A Duke for All Seasons Quotes

“He knew how he wanted to kiss her. Forcefully, demandingly, with everything he had, in a way that would require her wholehearted response.
But he knew how he should kiss her.
Gently. Softly. Irreproachably.”
― Fenna Edgewood, A Duke for All Seasons

“He hurt you. If I had been here then… I would tear him apart with my bare hands if he were still here, Maggie. Believe that.”
She trembled, then nodded slowly. “I… do.”
The duke nodded. “Good.”
Abruptly his face changed. An expression of shock came over him. She looked around the room, confused, then realized he had glanced down at her gown. And in that moment, Maggie realized she had let go of the robe. It hung open, revealing the plane nightdress beneath. Which would not have been so terrible had it not been so thin, so pale white, so clinging. It clung to every curve.
She clutched the robe, pulling it closed quickly, but she knew it was too late.
“Good God, Maggie,” the duke said, hoarsely. “Tell me you are not…”
He met her eyes. “Tell me I am being foolish. I am a man. I know little of such things. I am sorry to have even dared to look at you in such a way. I must be mistaken. But…Tell me, truly, am I mistaken?”
Maggie’s throat was dry. She felt frozen in place. Unable to even shake her head, though she wished to.
Then he took a step forward, towards her, and she let out a little cry—her arms raising protectively, instinctively.”
― Fenna Edgewood, A Duke for All Seasons

“Your Grace,” she said, quietly. “Did you have a good dinner?”
“What are you doing here?” He frowned, ignoring her question. “This is hardly proper, Miss Mackenzie. If you wished to speak with me, you should have waited until morning.”
The blatant deception fanned the flames of Maggie’s fury.
“I have no wish to speak with you at all,” she cried. “Nor to be near you in any way. Yet here I am. Commanded once again. Summoned once again.”
She felt herself begin to shake. “I tell you, it ends now. I will not stand it. No matter what you believe I am. I will not be that to you, Lance Carlisle.” She called him by the name she had known him by in her childhood. When she had believed him a prince. “Your uncle may have used me as he liked, but I will not be used again.”
She could hear herself, practically shouting now. Any footman passing by in the hall would hear.
Well, let them.
In the heat of her words, her arms had fallen to her sides. Her hands were clenched now, her fingernails biting sharply into her palms. She gasped, looking down, to see traces of blood from small half-moon indentations.
The duke was looking at her, his mouth partly open. The cravat he had been undoing, hung untied around his neck. Now he snatched it off with one hand, as he looked at her bloodied hands.
“Maggie,” he said, his voice low. “What are you talking about? What have you done? I did not ask you here. Will you not talk sense and tell me what has happened?”
She watched him take a deep breath. “I do not know how to convince you of this, but I only wish to help. That is the God’s honest truth of it, Maggie. I have no wish to harm you.”
“You called me here, to your room. You told her you wanted me,” Maggie whispered. There was a tinge of doubt in her voice now. Could he hear it?
She watched his face change, harden with anger. Against her?”
― Fenna Edgewood, A Duke for All Seasons