Forever and a Duke Quotes

“You rather did,” he said, tossing his scarf around his neck. “I adore you for it. Feel free to presume again whenever the mood strikes you.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“A mistake to be treated in the exact same manner that you treat a success." She ignored the incredulous look he was giving her. "Mistakes and successes both have the same power - to be destructive or constructive. Dwell on either too long and they will both prevent you from moving forward. Learn from your mistakes and your successes in equal measure, and they will both make you better.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“Come here,” Rex said, waggling his fingers. “You cannot go out in public with jam on your neck cloth.”
“I’m a papa,” Walden said. “I can go out in public in any state I please. As long as one of my daughters is grinning at my side, clutching me by the hand, I will be forgiven any number of minor imperfections in my wardrobe.”
“This imperfection is a jam stain,” Rex said, “not a badge of honor.” He retied Walden’s cravat so the stain wasn’t visible.
“It’s both,” Walden said, using his reflection in a glass breakfront to survey Rex’s handiwork. “I hope you learn that one day soon.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“I really am leaving for France.”
“Then, Eleanora, you really are a fool. Your duke will tidy up his accounts at the bank whether you move to France or not, but what happens after that depends on you. You’ve spent your life looking for schemes before the schemers could take advantage, but that man’s only aim is to cherish you.”
He’s not my duke. He will never be my duke. “Hush, you.”
Jack tossed Wodin another bite of bacon. “I’ve said my piece. I can take the dog to the duchess for you.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“Mama took Rex’s hand. “Then for God’s sake, you should marry her. Snatch her up before some other duke sweeps her into his arms. We make poor decisions when we’re lonely, and if she’s missing you, she’ll be very lonely indeed.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“Naylor’s dead-cold gaze unnerved James, but Elsmore’s silence turned worry into panic. “Elsmore, you will not ruin this bank simply to punish me. You aren’t a murderer.”
The next silence was hellish.
“You can’t let him be publicly hanged,” Naylor mused. “The scandal would pass, but a certain party isn’t keen on hangings of any sort. Won’t serve, Your Grace.”
That got Elsmore’s attention. “No public hanging?”
Naylor shook his head. “Our mutual acquaintance has strong feelings on that topic.”
“Interesting.” Elsmore plucked the walking stick from Naylor’s grasp and tossed it at James.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“Mr. Edwards.” The fellow rose. “Jackson Naylor at your service. What a strange hour for you to be attending to bank business. Perhaps you can explain why the false bottom in your desk drawer conceals nearly two thousand pounds in banknotes?”....
Naylor peered upward, at the shadows dancing on the ceiling. “You steal from family, but I am to be hanged, and Elsmore is to bribe the magistrates to see it done—do I have that right?”
“Elsmore will protect the reputation of this bank,” James said, “and if that means spreading a bit of coin around to keep lips buttoned, he’ll see itdone. I know him well, and I know how precarious a bank’s reputation is. You chose the wrong business to rob, Naylor.”
“Except,” a quiet voice said behind James, “he’s not robbing anybody. Why are you here at this late hour, James?”
Elsmore had silently closed the door behind James, though this was not a version of Elsmore James had seen before.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“James dragged the ledger into his lap. “The talk had to do with Elsmore and the auditor at Wentworth and Penrose, a female. He’s been seen sharing a coach with her, and the clerks at Wentworth’s say a couple weeks back he met with her for most of two afternoons. They are petrified of the woman. They claim she can find a missing farthing in pitch darkness amid gale-force winds.”
Eddie’s desire to leave became urgent. Leave the bank, leave London, perhaps even leave England. “I can’t say I’d care for such a woman.”
“She took a holiday from Wentworth’s at the same time my eyes and ears at Dorset House claim His Grace collected all the ducal ledgers for his personal review.”
“But those ledgers…”
“Are brought to me at the bank to be tallied at the end of every month. I thought it only fair to warn you. By this time next week, I will be enjoying a change of air. If this auditor is halfway competent, she’ll advise Elsmore to turn the bank inside out once she’s wreaked havoc on the personal accounts. Sooner or later, awkward questions will be asked. I don’t intend to be here when that happens.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“You are a lady. My lady, and my lover.” Won’t you be my wife? That was what made Eleanora so precious. She would be not only Rex’s duchess, appearing on his arm for the requisite social occasions, managing his households, and guarding his interests. She would also be his wife, his ally, his confidante, his lover. The safe haven for his soul, the intimate delight of his heart.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“She was also nestled amid the quilts like a contented cat, while Rex wasted precious moments deciding between lovemaking and proposing....
“I will plot your course, lest you catch your death. You climb into bed, we make passionate love, then we fall asleep on a cloud of contentment. You will not apply your cold feet to my person at any time, and you will discreetly take yourself off in the small hours, lest there be awkwardness in the morning for the chambermaid.”
He sauntered to the bed. “I like the part about passionate lovemaking and the clouds of contentment. I’m increasingly displeased with that nightgown.” Though if he was about to propose, she might rather be wearing at least one article of clothing when he did.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“You are modest,” he said, propping an elbow along the top of the wooden screen. “I would not have anticipated that in such a practical woman. I like it.”
Ellie tossed her dress at him. “You are naked. I like that.”
“A duke is always appropriately attired for the occasion.”
“You are awful.” Awfully dear, drat him.
“Come to bed, Eleanora, and I’ll improve your opinion of me.”
And there was the problem no amount of tallying or rounding could solve. Ellie not only desired Elsmore, she respected him and liked him....
