Save Me The Waltz Quotes

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isn't it funny how danger makes people passionate?
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
The trouble with emergencies is," she said, "that I always put on my finest underwear and then nothing happens.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Well, this should be easy, then.” Puck smirked. “We’ll just stroll in the front door, waltz up to Virus, grab the scepter, have some tea and save the world before breakfast. Silly me, thinking it would be hard.
Julie Kagawa (The Iron Daughter (The Iron Fey, #2))
memories should be sharp when one has nothing else to live for
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Death is the only real elegance.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
There seemed to be some heavenly support beneath his shoulder blades that lifted his feet from the ground in ecstatic suspension, as if he secretly enjoyed the ability to fly but was walking as a compromise to convention.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Father said conflict develops the character
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
People are like almanacs, Bonnie - you never can find the information you're looking for, but the casual reading is well worth the trouble.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
But I warn you, I am only really myself when I’m somebody else whom I have endowed with these wonderful qualities from my imagination.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
A southern moon is a sodden moon, and sultry. When it swamps the fields and the rustling sandy roads and the sticky honeysuckle hedges in its sweet stagnation, your fight to hold on to reality is like a protestation against a first waft of ether.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Oh, we are going to be so happy away from all the things that almost got us but couldn't quite because we were too smart for them!
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Being in love, she concluded, is simply the presentation of our pasts to another individual, mostly packages so unwieldy that we can no longer manage the loosened strings alone. Looking for love is like asking for a new point of departure, she thought, another chance in life.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
I suppose all we can really share with people is a taste for the same kinds of weather.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
She felt the essence of herself pulled finer and smaller like those streams of spun glass that pull and stretch till there remains but a glimmering illusion. Neither falling nor breaking, the stream spins finer. She felt herself very small and ecstatic. Alabama was in love.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Something may be a sort of fulfillment of yourself, and it may not be great to other people, but it is just as essential to yourself as if it is a great masterpiece.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Most people hew the battlements of life from compromise, erecting their impregnable keeps from judicious submissions, fabricating their philosophical drawbridges from emotional retractions and scalding marauders in the boiling oil of sour grapes.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Paris is a pen-and-ink drawing before nine o’clock.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
We get something to do and as soon as we've got it, it gets us.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
David, I’ll fly for you, if you’ll love me!” “Fly, then.” “I can’t fly, but love me anyway.” “Poor wingless child!” “Is it so hard to love me?” “Do you think you are easy, my illusive possession?
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
We couldn't go on indefinitely being swept off our feet.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Everybody gives you belief for the asking,' she said to David, 'and so few people give you anything more to believe in than your own belief - just not letting you down, that's all. Its so hard to find a person who accepts responsibilities beyond what you ask.' 'So easy to be loved - so hard to love.' David answered
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
You'll be sorry," he said unpleasantly. "I hope so," Alabama answered. "I like paying for the things I do-it makes me feel square with the world".
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
And, Joey, if you ever want to know about the japonicas and the daisy fields it will be alright that you have forgotten because I will be able to tell you about how it felt to be feeling that way you cannot quite remember – that will be for the time when something happens years from now that reminds you of now.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
It seemed to Alabama that, reaching her goal, she would drive the devils that had driven her - that, in proving herself, she would achieve that peace which she imagined went only in surety of one’s self - that she would be able, through the medium of the dance, to command her emotions, to summon love or pity or happiness at will, having provided a channel through which they might flow. She drove herself mercilessly, and the summer dragged on.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
She wished she could help David to seem more legitimate. She wished she could do something to keep everything from being so undignified. Life seemed so uselessly extravagant.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
It was good to be a stranger in a land when you felt aggressive and acquisitive, but when you began to weave your horizons into some kind of shelter it was good to know that hands you loved had helped in their spinning - made you feel as if the threads would hold together better.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Lady Sylvia flapped across the room like an opaque protoplasm propelling itself over a sand-bank.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me The Waltz (Handheld Defiants Book 4))
Discs of umbrellas poured over suburban terraces with the smooth round ebullience of a Chopin waltz. They sat in the distance under the lugubrious dripping elms, elms like maps of Europe, elms frayed at the end like bits of chartreuse wool, elms heavy and bunchy as sour grapes.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
The macabre who lived through the war have a story they loved to tell about the soldiers of the Foreign Legion giving a ball in the expanses around Verdun and dancing with the corpses. Alabama's continued brewing of the poisoned filter for a semiconscious banquet table, her insistence on the magic and glamor of life when she was already feeling its pulse like the throbbing of an amputated leg, had something of the same sinister quality.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Her long legs struck forcefully forward as if she pressed her toes watchfully on the accelerator of the universe.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
In reality, there is no materialist like the artist, asking back from life the double and the wastage and the cost on what he puts out in emotional usury.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
.,.and it seemed to me—Oh, I don’t know! As if it held all the things I’ve always tried to find in everything else.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Now have a seat. I need to rescue you.” “Rescue me? Is that what it’s called when you wait for me to do all the heavy lifting and then waltz in after I’ve saved the day?” “Precisely. I’m taking charge.
