I Adored a Lord Quotes

“Did you mix a drug into the wine that you invited me to drink the other night, my lord?” she said quietly as she worked. “Do tell me the truth, or I will poke this wound with my sharpest fingernail before I bandage it.”
“Hippocrates spins in his grave,” he said upon a rasping breath.”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“He came directly to her, seized her face between his hands, and captured her mouth beneath his. He kissed her powerfully, deeply, as though he would have all of her through this kiss, and she held on to his waist and gave herself up to him.
He lifted his lips. "In that cellar-"
"Do not speak of it."
"All I thought of was this. Touching you. I wanted only to touch you once more." His thumb stroked across her lips and he followed it with his mouth.

-Vitor & Ravenna”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“With anger simmering beneath his skin like it hadn't in two and a half years, Vitor went to the drawing room. He was not a murderer, but if any other man in the castle touched her, he might very well become one.

-Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“I will prove that you need me." Her heart did a peculiar jerk. "That you need me to help you in this," she added swiftly.
He seemed to study her face. "I need you not to be the murderer's second victim due to my carelessness."
"You were not careless. I was."
He turned to depart. "I have instructed Monsieur Brazil to send dinner up to you."
"You knew I would acquiesce."
"Yes. In this."
"And if I had not?"
He gestured. "I would have tied you to that bed."
Nerves spiked in her belly. "Did the pitchfork incident teach you nothing?"
He gave her another half smile, then bowed. "Until tomorrow, Miss Caulfield."

- Ravenna & Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“What of you?" she said, not quite able to look at him. "What if the murderer tosses you into a river?"
"I haven't the skirts to hamper me from swimming ashore, of course," he said, and the tenor of his voice made her look up into his handsome face. "Do not even think of attempting to protect me."
She blinked. "I wasn't-"
"You were."
"I was not."

-Ravenna & Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“Wait. First, tell me what you saw at the river."
"By the depth and weight of the footprints, the person I glimpsed at the river's edge could have been a light man or a woman."
"The prince is not much over my height and he is slender. Perhaps Mr. Anders. Wait a minute. You went outside again already, to study the footprints, while I lounged in a hot bath drinking tea?"
"If you had invited me into the bath I would have gladly delayed the trip outside."
Her throat clogged. She cleared it awkwardly."you called me obstinate."
"I do not recall doing so directly."
"You implied it. And yet you say outrageous things to me like you want to kiss me and share my bath."
He crossed his arms over his chest that she had pressed her face into, and leaned a shoulder against the door frame. "What effect, I wonder, do these contrary comments have on the lady?"
"It makes the lady want to box your ears."
"Hm. Then my work here is done." He was smiling slightly.

-Ravenna &Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“Come now," she said. "I am well enough to attend dinner tonight. It was only a-"
"Life-threatening incident."
"I once oversaw a sennight of lambing while carrying a high fever. I can hold my own."
"With you convalescing underfoot, however valiantly, I will be...distracted."
"Wear a blindfold."
"Distracted by the danger you might yet face. Someone wished to drown you."
A shiver ran through her, but she said. "I cannot imagine why. No one knows I am investigating the murder. No one except you." "If I wished you out of my way, I don't quite see how diving into a freezing river to retrieve you would serve my purpose. I might have avoided pushing you in in the first place."

-Ravenna & Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“How would you respond, I wonder, if I cajoled with gentle words of encouragement, assuring you that all will be well in your absence from the party and that your health and welfare are of the utmost importance to us all?"
"I would probably doze off in the middle of your speech."

-Vitor & Ravenna”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“You haven't dispatched me because you know you need my help."
"Do I?" He took a half step closer. "Or perhaps I have not yet dispatched you because, as depraved as I am, when I look at your lips I can feel your body beneath mine in the straw. If I were to do away with you now, that scenario could never be repeated."
Her breaths were no longer deep but tight and quick. "Dream well tonight, sir. It is all you are going to get from me again." He smiled.

-Ravenna & Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“Suspicion prickled at Ravenna. "Who is to say you are not the murderer, and now that you know I have useful information you won't dispatch me too?"
"None but me."
She glanced into the darkness where the butler had disappeared, then back at the tall, dark man who had subdued her quite effectively in a stable the previous night. "This is the part where you pull out the bloodstained dagger, isn't it?"
"Why wouldn't I have done it earlier, before Monsieur Brazil knew of your involvement?"
"No doubt you only thought of it at this moment."
"It seems I am carelessly shortsighted."
"It does."
"Miss Caulfield?"
"You are not the murderer?"
"Go to bed."

-Ravenna & Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“She gestured to the nether regions of the body. "For both of us to examine the wound will be more thorough."
"You might be comfortable with such an examination," he said, cutting her a slanted glance, "but I don't believe that I am prepared to witness your comfort with it."
"Coming from the man I encountered in the stable last night, I don't believe that for a moment."

-Ravenna & Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“I am not in the habit of forgiving."
"Perhaps you might make an exception this time."
"I don't know why I should."
"Consider my injuries." The dent deepened anew. "Perhaps I am already sufficiently punished."
She tried not to smile. "I won't apologize for that."
"I never expected you to. Now may we put this unfortunate episode behind us and instead pretend to be two people who happened to become acquainted over spilled champagne?" "Why should we pretend that?"
"It's either that or the pitchfork." His dark eyes glimmered.
"All right. But don't do it again."
"Kiss you in the stable or defend you from tabbies?"
The heat was back in her face. "Either."
"I believe I can promise that." He bowed again. "Good night, madam." He walked away.

-Ravenna & Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“Miss Caulfield, I beg your forgiveness." His voice was low and his gaze seemed to seek hers quite closely. "I intended you no harm, in truth. Still, I was unpardonably dishonorable to assail you and then tease you and then rescue you and then tease you yet again. Can you forgive me, or will those eyes like stars stare with accusation at me throughout the remaining weeks of this fete?"

-Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“Is that all I am to have?" She followed him. "I suppose you consider an apology beneath you."
Rather, he was considering her beneath him, how good she'd felt there, and how he would like that again. He halted. "Madam, I offer my profoundest apology. It shan't happen again." As though his feet moved of their own will, he found himself stepping toward her. "Unless you wish it to."
She backed up. "Not in this life." But her eyes were wary.
Good. He did not wish to frighten her. But keeping her wary could work. And yet the most powerful need to be near her would not leave him. Of course it wouldn't. After two long years he wanted a woman. Among his brother's potential brides was not, however, the place to go searching for one. "That must be to my advantage, then," he said.
She screwed up her brow. "Must it?"
"You wield an impressive pitchfork."

-Ravenna & Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“You kissed me because you thought I was a servant, which is despicable."
"I kissed you because you were soft and shapely and at the time under me, which is in fact quite reasonable."

-Ravenna & Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“You tackled me, then you kissed me," she said.
"And you hit me with a door and then a pitchfork and bit me. It seems we are both outrageously outres."
"Perhaps," she conceded with a twist of soft, full lips the color of summer dusk over the Mediterranean. "But you actually deserved it."

-Ravenna & Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“What happened to your lip?" Ravenna said to him. "It looks sore."
Miss Feather's fingers darted to her mouth.
"Thank you for your kind concern, Miss Caulfield." His eyes were very dark blue and still rimmed with the longest lashed Ravenna had ever seen on a man. Beauty and virility and confidence and sheer privileged arrogance combined to remarkable effect. No wonder these silly girls stared. "It was bitten," he said.
"Oh, dear." Lady Penelope pouted sweetly. "That must have been alarming."
"Not terribly. I have been bitten by cats before." The corner of his mouth twitched. "This one," he said, turning his dark, laughing gaze upon Ravenna, "was otherwise charming."

-Ravenna, Vitor, & Lady Penelope”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“Fate is a comfortable mistress, Wes, if you accept her demands." Fate, the mistress that four years ago had put him the hands of mercenaries who turned him over to the British to be tortured.
"Listen to the monk teaching me about mistresses." Wesley chuckled.

-Vitor & Wesley”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“A whole castle full of damsels intent upon securing a husband?" Wesley mimicked in surprise. "Why, of course. What reasonable man would not be thrilled with such a prospect?"

-Wesley”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“The priest set the flask down on the step and folded his hands. "For the sin of lust you have confessed, mon fils," he said in an easy tone, "you are contrite, n'est-ce-pas?"
Vitor closed his eyes and saw hers before him, sparkling like stars. "Yes."
"For your penance I give you a novena to our Blessed Mother and the task of seeing your brother well matched to a woman who will bring him to heel."
"Only that?" Vitor lifted a brow. "Father, you are too lenient."
The priest drew a cross in the air above his brow. "Ego te absolve a peccatis tuis in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti."
"Amen."

-Denis & Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“There are plenty of girls in that castle," the Frenchman said, knowing his thoughts. "Sebastiao will not be wanting for choices if you take an interest in one of them." No. He'd already caused trouble coming between one of his brothers and a woman. He would not do so again. "I have no interest in her," he mumbled. "You are still under the seal of the confessional, Vitor." He snapped his head around. "How do you do that?" "Recognize lies upon a man's tongue? It is my gift."

-Denis & Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“It was as if a demon drove me. She was there"-beneath him, her curves cushioning him, her small body lush and entirely feminine, her eyes flashing-"and I wanted to kiss her more than I've ever wanted anything in my life."

-Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“It isnt about the vows." He turned his face to the bare altar fashioned of granite hewn from this mountain. "She was not exactly a girl." A choking sound came from beside him. "Perhaps it's time we have a chat about that monastery after all." Vitor cut him a scowl. "Oh, good God, Denis. She was female." "Ah. Bon." The old priest again sighed in relief. "Are you confessing the sin of fornication, then?" "No." Vitor turned to sit on the step, relieving the ache in his leg that she'd struck with the hardest pitchfork in Christendom. He rubbed a palm over his face. "I only kissed her." The hermit chuckled. "If she took money for only that, she should be the one confessing." Denis reached into a fold of his habit and drew out a flask. "She was not a puta. She was a lady." Albeit wearing a gown fit for a servant and lurking in a stable at midnight.

-Vitor & Denis”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“What sin have you committed for which you seek absolution, mon fils?" the priest said, then added, "This time." "Father..." "Did you act in anger?" the hermit asked this according to ancient tradition, urging a confession from the sinner through questioning. During the two years Vitor had lived in a hilltop monastery in the Serra dal Estrela, he'd read everything in the library of the Benedictine brothers, including confessor manuals. This hermit not did not fix upon the sin of anger at whim. He knew Vitor's special interest in it.
"No," he replied, his throat dry. "Not anger." Not this time.
"Greed?"
"No."
"Pride?"
"No."
"Envy?"
"No."
"It could not have been sloth." The hermit's voice gentled. "You've never slept a full night in your life, young vagabond."
"No." Get to the relevant sin.
"Did you lie?"
"No."
"Did you steal?"
A case could be made for it. "Not quite."
"Did you covet your neighbor's goods?"
Momentarily, though "goods" didn't quite express it, really. "No."
"Son-"
"Father..." Vitor pressed his brow into his knuckles.
The priest paused for a moment that stretched in the chill air. "Did you commit murder again?"
"No."
The Frenchman's breath of relief whispered across the chancel. He sat back on his heels and folded his arms within voluminous sleeves.
"Then what did you do that brings you from the gathering at the house where your half brother needs you now?"
"I kissed a girl."
Silence.
"Father?"
"Vitor, you are bound for the madhouse."

-Denis & Vitor”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“Colhoes!" He jerked away and rolled off her and to his feet. She scuttled back, skirts tangling in her boots as she jumped up, leaping to avoid puppies. The man's shadowed eyes swung to her, anger sparking in them in the dim light. Blood dripped between his fingers clamped over his mouth. "I hope I bit it off," she said, unwisely. He dropped his hand and his lower lip was still intact, though bleeding down his chin. "Damn it, woman. I only kissed you." "While you had me trapped beneath you." "Yes, well, obviously that was a mistake."

-Vitor & Ravenna”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“You smell good to me," he said, his voice deeper than before, like a warm autumn night, the vowels especially round. Not French. Italian? Spanish? He must have come with one of the other guests-one of the other guests who had wretched judgment when hiring stable hands. "I-" "And, por Deus," he said upon a catch in his throat, his eyes hard upon her mouth, "you are lovely." The rutting urge must have overcome him. The only male creature that had ever considered her lovely was Beast, and that was because she sometimes smelled like bacon. She must distract him. "I can help with that bruise on your brow," she said, struggling against panic. "Can you?" He seemed bemused. Jars to the head could scramble the brain. "It's starting to swell. It will leave a painful wound that could fester. Let me up and I'll ask the housekeeper for-" His mouth came down on hers without further warning. Not hard or violently or forcefully. But fully, with complete contact.

-Vitor & Ravenna”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“Fancy yourself a noblesse, my dear?" Petti said. "About as much as I fancy myself a princess." She went toward the door. "Now that all the potential brides are here, when does this party begin in earnest? And do you think there is yet time for me to have the carriage readied for an escape before the snow?"

-Petti & Ravenna”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“Do cease fretting, my dear," Petti said comfortably. "A lady in your sister's delicate condition must be humored." "I am not fretting." Ravenna dropped the ring into her pocket. It made a hard bump against her thigh. "I gather that all these girls-ladies of enormous beauty, wealth, and status, and every one of them years younger than me-they are all to be my competition for the prince's favor?" "It does seem a shame any of them bothered making the journey here." Petti winked. "Lady Iona McCall is one-and-twenty," Sir Beverely said. "Only two years your junior." "You are both batty as belfries. And my sister too."

-Petti, Ravenna, & Sir Beverley”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“Despicably wealthy people do anything they like at any season they like, my dear," Petti said. "Delightful to be friends with them, I say."

-Petti”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord

“Sir Beverley's eyes like clear rain studied her. "From what are you running, Miss Caulfield?" "Prison." Mr. Pettigrew's brows shot up. "We've a fugitive in the house, Bev. Whatever shall we do with her?" For the first time, the hint of tolerant compassion that Ravenna would grow to love ticked up the corner of Sir Beverley's mouth. "Hide her from the law, I daresay."

-Sir Beverley, Ravenna, & Mr. Pettigrew”
― Katharine Ashe, I Adored a Lord