Deanna Raybourn Quotes

“He had strong, steady hands, and I could tell from looking at them there was little he couldn't do. Mossy always said you could tell everything you needed to know about a man from his hands. Some hands, she told me, were leaving hands. They were the wandering sort that slipped into places they shouldn't, and they would wander right off again because those hands just couldn't stay still. Some hands were worthless hands, fit only to hold a drink or flick ash from a cigar, and some were punishing hands that hit hard and didn't leave a mark and those were the ones you never stayed to see twice.
But the best hands were knowing hands, Mossy told me with a slow smile. Knowing hands were capable; they could soothe a horse or woman. They could take things apart -- including your heart -- and put them back together better than before. Knowing hands were rare, but if you found them, they were worth holding, at least for a little while.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Spear of Summer Grass

“She didn't look at me and I didn't look at her. Some questions are so direct the only way to ask them is sideways.”
― Deanna Raybourn, A Spear of Summer Grass

“Something had shifted between us, faintly, but the change was almost palpable. Our friendship had sat lightly between us, an ephemeral thing, without weight or gravity. Once, in the Boboli Gardens, under the shadow of a cypress tree on an achingly beautiful October afternoon, he had kissed me, a solemnly sweet and respectful kiss. But weeks had passed and we had not spoken of it. I had attributed it to the sunlight, shimmering gold like Danaë's shower, and had pressed it into the scrapbook of memory, to be taken out and admired now and then, but not to be dwelled upon too seriously. Perhaps I had been mistaken.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Sanctuary

“Julia Grey, I would rather see you hanged than watch any sister of mine go haring off after a man who will not have her," my brother Bellmont raged.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor

“God was seldom discussed in our family except in a very distant sort of way, rather like our cousins in Canada.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor

“Earnshaw is quite a famous name, thanks to Miss Brontë . I did not realise there were Earnshaws in this country."

Mrs. Earnshaw gave a sharp nod. "Aye. And Heathcliffs and Eyres, as well. Proper little thieves, those Brontë girls.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor

“We topped a rise just then, and the moor stretched out ahead of us, silvery-white and rustling, like a wide ghostly sea. In the distance lay Grimsgrave Hall, black and hulking as a ship adrift on moonlit waves.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor

“Of course, I did not realize it at the time, but it was to be nothing like a year before I came home again. I did not know when I would see Brisbane again, but I knew that I would. Someday.

And indeed I did. That is when we found the body in the chapel. But that is a tale for another time.”
― deanna raybourn, Silent in the Grave

“There are few greater pleasures in life than a devoted butler.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Sanctuary

“The days are very alike here, the hours of darkness long and bleak, and I am a stranger to myself.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor

“They sold the furniture. There is nothing to sit upon and no table to set, so it is the kitchen for you, my girl. Pretend you are at Wuthering Heights. Everyone there ate in the kitchen.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor

“Brisbane, if you wish to go about looking like Heathcliff that is your affair.”
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent on the Moor