K.F. Breene (Fate of Perfection (Finding Paradise #1))
Then the direction of education should be to teach us to dramatize ourselves, to realize to the fullest extent the human equipment?
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Alabama did not want to leave Paris where they were so unhappy.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me The Waltz (Handheld Defiants Book 4))
Дикси заперлась в своей комнате, два дня не выходила оттуда и ничего не ела. Алабама наслаждалась своим участием в семейной драме.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
She thinks of Dixie with excited identity as being some adult part of herself divorced from her by transfiguring years, like a very sunburned arm which might not appear familiar if you had been unconscious of its alterations.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Being close to him with her face in the space between his ear and his stiff army collar was like being initiated into the subterranean reserves of a fine fabric store exuding the delicacy of cambrics and linen and luxury bound in bales.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
The sun played lazily behind the Byzantine silhouette of the town. Bathhouses and a dancing pavilion bleached in the white breeze. The beach stretched for miles along the blue. Nanny habitually established a British Protectorate over a generous portion of the sands.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me The Waltz (Handheld Defiants Book 4))
Любить - это всего-навсего отдать другому человеку свое прошлое, из которого многое уже сделалось таким громоздким, что в одиночку с ним не справиться. Искать любовь - все равно что искать еще один пункт отправления, еще один шанс начать новую жизнь. <...> Человек ищет другого человека вовсе не за тем, чтобы разделить с ним будущее, жадно приберегая для себя свои тайные ожидания.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
You never asked about your present.' 'I assumed I wasn't getting one from you.' He pushed off the door frame and shut the door behind him. He took up all the air in the room just by standing there. 'Why?' She shrugged. 'I just did.' He pulled a small box from his jacket and set it on the bed between them. 'Surprise.' Cassian swallowed as she approached, the only sign that this meant something to him. Nesta's hands turned sweaty as she picked the box up, examining it. She didn't open it yet, though. 'I am sorry for how I behaved last Solstice. For how awful I was.' He'd gotten her a present then, too. And she hadn't cared, had been so wretched she'd wanted to hurt him for it. For caring. 'I know,' he said thickly. 'I forgave you a long time ago.' She still couldn't look at him, even as he said, 'Open it.' Her hands shook a little as she did, finding a silver ball nestled in the black velvet box. It was the size of a chicken egg, round save for one area that had been flattened so it might be set upon a surface and not roll. 'What is it?' 'Touch the top. Just a tap.' Throwing a puzzled glance at him, she did so. Music exploded into the room. Nesta leaped back, a hand at her chest as he laughed. But- music was playing from the silver orb. And not just any music, but the waltzes from the ball the other night, pure and free of any crowd chattering, as if she were sitting in a theatre to hear them. 'This isn't the Veritas orb,' she managed to say as the waltz poured out of the ball, so clear and perfect her blood sang again. 'No, it's a Symphonia, a rare device from Helion's court. It can trap music within itself, and play it back for you. It was originally invented to help compose music, but it never caught on, for some reason.' 'How did you get the crowd noise out when you trapped the sound the other night?' she marvelled. His cheeks stained with colour. 'I went back the next day. Asked the musicians at the Hewn City to play it all again for me, plus some of their favourites.' He nodded to the ball. 'And then I went to some of your favourite taverns and found those musicians and had them play...' He trailed off at her bowed head. The tears she couldn't stop. She didn't try to fight them as the music poured into the room. He had done all of this for her. Had found a way for her to have music- always. 'Nesta,' he breathed.
