chores would be nice. But only if Tavish behaved himself. “A perfect gentleman?” The devilishly handsome grin he produced was not terribly reassuring, yet there was sincerity in his eyes. “You’ll hardly recognize me I’ll be so well behaved.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“Are you telling me when you first saw me sitting up in my brother’s wagon that your very first thought was, ‘That fine-looking Irishman over there is most definitely a rascal’?”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“He grabbed his lantern and shotgun. “Shall we?” Katie nodded. “But this doesn’t mean I like you.” “Yet,” he added as he opened the barn door. She stopped in the doorway. “I didn’t say yet.” “Ah, but you meant it.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“A third voice jumped in. “Seems to me a lad ought to kiss a lass when she looks at him that way.” Tavish nearly laughed out loud. Leave it to Granny Claire to say just that. Katie smiled despite the color creeping across her face.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“Then ’tis little wonder your family despairs of ever seeing you married off. Sounds to me as though you haven’t time at all to be courting.” “Hmm.” Tavish leaned in so close he could smell the flowery scent he’d come to associate with her since their picnic by the river. Could she hear how hard his heart had begun pounding? “Is that a complaint or an invitation, Sweet Katie?” he whispered.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“He didn’t release her, didn’t pull his eyes away from her face. “Have I not earned even the smallest bit of your trust, Katie?” To her surprise, he sounded hurt. To her even greater surprise, she felt bad for it. Katie never opened her life to anyone. Not anyone.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“You wish to take me on a tour?” Katie didn’t mean to become attached to the place, but finding a few reasons to like the town would be nice. “A small tour,” Tavish said. “And maybe a wee bit of gazing into each other’s eyes and whispering sweet nothings.” She skewered him with a look of scolding rebuke, one he couldn’t possibly mistake for encouragement. “Absolutely not.” He didn’t look the least surprised. Indeed, he looked even more amused than before. “Perhaps we’ll just keep to the tour for now,” he said. “What say you?”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“But pride is only friend to a fool.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“Anything else you’re needing, Sweet Katie? The moon, perhaps? A few stars? Just ask, and they’re yours.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“Something you found blowing about in the storm?” “Aye. The heavens blew her right to me, they did.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“There was nothing that irritated an arrogant man more than a woman who showed no interest in him.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“I fight my own battles.”
“Might I say, just because you can doesn’t mean you have to.”
“A woman alone always has to. It’s the way of things.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“Why did you stop?” Until he spoke, she’d not realized Tavish was there. He’d played least in sight for days and days, so she’d not expected to see him that night. Katie looked over at him, knowing her humiliation must have shown. “No one else was playing,” she explained quietly. “I’m not certain why.” “Sweet heavens, Katie.” He shook his head. “They were all too blown down by you. I don’t think any of us have ever heard your equal.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“I don’t know that I can translate word for word.” Katie pinched at her lower lip, her brow furrowing. Joseph fought back a smile but found doing so hard in the face of how appealing she was when thinking so hard. “’Tis the story of a man who falls in love with the woman of his dreams.” He doubted she had any idea how fully she’d captured his attention with that brief description. “But they can’t be together,” Katie continued. “So he loves her in silence. He won’t even whisper her name in order to spare her the pain of a hopeless love.” A hopeless love. He let his gaze drift away from her face. “What keeps them apart? Does she not love him in return?” “I believe their circumstances prevented it. Perhaps their families would not have approved, or she was promised to another.” “Or perhaps something about their situation made it impossible,” he said. That scenario struck far too close to home. “That is a sad song, Katie.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“This one’ll keep you humble, Tavish, no mistakin’. A handsome man needs that in his life near about as much as anything else at all.” Granny emphasized the declaration with a firm nod. “So”—she lowered her voice to an overly loud whisper—“go sit next to her again, will you? Storytelling’s a good time for a little snuggling.” “Is there anything you need, Granny, before I have me a ‘little snuggling’?”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“A man who will give up something precious to himself for the sake of a woman most certainly loves her.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“Would you care to hear how I first knew my Ian was in love with me?” Katie reached into her basket to pull out the next loaf. “Is that how a woman goes about deciding if she loves a man? Figuring out first if he loves her?” “Saints, no. It does help a wee bit knowing where a man stands. But in the end, you love whom you love.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“But I didn’t tell you the whole of it. I’m falling in love with two men. At the same time, Biddy.