Jackdaw Quotes

“I like it here. I just want to walk the wind, watch you play rugby. Make kites for Agnes and do things, when I can—and come to bed with you at the end of the day. I’ve stopped running.”
“You fell?”
“I landed.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“I’m tired of being the villain in the story. I never meant to be, and I don’t want to do it any more.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“Of course I’ve got a conscience,” Jonah said. “He’s sitting right here next to me.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“Nothing had changed, nothing to remedy his pain and anger and hate. Jonah was a thief, a liar, an accessory to murder. But he had said 'Score me a try', and the words had stabbed Ben’s heart with sweetness.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“I can't love you again," Ben said, his heart aching on the words. "How can I, when I never stopped? I couldn't stop loving you when I hated you so much it made me sick to think about you. I used to dream about killing you and wake up crying because I thought you were dead. I can't not love you. I don't know how.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“He liked being the bigger man of the two, even though it wasn’t by much, he liked the way his solid rugby player’s build matched and countered Jonah’s athletic strength. But there was something about Jonah’s body hair, that incontrovertible evidence of his masculinity, that made Ben feel…not that he was less manly, precisely, but that Jonah was more so.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“Ben looked up, and the foundations of his life began to crumble.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“Someone should have helped him,” Ben said. “You take a child, or a man down on his luck, and give him no help, just kicks, and make it so that any way he turns breaks the law, and then tell him he’s a criminal. It’s not right. That’s not how it should be.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“It's one of your most attractive qualities, you know, you never snore. Rare ad precious and - his voice dropped, though they were alone on the platform - sadly underrated in a bed partner”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“But evidently something in the line of his mouth and the set of his shoulders made him seem the sort of man who hurt people, and there were men who liked to be hurt.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“Right," he said, in his most authoritative tone. "Who's got something to say?"

There was a silence, broken at last by Bill Penrose. "So. New aleman flies, do 'e?”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“Well." Dora put the tray down. "I knew as you two was running from summat when you came her wi' no luggage nor a hat to your heads. I thought I knew what that trouble was. Suppose I was wrong."

"Suppose you were," Jonah said, wearily.

"Not that wrong." Ben would not deny Jonah now. "There's just...more to it."

"I see that." Dora folder her arms. "How much trouble are you in?"

"All of it," Jonah said.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“It's not Day I'm frightened of. Crane's a sod, and his pet murderer would cut my throat without blinking and he...this isn't very good, Ben...he's going to marry Saint."

"Saint," Ben repeated. "Miss Saint, who I knocked off a roof."

"I'm sure she's fine.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“But I couldn’t. That’s the point. I was too afraid to trust you, and you paid for it. Nobody’s ever cared more about me than about what I can do, and I couldn’t bear to find out if you were different. I was afraid to look.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“Jesus Christ, Ben, my Ben, what happened? What did they do to you? Come on, lover. With me. We’re going together.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“There’s a train going west at half past nine. We'll sneak onto it and go where it takes us, and go somewhere else from there, and stop when we’ve gone as far as we can. And I promise I don’t expect you to forgive me, or anything else. But I’m so tired of not being with you. Come with me. Please?”
“We’re not good for each other,” Ben repeated, mostly to himself. He had to hold on to that, he knew, though he wasn’t sure why anymore, or what it meant.
“Perhaps not,” Jonah said. “But we’re not doing very well apart.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“Of course Jonah was not callous or uncaring. He never had been. Ben had made him into a monster in his mind, because it had kept him sane to do so, but this was the reality: a deeply flawed man, a thief, a coward who ran away.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“But I miss you." Jonah swallowed audibly. "I missed you when you weren’t there, and now you are here and I can’t touch you and I miss you even more.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw

“Oh, yes. The right noble earl of Crane. Landed gentry. Six foot three of money, mouth and cock. And an utter bastard.”
― K.J. Charles, Jackdaw