Sarah J. Maas (A ​Court of Silver Flames (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #4))
Miss Bronson,” Jason said to Elizabeth with extreme casualness, “are you enjoying the evening so far?” Elizabeth fiddled with the silver dance card and made a show of adjusting the ribbon around her wrist. “Very much, Mr. Somers.” Staring at Elizabeth's down-bent head, with all the silky dark curls confined with pins, Jason spoke a bit gruffly. “I thought I should approach you before every place on your dance card was filled—or is it already too late?” “Hmmm… let me see…” Elizabeth flipped back the silver lid and consulted the tiny pages, deliberately drawing out the moment. Holly bit back a smile, knowing that Elizabeth had followed her advice and saved a few spaces for just an occasion such as this. “I suppose I could squeeze you in somewhere,” Elizabeth said, pursing her lips thoughtfully. “The second waltz, perhaps?” “The second waltz it is,” he said. “I'll be interested to discover if your dancing skills are more advanced than your architectural taste.” Elizabeth responded to the little jab by turning to Holly and adopting a look of round-eyed puzzlement. “Is that an example of witty repartee, my lady?” she asked, “or is he by chance saving that for later?” “I believe,” Holly said with a soft laugh, “that Mr. Somers is attempting to provoke you.” “Really.” Elizabeth turned back to Jason. “Does that technique usually attract many girls, Mr. Somers?” “I'm not trying to attract all that many,” he said with a sudden grin. “Only one, in fact.
Lisa Kleypas (Where Dreams Begin)
Say you’ll marry me, angel. You have to marry me.” With his tale of heartbreak in her mind, she feared that he wanted this for all the wrong reasons. “You just want to save me from Nathan.” “Nothing so unselfish, I assure you.” He trailed his mouth down her throat. “I want you. I need you. God, how I need you.” He spoke of need, but not of love. Then again, he didn’t believe in love. And though that stung, at least he was honest about it. He’d always been perfectly frank about what he wanted. “You need me in your bed, you mean.” “Not just there, and you know it.” He drew back, firm resolve sharpening his features. Cupping her head in his large hands, he met her gaze with an intense look. “I’ll prove it. Agree to marry me, and I’ll leave you to sleep alone tonight and every night until we’re joined in matrimony. I’ll behave like a respectable gentleman. And I’ve never done that for anyone.” Her blood thundered in her ears. She could well believe it. And something beyond desire shone in his face. Or was she just wishing on rainbows? “I don’t know, Oliver. Until I can find Nathan-“ “Nathan!” A change came over him, dark and tempestuous. “Forget about Nathan. I won’t let him have you.” His eyes smoldered with a passion like the one seething in her own breast. “I won’t.” He started backing her toward the bed in an unconscious imitation of his blatantly sensual steps in the waltz earlier, and a thrill shot through her. “You said you would leave me to sleep alone.” “Not so you can think about him and what you owe him. I’ll make love to you before I let that happen. Because one way or the other, I mean to have you as my wife.” Raw determination shone in his harsh features. “Even if I have to ruin you to manage it.” That errant thrill made her shiver again, no matter how she tried to suppress it. “Then you won’t need to marry me. You’ll have everything you desire from me.” A ragged laugh escaped his lips. “It will take a lifetime to have everything I desire from you.” His words gave her pause. Perhaps he really did need her. Perhaps he felt something even more. “Besides,” he said with a wry smile as he shucked his coat, then his waistcoat, “my family will roast my ballocks on a spit if I ruin you without making an honest woman of you.” “I haven’t agreed to let you ruin me,” she pointed out. His black eyes glittered in the candlelight. “Ah, but you will.