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“Ah, there it is again. I have sorely missed that since I last saw you,” Tavish said, pulling the barn door closed behind them. “Talk of cows?” He chuckled. “No. That rare smile of yours. ’Tis a sight, I’ll tell you that. And I mean to see to it you pull it out often.” “I’d be greatly appreciative if you did.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“Maybe if I’m a very good boy, you’ll come sit in the straw with me every Saturday.” “Anyone hearing you say that who didn’t know just what you meant might think we were misbehaving.” He leaned in close, lowering his voice. “You mean like gazing into each other’s eyes and whispering sweet nothings to each other?” She smiled. “You’ve been threatening to do that for some time now.” “Not threatening. Promising.” He lightly touched the tips of his fingers to the underside of her chin, tipping her face up toward him once more. “You know something, Katie Macauley? I love that smile of yours. ’Twas well worth waiting to see it, you know.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“Rather than pull away, he’d begun rubbing her hand between his. “I suspect, Katie, there’s a great deal you hold inside from that time.” “Too much,” she whispered. One of his arms slid around her shoulders and pulled her close once more. Katie melted against him, welcoming his warmth and his embrace. She’d expected him to toss her out upon hearing she was no better than a thief. Instead, she was offered comfort.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“I’m about to go talk sweet to her, I am. She’ll be fine enough.” Tavish took a three-legged milking stool off its hook near the stall door. He leaned a touch closer to Katie, lowering his voice. “If you stick around long enough, I’ll come back out and talk sweet to you.” Katie just smiled. Though she’d never tell him as much, she would enjoy hearing a few sweet words from him. She felt happier in his presence than nearly any person she knew. He raised an eyebrow in surprise. “No objections this time?”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“Could it be you’ve missed me, Sweet Katie?” “Not at all.” “Not at all?” She shook her head. He matched the movement precisely. After a moment, Katie was fighting a smile. “Perhaps a wee little bit.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“Tavish could tell he was being sized up. And by the narrowing of Joseph’s eyes, he recognized Tavish’s intent as well. They stood, eyeing one another for several long and silent moments. Tavish had not intended to pursue Katie in the least. Now, it seemed, he had a rival. Joseph Archer was infuriatingly difficult to read. Was it confidence that kept him so at ease? Joseph did have the advantage. Katie lived in his house. He could see her, talk to her every day. Joseph was wealthy, with the air of class and money about him. Tavish had none of those things. And though Katie had warmed to him a bit, he didn’t yet feel she’d entirely shed her wariness of him.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“His gaze grew more intense. “If you didn’t have such beautiful brown eyes, Katie, I might be able to look away more easily.” Heat crept over her cheeks. “They are quite an ordinary shade of brown, as you well know.” But he shook his head. “They are nothing of the sort.” “Flattery, Tavish?” She leveled him a look of reprimand. “I swore off longing glances and whispered words, Sweet Katie. I said nothing about compliments.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“Aye, the second finest view in town. I have to save something to build up to.” “You mean to spend another afternoon with me?” She liked the idea very much indeed. He tipped her a crooked smile and wiggled his eyebrows, a sight that made her smile in spite of her general tendency not to. “There’s that smile I’ve been waiting for,” he said.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“Katie?” She took a deep breath. Until she had composed herself again, she wouldn’t look up at him. “Saints, I didn’t mean to make you cry.” She shook her head. “I don’t cry.” Emotion burned at the back of her eyes, even shook a bit in her voice, but there were no tears. Tavish slipped his hand around hers. Katie held fast to him, finding an odd, unsettling kind of comfort in his touch. “I’ve not made a very good start of it, but I hope you’ll still spend the afternoon with me.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“He held a hand out to her. “Will you give me a chance to redeem myself, Sweet Katie?” “I told you not to call me that.” She objected more out of embarrassment than true indignation. He sat down next to her in the seat Biddy had vacated. “Does the name really bother you?” “It doesn’t make a lick of sense is all.” She dropped her gaze to her clasped hands, hating that she was about to admit a failing in herself. “You can’t honestly say I’ve been ‘sweet’ to you.” Or to anyone else. “I’ve a feeling, Katie, that underneath it all, you really are sweet.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home

“You think he fancies me?” She filled her voice with all the doubt she felt. “I think he’s beginning to.” Katie looked over at him in the exact moment he looked up at her. Tavish gave her one of his smiles that never failed to make her heart pound a bit. “Now what say you to that?” Biddy whispered. Katie lowered her eyes and shook her head. “I say men are too confusing for any woman’s good.” Biddy only laughed. “Put on your best smile, Katie dear. One of those ‘confusing men’ is headed directly for you.” Sure enough, Tavish reached her side in the next moment.”
― Sarah M. Eden, Longing for Home