The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn Quotes

“You listen to me," he told her, his voice a low, brusque rumble. "I'd rather take corn mush from your hand - morning, noon, and night - than chicken and apple pie from any other. And that's the plain truth.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“Her soul was a country he longed to explore and know as well as he did every stone that pocked that creek path.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“I’ll go anywhere you see fit to take me, Jesse Bird. But I won’t set foot out of this cabin again till I’m a married woman. This time I’m going to insist.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“You keep saving me.” The words were thick with tears. Thinking how much she’d been through in the past few days, thinking how close he’d come to finding her drowned just now, Jesse came around to crouch beside her, looking up into her tear-swollen face, framed in wet tangles. She looked back at him, desolate. “I thought I was going to die.” “I know it. I think you scared ten years off of me.” Wordless, she raised a hand to his face and held it there, cupping his rough-bearded jaw. He was so startled by the gesture that he couldn’t breathe, much less speak. Their gazes held, hers welling with gratitude. He was the one drowning now.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“Could you glimpse a woman’s soul with one look into her eyes?”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“Ulethi equi’wa … ni haw-ku-nah-ga,” he whispered. Beautiful woman … you are my wife.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“Promise me one thing more?” She leaned her cheek into his hand. “What’s that?” “That we’ll talk about what comes next for us, the minute I get back.” Gone the troubled brow. Gone the averted gaze. She radiated happiness like the sun coming up over the hills, making a fire of the few leaves still clinging to the trees along the creek. “That’s a talk I’ve wanted to have for a while now.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“You’re making it nigh impossible to leave you, woman.” She slipped her bottom lip between her teeth, searching his face, drinking him in. Making his heart leap like a running buck. “I’ll be here when you get back.” “You better be.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“Have faith that God has you right where you need to be, though all around seems bewildering. Have faith that He sent you help when you needed it, that He will guide you on from this moment too. One step at a time. You don’t have to figure it all out now.” She wanted”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“I wanted only to escape him—at first. And Jesse was there, offering to help me, asking nothing in return.” Ambrose pressed his lips tight, a thin slash amidst the bronze stubble of his unshaven beard. “Yet you’ve given him everything.” She met his gaze unflinching. “Yes. And you need to understand,” she added. “I didn’t marry Jesse simply to elude you or to thwart my stepfather. I married him because I love him.” Acceptance struggled on Ambrose’s face. “I wish I might have been the one to offer you the help you needed. Had I but known. Had I understood …” He swallowed hard, as if the loss of her was a stone going down. “I hope one day you will find it in your good heart to forgive me.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“You’re hurt.” He drew her close, cradling her face in bloodstained fingers. “The rifle banged my nose, is all.” She could barely breathe through the swollen tissues now. “Forget about me.” “Never.” The intensity of that word pulled her straight into his soul. She clung to him, every fiber fixed on one hope—to find a way through this turmoil of blood and snow to a life in the sun with Jesse Bird, to bear his children and keep his hearth and make for him a haven from the world’s calamity. She poured it into her eyes, giving back the unreserved devotion he’d shown her all along.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“I’ll be fine with the Allards, but … I’ll miss you.” He felt the breath go out of him. “You will?” Finally those dark eyes lifted full to him. Drowned him. How they’d gotten within a few inches of each other he didn’t know. Still he didn’t touch her. His breath came deep as she dropped her gaze to stare at his throat again. She nodded. “Tamsen.” Her name came out a croak. “Would you mind it if I was to kiss you?” “I do so wish you would.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“You all right? You weren’t fixing to shoot Bears, were you?” “No. I meant to club him.” Bears threw back his head and laughed. “I will have a story to tell my father about this one. He will be amused.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“Bears? What’re you doing here?” The Indian turned to Jesse, blocking the light from the doorway. “Siyo, brother. I am making peace treaty with your woman.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“You are his woman? Ha! A wildcat and a squirrel chaser have joined blankets? Or maybe it is two wildcats. Ha-ha!”