The Long Weekend Quotes
"The sky is always huge and the stars at night brighter than anywhere else they’ve ever been."
"His cheeks and nose are riddled with broken veins, his skin knitted thick onto his bones."
"He stares ahead and she watches his profile."
"She’s so lost in staring at him that she doesn’t see the motorbike."
"Everything up here can change in an instant."
"The rugged beauty might photograph well, but it’s no playground."
"The past contains warnings, he believes. You must respect it."
"You can see for miles, but Dark Fell Barn is the only building in sight."
"The idea of being a wife is still thrilling to Emily."
"He’d like to toss the guests away with it, if such a thing was possible."
"This bloody special delivery is yet another display of ridiculousness."
"I’m fine." Ruth closes the mirror and tries to stretch."
"The urge to have a drink arrives abruptly and powerfully."
"I can’t stand to see any more sympathy in her eyes."
"The clock’s ticking, she thinks, until Paul gets here."
"The urge to speak to Paul tugs hard at Emily again."
"What kind of mother prioritizes drinking over hearing the voices of her family in an emergency?"
"Her fear feels visceral. It makes her doubt everything Jayne said earlier."
"And Ruth can’t help thinking of Jayne the same way, sometimes, as someone who might have learned to assume an air of authority but hasn’t necessarily earned it."
"Because I’ve got authority that I don’t believe I deserve."
"Her gut instinct tells her that she’s right. It convinces her that something very bad has just begun."
"The physical absence of him is an ache and she doesn’t know how to treat it because she no longer feels like his equal."
"The awful truth is that this letter plays into a fear she’s been nursing, and trying to forget, but unable to."
"But I’m in charge until your mother gets home."
"The destruction of intended targets, saving lives. But also, the collateral damage, the mistakes made."
"Sometimes when she remembers her skin runs cold and she believes it will never warm up."
"Remorse has a viselike grip on her, driving her to put things right."
"The fluidity of risk has always fascinated her."
"She and her reflection exchange curt nods. In agreement."
"Rain and hail pelt him, and particles of early-evening light settle on his shoulders."
"He senses their building excitement, predicts the incipient drunkenness."
"The disorientation and confusion that result are horribly draining."
"The trees, bent with the wind, the contours of the valleys, the texture of the stone."
"She had words with Jemma’s parents when they collected her."
"She so resembled her mother it was like having a mini-Edie to play with."
"I really mean it. And do you know how hard it is to admit it?"
"He talks about the violence he would have done to her mum’s boyfriends."
"The pride Paul feels in my resilience sometimes feels so hot it could burn."
"The only momentum is down, toward the farmhouse."
"The effort and horror of it all makes him cry. Silently."
"Curled up around the gun, all she can think is that she must protect herself."
"She feels as if she’s in another woman’s skin and finds it uncomfortably intimate."
"It seems cruel that she managed to reach the farmhouse yet lost her phone on the way."
"She puts the phone in her lap, feeling utterly impotent."
"I can’t remember my husband’s mobile number."
"Pull yourself together. Of course, he’s home."
"The home phone she had as a child is the only one Emily has ever been able to remember reliably."
"It’s moments like this that she wishes her mum was still alive."
"I was thinking we could do something nice today."
"Nobody apart from Ruth must ever know that Jayne brought a gun up here."
"She’d read about a Viking burial ritual...that it would be symbolic. Healing."
"They would walk away from it together and not look back and would never return."
"She wonders, what kind of disordered mind comes up with such a plan?"
"A plan that felt perfect and pure, healing and hopeful to her a few hours ago now feels foolish, selfish, and incredibly reckless."
"He takes her the longer route back to the house because there’s no way they’ll both get through the hole in the hedge."
"She considers shouting for help but it’s a risk."
"The ease with which he’s holding her is terrifying."
"His strength isn’t the worst thing, though...The worst thing is what he said: 'Daddy’s here.'"
"Jayne looks at her and feels contempt. Emily is so selfish."
"Ruth ignores the notifications on her phone and dials her mother’s home number."
"I had intended to wait until I had the results of the DNA test."
"I’m only looking out for you and I’ve said I’m sorry."
"Her growing concern about Edie is exquisitely moving, in its way."
"If I can say one thing for my wife, it’s that she’s never shown any fear of me."
"What was she thinking? Her plan seems ridiculous to her now."
"Emily wants to ask him to use his phone, but she’ll have the same problem she had last night."
"Emily’s heart lifts as two men get out of the car."
"Ruth’s eyes turn to Jayne. 'The gun,' Jayne says. 'Please don’t tell anyone I brought it with me.'"
"I tell you what, I still really want to make you that hot chocolate."
"I’m so sorry. Lexi was a talented student and a pleasure to teach."
"I picked my wife because she was unlike any other woman I’d met."
"Everybody said how much she looked like Rob. I agreed."
"It was only this year...when I learned that Rob was infertile that I began to join up the dots."
"I thought of her as a diva, not a modern diva but an old-fashioned Hollywood type."
"I watched her closely for a long time before I made my move."