Quotes from Ashley Gardner

But perhaps peace was not in a place but within one's self.

A good book is like a good friend, do you know, Lacey? One you can turn to when the night is cold and you are lonely. And there is old Herodotus, standing ready to regale me with tales of his travels.

The room was rather anonymous, with fashionable upholstered Sheraton chairs in a salmon-colored stripe and studded wood, salmon-colored swags on the windows, and cream silk on the walls. Nothing personal marred the room, as though the house's inhabitants had ordered the furnishing to be as elegant yet innocuous as possible.

Perhaps the choice was neither right nor wrong. It only existed.

I have never been married. The married women of my acquaintance rarely speak of their husbands at all, except as a nuisance to be borne.

He shook his head. "Not a bit of it. When I arrived, I was small and dark and ugly. The perfect quarry for every bully. And then, one day, I grew tired of it. I had discovered that sarcasm and wit could be far more effective than fists. The duller-brained the boy, the more others laughed at my bons mots. And so I became a nasty bit of goods in my own way, fighting with words where I could not fight with fists.

Fletcher shrugged. "Science and mathematics are all the rage, you know. But who has time for good old Horace?

She ate with good manners, using the knife in the French way to push things onto her fork. She

Mrs. Bennington's dramatic expression faded, and she made a face, much like a girl who has been given porridge when she expected thick ham.

I returned to my rooms, enraged and no further forward. Yesterday, I had believed that Denis murdered Horne, but after meeting him, I changed my conclusion.

Hmm," I said. "Nuisance" at least sounded affectionate. My wife had been alternately terrified of or furious with me.

pugilist who won every match was dull, she

Some of us were born to work and others to keep the devil amused.

My father tolerated no dramatics of any kind. I'm not certain which is more devilish uncomfortable—too many emotions or none at all.

A gentleman does not openly work for pay, does he?

Greed can destroy so much," Sir Montague nodded.

But I am an aristocrat and have the excuse of being removed from my fellow beings. You must strive to be utterly respectable, and yet, you do not always bother. I believe that is why I like you.

He shrugged. "I don't know either. I can't read Frog-speak.

When I was in a traveling company, we slept seven or eight to a bed such as this, too tired to do anything but snore.

You are right," Josette said softly. "I am devoted

But the world turned, and it changed, and eventually all tyrants fell to become dust.

Things could crawl at you out of the dark and hurt you again and again. The past did not always stay dead.

A man's character and honor made him stand above others, not his religion or strata in life.

I was torn between anger and amusement.