A Marvellous Light Quotes

“You look like a Turner painting and I want to learn your textures with my fingertips. You are the most fascinating thing in this beautiful house. I'd like to introduce my fists to whoever taught you to stop talking about the things that interest you.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“I am nothing like you, and yet I feel more myself with you.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“It didn't take long to become so accustomed to something that you could describe the exact shape of its absence.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“On the contrary, stories are why anyone does anything.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“Because if even a single woman was involved, they wouldn't have decided that a man who'd been working there one day was a more likely source of information than a woman who'd been there for years.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“It wasn’t the physical act alone. It was the way he felt watching Edwin read; it was the feeling he had every time his eyes sought Edwin in a room and landed on an angle of the man’s face, any movement of those delicate fingers: There you are. I’ve been waiting for you.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“How much do you know about natural sciences?” “Er,” said Robin. “Gravity? Sir Isaac Newton?” “The apple chap?” Edwin visibly shredded his planned explanation into shorter words.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“Of course I’m on your side. You complicated my life,” Robin said warmly. “You woke me up. You’re incredibly brave. You’re not kind, but you care, deeply. And I think you know how much I want you, in whatever way I can have you.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“He was one barely powered magician with nothing but a tendency to let books replace people in his life.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“ We are man’s marvellous light
We hold the gifts of the dawn
From those now passed and gone
And carry them into the night”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“You are the most fascinating thing in this beautiful house.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“Good to see you, Edwin, old chap. Don’t give my regards to your family. I never liked any of them.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“You can do this,” Robin said. “I know you can.”
“You don’t know anything,” Edwin whispered, but it sounded like thank you.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“Mostly, the library had the quiet that managed to fill libraries like a solid presence.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“Magic is like any other kind of strength. If you use too much of it, you have to wait for it to replenish. So if a dragon crashes through the library window in the next hour, you’ll have to save us.”
“A dragon—”
Edwin looked at him. Some of the irony was seeping through the edges.
Robin grinned. “You sod. You really got my hopes up.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“Addy,” said Mrs. Kaur. “I’ll still have to log it, and account for it later.”
“Blame me,” said Robin at once.
One thick black eyebrow arched.
Miss Morrissey leaned forward and smiled at her sister. “Would you say Sir Robert is a threatening figure?”
“Er,” said Mrs. Kaur. It was the most diplomatic single syllable Robin had ever heard.
“Are you afraid for your maidenly virtue?”
“I’m married, Addy,” said Kitty Kaur dryly. “I have none.” She eyed Robin. “He does seem the kind of well-built, pugnacious fellow who would follow through on a threat of bodily harm.”
“I beg your pardon,” Robin began to protest, and then the penny dropped. “Oh. Would it help if I raised my voice?”
“Yes, that would do nicely. Sir Robert strong-armed my sister into bringing him here to seek my help, and threatened us with harm unless I abused my access to the lockroom in order to locate Mr. Courcey. Overcome by concern for his friend, of course, but still. Most brutish behavior.”
“And we are but feeble women,” said Miss Morrissey. “Woe.”
“Your sister is a magician,” Robin said, pointing out what seemed the largest hole in this story.
“Woe,” said Mrs. Kaur firmly, and Robin recalled what Miss Morrissey had said about the assumptions made by men.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“Edwin closed his eyes. “You could still hurt me,” he said. “But I do think you’d somehow manage to tear your own arm off before you did it on purpose.” His tone was a tight-rope between disapproval and wonder. “And I’m sick to death of being afraid, and I want you. Enough to risk it. More than enough. You make me feel something—extraordinary.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“I suggest a daring stealth adventure, and you have to ruin it by telling me it’s going to involve books.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“Robin managed to hold his tongue on something truly unwise like You look like a Turner painting and I want to learn your textures with my fingertips. You are the most fascinating thing in this beautiful house. I’d like to introduce my fists to whoever taught you to stop talking about the things that interest you.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“I can’t believe we were almost killed by a hedge.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“He would worry about that when he planned to worry about everything else. Tomorrow.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“And he paused, in the space between inhalation and exhalation, and invited the magic in.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“He could feel out the edges of the aching, yearning space in his life that no amount of quiet and no number of words had yet been able to fill.
Edwin had no idea what he ached for, no real sense of the shape of his own future. He only knew that if every day he made himself a little bit better—if he worked harder, if he learned more, more than anyone else—he might find it.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“He was in the mood to not talk with anyone and, as sometimes happened, felt perversely like surrounding himself with people to not-talk to.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“For the bar at the end of the universe and everyone the devil met there.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“Even that was overwhelming for a few long moments: he was the joins of the wooden furniture, he was the skitter of mouse-feet in the gaps between walls, he was mirrors and clocks and dried herbs hung in the rafters and the charms for safety laid around every fireplace.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“Robin wanted to make a leather-bound book of his belief and hand it to Edwin, make him read it over and over until Edwin could look in a mirror and see something of what Robin saw.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“He was thoughtful, and dedicated, and precise, and Robin found it unspeakably comforting. His usual love of spontaneity was taking a serious battering, here and now, when it was his own well-being at stake. He managed a smile. “Who else am I going to entrust my good bowling arm to?”
“You don’t have to be so—” said Edwin, and stopped.
“Stubborn? Lost cause, I’m afraid.”
“Oh?”
Muscles worked under the skin of Edwin’s slender neck. “You say you don’t want to be protected. All right. I say you don’t have to be careful of my feelings.”
Robin bit back the words Someone should be, because he could tell they were going to come out the wrong way.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“I’m collecting near-death experiences, me,” said Robin. “Though I am giving serious thought to that suggestion about hitting you in the face.”
“Oh, no.” Edwin straightened. His tone was dry. Gingerly he wiped a hand over his scratched face. “And ruin these good looks?”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light

“It didn’t take long to become so accustomed to something that you could describe the exact shape of its absence.”
― Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light