The Queer Principles of Kit Webb

by Cat Sebastian

Marian remained silent rather longer than Percy thought it ought to take to agree that murder and arson were undesirable courses of action,

An easily disproven falsehood is no better than a confession was one of the duchess’s lessons.

“Pity,” she said. “I’ve a list as long as my arm of men I wouldn’t mind coming to harm.” “Don’t we all,” Kit said.

Unchecked power gave a man a certain look; it set him apart from normal people. Something terrible was unleashed when a person knew that not only could he tear down homes, take away a family’s livelihood, and send people to the far corners of the earth, but he would be praised for it. There were rich men who didn’t use their money and power as cudgels, but they still always knew that they had a cudgel ready at hand. They got so used to it, they probably thought they were doing a grand thing by not wielding it. And Kit hated them all for it. People might say that what he really hated was the system that put too much power in too few hands. But Kit knew he also hated the men.

The duke was suspicious of all men Marian spoke to, even his own son, despite the fact that Percy had never in his life done anything to make anyone think he might be interested in going to bed with a woman.

spite was honor when it was the only weapon you had against someone more powerful.

Sometimes one shared a secret so it wouldn’t be a secret anymore. Sometimes one shared a secret to take away a bit of its power.

Percy was somehow still young or naive enough to think that there was any difference between being strong and acting strong.

The world was filled with people who felt all kinds of things and couldn’t manage to shape those feelings into something that would last.