Flambards Quotes

″‘Never thought to tell him the gate. Shrimp like Will, to try a place like that!’ ‘Couldn’t stop, I reckon. No more strength than a girl. Not like young Mark.‘”

″‘Why does he bother now?’ as Aunt Grace quickly put it, her voice full of suspicion. ‘He’s after the money,’ Christina said, having heard it so often before.”

“Christina wished they were girls. But she did not argue; she was used to being moved about, following an exchange of letters, or a family discussion. It never occurred to anybody that she should ever be consulted as to what was best for her. It never occurred to Christina, either, that she should.”

“A great shiver of self-pity shook her, and she had to steel herself not to cry, clasping her hands under the rug the groom had tucked round her. Similar situations in the past had taught her how to cope.”

“To her surprise, she was instantly moved with pity. He looked so small and crushed, and so frail; she had pictured a strapping youth bravely biting his lips and smiling through his pain, but not this utterly vanquished child whose face showed only fear and bewilderment.”

“There were times, Christina knew, when it would be very nice to feel loved and wanted and pampered, and she felt that this was one of the times, for William.”

“Russell’s gaze stopped her. She knew then that everybody in this house did as he said. Even poor William.”

″‘Who is it?’ ‘Young Russell, from Flambards.’ ‘Oh, aye, young William. My God, what’ll the old man say about it?’ ‘He’d worry more if it were Mark.‘”

“Life had already dealt her some cruel surprises, and the present surprise had yet to reveal its nature, cruel or otherwise.”

“She looked very self-possessed, perhaps more so than she felt, for in her twelve years she had come to the conclusion that it was rash to show one’s feelings too quickly.”