Penelope Campion Quotes

“I'm not your 'poppet' any longer. I own you. And in the future, if you address me at all, it will be as Lady Penelope Duke." A more fitting idea struck her, and a cold smile touched her lips. "Better yet, you may call me the Duchess of Ruin.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“You know," Gabe said, "Lady Penelope might actually like some of this artwork. Take a bit more care."
Ash retrieved the small, oval frame from the floor. It held a phenomenally ugly sketch of a cross-eyed, squished-face pug. "This is hideous."
"Yes," Chase agreed. "It's probably her favorite.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Spare change. Can't imagine how it got there."
She tipped her head in reproach.
He exhaled, sounding resigned. "It's not what you think."
She turned her hand palm-up between them, letting the coin serve as its own accusation. "I think I know a shilling when I see one."
"Look again."
She looked down at the coin in her gloved palm, where its embossed face stood out in sharp relief against white satin. Light glinted off the surface, revealing the color to be not the expected dull silver, but a coppery hue instead.
Oh.
A sharp pang of surprise caught her heart. He'd been telling the truth. It wasn't a shilling after all.
It was a penny.
A bright, newly minted penny. One he'd been keeping tucked in his breast pocket. Right next to his heart.
She drew a shaky breath. "Gabriel."
His hands went to her shoulders- but it was his low, husky voice that reached out and drew her close. "You know the squalor I was born to. And you know I promised myself I'd never be that barefoot, starving boy again."
She nodded.
"I have every luxury a man could desire. Hundreds of thousands of pounds in my accounts. I worked like hell to build a fortune, and yet..." His thumb met her cheek with a reverent caress. "Now I'd sell my soul for a Penny.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Every man has his weakness."
"I know they do." She lifted an eyebrow. "I'm still looking for yours."
Cheeky girl. She had to know she took his breath away.
God, she was lovely in the moonlight. She was lovely in sunlight, for that matter, and in the pouring rain. Gabe suspected that even in total darkness, she would be radiant. Because though her features were exquisite, and her lips the pinkish hue of rose petals, her most beautiful feature by far was her heart.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Oh, Penny. He must truly love you," Emma said. "Ash and Chase ate the sham. Gabriel made more."
Penny couldn't believe it. He must have arranged the menu. Of course, he would have done so days ago, well before their argument today. Nevertheless, she was touched by the gesture. He truly had planned this evening for her, down to the last detail.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Gabe watched her move to the center of the green. In one gloved hand, she clutched a leash. The other end of the leash was attached to... something furry and brown that rolled.
"What is that?"
"That would be mongrel with two lamed hind legs. Apparently, Her Ladyship's friend devised a little chariot for his rear half, and the dog careens around the neighborhood like a yapping billiard ball. If you think that's strange, wait until you see the goat."
"Hold a moment. There's a goat?"
"Oh, yes. She grazes it on the square every afternoon. Doesn't precisely elevate the atmosphere of Bloom Square, now does it?"
"I see the problem."
"I'm only getting started. Her Ladyship has single-handedly set us back a month on the improvements." Hammond pulled a collection of letters from a folio. He held one aloft and read from it. "'Dear Mr. Hammond, I must request that you delay completion of the parquet flooring. The fumes from the lacquer are dizzying the hens. Sincerely yours, Lady Penelope Campion.'"
He withdrew another. "'Dear Mr. Hammond, I'm afraid your improvements to the mews must be temporarily halted. I've located a litter of newborn kittens in the hayloft. Their mother is looking after them, but as their eyes are not yet open, they should not be displaced for another week. Thank you for your cooperation. Gratefully yours, Lady Penelope Campion.'"
Gabe sensed a theme.
"Oh, and here's my favorite." Hammond shook open a letter and cleared his throat for dramatic effect. "'Dear Mr. Hammond, if it is not too great an imposition, might I ask that your workers refrain from performing heavy labor between nine o'clock in the morning and half-three in the afternoon? Hedgehogs are nocturnal animals, and sensitive to loud noises. My dear Freya is losing quills. I feel certain this will concern you as much as it does me. Neighborly yours, Lady Penelope Campion.'" He tossed the folio of letters onto the table, where they landed with a smack. "Her hedgehog. Really.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Dear Mr. Duke,

As requested, here is an inventory of the animals in my care:

*Bixby, a two-legged terrier.
