The Ruby in the Smoke Quotes

“Her upbringing had given her an independence of mind that made her more like a girl of today than one of her own time - which was why she had walked out, and why she was not daunted by the prospect of being alone.”

“She was learning that if she pretended to be weak and frightened, and dabbed at her eyes with a lacy handkerchief, she could turn aside all manner of pressing questions.”

“So it was not Sally’s intention to kill- despite the gun she carried in her bag.”

“Her mother had been a wild, stormy, romantic young woman, who rode like a Cossack, shot like a champion, and smoked (to the scandal of the fascinated regiment) tiny black cheroots in an ivory holder.”

“She was solitary, but perfectly happy; the only blight on her childhood was the Nightmare.”

″‘It is Aunt Caroline, Aunt Caroline,’ said the lady, her voice whining and creaking irritably. ‘I have been told by my lawyer that I am your aunt. I did not expect it, I did not seek it, but I shall not shrink from it.‘”

“Sally went back to Peveril Square; life went back to normal. But there was a difference. Without knowing it, she had shaken the edge of a web, and the spider at the heart of it had awoken.”

″‘I always forgets me teeth indoors. Me pore dear husbands, these were... and when he died, pore lamb,’ she went on, ‘they were going into the grave with him, being as he was took so quick. Cholera, it was. Gone in a weekend, pore duck. But I whipped ‘em out his mouth afore they shut the lid on him.‘”

“Please, Miss Lockhart, take care, and heed this warning. For the sake of my friendship with your father- for the sake of your own life- come, as soon as you can, and hear what I have to say.”

″‘There’s no father. You’re alone. You must do without him. You must be strong.”