Murder on Cold Street (Lady Sherlock, #5)

by Sherry Thomas

Over the years, Lord Ingram had experienced a great deal of silence in Holmes’s presence. In fact, he was certain that if a tally were made, their acquaintance would turn out to consist of more silence than speech.

Some men’s deaths left little besides unfulfilled obligations and the inconvenience of a corpse. The departure of others tore holes in the hearts of those who were fortunate enough to know them.

But times like this he realized anew that however many difficulties he encountered, there were still many hardships and stumbling blocks he would never experience, simply by virtue of having been born a man.

“Few are truly impervious to the opinions of others; fewer women still. Miss Holmes, perhaps, but the rest of us must make a conscious effort not to let our own judgment be preempted by outside forces.”

We women have been taught since birth that virtue is our greatest asset. I have nothing against virtues—I’d like to think that there are many virtues I practice assiduously. But power does not yield to virtue. Power yields only to power.

To him, power was synonymous not with the subjugation of others, but with care and responsibility. He looked after those in his life, sometimes to the detriment of himself.

“I don’t want you to think that my life hasn’t been a happy one. It has been a blessed, privileged existence, and I wake up thankful every day to have been given so much and loved so well. But it is impossible to remove myself entirely from the tides of history. Impossible not to feel, in spite of the cushioning of my own comfortable life, an anxiety over how much further attitudes will slide. I don’t believe slavery will be brought back, but I don’t think it is out of the realm of possibility that a new designation of inferiority might arise for people like me, either in my lifetime or my children’s lifetime.”

Evil exists on a far greater scale, so great that it can penetrate an empire from top to bottom, and integrate itself into the very fabric of society. So great that when its worst incarnation had been eradicated, its imprint still remained, more than half a century later.

Very few people think better of themselves than the world thinks of them.

Do not assume anything that is self-evident to you must be equally self-evident to her.”