Surrender to the Devil

Life is a journey, Frannie darling," Feagan had once told me. "Choose well those with whom you travel." As always, I've followed Feagan's counsel.

It’s difficult when you love someone whom you know on some level is wicked.

No matter how bad things get, Frannie darling, they can always get worse and they can always get better. Expect worse and you’ll never be disappointed.Expect better and you’ll always have something to look forward to.

You look beautiful.” “Anyone can appear beautiful in the shadows.

When Sterling’s eyesight did finally fail him completely, we were up in years, content to sit in our garden and reflect on what a wondrous and exciting life we’d led. He did not see my hair fade into silver. For him it was always a vibrant red. I watched him age gracefully and with dignity. He leaned on me much more than he did his walking stick, which was how it should be, because when I needed him most, he was always there for me. Each day I thought I could love him no more than I already did—and the following morning I was always proven wrong, for I awoke loving him just a little bit more.

It was easier to break promises when they weren't voiced.

Henry nodded. “May I ask you a question?” “Certainly, Your Grace.” He pointed at Jack. “Is he the Artful Dodger?” Mr. Dickens bent low. “I write fiction, Your Grace. The characters in my books do not really exist, but if they did”—he winked—“I do believe he would be the Artful Dodger.” “I knew it!” “And do you see that gentleman over there?” “Lord Claybourne?” Dickens nodded. “He would be Oliver.” “And what about Miss Frannie?” “She is every sweet girl who appears in the story.

I daresay with age comes the inclination not to care much what others think.

Would you rather leave?” “Absolutely not. I may be bloodied, but I can still carry a sword.

Because I would very much like to kiss you, Miss Darling, and unlike you, I’m not in the habit of taking what rightfully belongs to someone else.

...fortune was a fickle mistress.

He wanted to change her past, but even as he thought it, he realized it was her very past that had shaped her into a woman who fascinated him.

I don’t think it’s as bad as all that.” Bill pressed against the duke’s chest and Greystone sucked in air through his clenched teeth. “Did that hurt, Your Grace?” The duke glared at him. “Yes, I suppose it did. Silly of me to ask.

It seems melancholy weather.” “I prefer to think of it more as weather designed for reflection.” “You are the eternal optimist.

But life was precarious and opportunities were never guaranteed.

In my world travels, I saw a good many varieties of butterflies. They’re incredibly delicate creatures, but they shouldn’t be underestimated. Observing them as I did, I learned a valuable lesson. Sometimes if you surround a butterfly too closely, it couldn’t fly if it wanted to.

When I was much younger and lived in Claybourne’s residence, Luke’s grandfather arranged an afternoon tea in the garden with a few of the girls my age. They arrived in coaches and carriages and they were so beautiful. Their laughter was soft and sweet, so very different from the harsh laugher in the rookeries. I thought, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m going to be like them.’ “They hurt me that day without touching me. They taught me that words can slice like a knife. They wanted to know about life in the rookeries, and I made the mistake of telling them that I slept with Luke and Jack and Jim. And sometimes at night, I still slept with Luke. They made it into something ugly. It was really rather innocent. To lie in the circle of someone’s arms while you sleep can be very, very nice. But I never slept with them again. Never told them why. Those girls took that from me. And I let them.

You managed to do the same with my heart, didn’t you, Frannie? You stole it, and I didn’t even feel it happening.

I’d close those eyes again if I were you.” Sterling jerked his head to the side to discover his worst nightmare sitting there. Swindler’s gaze bore into him. “It would be unfortunate if Graves misjudged the seriousness of your injury, and you were to suddenly expire on the spot. Frannie would be terribly disappointed,” Swindler said.

I think it’s just a gash. Hurts like bloody hell, though. Remind me…to never try to rescue you again.” “I can’t believe the timing, that you stepped in just when I was thrusting. I didn’t see you.” “I didn’t see the knife, so we’re even.

She was twelve,” Claybourne went on, his voice flat, but the fury still simmering just beneath the surface. “Sold to a house of ill repute, one known for specializing in virgins. He was her first. As far as I know, her only. So yes, the four of us circle around her the way one might an injured butterfly, never touching it for fear of damaging it more, forever hoping that a day will come when it will again fly. If you harm her, in any manner, no matter how slight, you will answer to us. And while Graves might not have stopped by to issue a warning, don’t underestimate him. With that scalpel of his, he could slice out your heart and you’d never feel it.

How did you get in here?” Sterling asked, wishing his words didn’t sound quite so slurred. He was having more difficulty than usual bringing his shadowed world into focus. Damnation, why hadn’t he lit more lamps or poured himself fewer snifters of brandy? “Not important,” Jack Dodger said. “What is important is for you to realize that you can do nothing to keep us out if we decide we want in.

He didn’t know how one’s flesh prickled when fear took hold. He didn’t understand what it was like to gaze into the future and know that it would be nothing more than a dark and lonely place.

Once, when our paths crossed, he told me that the kindest thing I’d ever done was to not marry him. Perhaps because he was passionately in love with a woman who possessed the wisdom to adore him as he deserved.

In his world, there was right and wrong, good and evil. Hers contained no absolutes. Hers was a world of grays. Hers was what his was truly becoming. The irony didn’t escape him. At night, nothing was clear. Lines blurred. Shadows removed definitions. Her dreams led her to the darkest parts of London where he couldn’t follow and keep her safe. His dreams had ceased to exist long ago.

I am the bookkeeper, after all, and as a rule the numbers don’t behave too badly.

And what about you, Frannie? he wanted to ask. Who will save you?

Fascinating. He’d never known a woman who didn’t take up residence in front of a looking glass. “Why have you an aversion to gazing in the mirror?” “Because within a mirror I can’t avoid looking into my own eyes. The life I’ve lived is reflected in my eyes and there are parts of it that I wish to forget.” “Yet, it has made you the fascinating woman you are.

...at the end she’d be nothing more than a memory, if that.