“Penard's got a secret baby!' Fifteen-year-old Richard twisted his lips up at one end. 'Maybe he has a secret wife in the attic!”

“It's time for you to choose a happy ending.”

“Charlotte blanched. 'I'm only a maid, miss.''A maid is still a woman.”

“A telephone is useful for business, but it's not a relationship.”

“I’ve got you baby,” she whispered. The pain inside was unbearable – worse than anything in his experience. He couldn’t breathe. “It hurts,” he gasped. “God, it hurts. Mercy,” he begged her, rubbing his face against her belly. “Mercy, Aggie. Mercy.”

“I know of nobody who is purely autistic, or purely neurotypical. Even God has some autistic moments, which is why the planets spin.”

“He did not blame them. Because in truth, that's what he did, what he was. Seduce and dominate. Charm and manipulate. A user of women. How they would scoff, Rothbury mused bitterly, if they knew that he was secretly in love with the silly little chit, spectacles and all.”