The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion #1

by Beth Brower

you will look very thoughtful and intelligent. Let us hope you are. Unless you hope to marry soon. Then let us hope you are not. It takes a courageous man to marry a woman with a mind.”

He is of a height with Mary and reminded me of a large cat. Not the domestic kind—all fat and bothered by the world—but rather a jungle cat, sleek and purring and dangerous.

I admit, I laughed at him. There was nothing of the polite in it. I very clearly laughed AT him.

would be disastrous for my own future happiness. Prison would give me even less choice than I have now, however tempting.

I closed the book. I will relish every page, but I will take time. I will read them through slowly, stretching the delight as far as I can.

While there are many things beyond our control, I’ve always thought the cruellest is that we mortals are not told when our last glance is just that.

believing there must be worse sorrows than losing my mother and my father, and the only boy who ever made up a beating part of my heart. Only I can’t think of any.

I sounded more confident than I felt; one of the great secrets to life.

“What a disappointment,” I answered. “I was going to henpeck him until he cried.” “Your humour is never appreciated in this house.” Those were his final words before he departed. I almost called after him that I understood that fact quite well.