Sabrina Jeffries (The Truth About Lord Stoneville (Hellions of Halstead Hall, #1))
My plan is this,” I says. “We can easy find out if it’s Jim in there. Then get up my canoe to-morrow night, and fetch my raft over from the island. Then the first dark night that comes, steal the key out of the old man’s britches, after he goes to bed, and shove off down the river on the raft, with Jim, hiding daytimes and running nights, the way me and Jim used to do before. Wouldn’t that plan work?” “Work? Why cert‘nly, it would work, like rats a fighting. But it’s too blame’ simple; there ain’t nothing to it. What’s the good of a plan that ain’t no more trouble than that? It’s as mild as goose-milk. Why, Huck, it wouldn’t make no more talk than breaking into a soap factory.” I never said nothing, because I warn’t expecting nothing different; but I knowed mighty well that whenever he got his plan ready it wouldn’t have none of them objections to it. And it didn’t. He told me what it was, and I see in a minute it was worth fifteen of mine, for style, and would make Jim just as free a man as mine would, and maybe get us all killed besides. So I was satisfied, and said we would waltz in on it. I needn’t tell what it was, here, because I knowed it wouldn’t stay the way it was. I knowed he would be changing it around, every which way, as we went along, and heaving in new bullinesses wherever he got a chance. And that is what he done. Well, one thing was dead sure; and that was, that Tom Sawyer was in earnest and was actuly going to help steal that nigger out of slavery. That was the thing that was too many for me. Here was a boy that was respectable, and well brung up; and had a character to lose; and folks at home that had characters; and he was bright and not leather-headed; and knowing and not ignorant; and not mean, but kind; and yet here he was, without any more pride, or rightness, or feeling, than to stoop to this business, and make himself a shame, and his family a shame, before everybody. I couldn’t understand it, no way at all. It was outrageous, and I knowed I ought to just up and tell him so; and so be his true friend, and let him quit the thing right where he was, and save himself. And I did start to tell him; but he shut me up, and says: “Don’t you reckon I know what I’m about? Don’t I generly know what I’m about?” “Yes.” “Didn’t I say I was going to help steal the nigger?” “Yes.” “Well then.” That’s all he said, and that’s all I said. It warn’t no use to say any more; because when he said he’d do a thing, he always done it.
Mark Twain (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
What is involved in appearing to court me?” He quirked an eyebrow at her. “You haven’t been courted before? What about the climbing cits and baronets’ sons? They never came up to scratch?” “Many of them did.” She wondered what he’d look like if somebody were to shave off those piratical eyebrows. “They did not bother much with the other part of the business.” “The wooing?” “The nonsense.” “We need the nonsense,” he said. “We need to drive out at the fashionable hour; we need to be seen arm in arm at the social events. I need to call upon you at the proper times with flowers in hand, to spend time with your menfolk when I creditably can. I’ll carry your purchases when you go shopping and be heard begging you to save your waltzes for me.” “There’s a problem,” she said, curiously disappointed to see the flaw in his clever scheme. He was a wonderful dancer; that was just plain fact. And she loved flowers, and loved the greenery and fresh air of Hyde Park. She also liked to shop but generally contented herself with the occasional minor outing with her sisters. And to hear him begging for her waltzes… “What sort of problem can there possibly be? Couples are expected to court in spring. It’s the whole purpose behind the Season.” “If you court me like that, Their Graces will get wind of it. They very likely already know you’ve called on me.” “And this is a problem how?” He wasn’t a patient man, or one apparently plagued with meddlesome parents. “They will start, Mr. Hazlit. They will get their hopes up. They will sigh and hint and quiz my siblings, all in hopes that you will take me off their hands.” “Then they will be disappointed. Parents expect to be disappointed. My sister was a governess, and she has explained this to me.” He looked like he was winding up for a lecture before the Royal Society, so she put a hand on his arm. “I do not like to disappoint Their Graces,” she said quietly. “They have suffered much at the hands of their children.” He blinked at her, his lips pursing as if her sentiments were incomprehensible. “I won’t declare for you,” he said. “If they let their hopes be raised by a few silly gestures, then that is their problem. You have many siblings. Let them fret over the others.” “It isn’t like that.” She cocked her head to study him. Hadn’t he had any parents at all? “I could have seventeen siblings, and Their Graces would still worry about me. You mentioned having sisters. Do you worry less about the one than the other?” “I do not.” He didn’t seem at all pleased with this example. “I worry about them both, incessantly. Excessively, to hear them tell it, but they have no regard for my feelings, else they’d write more than just chatty little…” “Yes?” “Never mind.” Some
Grace Burrowes (Lady Maggie's Secret Scandal (The Duke's Daughters, #2; Windham, #5))
Save the Last Dance for Me Life is a Hesitation Waltz danced to swing time measure. We're all given the free will to suspend our moving foot or slowly drag it during the halt.