*Marigold, a nanny goat of unimpeachable character, who is definitely not breeding.
*Angus, a three-year-old Highland steer.
*Regan, Goneril, and Cordelia- laying hens.
*Delilah, a parrot.
*Hubert, an otter.
*Freya, a hedgehog.
*Thirteen kittens of varying colors and dispositions.


Gabe leafed through the report in disbelief. It went on for pages. She'd given not only the names, breeds, and ages of every misbegotten creature, but she'd appended a chart of temperaments, sleeping schedules, preferred bedding, and a list of dietary requirements that would beggar a moderately successful tradesman. Along with the expected hay, alfalfa, corn, and seed, the animals required several pounds of mince weekly, daily pints of fresh cream, and an ungodly number of sardines.
The steer and thee goat, she insisted, must go to the same loving home. Apparently they were tightly bonded, whatever that meant, and refused to eat of parted.
The laying hens did not actually lay with any regularity. Their previous owners had grown frustrated with this paltry production, and thus they had come into Her Ladyship's care.
And the lucky bastard who accepted a ten-year-old hedgehog? Well, he must not only provide a steady supply of mealworms, but remain ever mindful of certain "traumatic experiences in her youth.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Listen to me, you bastard."
"No," Gabriel said.
This simple response left Ash nonplussed. But fuming.
"I'm listening to exactly one person in this room," Gabriel said evenly. "It isn't you. The lady can speak for herself."
Oh. Penny's heart fluttered in her chest.
If by chance, he did mean to seduce her, repeating that sentence fifty times over might do the trick.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Maybe I'm willing to take that risk."
"Well, I'm not." He slid one arm about her waist, tucked the other beneath her knees, and hauled her out of the water, into his arms. Like a damned mermaid. A sparkling, golden-haired, ruby-lipped mermaid. "I can't lose you."

I can't lose you, he said.
I can't fell my elbows, Penny thought.
She couldn't help but give a long, swooning sigh.
This man was so dangerous. He had a habit of blurting out these growly, possessive statements, punctuated by intense gazes and capped by displays of sheer virility.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“It's my latest recipe." She beamed. "Roast leaf."
"It's gone off. That's not like any roast beef sandwich I've ever tasted."
"No, no. Not roast beef. Roast leaf."
He stared at her.
"I'm a vegetarian," she explained. "I don't eat meat. So I create my own substitutions with vegetables. Roast leaf, for example. I start with whatever greens are in the market, boil and mash them with salt, then press them into a roast for the oven. According to the cookery book, it's every bit as satisfying as the real thing."
"Your cookery book is a book if lies."
To her credit, she took it gamely. "I'm still perfecting the roast leaf. Perhaps it needs more work. Try the others. The ones on brown bread are tuna-ish- brined turnip flakes in place of fish- and the white bread is sham. Sham is everyone's favorite. Doesn't the color look just like ham? The secret is beetroot.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Won't you introduce us to your friend?" Thomasina swept an unsubtly flirtatious glance up Gabriel's armored figure. "What a fine figure you must strike at the Round Table."
"At any table." Tansy giggled.
Penny seethed. "It wouldn't be a masquerade if I gave him away, now would it?"
"I suppose we'll have to tease it out of him," Thomasina said.
Was it Penny's imagination, or did her gaze linger on his cod-piece?
Get your eyes off him, you vulture.
She chastened herself for entertaining a thought so mean. It was unkind to vultures.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“How irritating. Penny was still reeling and breathlessly from their kiss, and he... wasn't, apparently. Surely a considerate man would at least pretend to be a bit unmoored.
Then the door reopened, and he entered again. "Your Ladyship, I-"
After a lengthy pause, she prompted him. "You...?"
He frowned at the floor. "We."
We.
He said this as though it were a complete sentence, but even after several moments of contemplation, Penny could not make sense of it.
With an annoyed shake of his head, he wrenched open the door for the third time, stormed through it, and slammed it behind him with such derisive force that the portraits rattled on the wall.
