Eva-Maria

“You seem to forget that you wished to purchase the moon for me!’
‘Nay, I don’t forget that! The thing is I can’t purchase it, so there was no harm in saying it. Now, if I’d said I’d like to give you a diamond necklace, or some such thing, you might have taken me up on it. I remembered that just in time to stop myself,’ he explained, apparently priding himself on his forethought.
‘I should like very much to have a diamond necklace,’ said Anthea pensively.
‘Wouldn’t a paste one do as well?’ he asked, in a voice of great uneasiness. She had been so sure that he would fall into the trap that she was taken, for an instant, off her guard, and looked up at him with such a startled expression on her face that his deep chuckle escaped him, and he lifted her quite off her feet, and kissed her.”
― Georgette Heyer, The Unknown Ajax

“Oh, my poor Sparrow!’ he said, mocking her. ‘Never have I encountered so heartrending a sight! A job-horse?’
‘No,’ replied Phoebe. ‘My cousin Anne’s favourite mount. A very safe, comfortable ride for a lady, Duke.’
‘I beg your pardon! I have not seen him show his paces, of course.’
She cast him a glance of lofty scorn. ‘He has none. He has a very elegant shuffle, being just a trifle tied in below the knee.’
‘But such shoulders!’
Gravity deserted her; she burst into laughter, which made Miss Mary Ingham turn her head to look at her in wondering reproof, and said: ‘Oh, dear, did you ever set eyes on such a flat-sided screw?”
― Georgette Heyer, Sylvester or The Wicked Uncle

“I would give much to see you fleeing in terror from a matchmaking mother,’ remarked Anthea wistfully. ‘Or, indeed, from anyone. But as you are utterly brazen–’
‘Nay!’
‘… and much in need of a set-down–’
‘I’m not in need of that, lass, for I’m getting one,’ he interpolated ruefully.”
― Georgette Heyer, The Unknown Ajax

“Sir, are you her guardian, or are you not?' she demanded.
'No,' he replied, his voice grave, but his eyes dancing. 'I am an abductor. I met her only yesterday, and that by chance, snatched her up into my curricle, and bore her off in spite of all her protests to a gloomy mansion in the heart of the country. I need scarcely tell you that she contrived to make her escape from the mansion while I slept. However, it takes a good deal to daunt a thorough-going villain, so you won't be surprised that here I am, having hunted her down remorselessly. I am now about to carry her off to my castle. This, by the way, is perched on a precipitous rock, and, besides being in an uncomfortable state of neglect and decay, is inhabited only by ghosts and sinster retainers of mine. From this fortress, after undergoing a number of extremely alarming adventures, she will, I have little doubt, be rescued by a noble youth of handsome though poverty-stricken aspect. I expect he will kill me, after which it will be found that he is the wronged heir to a vast property - probably mine - and all will end happily.”
― Georgette Heyer, Sprig Muslin