“The last thing the justice system is, is just.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“My heartbeat faltered. He pulled away, taking a little piece of my heart with him.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“Dead flesh and sharpened scalpels didn't bother me. I was my father's daughter, after all. My nightmares were made of darker things.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“The ways of men and women are such a puzzle. And I could barely decipher my own feelings, let along anyone else's.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“Analyzing, always analyzing— I couldn’t feel safe until I knew every aspect of what I was facing.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“Paranoia had crept into that part of my brain usually reserved for reason.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“I folded my arm. "You know, I suspect you and Edward would be friends if it weren't for this place."
His eyes were on fire. "It's not this island keeping us from being friends."
My pounding heart stole the words to reply to that.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“Thwack. The nail drove deeper, as if Montgomery was driving it into my very heart. How hard was it to fix a loose nail? He hit it again and again, determined to set that bookshelf straight. Determined to do something right, after so much wrong.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“The rising and falling cadence of words, carried on the wind, spoken in a language other than human.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“Whether I'm right or wrong has nothing to do with gender.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“I ran after him, but he was already back with the others. My footsteps echoed in the hollow space below the dock. I stopped. If he'd wanted me to catch him, he'd have let me.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“I rested my forehead against the wall and closed my eyes. It wasn’t just my curiosity, or my fascination with anatomy, or how I could unhesitatingly chop a rabbit’s head off with an ax when a roomful of boys couldn’t. Those things were all symptoms of the same sickness - a kind of madness inherited from my father. It was a dangerous pull in my gut drawing me toward the dark possibilities of science, toward the thin line between life and death, toward the animal impulses hidden behind a corset and a smile.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“A scream hurled up my throat, but I never heard it. I'd slipped into a welcoming darkness.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“We're going to die, aren't we?" I asked bitterly.
He held me so tight I could hardly breathe. But I wanted tighter still. "Not here. I swear it.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“Apparently profanity had a way of making men listen.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“He pushed my back against the stall door, kissing me. Edward had tried kissing me, but I'd been so shocked I'd barely had time to explore how it felt. Lucy had told me stories of shady corners and sweaty palms. But this was passionate. Wild. Something I'd never known.
"Have you kissed a girl before?" I whispered. He ran his thumb over my cheek. His eyes lingered on my lips.
"Yes," he said. I thought of Alice, her pretty blonde hair, the split lip that made her so vulnerable. But it wasn't her name he said.
"A woman at the docks in Brisbane. She didn't mean anything. I was lonely. It wasn't love." A prostitute, he meant.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“Oh, and Juliet," he said. I turned back. Half of his face was thrown in deep shadow, while the whites of his teeth gleamed in the distant lights from the salon. "I’ll be working in the laboratory late tonight. I’ve a good start on the new specimens. Don’t be alarmed if you’re awoken. The animals - they scream, you know. An unfortunate effect of vivisection. It keeps the whole household up."
For a breath, the world seemed to freeze. And then the clouds rolled again, the wind howled again. I realized that he had charmed me, just like he charmed everyone. I’d thought I was so clever. I thought I could see past his manipulations. But I’d heard only what I wanted to.
He’d never said the accusations were untrue. Just unfair.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“Believing in nothing except the truth of Montgomery, who for all his faults was as steady as the sea, as honest as the sun. My eyes watered with unexpected tears, and I kissed him harder, desperately. It wasn't a happy ending.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“But I couldn't get the image out of my head of the beast strapped to the table, Father humming while the candle wax slowly dripped, and Montgomery assisting. I felt betrayed, as though the boy I'd idolized was nothing more than a fantasy.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“He left slowly, as if he had to pry himself away before he something improper. A growing part of me wished he'd stayed.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“Do you have any idea of the pain [the animals have] suffered at human hands?”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“How did you survive?” I asked. My question caught him off guard, and his hand curled around the dice. He gave a cautious shrug. “The grace of God, I suppose.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“Don’t say it,” I said, almost a plea. “I love Montgomery.” But deep inside, my God, I wanted him to say it. To kiss me feverishly and end this terrible pull between us.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“Do you have any idea of the pain [the animals] have suffered at human hands?”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“Suddenly he brushed his rough thumb against my jaw, catching me by surprise. Heat erupted across my face as I drew in a sharp breath. Was he going to kiss me? My eyelids sank closed. Our bodies were practically touching. It was wrong to be so close to a boy—every moment of Mother’s upbringing had taught me that. But I didn’t care. We were bound together, he and I.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“Her cheeks turned a deep shade of peach. A pang of jealousy struck me deep inside, and I flopped into my chair. The others joined me at the table. Didn’t Montgomery remember last night, during the storm, running his fingers down the bare skin of my back? I did. I could barely think about anything else. Edward sat across from me, deep in his own thoughts. His hands still bore the scratches from our escape. I wondered if his ribs still hurt him. I absently touched my own, remembering the feel of his hands holding me there, that night behind the waterfall.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“I can't say that I mind a little time with you before the world rises.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“voice spoke in my ear, both familiar and terrifying. “Don’t run,”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“The heel of Montgomery’s boot tapped nervously against the floor, as if he knew he was a bad liar. “I can’t say how he’ll take the news at first. He can be unpredictable, but in the end he’ll be glad you came.” He leaned forward, blue eyes simmering. His boot tapped faster. “I’m glad you came.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
“I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks. Montgomery had gotten the flowers. Sometime yesterday he’d picked wild flowers like he used to when we’d visit cousins in the country.”
― Megan Shepherd, quote from The Madman's Daughter
Megan Shepherd
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“Those people cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them because they see and covet what He has not given them. All of our discontents for what we want appear to me to spring from want of thankfulness for what we have.”
― Daniel Defoe, quote from Robinson Crusoe
“At grief so deep the tongue must wag in vain; the language of our sense and memory lacks the vocabulary of such pain.”
― Dante Alighieri, quote from Inferno
“Gone surfing. Be back soon. -D”
― Alyson Noel, quote from Evermore
“But alas, if I have not maintained my victory, it is God's fault for not making man and the devil of equal strength.”
― Victor Hugo, quote from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
“Do you really think we'll ever--"
"I do," he said with certainty, not letting me finish. He leaned over and kissed my forehead. "I know it, Sassenach, and so do you. You were meant to be a mother, and I surely dinna intend to let anyone else father your children.”
― Diana Gabaldon, quote from Dragonfly in Amber
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