Mary Alsworthy Quotes

“Of course, they don't like him! Liking is for ninny-hammers. Real men elicit rancor." Pausing for a moment of deep consideration, she added, "Loathing, even. But never liking."
"Hatred, perhaps?" suggested Mary's brother-in-law, hiding his amused smile behind a tone of excessive gravity.
Mrs. Fustian was not impressed. "Certainly not. Any common laborer can hate. True connoisseurs prefer more subtle shades of aversion.”
― Lauren Willig, The Seduction of the Crimson Rose

“When I was in Ireland," Letty blurted out, "Vaughn was there, too."
"A hanging offense, to be sure," Mary drawled, in her very best imitation of Vaughn.
The furrows in Letty's brow dug a little deeper, but she didn't allow herself to be deterred. "There was a woman . . ."
"With Vaughn, I imagine there would be," replied Mary thoughtfully, abandoning the drawl. "He's that sort of a man."
"You almost sound as though you admire him for it."
"I do," said Mary coolly, and was surprised to realize she meant it. He was a man who knew what he wanted and took it. She had had enough of poets and moralists, the sort who sighed and yearned and never had the backbone to act. It had taken months to coax, wheedle, and maneuver Geoffrey into taking the final steps towards elopement, and even then he had done so with a heavy conscience and an inauspicious eye. A conscience, Mary decided, was a damnably unattractive trait in a man.”
― Lauren Willig, The Seduction of the Crimson Rose

“If not hatred," put in her brother-in-law as the path broadened so that they could walk all abreast, "what of love?"
Out of the corner of her eye, Mary saw her sister and brother-in-law exchange a sickeningly speaking glance.
"Hmph," was Mrs. Fustian's eloquent opinion on that subject. For the first time that evening, Mary found herself in perfect agreement with her. "Good enough for shepherdesses, but not at all the thing for civilized folks. Love is a severely destabilizing emotion. Look at Paris," she finished, as though that said it all.
"The city, or the Greek?" inquired Letty in a tone of suppressed laughter, her arm twined possessively through her husband's.
"Either!" declared Mrs. Fustian.”
― Lauren Willig, The Seduction of the Crimson Rose