Lone Women

A home is never finished, it’s only saved from decay.

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who live with shame, and those who die from it.

A funny thing happens when a man thinks he has a woman's company all to himself. He may show a face to her that he would keep hidden if there were even one more person around. He speaks from his secret self.

The reward for sacrifice is simply more sacrifices.

Better to have a human cause for this horror. Something that could be understood by all, explained easily, brought to justice.

history is simple. And the past? The past is complicated.

Wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.

And if they blamed themselves, or considered themselves cursed in some way, they never spoke of it. They never spoke of it. They never spoke of it.

This woman. Will we see her recorded as a brave soldier in their war? Or will she risk being forgotten? We can do our part. We can remember her. History is simple, but the past is complicated. I, for one, embrace the complications.

On Tuesday, Adelaide Henry had been a farmer. On Wednesday, she became a fugitive.

friendship. That time when one person has revealed something essential about themselves and the other must decide if they can accept it.

Easy to chase the past and lose the present

As vast as the land could seem, it shrank in comparison to all that he—that anyone—kept within.

There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who live with shame, and those who die from it.

She seemed like a woman who had never been told to shrink.

That meant a great deal. There were more easy days on the plains than there were compliments on Grace’s mothering.

This land overpowered people, but it hadn’t come to them, they had come to it. It wasn’t trying to kill them; it didn’t even notice them.

That’s the whole point of a curse, isn’t it? You are doomed to live with it.

She felt her tenderness like a shawl she wanted to drape across his shoulders.

Why did this woman’s lie bother her? A guilty soul is always troubled by its reflection.

Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History, edited by Rose Fox and Daniel José Older.

They were going inside to kill Adelaide’s sister. And her sister had a name. Elizabeth. They’re going to kill Elizabeth.

What has you so engrossed?” Mrs. Reed asked him. No answer. That’s the definition of being engrossed

Oh, Sam,” Adelaide whispered as she rubbed her arms up and down his body. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” And only now did she hear what Grace had said. They threw him in the cellar. They. After a moment, who knows how many, Sam’s eyes focused on Adelaide.

Ever since she was a child, Adelaide could grip the creature’s scales and come away unscathed.