As she settled onto the warmed mattress, and Elsmore drew the covers up over her, she admitted a quiet, devastating truth: This was how it should be between a woman and the man with whom she chose to share intimacies—comfortable, pleasurable, and so very special.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“Shall I brush out your hair?” He kissed her nape and wrapped his arms about her middle. “I want to see it down, I want to know what the prim Eleanora Hatfield looks like all undone and eager.”
Ellie turned and looped her arms around his neck. “I look forward to seeing His Grace of Elsmore winded and satisfied, not a flowery compliment or pithy insight to his name. I want him panting and dazed, his only thought an incoherent sense of gratitude and joy.”
She was already panting and dazed.
“I want you to forget what an abacus is.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“Rex opened her bedroom door, letting a warm draft into the corridor.
“I’ll light your candles,” he said, gesturing her to precede him into her sitting room. “You are doing more than performing a service, Eleanora. You allow me to raise difficult questions with absolute faith that my confidences will not be betrayed. You take my interests to heart. You instruct me on matters nobody has seen fit to include in my ducal education. I am indebted to you.”
He was also attracted to her, and not in the casual sense he was attracted to any comely female. He liked watching her mind work. He liked arguing with her. He liked hearing the click of the abacus beads because she moved them around with the brisk speed of a sharpshooter wielding a favorite weapon.
She closed the door, plunging the room into deep gloom.
“Somebody kept my fires built up,” she said. “You cannot imagine what a luxury that is for me.”
She wore a plain wool shawl when he wanted to wrap her in cashmere and silk. Her bun was drooping, and he yearned to unravel the lot and learn how long her hair was, learn the feel of it in his hands.
He wanted…her. To cherish, explore, appreciate, and indulge.
“The bedroom candles, if you please, Elsmore. I’ll not be using the parlor tonight.”
A man intent on observing propriety would pass her the candle, bow, and wish her sound slumbers. Rex thought back over the day, when Eleanora had slept so trustingly against his side in the coach. She’d come to dinner with the barest minimum of a fuss.
She’d patted his hand.
She’d toed off her house slippers in his presence.
She’d taken his arm as she’d traversed the steps.
Now, she was inviting him into her bedroom on the most mundane of pretexts.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“For once, Rex got no argument from his auditor. She was snoring softly, her head on his shoulder, her hand casually resting on his thigh.
“Mrs. Hatfield?”
Nothing.
“Eleanora?”
A soft sigh.
Rex curled an arm around her lest she be bounced off the seat by some disobliging rut. She knew every clever device for stealing coin from a legitimate enterprise, but he would not have predicted that she also had the knack of sleeping in a moving vehicle.
“I’ve worn you out,” he murmured.
The miles rolled by, Eleanora slept, and Rex contemplated why it should be that the farther they trotted from London, the more peaceful and content he became, and the more pleased to be traveling to Ambledown with her.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“Can you answer a question for me?”
“Of course, Your Grace.”
“Why did you kiss me?” Despite getting to bed well past a decent hour, despite the eternities of socializing Rex’s evening had demanded, that question had robbed him of sleep.
“You kissed me first, sir.”
A gratifyingly nonsensical answer. “I kissed you because a gesture of affection under the circumstances seemed appropriate. I hope I did not offend.”
The ever articulate, always competent, not-to-be-daunted Mrs. Hatfield looked away. “You did not, and I hope I did not presume.”
“You rather did,” he said, tossing his scarf around his neck. “I adore you for it. Feel free to presume again whenever the mood strikes you.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“Come here,” Mrs. Hatfield said, taking one of the two chairs before her desk. “I’ll show you.”
Rex hated that she had to instruct him on the topic of managing his dukedom, but he liked sitting beside her. Eleanora Hatfield had a sense of calm competence that soothed his temper, and just as she was unraveling his books, he enjoyed unraveling her.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“Mrs. Hatfield rose and went to the sideboard, rummaging in its cupboards. “What or who has given you yet another headache?”
My family. “How can you tell?”
“Your eyes. They aren’t…Usually, you look out on the world with a benevolent tolerance. You are annoyed today.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“Come along. I know you like to show off your ladies in the park, and we like to show you off as well.”
Quiet voices murmured behind the library door.
Quinn offered Jane his arm as the two oldest girls slid down the bannister and the third churned down the steps pulling her nurse by the hand.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“He and Jane wore the finery appropriate for strolling in the park. To appearances they would be very much the duke and duchess on display with their darling daughters in tow. Quinn liked parading about at Jane’s side, liked seeing polite society brought to heel by a poor minister’s daughter and a guttersnipe from York.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“We’ll go to France,” Elsmore said, stepping closer, “if that’s what you want. We’ll live in obscurity at Ambledown. I’ll deed it to you and we’ll live there in sin. We’ll set up a household in York, but twelve estates, thirty-two near relations, a ducal title, a bloody box in Drury Lane, and shares in a damned bank mean nothing, Eleanora, if you force me to muddle on without you. I love you.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“This might have been any conference room in any bank, except—Rex hadn’t noticed this until he’d been in the room many times—the windows were clean, inside and out, despite being one floor above a busy street. London coal smoke dirtied everything it touched, from laundry to ladies’ gloves to Mayfair mansions.
The result of clean windows, though, was a rare sense of light and freshness within Wentworth and Penrose’s walls.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“A detail, but telling. Quinn Wentworth, Duke of Walden, had been raised in the slums and was known to pinch a penny until it took a solemn oath never to be spent again. And yet, the man paid good coin for the lilies of the field.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke

“People who have less, who are less, keep a close eye on people who have more. Children are more observant about adults than conversely. Women are vigilant regarding the actions of men because we have to be. The same not true in the opposite direction, not in any flattering sense.”
― Grace Burrowes, Forever and a Duke