Emily M’s Reviews > The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7 > Status Update

Perhaps I submit a Formal Complaint against Hawkes. For rogue communications of the ardent variety. Not that I don’t wish Hawkes well. I do. I do! I wish Hawkes constellations, and poetry, and wonder, and much more sleep than he presently finds.
But who is she?
Does she love him?
Ought I attend service wielding a sword?

I have the same questions, except for the bit about the sword. Who is good enough for Hawkes?

Aunt Eugenia was pleased. “If I weren’t convinced Emma did not need your steady hand, I would claim your wisdom wasted, Miss Dowd. You would do very well in a post of authority at a women’s prison.”

“Your praise is too high, Lady Spencer. Shall we discuss the most effective bedtime routine to keep Emma looking sweet and subservient?”

🤣

False Agnes Dowd: "I have often felt that if all painters were gathered into a compound in the South of France, we might purchase their works by catalogue without having society disrupted by any unnecessary and excessive feeling."

Aunt Eugenia: "Miss Dowd, I find you to be a woman of excellent judgement. Please, sit here beside me on the sofa. I’ve long had thoughts regarding Keeping the Arts At Bay.”

Lol!!

"At this juncture, I feel I ought to record that this episode in no way represents the life I believe I am presently living. While dancing on the stage of The Drunken Duck is beyond my usual purview, backroom high-stakes gambling hells followed by a pleasant amount of exercise is far beyond what I consider Emma’s Usual Scrapes. But there we were, thundering down a hidden staircase..."

Ah! Jack! Love that rogue.

“I have to photograph seven children for Easter; my own small hell.”

Pierce made me guffaw out loud at this.

“What if you accidentally read a page. It happens. It happened to me! I found myself in possession of a journal and read the entire thing. Twice.”

As one does.

"“We know what we are, but know not what we may be,” he quoted. And the Shakespeare was so very grounding, I decided right then and there that, should my courage ever fail me, I would kidnap Hawkes, take him to a faraway place, and make him quote Shakespeare all the day long."

Yes, please.

"Seeing as how All Hell Breaks Loose in my life on a regular basis, I find the record in your hand to be vastly entertaining."

As do I, Emma. As do I.