Lauren > Recent Status Updates

"Perhaps..." He looped his fingers around the neckline, preparing to ease it down, but she placed one hand over his. He looked up. She was shaking her head. "No," she said. "You." It took him a moment to grasp her meaning, and then a slow smile spread across his face. "But of course, milady," he said, pulling his jumper back over his head. "Anything you say." "Anything?" "Right now," he said silkily, "anything." She

But she wasn't a child any longer, and these weren't a child's problems. And she couldn't share them with her mother. "Do you wish to cry off?" Violet asked, softly and very carefully. Hyacinth gave her head a shake. She couldn't back out of the marriage. But... She looked away, surprised by the direction of her thoughts. Did she even want to back out of the marriage? If she had not given herself to Gareth, if they h

His arms encircled her, and he murmured, lie and close to her ear, "I'm very, very clever." She let out a nervous laugh. "Or part cat." She felt him smile. "That too," he murmured. And then, after a pause: "I missed you." "I-" She wanted to say that she'd missed him, too, but he was too close, and she was too warm, and her voice escaped her. He leaned down, his lips finding the soft spot just below her ear. He touche

Hyacinth almost stumbled, so unexpected was his compliment. "You're welcome," she replied, once she'd gotten over her initial surprise. "I'm happy to do it. To be honest, I don't know what I will do with myself when this is all over. The diary is truly a lovely distraction." "What is it you need to be distracted from?" he asked. Hyacinth thought about that for a moment. "I don't know," she finally said. She looked up

"I could not speak on your behalf," Hyacinth continued with a shrug, "but if I detested someone, you can be sure I would go out of my way to make certain he didn't get a treasure's worth of jewels." "How positively Christian of you," Gareth murmured. She lifted a brow. "I never said I was a model of goodness and light." "No," Gareth said, feeling his lips twitch. "No, you certainly did not." Hyacinth clapped her hand

"No," he admitted, "but don't tell anyone." "I didn't think so," she said thoughtfully. Something about her tone scared him. He didn't want Hyacinth Bridgerton thinking so hard about him. Because he had the oddest feeling that if she did, she might see right through him. And he wasn't sure what she'd find. "Your grandmother is coming this way," she said. "So she is," he says, glad for the distraction. "Shall we attem

"It's not very sporting of you not to allow me to finish my statement." She cocked her head. "Did you have anything interesting to say?" He smiled, and Hyacinth felt it down to her toes. "I'm always interesting," he murmured. "Now you're just trying to scare me." She didn't know where this was coming from, this crazy sense of daring. Hyacinth wasn't shy, and she certainly wasn't as demure as she ought to have been, b

"I just want-" Her lips pressed together in a most adorably giddy little smile. "I just want it to be mine for a little while. Ours." He brought her hand to his lips. "How long is a little while?" "I'm not sure." But her eyes were growing crafty. "I'm not quite sure..." One year later... Violet Bridgerton loved all her children equally, but she loved them differently as well. And when it came to missing them, she did

Damn, he was miserable. He touched his forehead, trying to ascertain if he still had a fever, but if his brow was hot, then so was his hand; he couldn't tell a thing other than the fact that he was damned sweaty and certainly in need of a good bath. He tried to sniff the air around him, but he was so congested that he ended up coughing. He sighed. Well, if he stank, at least he didn't have to smell it. He heard a sof

"Tea?" he asked. She nodded, her eyes widening when he poured for her. Men never did that. "Had to fend for myself from time to time in India," he explained, reading her thoughts perfectly. "Here you go." She took the delicate china cup and sat, allowing the warmth of the tea to seep through the china and into her hands. She blew lightly on it, then took a taste, testing the temperature. "Biscuit?" He held out a plat

She perched on the edge of the really, her legs open to him, although not nearly enough for what he wanted to do. The skirt of her dress still hung siren between her thighs, shielding her from his view, but somehow that made her almost more tempting. He didn't need to see her, he realized, not yet, anyway. Her position was sultry enough,

Still, she had left the hall earlier that evening with the distinct impression that Michael did not desire her company. He had defended her honor with all the valor and purpose of a true hero, but she couldn't help but feel that it was done almost reluctantly, as if it was something he had to do not something he wanted to do. And even worse, that she was someone whose company he had to endure rather than the cherishe

And it was mortifying to think that she might have turned coward over Michael, of all people.
...I have heard from Michael. Three times, actually. I have not yet responded. You would be disappointed in me, I'm sure. But I- - from the Countess of Kilmartin to her deceased husband, ten months after Michael's departure for India, crumpled with a muttered, "This is madness," and tossed in the fire
Michael had spotted Fra

"I shall be just fine, I assure you." Violet nodded, but from her expression, Francesca could see that she would have liked to have said more. It had been like this for years-Violet wanted to resume her role of mother hen to her young widowed daughter, but she held back, attempting to respect her independence. She didn't always manage to resist interfering, but she tried, and Francesca was grateful for the effort. "D

But she supposed there were some things a woman simply had to get past, and one cold February day, as she was staring out a window at Kilmartin, watching the snow wrap a shroud around the tree branches, she realized that this was one of them. There were a lot of things in life to be afraid of, but strangeness ought not be among them. And so she decided to pack her things and head down to London a bit early this year.