Beryl Dov
Oh, I am pleased to meet you, your Grace," Henry said brightly. "I'm Henry." He paused for just a moment. "Henry?" he asked faintly, his hand straying again to his quizzing glass. "Henrietta Wilhelmina Tallant, actually," she said candidly. "Is it not a dreadful mouthful? And only my mortal enemies call me Henrietta. It always makes me think of a fat, big-bosomed lady with pale hair and puffy face, reclining on a sofa with a lapdog and a dish of bonbons." The blue eyes beneath the half-closed lids took on a distinct gleam. "I believe I had better call you Miss Tallant," Eversleigh said. Henry had noticed the gleam. "Oh, dear," she said contritely, "my wretched tongue! I should not have mentioned bosoms, should I? Indeed, Giles warned me about it just a few weeks ago, when I embarrassed poor George and Douglas so. But I forgot already." Eversleigh was saved from the ordeal of having to answer that one when the music began and he realized that it was a waltz tune.
Mary Balogh (The Double Wager)
Well, I couldn’t just waltz in. We’re talking about a woman who framed you for drug possession. I first waited to see if you’d try to contact me, but you’re too much of a pussy, so I came here and save your ass instead.
Boris Bacic (Maria (Gripping Psychological Thrillers))
Alabama disse para si mesma que eles eram felizes; herdara essa característica da mãe. - Somos muito felizes – falou consigo mesma, assim como sua mãe teria falado -, mas parece que não faz muita diferença para nós se somos ou não. Acho que esperávamos algo mais dramático.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
É uma característica bem minha, junto tudo num grande monte que rótulo de “o passado” e, depois de esvaziar dessa maneira este profundo reservatório que foi um dia meu ser, estou pronta para continuar.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Estar apaixonada, concluiu, é simplesmente uma apresentação de nossos passados a outro indivíduo, pacotes na sua maioria de tão difícil manejo que não conseguimos mais lidar nem com os cordões soltos. Procurar amor é como pedir um novo ponto de partida, uma nova chance na vida. Precocemente para sua idade, acrescentou um adendo: que uma pessoa nunca busca partilhar o futuro com outra, tão vorazes são as secretas expectativas humanas.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Quando descobrimos que temos que renunciar a uma porção tão grande de nós próprios para funcionar, ficamos selvagens... para salvar o resto.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
É muito difícil ser duas pessoas distintas ao mesmo tempo, uma que deseja ter uma lei própria e a outra que deseja conservar todas as belas coisas antigas e ser amada, cuidada e protegida.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
- Essas garotas – diziam as pessoas – pensam que podem fazer qualquer coisa e ficar impunes.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Ela quer que lhe diga como é, sendo jovem demais para saber que não se parece absolutamente com nada e que vai completar seu esqueleto com o que dela se desprender, como um general talvez possa reconstruir uma batalha seguindo os avanços e os recuos de suas forças com alfinetes de cores brilhantes. Ela não sabe que qualquer esforço que fizer se transformará nela mesma.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Era o modo de provar a si mesma, sua necessidade individual de sobreviver. Suas inconsistências pareciam assegurar-lhe um domínio sobre as situações, se assim tivesse desejado.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Alabama não se concedia o direito de examinar esses pontos de vista arbitrários, confluências de sua faceta de mulher, que o beijo do rapaz sem querer evocara. Projetar-se nisso teria sido violar sua confissão de si mesma. Ela tinha medo; achava que seu coração era uma pessoa caminhando. Era, certamente. Era todo mundo caminhando. O espetáculo estava terminado.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
- Mamãe, você gostava muito de Dixie? - Claro. Ainda gosto. - Mas ela criava muito problema. - Não. Ela estava sempre apaixonada. - Você gostava mais dela que de mim, por exemplo? - Gosto de todas da mesma maneira. - Eu também vou ser um problema, se não puder fazer o que quiser.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Convinha ter indicações sobre si própria para ir adiante.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Enquanto isso, é extremamente difícil dirigir uma vida que não tem direção.
