The Incurable Matchmaker Quotes

“Are you afraid of the storm, by the way? I have two perfectly free arms with which to shelter you if you are.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“She laughed rather self-consciously. "I have never talked about this with anyone before," she said.

He hunched his shoulder so that her head slipped against it. "People so rarely talk about anything that matters," he said. "We fill silences and so often live with a deeper silence and a greater loneliness.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“She saved herself from endless heartache." . . .

"She probably spent a cold and lonely old age wishing she had a little pleasure to look back upon . . . Prim virtue can be a cold bedfellow.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“You offer emptiness and heartache and an endless search for pleasure with which to fill the emptiness.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“Ah, yes, Teddy," he said. "Teddy was a fortunate man."

"Teddy is dead," she reminded him.

"Oh, quite so," he said. "But there are doubtless many men, Diana, who would gladly die after four years with you rather than live a century without you."

"What utter nonsense," she said crossly.

"I, of course," he said, "am not a romantic. I would far prefer to have you and live for a century.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“Whatever had he meant by it? And how dare he mean anything!”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“But she felt an unexpected stab of loneliness. Teddy was not there. If she were to reach out to where he had always lain beside her, he would not be there. He would never be there again. Not ever or ever or ever.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“All she could think of was crawling into bed and being left alone with her misery.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“If living were the right word. It had been a suspended life. She had worn black for Teddy inside and out. And somehow it had become a comfortable way of life. While part of her yearned for gaiety and a renewal of life, the other part clung to its cocoon. It was safer to remain inside it. It was less likely that she would have to experience again the pain of losing someone around whom her life had come to revolve.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“Oh, I say," someone said enthusiastically, "do I smell a wager?”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“I fear the rain has stopped and it is time to squelch our way back through the grass to the house."

"If you were a gentleman," she said, "you would carry me.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“You are, after all, a marquess."

"I sometimes forget that I am such an exalted personage," he said. "I suppose that is the reason you are marrying me, Diana, is it? So that you may be a marchioness?"

"Yes," she said. "You mean you thought there might be some other reason?”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“And who did you think I was, Diana Ingram?"

"You were my fantasy lover," she said. "And I realize with every ounce of foresight in my body that I will be teased about this for the rest of my life."

"By me?" he said, looking down at her, one eyebrow raised. "Me tease the woman I love? You malign me, Diana. I have one question, though. How do I compare with my competition?”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“He was no dream lover. He was Jack. And she loved him. And would no longer believe that it was a misplaced love. She loved him. No matter what. For always.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“You don't think you will be sorry, Diana?"

"No," she said. "Do you think you will be?"

"Only if I see you unhappy," he said. "I will never forgive myself if I make you unhappy.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“Will you take a chance on me, then, Diana? Will you marry me and give me a chance to shower your universe with stars? And to cram an eternity into what is left of a lifetime? Will you let those children you want be mine too? I would strongly advise you to say no.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“I don't know, Jack. I only know that I love you."

"And were prepared to pour out all that love in one single night with me?"

"Yes. And don't, please, ask me why. I don't know why. And I did not even know that I would be willing to do something so rash until it happened. And I did not know that I love you until tonight.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“At the present," she said, "you are here holding my hands. Your past has nothing to do with me. Just as mine has nothing to do with you.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“God," he said very quietly. "I have never been so terrified in my life."

"What?" Diana frowned . . .

"I said I am terrified," he said. "I think I am in love with you, Diana. I have never felt such a thing before or ever expected to do so."

"You don't have to say this," she said. "I told you I expected nothing beyond tonight."

"I want a lifetime," he said. "I want eternity. Diana, send me away.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“Why do you hate yourself so much?"

He laughed harshly. "You ask me that?" he said. "You know what I am, Diana. You know that I have nothing of any goodness or worth to offer you. And you don't even know the worst about me."

"I think I know the best about you, though," she said. "You have a strong sense of decency and honor. Otherwise you would not be protecting me more than I am protecting myself.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“She could not stop him. She did not want to stop him. She knew there would only be that night. She knew to whom she had surrendered herself and she held no illusions about the future. But it was a night for love. And she did love him. For despite everything, he was Jack. He was more than just a rake who seemed to feel it necessary to conquer any presentable female who came within his line of vision. He was witty and amusing, and he hid a very real person behind the mask of his wit. She had grown to like that person even if she did not know him well.

She did not want to stop him. And she lost the power to do so after his mouth had claimed hers and his hands moved over her and held her to him. She wanted him to make love to her. More than anything else in life.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“She did not move. She had her eyes closed. "I don't care," she said after a few moments of silence, "about tomorrow or about propriety or about anything except tonight and this place. And you.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“If I were to touch you, I might find it impossible not at least to try to ravish you. It is a dreadful fate to be a notorious rake, Diana. We have so little self-control when confronted with beautiful ladies inside secluded buildings in the dead of night and in the middle of a storm.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“I shall surprise you and behave like a perfect gentleman.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“And you would probably be always telling me that I am angry with you when I am not angry at all but only afraid of losing you.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“What was she to do? There seemed to be precious little she could do. She turned back to the ballroom in some dread.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“The heavens are about to open. I think you must prepare for a wicked night of sin with me, Mrs. Ingram. We seem to have a habit of getting ourselves into such situations during rain storms, do we not?”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“Women like to be pursued. Women like occasionally to be caught without their chaperones. Now go to her.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“But it was not so much the fresh air that she needed as a few minutes of solitude, a few minutes in which to collect herself. She stood to the side of one open doorway, half hidden by the heavy velvet drapery, and felt a raw ache at the back of her throat. She wanted to cry, she realized. For all the great popularity and success the evening was bringing her she felt a terrible loneliness.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker

“She did not want to dance with him. But it was one thing not to want to do so and quite another not to be given a chance to do so. Lord Crensford did not come near her during the first three sets, and after that it was perfectly clear to her that he had no intention of doing so. She was not to have the satisfaction of refusing him.”
― Mary Balogh, The Incurable Matchmaker