Andy

“I trust you, she had often told him. But was that true?

No, she realized, with a feeling like grief. All these years, even while she plotted with James, in her heart of hearts she had been waiting for him to betray her. When at last she had looked into his eyes and seen a host of dead enemies staring back, her mind had filled with a storm. But there had been an eye to that storm, a quiet core where a calm, relieved voice was saying: Ah, there it is at last. No more waiting for the sword to fall.”
― Frances Hardinge, A Skinful of Shadows

“Mistress Gotely!" she shouted, her voice echoing blasphemously throughout the chapel. "Beth! Alys! Help me!" They would not come to her aid, she knew that. She was alone. But the other servants might hear her, and it would mean something to be remembered. She wanted them to know that she had not gone willingly or quietly. If they remembered that, she would still be something, if only a scar on their memories, a pang of guilt they tried to ignore.”
― Frances Hardinge, A Skinful of Shadows

“Trust was like mould. It accumulated over time in unattended places... Over the years, Makepeace had become encrusted with other people's inattentive trust.”
― Frances Hardinge, A Skinful of Shadows

“Habits, places and faces grew into you over time, like tree roots burrowing into stone work.”
― Frances Hardinge, A Skinful of Shadows