He certainly couldn't manage words. "Thank you for taking her for a walk," John said, standing up. "She's been a bit peckish all day, wit the rain. Said she's been feeling uncommonly closed in." "When is your appointment?" Michael asked. "Nine o'clock," John replied as they walked into the hall. "I'm meeting Lord Liverpool." "Parliamentary business?" John nodded. He took his position in the House of Lords very seriou

He found himself standing in the women's half of the shop, a frilly, feminine place of ever there was one, and shuddered. "Anything more, and I'm likely to perish of claustrophobia." "A big, strong man like you?" Eloise said in a mild voice. "Nonsense." And then she looked up at him and motioned to him with her chin to come close. "Yes?" he asked, wondering what this was all about. "Amanda," she whispered, nodding to

"What do you mean she's not here?" Philip demanded. "She's not here sir. She went to her brother's house." Phillip's stomach clenched. "Which brother?" "I believe the one who lives close by." "You believe?" "I'm rather certain," Gunning corrected. "Did she say when she planned to return?" "No, sir." Philip swore viciously under his breath. Surely Eloise hadn't left him. She wasn't the sort to bail out on a sinking sh

All about the marriage proposals she'd received, and the ones Penelope hadn't, and the plans they'd jokingly made to grow old and spinsterish together. And she told him how guilty she'd felt when Penelope and Colin had married, and she couldn't stop thinking about herself and how alone she was. She told him all that and more. She told him what was in her mind and what was in her heart, and she told him things she'd n

Clearly all she'd needed was one sensible female with whom she might disparage the lot of them. Sophie scowled. "Don't tell me they were talking about that poor Lucy woman again." Eloise gasped. "You know about her?" "Everyone knows about her. Heaven knows, one can't miss her if you pass in the street." Eloise stopped, thought, tried to imagine. She couldn't. "Truth be told," Sophie said, whispering under her breath

"Amanda!" Eloise yelled. Amanda pretended not to hear. Oh, blast, now she was going to have to wade out there to put an end to it herself, and she was going to be completely soaked in the process. "Amanda, stop that this moment!" she called out, making one last attempt to save her dress and her dignity. Amanda did, and Oliver came up gasping, "Amanda Crane, I'm going to-" "No you're not," Eloise said sternly. "Neithe

"How very frustrating." "I've had some success," he admitted, "just not as much as I'd like." "I tried to grow roses one year," she told him. "They all died." "Roses are more difficult than most people think," he said. Her lips twisted slightly. "I noticed you have them in abundance." "I have a gardener ." "A botanist with a gardener?" He'd heard that question before, many times. "It's no different than a dressmaker

And then he made haste out the door, making his way to his greenhouse, where he could be alone with his nonspeaking, nonmisbehaving, nonmeddlesome plants.
...you will see why I could not accept his suit. He was too churlish by half and positively possessed of a foul temper. I should like to marry someone gracious and considerate, who treats me like a queen. Or at the very least, a princess. Surely that is not too muc

He needed just the right one for-He looked up and out the freshly washed grass. A movement across the field caught his eye. A flash of red. Red. Phillip smiled to himself as he shook his head. It must be Marina. Red was her favorite color, something that he'd always found odd. Anyone who spent any time with her would have surely thought she'd prefer something darker, more somber. He watched as she disappeared into th

As he whispered "I love you," I felt like one day, someday, I might be able to say it back.
The St. Timothy's youth group has for the last twenty-six years earned all of the money it needed to take its annual ski trip by "flocking." Flocking is a tradition that makes the decorator in me cringe and makes the rest of me laugh. The youth group puts dozens of plastic pink flamingos in someone's yard. In order to get the

"All these years of fighting and hating me over this fence, and you want it back up?" He sniffed. "I rather like the fence. It's good for growing tomatoes. And I don't like seeing into your yard." "The feeling is mutual." Mom looked at Mr. Solomon intently. "So if I put the fence bach up, you won't terrorize me anymore? You won't say it's four inches on your property or threaten to watch me with security cameras or a

Could I? I tossed and turned over that conservation for weeks and actually rethought a lot of things about my relationship in the wake of my husband even mentioning something as crass and vile as my getting pregnant by a stranger. One night a couple of months later, I was walking home and passed a happy family with one child in a stroller and the other on his father's shoulders. It made me feel so irreparably empty.

Have you ever noticed how someone telling you to relax makes you more uptight? Emerson appeared beside me and handed me a cup of water. "Have you completely lost your mind? Do you honestly think that I would drink hospital water?" "OK," the nurse said. "Here it is. Your big, beautiful birthing suite." There was a curtain. I looked at my mom. I didn't have to say another word. "Ma'am," she said, "is it possible to get

And it wasn't. And he knew it, too. That's how he knew I meant it when I said, "No."
Everyone use to call Sloan and me either two peas in a pod or trouble. Both were equally accurate. When we were younger, Sloane was fearless. As free-spirited. and wide-open as she was, her big sister was the complete opposite. I've always been by-the-book, structured, regimented. I knew from the time I was small that I wanted to gr

I was still holding Emerson, who was a good fifty-five ponds by then. At my barely 110, I can't explain how I carried her, with the blush on those tiny cheeks, for the five blocks from school to home. I remember the astonishment in her big blue eyes. Even back then, you could tell that she was the most beautiful one. As vain as I was, it didn't bother me. She was my pet. I was proud that she was beautiful. I felt lik