Reticence Quotes

“The fact that he'd become withdrawn and insular was no surprise to Percy. He'd few examples of affection to call upon. Aunt Alexia and Lord Maccon being the singular exception. Their marriage, to his outside eye, had always been combative but never lacking warmth. Percy could admit to himself, if not to Arsenic, that he was attracted by their model of a profound and loving relationship, if perhaps hoping for a little less rushing about and banging of heads together.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Please come sit in a chair with me in my library and don't talk too much and when you do speak, say something smart? If we're lucky the cat will sit on top of us.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Tea is her answer to everything. I once broke my arm and she tried to give me Lapsang Souchong”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“...You may call me Rue, or if you insist, Captain Rue."
"Rue?"
"Exactly, as in you will come to rue the day you met me. Most do.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Oh, Percy, I hate it when you’re right.” He patted her shoulder. “I know, Rue, apologies.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Not darling. Darling is what my mother calls my father when she's cross with him."
..."I did ask what form of endearment you'd prefer."
"Dinna think endearments ought to come along naturally?"
"Arsenic, I hate to say it, but endearments, as a general rule, may come naturally to some stout gentlemen of fine moral fibre, but certainly not to me.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“He let Rue boss him around as navigator, and Primrose boss him around about his personal affairs, and Virgil boss him around about his wardrobe. Percy was the kind of man who identified an expert and then ceded control, complaining all the while. He'd apparently decided that she was the expert on his safety. That, she'd been trained for, his heart was another matter. The safeguarding of another's emotions was a serious undertaking. Arsenic could only hope she was up to the task. Although she realized she wanted to try.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Percy was, by upbringing and inclination, inclined to let ladies lead where matters of adventure were concerned (and this was definitely one of those unfortunate adventure situations). If Arsenic want to relocate, he would relocate.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Without turning to look at him, she smiled. "You should court me, Professor."
"From the look of things, you're hell-bent on courting me. Quite well, I must add. The direct approach is best for someone with my condition."
"Your condition?"
"Uh, socially rummy and easily bewildered by females."
"On the contrary, I ken you understand women verra well. You've simply never bothered to apply your understanding."
Percy narrowed his eyes. She was awfully perceptive. "So you, erm, want courting? What kind? I hardly know how."
"A little effort, please."
He stumbled and then coughed out a laugh. She was playing with him. "You think I'm lazy?"
"I think you've had it quite easy, m'eudail. Aye.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Homo sum humani a me nihil alienum puto?" suggested Arsenic.
"Exactly!" beamed Percy. He did so admire a sagacious woman. Admittedly, Arsenic was the first to match him Latin-to-Latin, but he'd always suspected such females must exist. He was seized by the horrifying suspicion that she may be the only one. She must be protected, he decided. A unique specimen among humans. Should I write a paper?
Rue looked at Quesnel and then Primrose. "Are they flirting?"
"It's like watching dirigibles crash midair, filled with hot air, slow and horrible yet inevitable," said Quesnel.
"I don't think it can be flirting when it's done so badly, can it?" Primrose finished her coffee, eyes wide with wonder.
Percy glared at them all. It was all very well for them to pick on him, but they shouldn't pick on Arsenic. She hadn't the appropriate defences in place. "We are having a perfectly respectable intellectual conversation. Just because you lot are too dim to follow the nuances."
"Definitely flirting." Rue grinned at them.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“And she continued to steal scones for him.
Definitely courting behavior.
Only Percy didn't know how to really do it. (Peahen, he eventually decided, was not a good name for one's beloved. He'd have to do better. What did the ancients use? Time to research.)
Percy understood the mechanics of courting, of course. One ought to write a lady sonnets, send her flowers, and purchase the dd trinket or two. But the only flowers aboard the Custard were the potted sunflowers to help cleanse the aether of malignant humours. They ought not to be cut and presented to doctors. Besides, Percy had never understood the notion of gifting the dead sexual organs of a plant to females. It seemed oddly threatening.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Percy was struck by a flight of fancy, imagining Arsenic in his lap, with Footnote on top of both of them. A tangle of limbs and books and cat and comfort. He was startled by the depth of his own yearning.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Silence descended while they all analysed her words for hidden meaning. They were lost because there was none. Simplicity of truth and purpose was rare in their world. Arsenic wanted her mark of existence to be kind. She didn't think there was anything wrong or less powerful about that choice.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Also, I ken you have a good heart. ’Tis thoroughly hidden, but ’tis good.” “For pity’s sake, don’t tell anyone. My reputation will be in ruins.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Leap first, everything else later was her motto.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“practicality is the enemy of wonder.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“This resembled hedgehog fur so precisely that Percy, who rarely noticed fashion, was struck momentarily speechless by the shocking similarity between this hat and his mother's Erinaceinae nature.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Long story, But now, I think, tea?"
"Tea? Tea started it all, sir. Don't talk to me about tea." Virgil sounded particularly gloomy.
"Well, perhaps fetch us both some to be going on with anyway? There's a dear chap."
"We're in the middle of an escape, sir."
