欧宝娱乐

“Then it kissed me鈥攏ot as a man would kiss a lover, not with tenderness or even passion. This was a kiss that stole the soul of men. Revulsion at this creature鈥檚 kiss was instantly replaced by the warmth stealing through my veins, as if my missing blood were being replenished and contrived to heal me. I craved to keep kissing the beast. My entire being awakened to that kiss feeding me ecstasy, feeding me life.”
― Barbara T. Cerny, The Tiefling: Angel Kissed, Devil Touched

“The black of the ocean waves was the color of the sorrow in my breast, a sorrow that was never far away and always visible.”
― Barbara T. Cerny

“I was once a man, not a great man, not a saintly man, but a good man, and a man nonetheless.”
― Barbara T. Cerny, The Tiefling: Angel Kissed, Devil Touched

“My life was going exactly where I wanted it to until the Devil showed up.”
― Barbara T. Cerny, The Tiefling: Angel Kissed, Devil Touched

“Iona stared at me for a long time. 鈥淵ou are going to leave me a widow before I have a chance to become a bride.”
― Barbara T. Cerny, The Tiefling: Angel Kissed, Devil Touched

“God himself had sent me away. I was truly now among the damned.”
― Barbara T. Cerny, The Tiefling: Angel Kissed, Devil Touched

“I did not choose to be a monster鈥攁 shell of a man鈥攈alf-human, half-fiend. I am a tiefling. I am what I am.”
― Barbara T. Cerny, The Tiefling: Angel Kissed, Devil Touched

“She soon decided that she disliked the south, everything except for the humongous manor house. She did adore that. And perhaps, maybe Warren, since he came with the house.”
― Lynn Hubbard, Chase the Moon: A Historical Romance

“Apparently it was very lucrative to be a vampire.”
― Lara Adrian, Kiss of Midnight

“The manor house creaked with joy to have someone inside it again. It let a floorboard give way just to feel him brush against its walls.”
― T.R. Darling

“The hill between the manor and forest displayed layers of Lady Croft's prized gardens. Paved pathways wove through a formal Italian garden, rose garden, water garden, lily pond, and a tulip garden built around Roman ruins.
Maggie stood beside a statue of the goddess Hemera and a row of yew bushes that had been neatly pruned into a wall to form the perimeter of the Croft family maze. Walter sat nearby on a picnic blanket as she scanned the hillside above the maze to see if she could find Libby's copper-streaked hair among the immaculate gardens and all the people dressed in their finest for this entree into Ladenbrooke's gardens.
The Croft family opened the front gate to the public once each summer. Hundreds of people from around the Cotswolds came to peruse Lady Croft's magnificent displays- the golden heather, purple dahlias, peach lilies floating on the pond.”
― Melanie Dobson, Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor

“Hollow Hall is a stone manor with a tall, crooked tower, the whole thing half-covered in vines and ivy. There's a balcony on the second floor that seems to have a rail of thick roots in place of iron. A curtain of thinner tendrils hangs down from it, like a scraggly beard clotted with dirt. There is something misshapen about the estate that ought to make it charming but instead makes it ominous.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“When she was a child, she'd often wondered about the old manor. Some said the place was haunted, but she thought it mysterious. Sometimes when she was a girl, she would wander through the wrought-iron gate along Ladenbrooke's stone wall. The fragrance from flowers on the other side captivated her along with the beauty of the gardens. The butterflies reminded her of the fairies she'd loved as a child and, when she was older, of the fairies dancing through the magical garden in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.'
Shakespeare was born forty miles from here. In Stratford-upon-Avon. Perhaps the gardens in the Cotswolds inspired him as they once inspired her.”
― Melanie Dobson, Shadows of Ladenbrooke Manor

“But my parents who died in the fire, they...they were part of a noble family in England. The family has always owned the Rockford Manor in Oxfordshire, which is a mansion that includes acres of land, plus a local village where people live and farm---"
"Wait, noble? Do you mean like royalty?" Zoey interrupts, her eyes wide.
"No, no. But in England there's a system called the peerage---dukes and duchesses, earls and countesses---and they're ranked just below royalty. My dad was the younger son of the Duke of Wickersham, which made him a lord and my mom a lady."
Carole and Keith sit frozen, listening to me with a look of dread in their eyes.
"So what does that make you?" Zoey asks breathlessly.
"Well, when my parents were alive, it meant that I was treated a certain way just because I was part of this family of dukes and duchesses. But then after the fire, the line of succession changed---everything changed. My first cousin, Lucia, became next in line to inherit Rockford Manor and the title. So she would have been the Duchess of Wickersham." I swallow hard. "But she died in an accident last year---which I didn't even know about until today." My hands shake as I speak, and I can't look at Keith and Carole, unable to grasp how they could have kept this from me.
"That's awful! But what does it mean for you?" Zoey presses.
"Her death left me next in line after my grandfather. And he passed away last month---which I was also unaware of." This time I'm able to look at Carole and Keith, shooting them a withering glare.
Zoey's mouth hangs open.
"That means you're...you're a...?"
"Yeah. You're looking at the new Duchess of Wickersham and owner of Rockford Manor.”
― Alexandra Monir, Suspicion

“The estate sprawled across a rolling green land. I'd never seen anything like it; even out former manor couldn't compare. It was veiled in roses and ivy, with patios and balconies and staircases sprouting from it's alabaster sides. The grounds were encased by woods, but stretched so far that I could barely see the distant line of the forest. So much colour, so much sunlight and movement and texture... I could hardly drink it in fast enough. To paint it would be useless, would never do it justice.

My awe might have subdued my fear had the place not been so wholly empty and silent. Even the garden through which we walked, following a gravel path to the main doors of the house, seemed hushed and sleepingg. Above the array of amethyst irises and pale snowdrops and butter-yellow daffodils swaying in the balmy breeze, the faint stench of metal tickled my nose.

Of course it would be magic, because it was spring here. What wretched power did they possess to make their lands so different from ours, to control the seasons and weather as if they owned them?”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“A yearning drove me here to you. I have found no peace in my grave." - Manor”
― Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Manor

“A yearning drove me here to you. I have found no peace in my grave".”
― Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Manor

“Bury me in his grave, won't you?”
― Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, Manor

“But, God, the manor was oppressively cavernous at night! In the dark, it was easy to imagine, as Este had said, that the house expanded infinitely. Were I to walk too far, or fail to pay strict attention, I might stray into some witchy no-man鈥檚-land from which return might not be as simple as merely retracing my steps but cost me a debt in blood, or a piece of my soul. Really, there was a turret with no ingress, a door in Juniper鈥檚 office that didn鈥檛 open, concealed panels in the walls connecting wings; Cameron Manor was far from predictable.”
― Karen Marie Moning, The House at Watch Hill