Penny smiled to herself.
With that, she could be satisfied.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“See? He's softer than he looks."
Gabe was less interested in the texture of Angus's hide than he was in the texture of Lady Penelope's skin. Her hand was small and graceful atop his, but it was not the soft, delicate hand he would expect of a fine lady. Her skin was crossed here and there with lines and scars- some faded, some still pink. They were healed bites and scratches, accumulated over years. She had a lifelong habit of extending care to animals too wild or frightened to accept it- which made her the bravest kind of fool.
Gabe wanted to kiss each and every one of those healed wounds- which made him just an ordinary fool.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Stop being cruel."
"The world is cruel. This world is, anyway. Tell me, Your Ladyship, what's it like in your fairy-tale land?"
She snatched the shilling from his hand. As he looked on in irritation, she stood, cocked her arm, and winged the coin with all her strength.
He pushed to his feet. "You just tossed away a perfectly good shilling. I can't imagine a better example of your pampered existence. That's a day's wages for a workingman."
"You have millions of shillings, as you're so fond of telling everyone."
"Yes, but I never forget that I came from far less. I couldn't forget that, even if I tried."
"I have tried to forget. To forget where I came from, to deny the past. You don't know how I've tried." Her voice crumbled at the edges. "I may not have known poverty, but that doesn't mean I haven't known pain."
Gabe pushed a hand through his hair. He recognized the ring of truth in her voice. She was being honest, and he was being an ass.
Her character was finally coming into focus. He didn't know who or what had hurt her, but the blade had sunk deep. The world didn't hold enough kittens to fill that wound- but that hadn't stopped her from trying.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“You've been hiding yourself, and you're good at it. A master of camouflage."
She laughed. "Camouflage?"
"That's the only possible explanation. You've made a frock from the same silk covering the drawing room walls, trimmed it with cat hair and feathers. Then when gentlemen visit, you stand still and blend in."
"You have a surprisingly vivid imagination."
"What I have is experience." He stopped in the road and turned to face her. "I've built a fortune by spotting things that are undervalued, dusting them off, and selling them at the proper price. I know a hidden treasure when I see one.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Gabriel Duke. You are a complete hypocrite."
"A hypocrite? Me?"
"Yes, you. Mr. I-Know-a-Hidden-Tresaure-When-I-See-It. You said you know how to spot undervalued things. Undervalued people. And yet you persist in selling yourself short. If I'm the crown jewels in camouflage, you're a..." She churned the air with one hand. "... a diamond tiara."
He grimaced.
"Fine, you can be something manlier. A thick, knobby scepter. Will that suffice?"
"I suppose it's an improvement."
"For weeks, you've been insisting you haven't the slightest idea what it means to give a creature a loving home. 'I'm too ruthless, Penny. I'm only motivated by self-interest, Penny. I'm a bad, bad man, Penny.' And all this time, you've been running an orphanage? I could kick you."
"I'm not running an orphanage. I give the orphanage money. That's all."
"You gave them kittens."
"No, you gave them kittens."
"You sent them gifts at Christmas. Playthings and sweets and geese to be roasted for their dinner."
"It was the only business I could attend to on Christmas, and I don't like to waste the day. All the banks and offices are closed."
She skewered him with a look. "Really. You expect me to believe that?"
He pushed a hand through his hair. "What is your aim with this interrogation?"
"I want you to admit the truth. You are giving those children a home. A place of warmth and safety, and yes, even love. Meanwhile, you are stubbornly denying yourself all the same things."
"I can't be denying myself if it's something I don't want."
"Home isn't something a person wants. It's something every last one of us needs. And it's not too late for you, Gabriel." She gentled her voice. "You could have that for yourself.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“I do not believe every problem can be cured with a kitten. I do believe in love. And perhaps love can't cure every problem, but it makes the wounds heal a bit faster, with fewer scars.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“She crept toward him, padding noiselessly over the carpet, step by silent step. And as she came, sweet words fell from her lips like drops of raw honey.
"That's it, darling," she murmured.
The fine hairs on the back of his neck lifted.
"Stay... right... there."
