A Duty To The Dead Quotes
"I always tried to keep my letters cheerful, even when the wards were filled with wounded."
"I’d grown rather superstitious about writing to friends as often as I could."
"The sea here was a sparkling blue and calm, Britannic’s frothy wake the only disturbance."
"Keep Cape Sounion on your left and Kea on your right, and you can’t go wrong."
"There’s a cheeky seagull on the railing every morning. I’ve christened him Baba."
"I cried out in alarm, trying to scramble to my feet."
"I’d sailed in her often enough to recognize a difference."
"Stay away from the ship, and for God’s sake, try to pick up any of the crew who’ve already jumped!"
"Everyone knew the drill, but no one had believed it would ever be necessary."
"Britannic was listing now, it wasn’t just my imagination."
"I was beginning to put my teeth on edge."
"My father met my train at Victoria Station and tut-tutted over the bandaged arm."
"If you wish to make an impression, my dear, wear the blue gown."
"The papers said we were lucky in the circumstances that only thirty died while over a thousand lived."
"Arthur had asked me to marry him, before he lost his leg."
"My ancestors were battle-hardened soldiers. I wouldn’t dare panic."
"It was almost as if I’m not there, they’re simply talking aloud."
"The memorial seemed different suddenly. Futile, and somehow infringing on something I didn’t understand."
"But Arthur hadn’t said anything to me about cats or dogs."
"I’m a trained nurse. Can I help in any way?"
"I have a duty to help. Forgive me, but I must go."
"I don’t believe he suffered. That was a kindness."
"He can’t help but relive his brother’s death. He feels the burden of responsibility."
"You weren’t in the trenches with him, Mrs. Denton. You don’t know what it’s like."
"We must do our best to make him comfortable."
"I wasn’t trying to distress you. But I just spent several hours watching a man who wants to die."
"You mustn’t fear him. They say he’s become quite docile—he’s accepted his fate."
"You must have done this before—you got through to him."
"I don’t want to believe that someone came into my house and talked to Booker, and left him in a state of mind where he killed himself. But the evidence is there."
"Sometimes the Mrs. Dentons of this world get their way through sheer cruelty."
"He was perfectly sane but so overwhelmed by what he saw as his responsibility for his brother’s death that he couldn’t find his way back to the man he was."
"You aren’t listening. I want to remember why I wanted to kill her."
"You saved my life... And your letter gave me a place to hide in London."
"You don’t know what it’s like to look in the mirror every time you shave and see a normal face when you know that beneath the flesh and bone there’s a monster inside."
"I had trouble concentrating, and Jonathan took pleasure in taunting me about it."
"You must go. I’ve done you no harm, I did my best to save your life."
"I’ve got to get some rest. Remember what I told you. Betray me, and others will pay the price for it."
"You don’t seem to understand—I could smell drying blood, it was everywhere, all over my hands, me, and I couldn’t escape it."
"I don’t want to relive it, I want to understand it."
"I promised to see that he doesn’t overdo. Next visit, he’ll be well on his way to recovery."
"I’m learning that you can’t save everyone in this world."
"I can’t believe—I mean, that’s tantamount to murder!"
"I have no such faith in Mr. Newcome, and although I spoke to Mrs. Graham about this, she told me that the London police had told her that Peregrine shouldn’t have visitors of any sort."
"I’d like to take you back to Somerset with me. Will you come?"
"I feel like a stranger in my own country. It’s daunting, frightening, and fascinating, all in one."
"I don’t understand. What does this have to do with your situation?"
"He thought it was a fox," he told me, "I’m as sly as a fox."
"That’s not brave. You must give him a fair chance to catch you. You must do it three times."
"But that’s not proof of anything. Boys boast, striving not to be outdone."
"But no one came forward to admit to being there. And no one got help for the inspector, when he went down."
"Doctor Hadley coming home from the bedside of Daniel Furston died when a startled horse ran away with his carriage, overturned it, and threw him out on the roadside, where he broke his neck. He was a good man. We shall miss him. God rest his soul."
"No, Peregrine, you’re trying to make connections that aren’t there."
"An unfortunate mishap. Like the burst blood vessel that killed Inspector Gadd, like the carriage overturning and killing the doctor. The fall that injured Lady Parsons so badly."
"Sometimes when you try to save a patient, and you fail—even if it isn’t your fault, you still take it more personally than you should."
"In a hospital ward, with other ears hearing every word, men seldom bring up such personal things."
"I’m as safe with Peregrine Graham as I am with him."
"It must be rather frightening to die alone. I can’t imagine it, to tell you the truth."
"I think it isn’t so much the bond between soldiers as the fear that to tell the truth to those one loves would be too painful, and so letters must be brief, before other things spill over."
"You tried to help him. I think it was unfinished business on Ted’s account."
"I see you’re in the colonel’s old regiment. My husband’s as well. Wounded in France, were you?"
"He was quite naturally dazed by the turn of events, and on that score, it isn’t surprising."
"It’s an old trick. Carried to extremes here, of course."
"We sometimes felt pangs of jealousy, and my mother would say, ‘I married a regiment, my dear. If you are looking for single-minded love, find yourself someone in civilian life. A nice banker, perhaps.’"
"I couldn’t stand there, listening for the shots."
"It was too late to persuade the constables that they had got the wrong man."
"He stood there in the hall, triumphant, cold."
"He’s to be returned to the asylum, Miss."
"He won’t remain there for very long. There’s some doubt now that he killed anyone."
"If he’s to be taken back to that place, it’s a long drive."
"Tell Diana I’m sorry I won’t be there to see her on her next leave."
"Knowing and proving are two entirely different matters."
"I was so helplessly angry that I burst into tears."
"It wasn’t very clever of me to offer you my car."
"It was Jonathan the rector saw leaving the doctor’s surgery the night that—"
"Is it worth taking your life in your hands?"
"I wanted him to see what men do to each other when goaded beyond what they could bear."
"I was taking down a confession of murder."
"It can’t be finished, if Peregrine Graham is sent back to that place."
"God, no! Damn you, don’t even suggest such a thing!"
"We know them for such a brief space. And so they are ours to heal, but not ours to love."
"I was feeling a little down at the end of another long day."
"The memories of Britannic were still too fresh."
"Letters from home, letters from the Front, letters from Egypt and India."
"God keep you safe out there, dear girl."