Was parenting ever going to get easier? Did you ever reach a point where you could stop worrying?

I had learned this lesson so many times before. It was the great inner truth that didn't require the support of logic. Every time I loved, I lost, and I was diminished. I wondered how much of me would be left after tomorrow.

The feeling of relinquishing responsibility to someone else, letting him take control, was a relief beyond words.

You're surrounded by it wherever you go, you walk through it, breathe it...it's in your lungs and under your tongue and between your fingers and toes.

Anyone who had ever read a novel knew that governesses were supposed to be meek and downtrodden.

If I never have anything from him except this one moment I am going to take it. Take it now, or drown in regret later.

There is nothing on earth more beautiful to me than your smile...no sound sweeter than your laughter...no pleasure greater than holding you in my arms. I realized today that I could never live without you, stubborn little hellion that you are. In this life and the next, you’re my only hope of happiness. Tell me, Lillian, dearest love...how can you have reached so far inside my heart?