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“I do not know you, little squirrel chaser,” he said, wariness in his jutting face, something else dancing in his eyes. “But if I give this back, you promise not to hit me with it?” Grasping the pistol by the barrel, he offered her the stock. Struck dumb by his flawless English, Tamsen moved to take the proffered weapon. The Indian didn’t loosen his grip. “Or hit me with any other thing?” he added in addendum to his terms. “We have peace between us, you and me?” He waited until she nodded, then released the weapon to her.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“Did I hit it?” Beside her, Jesse fought a grin. “It must’ve jumped again.” “No!” She’d fired three times and had yet to graze the target. She restrained the childish urge to stamp her foot. “Next time,” Jesse suggested, “try keeping your eyes open.” “Did I shut them again?” “Squinched tight with your nose wrinkled up. Cutest thing I ever saw.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“You listen to me,” he told her, his voice a low, brusque rumble. “I’d rather take corn mush from your hand—morning, noon, and night—than chicken and apple pie from any other. And that’s the plain truth.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“I hardly remember what I was thinking then. We got a different set of circumstances facing us now, and sounds to me like you’re risking an awful lot for this girl you’ve hardly had the chance to know.” “Maybe I am,” Jesse said, heart sinking under the strain come between him and Cade. “And call me a fool for it. But I think I’ve known her since I first looked into her eyes. I love her, Pa.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“So you fixing to turn farmer on me?” “I’m fixing to do what it takes to win her. And now I come to think on it, right before we met Tamsen, that day in Morganton, weren’t you the one talking about planting more corn, getting that cow? Sounded to me like you were the one thinking on turning farmer.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“Back in Morganton … why did you help me?” “You needed me.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“You’re enjoying that a sight more’n you did my corndodgers. Ought I to take offense?”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“She was kneeling by the fire with her back to him, and the mist wasn’t so thick that he couldn’t see she’d taken off the jacket of her gown and was tugging at the laced-up thing she wore beneath it. Stays. He’d seen them on the bushes at their neighbor’s cabin, washed and spread like the wings of a desiccated bird. He’d never seen them on a woman. Was she trying to get at the ties in back? How tight did women lace those things? For a second or two, he admired her trim shape, then cleared his throat. “You needing help with that?” With a yelp, she scrambled back into the jacket, thrusting her arms into the sleeves. She flipped her braid over her shoulder, head bent to fasten up the front. “Guess that’s no,” he said under his breath.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“How dare you say such a thing to me?” “Well, now. I’ve faced down charging bears and starving wolves and murdering Chickamaugas. Reckon the pique of a pretty miss ain’t like to daunt me.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“You’re a white man, aren’t you?” she blurted before thinking better of it. “Guilty as charged.” He turned with her cloak in hand and, as if to reinforce the observation, made her the mock of a courtly bow as he handed it over. “Your cloak, miss.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“Could you truly be in ignorance of the spell you cast upon me at our meeting? Your beauty, your charm, those eyes of yours dark enough to drown a man … I was so lost to you that I was easily persuaded you’d been borne away against your will by a half-savage stranger, the same who slew your mother to get at you. There was no mountain I wouldn’t have crossed, no danger faced, to see you restored—to me, I had thought.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“One smile from her had him more rattled than an all-out brawl with Dominic Trimble.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“He shouldn’t have to. I wish …” “Don’t say you wish I’d never helped you,” he said, a look in his eyes now she couldn’t read. “Don’t say that.” “Then I wish it hadn’t cost you so much. I wish you didn’t have to lie to your neighbors, or that Cade felt driven out of his home, or that he’s upset you can’t go hunting this—” “You weren’t meant to hear that.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“He grinned up at her, treading water. “Coming in?” “Me?” He moved closer, propelling himself toward the rock, only his head above the water’s surface. His arms were long. Maybe long enough to reach her ankle. She stepped back. “It’s nice. Cold, but you get used to it.” His lips were turning purple. “I don’t swim, remember?” “I’m not likely to forget. But I can teach you. It’s not hard.” She shook her head. “Suit yourself.” Still grinning, he sank under the rippling surface.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn

“Nevertheless I shall find her,” he heard Kincaid say low under his breath, eyes devouring the tiny painted face. “And avenge whatever she has lost.”
― Lori Benton, The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn