“Yes, Miss Masters, but walking is also a way to announce who you are." Gideon waved one arm impassionedly. "How you view yourself in the world. The way you hold yourself, the way you move, how you occupy a space, tells other people a good deal about you," ~from To Love a Thief”

“Well, it’s not as though he cannot help it, you see. The…saving of things. I suspect it’s Captain Flint’s way of telling the world, ‘This is how it’s done.’”She wondered if it was also Flint’s way of showing the world, “This is how you could have saved me when I was a boy.”

“But is not one a result of the other?” she asked. “Love and loyalty? I cannot see how could you prefer one to the other.”

“Very well,” she said after a moment. “Here is how I see that loyalty and love are the same: You would lay down your life for someone for reasons of both love and loyalty. But loyalty implies dependence, doesn’t it? For instance, dogs are loyal. It also implies indebtedness. For instance, servants are loyal.”“It also implies integrity. And honor. And—”“Steadfastness,” she completed, with only a hint of irony.“So you see them as absolutes then, Miss Redmond? Love means to be willing to die for someone, and loyalty perhaps the same?”“How can they be otherwise?”

“And good luck to you, Miss Vale, wherever you may go.”

“No one moved. No one spoke. They seemed be riveted by whatever it was they saw in his eyes.“Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave.”A few gasps erupted.His voice rang out, bold, clear.“It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away.”It was safe to say everyone was awake now. He’d startled most of his parishioners and aroused the rest of them.“Evie Duggan …”And all the heads official swiveled to follow the beam of the reverend’s gaze. Then swiveled back to him.Then back to Eve.Whose heart was in her eyes.“ … You are the seal upon my heart. You are the fire and flame that warms me, heals me, burns me. You are the river that cools me and carries me. I love you. And love may be as strong as death, but you … I know now you are my life.”A pin would have echoed like a dropped kettle in the church then.Eve was absolutely riveted. Frozen, her eyes burning into his.“And though I wish I could have protected you and kept you safe from some of the storms of your life, I find cannot regret any part of your past. For it has made you who you are. Loyal, passionate, brave, kind, remarkable. You need repent nothing.”The last word fell like a gavel.Not a single person moved or breathed.“There are those who think good is a pastime, to engage in like embroidery or target shooting. There are those who think beauty is a thing of surface, and forget that it’s really of the soul. But good is something you are, not something you do. And by that definition, I stand before you today and declare that Evie Duggan is one of the best people I have ever had the privilege of knowing.”

“Tell me—what wouldn’t you do for Violet, Captain Flint?”Flint didn’t yet know the answer to this. Though he was perhaps closer to knowing.“I haven’t yet been tested.”Lyon smiled slowly at this, and shook his head. “Ah. Clearly you haven’t a soul of a poet, then, sir. You cannot be lured into hyperbole: ‘There’s nothing I wouldn’t do! Nothing!’ And etcetera. I can. I like hyperbole. Don’t fear it, Flint! Believe me, there’s some truth to all the purple words that surround love, you know. When you love someone more than life—and it is indeed possible to love someone more than life, or otherwise poets wouldn’t have gone on and on about it over the centuries—and you know, you know, you were born for only one person…imagine you cannot have them without tearing everything else you know asunder. Without hurting and disappointing all the other people you love. What then would you do?”