"You're absolutely correct. Crumpets are also required under such trying times. Tea and buttered crumpets, please, Virgil. And for Arsenic as well. We all need restoration."
"Yes, sir. Right away, sir." Virgil tottered off, muttering something dark about Percy wanting dipped biscuits. As if Percy would ever do anything that shocking with biscuit integrity. He wasn't a monster.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“He was doing his academic rambling thing again. "You'll let me run some calculations on you, Lady Manami, won't you?"
"Will they hurt?"
"Well, there are some who find the mere presence of advanced mathematical equations painful, but I don't think that you'll be materially damaged in any physical manner. Oh! Can I ask how the relative densities affect buoyancy? I mean to say, do kitsune bob something fierce?”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“We do not have time for a proper ceremony," lamented Lady Manami, "not that foreigners would know to expect such."
Percy said, hoping it wasn't rude, "Much more interested in simply getting tea into me. Thank you."
Lady Manami regarded him with amusement. "Sensible boy." She passed him the tiny cup.
Percy sipped, eyes closed, happy.
It was perfumed and quite grassy in flavour but warm and necessary and comforting. Percy drank gratefully.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“I'll do it," insisted Arsenic, helping Percy to rise. He supposed a thousand Englishmen around the world cried out that he took aid from a woman, but he was never one to accept lightly the illogicality of custom. Tradition seemed to him a poor excuse for inconvenience. Also he rather enjoyed her fussing over him.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Percy, why do you always have to spoil beauty with explanation?" Primrose didn't look away from Edo.
"One would think it might enhance your appreciation."
"No, one wouldn't, you puffed-up chump. The mystery is all gone now!"
"I appreciate knowing," said Arsenic, giving Prim a side-eye.
"Well, you would, you're an intellectual too." Percy said it without realizing he'd extended praise, and blushed to hear admiration in his own voice.
"Of a type, you two. It's exhausting. Go talk about technicalities on the other deck, would you? Let us bask in wonder.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Unfortunately, Primrose, while delighted to be asked, was equally unhelpful.
"Oh, Percy, simply see if she'd like to be wooed and then woo her. Must you make everything so complicated?"
"I hardly think wandering up and saying, Pardon me, Dr Ruthven, but would you like to be courted by, well, me? is particularly romantic. Or is it? I really don't know.
Prim rolled her eyes. "Say it in Latin."
Percy actually considered that. But it seemed just as daunting. If not more so. Latin made it real.
The thing was, his entire life, Percy had been good at anything he put his mind to. But only those things. He was perfectly well aware that in matters convivial he was an abysmal failure. Arsenic was important, so he didn't want to fail her. It was a bitter pill to swallow, doctor pun intended, but he figured he ought to read up on such things as love poetry and romance before he attempted anything like a direct approach.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“To Percy's delight, Arsenic staunchly resisted developing any possible chatterbox tendencies. Their long silences might have become uncomfortable, except for their mutual joy in quiet and the ameliorating presence of Footnote. The cat divided his time between them. He showed a marked preference for Arsenic's lap and Percy's feet, and happily basked in the attention of whichever human was most easily distracted at any given moment.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Is it always you who find them?" she wondered.
Rue shrugged, no doubt a mannerism she'd picked up from her husband. "Seems to be our custom, these days, to unearth new types of supernatural creatures. Sometimes literally."
"The Custard's Protocol, if you will," suggested Arsenic, with a grin.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“He shuddered at the notion, and wanted badly to court Arsenic with nothing more than a companionable silence while reading. But presumably one had to state one's intent in matters of affection, if one wished to move beyond reading.
She'd said she was a rebel. Wasn't a silent courtship terribly rebellious?”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“. . . that the chair smelled faintly of honeysuckle, and he wished for it to remain so always.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“Why's that?" Arsenic pried. She'd some of Aunt Softy in her - that enforced curiosity, a need to understand in order to better control outcome.
Percy would prefer not to understand people. Humans were irrational and unpredictable. Books were better.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“He was, indeed, a sublimely bad dancer - bungling and unsure with no conversation. Arsenic did her best to make him comfortable and engage in the requisite pleasantries, searching for any topic that might relax the poor lad. Nothing helped and they parted awkwardly. Arsenic remained under the impression that he either was terrified of her, which was patently absurd, or had taken her in great disdain.
She'd seen him talking with the matrons at the tea table, perhaps they had told him horrible things about her mother. That would do it. She hoped she might have an opportunity to prove herself to her new shipmate as a worthy member of staff, then perhaps he'd not dislike her so. He seemed secretly quite kind, ceding to his sister's demands, placing glasses of water near Rue whenever she took a breather, and interceding on Virgil's behalf when the laddie caught Lord Ambrose's eye.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence

“She didn't seem at all upset at his remark on her advanced age. Thank heavens for the Aunt Softys of the world. If Percy were to have a favourite relation, she'd be it. She was never ruffled by anything he said and she spoke Latin. A pronounced good egg, his great aunt. Madness that she came from his mother's side of the family.
Not that he saw her much over the years, maybe half a dozen times. That, too, made her a good egg, scarcity was an undervalued commodity in relations.”
― Gail Carriger, Reticence