India Holton > Quotes

“You are a scoundrel," she whispered furiously.

"Yes," he agreed. "I'm thinking of starting a Society of Gentlemen Scoundrels."

"You're millennia too late. It already exists and is called the patriarchy.”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“We are exactly that, Signor. Corsairs, robbers, pirates. I, however, am also a bibliophile, and you are impeding my visit to the library. So either assassinate me now and get it over with, or kindly step aside.”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“We have only three laws in our Society, Cecilia. No killing civilians. Pour the tea before the milk. And no stealing each other’s houses.”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“I needed a book in case of emergencies."

"You mean like being attacked by foul-mouthed highwaymen?"

"No, I mean those moments when nothing important is happening, such as during travel. After supper. Before sleeping. Or whilst one's opponent reloads their gun.”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“She took the spyglass from a nearby shelf and held it to her eye. The world was a vast black emptiness, echoing like the mordant spaces between soul-wrought words...

Ned leaned across and removed the lens cap, and poetry became science again.”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“that’s enough history for today. Come and learn how to kill someone with a teaspoon.”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“Nothing is easier than to admit the truth of the universal struggle to find a good parking space.”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“Do not look so concerned on my behalf, Captain. It is a common enough statement. For example, I myself love that house there with the wooden shutters. I love tea. I love you, and your smile, and the way you sigh in your sleep. See, common. Unconcerning. We are still enemies.”
― India Holton, The League of Gentlewomen Witches

“All may be fair in love and war, but this is ornithology. Cheating is practically one of our scientific principles.”
― India Holton, The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love

“Reading is not a hobby," she said. "It is a way of life.”
― India Holton, The Secret Service of Tea and Treason

“Charming man, shame she would have to assassinate him one day soon.”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“Angel was too feeble a word for her. She was heaven entire, embodied in a woman’s body. She was every superlative in every ridiculous emotional dictionary printed in a man’s heart.”
― India Holton, The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love

“They stared at each other for a long, intense moment. Breathe, Alex remind himself. Do what now? his lungs replied.”
― India Holton, The League of Gentlewomen Witches

“It is violence that best overcomes hate, vengeance that most certainly heals injury, and a good cup of tea that soothes the most anguished soul”; thus ran the motto of the Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels.”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“A lady stays tranquil and poised under all circumstances. Instead of panicking, she squares her jaw, protects her heart, and ensures that she has enough ammunition to gun down everyone in her path.”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“What we need is female suffrage," Cecilia opined as she laid lemon slices, cut into the shape of flowers, atop the tea.

"I'm not so sure of about that," Lady Armitage argued. "We suffer enough as it is.”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“I’m not sure what astonishes me most,” Cecilia replied, “that we didn’t think of it, or that a man on his own actually asked for directions.”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“I'm afraid I've done nothing at all to advance the plot."
"You chose to come away with me," Ned reminded her.
"So this is merely romance," she frowned disapprovingly. "I was hoping for an epic adventure, or a gothic mystery at the very least."
Ned laughed. "Darling, don't worry, the story has just begun.”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“But her mind, well trained for messes like spilled tea, conservative governments, and tumbling toward one’s death, reacted calmly.”
― India Holton, The League of Gentlewomen Witches

“He had kissed her twice now. Outrageous! Indefensible! Would he kiss her in the sunlight next time? My goodness, she hoped not! Would he hold her close, his hand stroking her back as if she was something to be handled with care, cherished? Heaven forbid!”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“Two roads diverged in a yellow-wallpapered room, and we pirates took the better one,”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“When she had her own house, she would fill every room with books.”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“He’d never fallen so fast for a woman before. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that she uplifted him, drawing him out of cynicism into a happiness he was enjoying wholeheartedly; a happiness that had taken him so off-guard, his usual defenses were useless against it. Then again, maybe he didn’t want to employ them anymore. Beth was welcome in.”
― India Holton, The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love

“Alex did not like bewilderment. He liked smug certainty and hitting things with his sword.”
― India Holton, The League of Gentlewomen Witches

“Beth quite simply bewitched him, beyond linguistic sobriety, beyond quantifiable data analysis. She was beauty. She was peace.”
― India Holton, The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love

“Cecelia acknowledged him with a nod. "Captain Lightbourne, I have heard so much about you. It is a pleasure to" - She held up her hand, and they both waited while her stomach contemplated whether it wished to join in the conversation - "to make your acquaintance," she concluded, and turned to vomit over her corset on the floor.

(As a feminist statement, it was ambiguous at best)”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“(After all, the Wisteria Ladies’ Junior Division motto was: “Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and hopefully the other person dies.”)”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“Ghosts aren't real," Olivia Etterly had assured her with the authority of a woman who had killed enough people to know.”
― India Holton, The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels

“Elizabeth Bennet would no doubt be shocked by such indelicacy. But then, Elizabeth Bennet really should have boxed Mr. Darcy’s ear halfway through chapter three. Just as Emma Woodhouse should have shut the door in Mr. Knightley’s condescending face and Fanny should have slapped some sense into Edmund then gone off to London to get herself a decent education. Having now experienced various degrees of communion with a man, Charlotte was of the opinion that Jane Austen’s heroines were ninnies. Maybe from here on she ought to read Mary Wollstonecraft instead.”
― India Holton, The League of Gentlewomen Witches

“I will always come for you, Beth. You are my sunlight.”
― India Holton, The Ornithologist's Field Guide to Love