The Last Waltz Quotes

“Was the reality quite what he had been telling himself it was?”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“The silence extended between them. A silence that was gradually filled with unspoken words, almost as if their minds connected though they did not speak.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“She was not even sure herself why she had wept. It just seemed to her in a moment of painful clarity that she had never learned how to cope with life and that she had dragged her children into her own helpless darkness. And so the cycle would be perpetuated. . . .”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“She was now eight-and-twenty, with no idea how to be happy except in brief moments, and no idea how to create happiness about her. She only knew how to retreat inward to avoid pain.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“I want you, my dear. I do believe I have fallen in love with you. What a nasty ailment that may prove to be! I have not suffered from it before. Is it deadly, do you suppose? Is it a terminal illness?”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“She felt relaxed, happy, and sadder than she had ever felt in her life before.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“Even as the awareness was speaking itself to her mind it was gone, beyond her grasp, beyond recall. A little flash of heaven, which was a something or a state of being beyond either place or time or the ability to be expressed in words and was therefore to be sensed fleetingly but never to be grasped.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“She fled up the stairs to her room. But her room did not provide sanctuary enough. She needed to be quite alone. She needed to be somewhere where she could recollect herself and find some peace.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“It was almost as if she had been lulled into a sleep long ago and had been hovering on the brink of waking but had resisted doing so. Sometimes it was more comfortable to remain asleep than to be awake.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“Christina," he said softly, "look at me. Feel the rhythm. Feel my rhythm.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“The branches of most of the trees were bare now. He had never minded bare trees. He could see the sky through them. He had often lain along a stout branch, gazing upward, dreaming of worlds beyond the one he inhabited.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“What a dreadful fate it was sometimes to be a woman. To be dependent. To have to sit and wait. To be helpless to order one's own life no matter how carefully and sensibly one tried to plan.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“But there was also an inner welling of joy, reflected in the eyes of the man who gazed back at her—it was the first dance of the rest of their lives.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“And in the very center of her vision—and of her heart and her life—Gerard, the man she had always loved and always would.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“Is there any chance at all that you still feel—"

"I do."

"So do I," she said.

They had understood each other perfectly.

"I love you."

"So do I. I love you too."

"Will you marry me?"

"Yes.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“He was not sure how many minutes passed while they held each other and kissed each other as if they could never be close enough to satisfy the craving of their hearts. The depth of their very obviously mutual passion left him shaken and disoriented.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“And all the time he stood there . . . he was aware of Christina beside him, beautiful, elegant, gracious, smelling of lavender—and for this evening and a few more days his to look at, to admire, to yearn for.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“Better the dull pain of bitter memories, he was half inclined to think, than the raw pain of this new parting that was upon him. And there seemed to be nothing he could do to avert it.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“A great deal of good had happened. The past had been explained and forgiven. The bitterness of years had been purged. There could be some peace now for two people because he had come home.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“She was free—she found she could not repeat the idea often enough. She could make the rest of her life whatever she wished. There were limits, of course. For any number of reasons one was not always able to do what one wanted in life. And when other people were involved in one's wants, their wishes had to be considered too. But—

But she was free at least to try to shape her own destiny. She had been a victim for long enough. There were no more excuses for holding back, for retreating inside herself, and for allowing life to happen to her, merely intent on not getting hurt.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“A Christmas to remember. For the rest of her life. But how would she remember it? With the ache of sadness and loneliness and loss? With sweet nostalgia?”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“It was you who made my growing years bearable . . . You gave me everything you were able to give—you gave me love. It has been enough. It is the only thing that really matters, you know.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“Tonight she would not believe in tragedies or impossibilities.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“She loved him, Christina thought quite consciously. She was in love.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“She realized even as she gazed that he was looking at her just as intently.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“I could not possibly have imagined anything more wonderful if I had tried.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“She could not bear the thought of missing a single minute this evening in which she might be either looking at him or at least feeling his presence.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“Her smile was suddenly brightly amused, reminding him of the girl he had once known and loved.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“She held out her right hand to him.

He took it in his, held it in a firm clasp for a moment, and then raised it to his lips. If he tried to say anything more, he thought, smiling at her, he would surely disgrace himself by weeping.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz

“But to see him again. To somehow free myself of the past completely.”
― Mary Balogh, The Last Waltz