Quotes from Deanna Raybourn

Apparently, he uses disguises sometimes in the course of his investigations. In his liaison with Mariah, he used them for discretion. He came to her once dressed as a chimney sweep. Quite invigorating, don't you think?

Lord Templeton-Vane bared his teeth in what a stupid person might have mistaken for a smile.

It's the cleverest thing I have ever seen,' she pronounced. 'At first glance, you look like any other countrywoman, but you can move like a man in it.' 'I can move like a scientist,' I corrected. 'And that is more to the point.

the scars were commentary to his courage,

Even now you do not know what to make of me and I will not own what I am. I want you to think of me when you eave this place and wonder whether I am merely a mortal or something beyond. A better man would release you and want you to love another. I am no better man. I am selfish and flawed and I have nothing to offer you that is not broken or imperfect including myself, and so I offer you nothing but I love you until the day I die and no man will love you more.

You are not among the good that has happened to me. You are the best of all that I have known. You are what I searched for when I left that house and wandered this earth, boy and man. You are the part of myself I never thought to find because I did not even dare to dream you existed. You are all that I want and more than I deserve, and I will go to my grave thanking a god in whom I do not believe for bringing me to you.

Verá, doctor, los aristócratas somos como los funámbulos. No nos damos cuenta de lo que hay debajo de nosotros.-Julia Grey

To hurl one's few possessions into a carpetbag and embark for a new adventure was the only solace. To leave behind one's woes in a damp and fogbound land, awaking in brilliant sunshine, the air heavy with spices and the promise of fresh endeavors, this was true happiness. A train bound for anywhere, a ship unfurling its sails for some new shore. Steam whistle and snapping canvas, those were the lullabies that soothed a savage soul.

The truth, dear reader, is that I was as ready for him as any filly ready for the stud. My blood thrummed whenever he came near, the air crackling between us like one of Galvani's electrical experiments. It was a mercy that we had not been alone in our train compartment on the journey back to London; otherwise, I suspect the urgent swaying of the conveyance would have proven too much for my increasingly limited self-control.

it all fell into place and I simply knew, as one knows that fire is hot and sleep is sweet. It was just that sudden, that elemental, and it occurred to me then that the truth is precisely that--elemental. It is the essence of itself; it cannot be argued or winnowed down to something less than what it is.

Fecklessness! We are never feckless," I told her coldly. "We are full to the brim with feck.

life is not about achievement. It is about the effort. If one takes pleasure in every step, one enjoys the whole journey.

I turned my face to the east and the first star that shimmered on the horizon. He held my hand, and it was the hand of the man I had married, lost and found again in the Badiyat ash-Sham, the fabled land of camels and caravans that lies just beyond the walls of the city of jasmine. To live with him would be a very great adventure indeed.

Aquinas was a superior servant; he betrayed little reaction to the news that there was a corpse in the chapel. He merely blinked once, slowly, and then crossed himself.

Because she doesn't apologize for anything. She had a rotten start in life, but she's made the best of it. She lives on her own terms. She knows who she is and what she wants, and she does what she is good at. And she has a good time doing it.

I like you a little more than I want to but not nearly as much as you think I do.

Is that right A cattle baron It sounds strange.

If you really believed that God preserved you in order to see this scheme to fruition, you are even more delusional than I first thought," I said in considerable exasperation. "It is impossible to argue with a mind that does not admit scientific fact and relies instead upon dogma delivered by the hand of an invisible author.

I am usually an excellent sleeper. My ability to take my rest no matter how insalubrious the circumstances—along with a sound stomach and excellent legs—accounts for the success of my travels through varied and demanding parts of the world.

Jesus, what did you have for breakfast? A bowl of Honey Bunches of Bitch?

My dear child, it is never finished. Our enemies are cunning and careful. and they are legion.

You have health and beauty and wit so sharp a man might cut himself and think the bleeding a privilege.

Mourning is a bitch. And it's a process. You're just not finished with it." "That's the point," she said. "I think I am. At least I want to be. I am so sick and tired of waking up feeling like someone tore off one of my limbs. Every morning, for just a few seconds, I forget. I wake up and it hasn't happened yet. There's nothing but emptiness and calm. And then it comes crashing down and I hate it. I hate it so much.

religion was as intimate as lovemaking and ought to be as private.