A Perilous Undertaking (Veronica Speedwell, #2)

by Deanna Raybourn

You are too stubborn to die.” “You are a fine one to talk!” I retorted. “It is not as if that scar upon your face were a love bite from a kitten.”

Men, I had often observed, were never happier than when they believed they were imparting wisdom.

But then, in my experience, gentlemen are champion sulkers so long as one doesn’t call the behavior by that name.

ALIS VOLAT PROPRIIS. “‘She flies with her own wings,’” I translated. Lady Cordelia smiled. “Fitting, don’t you think?”

“Invariably. We are educated out of common sense, curiosity, and any real merit. We are made to be decorative and worthy of display, with occasional forays into procreation and good works, but nothing more.”

“Of course it was. You would never stab me deliberately—at least, not without excellent provocation.” “Such as this?” he asked. “Don’t be peevish, Stoker. It makes your lips go thin and you have such a beautiful mouth.”

It is the greatest advantage of getting old, you know. I can say precisely what I like and everyone excuses it because I knew Moses from his bulrush days.”

the industry of death showed no sign of slowing.

That was the true measure of his character; even at the height of his irritation he would never let me fall.

Bodies are quite insignificant. The soul is a thing apart. When you decide to share that with someone, then you will know what it is to live.”

“I have a gift for debauchery. It is why I have largely given it up. There is no real thrill in sinning when one has a talent for it.”

And there was no pain sharper than that of loving someone when you would do anything to stop it.

“I refuse to die with that my last sight.” “You are not going to die,” I told him severely. “I have already forbidden it.” “I will obey,” he said solemnly.

“When I most had need of you, you did not leave me. Whatever this thing is that makes us different, this thing that makes quicksilver of us when the rest of the world is mud, it binds us. To break that would be to fly in the face of nature.”