Home > Work > The Madman’s Daughter (The Madman’s Daughter, #1)
21 " Do you have any idea of the pain [the animals have] suffered at human hands? "
― Megan Shepherd , The Madman’s Daughter (The Madman’s Daughter, #1)
22 " 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. "
23 " 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. "
24 " voice spoke in my ear, both familiar and terrifying. “Don’t run, "
25 " Do you have any idea of the pain [the animals] have suffered at human hands? "
26 " of sensations. I was aware of the smell of cologne mixed with his blood, the rough feel of his trouser fabric grazing against my legs, the desire that seeped from the cuts in his hands, staining the floor. He slid a hand behind my waist, his fingers like ice. My bare skin was flush against his bloodstained clothes. His hand brushed through my hair. He pressed his lips to mine. Coldness flooded into me like a splash of springwater on a winter morning. I gasped with the sensation, feeling suddenly painfully hungry. I kissed him back, breathless, wanting so much more. "
27 " I had forgotten what I loved about the piano. The precision of the notes and the mathematical intricacy of the notes and measures. It was like a complicated equation that you work out with your heart instead of pencil and paper. "
28 " all those sleepless nights, wondering if my father had unlocked some dark science that made him a monster. And it all came down to me. I was to blame for all the rumors, the scandal, even Montgomery’s years spent as a slave on a madman’s island. "
29 " Studying the sound of our silence. His lips parted, asking a question without ever saying a word. Would you want me to undress you? "
30 " 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. "
31 " feeling his poisoned blood coursing through me like a disease. That "
32 " 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. "
33 " 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. "
34 " Somewhere beneath the fear, there was a thrill. I could almost taste it, like chimney ash. "
35 " Analyzing, always analyzing—I couldn’t feel safe until I knew every aspect of what I was facing. "
36 " When I was a child, Father would give physiology lessons to our servant boy, Montgomery, to spite those who claimed the lower classes were incapable of learning. He considered women naturally deficient, however, so I would hide in the laboratory closet during "
37 " My stomach tightened. God, was this what normal girls did? Feign weakness? "
38 " As a surgeon, blood had been his medium like ink to a writer. Our fortune had been built on blood, the acrid odor infused into the very bricks of our house, the clothes that we wore. To me, blood smelled like home. I "
39 " Trying not to think about how Montgomery was helping my father while Edward, who’d come to protect me, had just kissed me. After a minute Edward pulled a steak knife out of his pocket. “Where did you get that knife?” I asked. “While you were chatting over dinner, I was stealing "
40 " I can't say that I mind a little time with you before the world rises. "