4
" She had a purple shawl wrapped around her shoulders and her hair was loosely tied at the nape. Hill stepped back and examined her from several angles before announcing that he was content. He implored her to remain as still as possible, looking pointedly at Raven.
Sarah exhibited no similar difficulty, remaining entirely immobile as though she had fallen into an open-eyed trance.
She was not the only one. Raven found himself gazing rapt at her face, the paleness of her skin, the golden highlights in her hair. A sense of tranquility settled upon him, as though the serenity of her stillness had somehow been transferred to him.
‘You seem transfixed,’ observed Hill quietly, walking past. ‘A pity you could not have held such a pose earlier. "
― Ambrose Parry , The Way of All Flesh (Raven, Fisher, and Simpson, #1)
6
" He heard a whipping sound, something cutting through the air.
Beattie stopped. He let go of Raven, his eyes bulging as he clutched between his legs, a crippling, uncomprehending agony on his face.
He dropped to his knees, revealing Sarah behind him. She stood with a poker gripped in both hands, fire in her eyes.
‘I also have the wit to know that a preening onanist who regards himself a god does not gladly wait upon a housemaid,’ she said.
As these words met Beattie’s ears, the poker whipped through the air again, this time connecting with his skull. "
― Ambrose Parry , The Way of All Flesh (Raven, Fisher, and Simpson, #1)
8
" Sarah had come into service here at Queen Street following the death of her parents, the local minister finding this position for her as he was an old friend of Dr. Simpson. Her premature departure from the parish school had no doubt been a relief to her schoolmaster, who was becoming increasingly wearied by her arguments regarding her exclusion from subject deemed suited only to boys, such as Classics and mathematics. He was convinced that her grasp of reading, writing, and arithmetic was sufficient for a girl of her station, insisting that knitting and sewing would be of more use to her and would open up the possibility of industrial work in the future. As though a factory job or work in a mill should be the culmination of all her ambition. If one was capable of carrying out a task or learning a body of knowledge, then why should it matter whether one be male or female? Her fury at this injustice had cooled little since. "
― Ambrose Parry , The Way of All Flesh (Raven, Fisher, and Simpson, #1)