Zelda Fitzgerald (Save Me the Waltz)
Hello, ladies, I’m your uncle Devlin. Has Westhaven scared you witless with his fuming and fretting?” This fellow looked to be great fun, with a nice smile and kind green eyes. “Mama and Papa didn’t say anything about getting uncles for Christmas,” Amanda observed, but she was smiling back at the big uncle. The biggest uncle—they were all as tall as Papa. “Well, that’s because we’re a surprise,” the other dark-haired fellow said. “I’m your uncle Valentine, and we have an entire gaggle of aunties waiting out in the coach to spoil you rotten. Westhaven here is just out of sorts because Father Christmas gave him a headache for being naughty yesterday.” “I was not naughty.” The other two uncles thought this was quite funny, judging by their smiles. “There’s your problem,” said Uncle Devlin. “I’m thinking it’s a fine day for a pair of ladies to join their aunts for a ride in the traveling coach.” Uncle Gayle—it didn’t seem fair to call him by the same name as Fleur’s puppy—appeared to consider this. “For what purpose?” “To keep the peace. Emmie and I never haul out our big guns around the children,” said Uncle Devlin, which made no sense. “Do you like to play soldiers?” Fleur asked. Amanda appeared intrigued by the notion. She was forever galloping up hills and charging down banisters in pursuit of the French. Uncle Devlin’s brows knitted—he had wonderful dark eyebrows, much like Papa’s. “As a matter of fact, on occasion, if I’ve been an exceedingly good fellow, my daughter lets me join her in a game of soldiers.” “I’m not exactly unfamiliar with the business myself,” said Uncle Valentine. “I excel at the lightning charge and have been known to take even the occasional doll prisoner.” “Missus Wolverhampton would not like being a prisoner,” Fleur said, though Uncle Valentine was teasing—wasn’t he?” “Perhaps you gentlemen can arrange an assignation to play soldiers with our nieces on some other day,” Westhaven said. He sounded like his teeth hurt, which Fleur knew might be from the seasonal hazard of eating too much candy. “You can play too,” Fleur allowed, because it was Christmas, and one ought to be kind to uncles who strayed into one’s nursery. “We’ll let you be Wellington,” Amanda added, getting into the spirit of the day. “Which leaves me to be Blucher’s mercenaries,” Uncle Devlin said, “saving the day as usual.” “Oh, that’s brilliant.” Uncle Valentine wasn’t smiling now. “Leave your baby brother to be the infernal French again, will you? See if I write a waltz for your daughter’s come out, St. Just.” Uncle Gayle wasn’t frowning quite so mightily. In fact, he looked like he wanted to smile but was too grown-up to allow it. “Perhaps you ladies will gather up a few soldiers and fetch a doll or two. We’re going on a short journey to find your mama and papa, so we can all share Christmas with them.” Fleur noticed his slip, and clearly, Amanda had too—but it was the same slip Amanda had made earlier, and one Fleur was perfectly happy to let everybody make. Uncle Gayle had referred to their papa’s new wife not as their stepmama, but as their mama. What a fine thing that would be, if for Christmas they got a mama again for really and truly. Amanda fetched their dolls, Fleur grabbed their favorite storybook, and the uncles herded them from the nursery, all three grown men arguing about whose turn it was to be the blasted French. ***
Grace Burrowes (Lady Louisa's Christmas Knight (The Duke's Daughters, #3; Windham, #6))