The hairs on his arms lifted, too.
"Yes," she breathed. "Just like that."
Now she had the hairs on his calves involved. Damn it, he had too many hairs. By the end of this they would all be standing at attention.
Along with other parts of him.
"Don't stir," she said.
He couldn't speak for the parrot, but Gabe was doing some stirring. One part of him had a mind of its own, especially when it came to beautiful women in translucent chemises. He hadn't lain with a woman in some time, but his body hadn't forgotten how.
He couldn't help himself. He stole a glance at her face. Just a half-second's view. Not long enough to pore over every detail of her features. In fact, he didn't get any further than her lips. Lips as lush as petals, painted in soft, tender pink.
She was so close now. Near enough that when he breathed, he inhaled a lungful of her scent. She smelled delicious. A faint hunger rose in his chest.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Lady Penelope Campion- the aging, frazzled, unsightly spinster who...
Who wasn't any of those things. Not by a mile. As fortune would have it, Lady Penelope Campion turned out to be a fair-haired, blue-eyed beauty.
In his mind's eye, he could still see her sprawled across his bed in her dressing gown. Like an all-grown-up Goldilocks, having crept into his house uninvited to test the mattress. Too soft, too hard...?
He didn't know her opinion, but Gabe's reaction was the latter. His cock was in its usual morning prime, standing at full mast.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Outside, Her Ladyship coaxed her dog back toward the house, lifting both dog and cart up the few steps to her door. Gabe turned away from the window, rubbing his temples.
"The situation is untenable, and that makes the house unsellable. No one wants to live next to a barnyard. I've tried reasoning with her, but when it comes to those animals, she's surprisingly tenacious."
Tenacious, indeed. And sufficiently reckless to trespass in a house after midnight and recover a parrot from a near-naked stranger's shoulder.
However, even that degree of tenacity had poor odds against sheer ruthlessness. Lady Penelope Campion had a softness for animals.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“He was on his second plate of steaming-hot kidney pie by the time his chewing slowed. And that's when he heard it. The faintest sounds escaping her room, sweeping across the antechamber, and sliding under the door to him.
The sounds of bathing.
A splash.
A trickle.
A faint series of drips.
It all added up to torture. Pure, liquid torture.
He pushed his plate away, propped his elbows on the table, and buried his face in his hands with a groan. Even plugging his ears didn't help.
When he closed his eyes, he could picture her. Naked in a shallow tub. Her feet dangling over the lip at one end, and her head reclined against the other. And all that water embracing her with heat, lapping at her nakedness, pouring over her most secret curves and furrows.
He was immediately, startlingly hard.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“She pushed the door open further, revealing herself to be clad in nothing but a Grecian-inspired arrangement of draped bed linens. The graceful angles of her bared shoulders and arms stood bright against the darkness. Her knot of steam-dampened hair could be so easily undone. A flick of his wrist would send it spilling free, flowing like molten gold between his fingers.
And those bed linens... a single tug, and they'd be a puddle on the floor.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“How on earth was this woman a spinster? She was an earl's daughter, surely possessed of a large dowry. If none of the title-hungry, debt-ridden layabouts in Mayfair had seen fit to propose marriage, simple logic dictated there must be something remarkably off-putting about her. An unbearably grating voice, perhaps. A snaggletooth, or poor personal hygiene.
But she displayed none of those features. She was young and pretty, with no detectable odor. Her teeth were a string of pearls, and she had a voice like sunshine. There was nothing off-putting about her whatsoever. She was... on-putting, in every way.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“They don't have the time to take on animals with dietary restrictions and missing legs."
"Do you think I don't know that? That's precisely why they're all here with me. No one else would take them. Angus, for example." She moved toward the Highland steer. "Some foolish merchant traveled to Scotland on holiday and decided to bring his wife a pet calf from the Highlands. Never stopped to think about the fact that he would grow."
"Surely people aren't that stupid."
"Oh, it happens all the time. But usually they make that mistake with pups or ponies. Not cattle." She shook her head. "They dehorned him in the worst, most painful way. When he came to me, the poor dear's wounds were infected. Infested, too. He could have perished from the fly-strike alone. That man was stupid, indeed. The only thing he got right was his choice of calf. Angus is exceedingly adorable."
Adorable?
Gabe eyed the beast. The animal stood as tall as Gabe's shoulder, and it smelled... the way cattle smell. Shaggy red fur covered its eyes like a blindfold, and its black, spongy nose glistened.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Maybe I'm willing to take that risk."
"Well, I'm not." He slid one arm about her waist, tucked the other beneath her knees, and hauled her out of the water, into his arms. Like a damned mermaid. A sparkling, golden-haired, ruby-lipped mermaid. "I can't lose you."

I can't lose you, he said.
I can't feel my elbows, Penny thought.
She couldn't help but give a long, swooning sigh.
This man was so dangerous. He had a habit of blurting out these growly, possessive statements, punctuated by intense gazes and capped by displays of sheer virility.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Penny smoothed her gloved hands along the sheer silk netting that overlaid an underdress of ivory satin. The gauzy fabric was patterned with tiny pink roses connected by curling tendrils of green. The cap sleeves were fashioned from satin petals layered over creamy lace. A wide band of green velvet cinched her waist, and the daring neckline revealed the perfect amount of cleavage.
"Emma works miracles," she said.
"The beauty is all in the wearer," Emma said graciously.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“She looked different this morning. Different, but no less pretty. The spring sunshine lent her fair hair a golden sheen, and a simple frock skimmed the contours of her tempting, graceful curves. Even from here, he could see her smile.
Lovely as she might be, she wasn't Gabe's usual sort. He wanted nothing to do with delicate, pampered misses possessing no knowledge of the world beyond Mayfair. They were painted china on a high shelf, and he was the bull charging through the shop.
All the more worrisome, then, that Lady Penelope was working her way under his skin.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Penny did, however, emerge from adolescence with unparalleled accomplishment in one pursuit.
Caring.
Nothing pleased her more than looking after those around her. Feeding them, warming them, protecting them, giving them a home. She doled out affection from an endless supply.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Penny wasn't unused to men, but there was a difference between friendly acquaintance and a close-range confrontation with sheer masculine physicality. It felt like someone had taken a mallet to a gong of femininity hidden deep in her belly, and now the vibrations traveled through her bones, summoning an ancient, primal force.
Penny could think of only one name for it: lust.
It made no sense. She'd always been a romantic. She cheered on her friends' unlikely matches. She believed in destiny, soul mates, love at first sight.
Penny didn't want any of those things from Gabriel Duke. She wanted to tear off his clothes and look at him- all of him- the way she had last night.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

“Gabriel Duke. You are a complete hypocrite."
"A hypocrite? Me?"
"Yes, you. Mr. I-Know-a-Hidden-Tresaure-When-I-See-It. You said you know how to spot undervalued things. Undervalued people. And yet you persist in selling yourself short. If I'm the crown jewels in camouflage, you're a..." She churned the air with one hand. "... a diamond tiara."
He grimaced.
"Fine, you can be something manlier. A thick, knobby scepter. Will that suffice?"
"I suppose it's an improvement."
"For weeks, you've been insisting you haven't the slightest idea what it means to give a creature a loving home. 'I'm too ruthless, Penny. I'm only motivated by self-interest, Penny. I'm a bad, bad man, Penny.' And all this time, you've been running an orphanage? I could kick you."
"I'm not running an orphanage. I give the orphanage money. That's all."
"You gave them kittens."
"No, you gave them kittens."
"You sent them gifts at Christmas. Playthings and sweets and geese to be roasted for their dinner."
"It was the only business I could attend to on Christmas, and I don't like to waste the day. All the banks and offices are closed."
She skewered him with a look. "Really. You expect me to believe that?"
He pushed a hand through his hair. "What is your aim with this interrogation?"
"I want you to admit the truth. You are giving those children a home. A place of warmth and safety, and yes, even love. Meanwhile, you are stubbornly denying yourself all the same things."
"I can't be denying myself if it's something I don't want."
"Home isn't something a person wants. It's something every last one of us needs. And it's not too late for you, Gabriel." She gentled her voice. "You could have that for yourself.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager