“If you could just see your face,” she told me. “You look like a cat in a bathtub.”

“A friend once told me that she understood pity as 'I'm sorry for you', whereas compassion is 'I feel your pain because I see that you could be me and I could be you'.”

“Oh dear, is that a skunk?" Leonora asked."No," Alessandro gasped in horror. "No the smelly cat!""I've told you, Alessandro darling, they aren't cats.""They look like cats. Like the big fluffy cat she's been stepped on and flattened to a big fluffy pancake cat," Alessandro argued.”

“You know, at least Gabriel showed up announced like a gentleman. He even told Mila that she looked beautiful. You and your toothpick just show up, scaring me half to death.”

“Your momma wanted to save you--save you from your fate. If she hadn't, you'd be nothing but a memory and a fear long forgotten. Just like all you who mix the breeds. What they want you two for, what they have planned." She shook her head again and when she looking at me, sorrow etched across her face. "They fear you, fear what comes from you. I told you child. I told you that your path was filled with dark things tat must be done.”

“We've got work to do. Strip." "Strip for what?" "I'm going to measure you for your dress. Strip!" Rachel saved me…sort of. "You can do her measurements with her clothes on, Mamma," she chastised. "Oh, I know I can." She pointed at me. "But look at her face! Ha! I just wanted to see her face pucker up like that.”