Garrett Gibson Quotes

“ʺAfter weʹre finished here, darling,ʺ she asked, just loudly enough for him to hear over the commotion, ʺcould we possible find a place where someonedoesnʹtwant to shoot you?”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“A young woman attending the best medical school in the world," Ransom mused aloud, "far from home, taking classes in a foreign language. You're a determined woman, doctor."
"No medical school here would admit a female," Garret said pragmatically. "I had no choice."
"You could have given up."
"That is never an option," she assured him, and he smiled.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“My time is short," he told Garrett brusquely. "Can you comb any faster?"
"Ask me that again," Garrett replied equably, "and this comb will soon be lodged in a place it wasn't meant to go."
Bazzle snickered, evidently gathering her meaning.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Chasing Cassandra

“Why were you named Garrett?" she heard him ask.
"My mother was convinced that I was going to be a boy. She wanted to name me after one of her brothers, who died while he was still young. But she didn't survive my birth. Above the objections of friends and relations, my father insisted on calling me Garrett anyway."
"I like it," Ransom murmured.
"It suits me," Garrett said, "although I'm not certain my mother would have approved of giving a masculine name to a daughter." After a reflective pause, she surprised herself by saying impulsively, "Sometimes I imagine going back in time, to stop the hemorrhage that killed her."
"Is that why you became a doctor?"
Garrett pondered the question with a slight frown. "I've never thought about it that way before. I suppose helping people could be my way of saving her, over and over. But I would have found the study of medicine fascinating regardless. The human body is a remarkable machine.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“Thank you for the improvements you made... the lock and hinges... and the lion's-head knocker. I like it very much."
Ethan's voice was soft. "Did you like the violets?"
She hesitated before shaking her head.
"No?" he asked, more softly still. "Why not?"
"They reminded me that I might never see you again."
"After tonight, you probably won't."
"You say that every time we meet. However, you keep popping up like a jack-in-the-box, which has made me increasingly skeptical." Garrett paused before adding in an abashed tone, "And hopeful."
His gaze caressed her face. "Garrett Gibson... as long as I'm on this earth, I'll want to be wherever you are."
She couldn't help smiling ruefully. "You're the only one who does. I've been in a foul mood for the past two weeks. I've offended nearly everyone I know, and frightened off one or two of my patients."
His voice was dark velvet. "You needed me there to sweeten your temper."
Garrett couldn't bring herself to look at him as she admitted huskily, "Yes.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“In case you weren't aware, my good fellow, you are in the company of one of the most skilled and accomplished women in England. In fact, I would say Dr. Gibson has a male brain in a woman's body."
Garrett grinned wryly at his last comment, which she knew had been intended as a compliment. "Thank you, Doctor."
"Despite my short acquaintance with Dr. Gibson," Ethan said, "her brain seems entirely female to me." The remark caused Garrett to stiffen slightly, as she expected a mocking comment to follow. Something about how a woman's mind was changeable, or shallow, the usual clichés. But as Ethan continued, there was no hint of teasing in his tone. "Keen, subtle, and quick, with an intellect strengthened by compassion- yes, she has a woman's mind."
Thrown off guard, Garrett stared at him with a touch of wonder.
In that brief, private moment, Ethan looked as if he really did prefer her to everything else in the world. As if he saw all of her, the good and the bad, and wouldn't change a thing about her.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“Going wherever you please, any time of day or night. Doing a man's work, when you should be at home with a mending basket. You'll do more good for the world that way than trying to become a man."
"I have no desire to become a man," Garrett said coolly. "That would be backsliding.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“Ethan filled his gaze with her, so feminine and fine, with glimmers dancing across her dress and little crystal things sparkling in her hair.
Despite her outward delicacy, there was something remarkably sturdy about her, an unyielding toughness he admired more than she would have believed. The life she'd chosen had come with the never-ending obligation to demonstrate what a woman was and was not, and what a woman could be. People would allow her no room for mistakes or ordinary human frailty. God knew she endured it all far better than Ethan would have.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“But you've been distracted for weeks, thinking of nothing but that green-eyed bitch. She's brought you to this."
Garrett.
She wouldn't know he'd been thinking of her at the last moment. She would never know what she'd meant to him. It would make dying so much easier if only he'd told her. But she would do well without him, just as she had before. She was a strong, resilient woman, a force of nature.
He only worried that no one would bring her flowers.
How strange that as his life was spinning down to its end, there was no anger or fear, only soul-scorching love. He was dissolving in it. There was nothing left but the way she'd made him feel.
"Was she worth it?" Gamble jeered.
Gripping the railing behind him, Ethan smiled faintly. "Aye.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“He loved the colors of her, pink and mauve and ivory, all washed in light. The glistening tumble of her hair held the colors of autumn: chestnut, maple, russet, umber.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“It's the most devastating target on a man. The pain shoots through all your innards."
"I've no doubt it would," Garrett mused. "There's a nerve in the scrotum called the spermatic plexus that extends into the abdomen." Noticing the way he averted his face, she said apologetically, "Have I made you uncomfortable? I beg your pardon."
Ransom lifted his head to reveal eyes glinting with laughter. "Not at all. It's just that I've never heard a lady talk as you do."
"As I told you... I'm not a lady.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“He went to look closely at the painting, which portrayed a parade of fat white geese strolling past the doorway of a cottage.
"Someday I'll be able to afford real art," Garrett said, coming to stand beside him. "In the meantime, we'll have to make do with this."
Ethan's attention was drawn to the tiny initials in the corner of the work:G.G.A slow smile broke over his face. "You painted it?"
"Art class, at boarding school," she admitted. "I wasn't bad at sketching, but the only subject I could manage to paint adequately was geese. At one point I tried to expand my repertoire to ducks, but those earned lower marks, so it was back to geese after that."
Ethan smiled, imagining her as a studious schoolgirl with long braids. The light of a glass-globe parlor lamp slid across the tidy pinned-up weight of her hair, bringing out gleams of red and gold. He'd never seen anything like her skin, fine and powerless, with a faint glow like a blush-colored garden rose.
"What gave you the idea to paint geese in the first place?" he asked.
"There was a goose pond across from the school," Garrett said, staring absently at the picture. "Sometimes I saw Miss Primrose at the front windows, watching with binoculars. One day I dared to ask her what she found so interesting about geese, and she told me they had a capacity for attachment and grief that rivaled humans. They mated for life, she said. If a goose was injured, the gander would stay with her even if the rest of the flock was flying south. When one of a mated pair died, the other would lose its appetite and go off to mourn in solitude.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“When I'm dressed like this, people will say I don't look like a doctor." Garrett paused before continuing wryly. "On the other hand, they already say that, even when I'm wearing a surgeon's cap and gown."
Carys, who was playing with the left-over glass beads on the vanity table, volunteered innocently, "You've always looked like a doctor to me."
Helen smiled at her little sister. "Did you know, Carys, that Dr. Gibson is the only lady doctor in England?"
Carys shook her head, regarding Garrett with round-eyed interest. "Why aren't there others?"
Garrett smiled. "Many people believe women aren't suited to work in the medical profession."
"But women can be nurses," Carys said with a child's clear-eyed logic. "Why can't they be doctors?"
"There are many female doctors, as a matter of fact, in countries such as America and France. Unfortunately, women aren't allowed to earn a medical degree here. Yet."
"But that's not fair."
Garrett smiled down into the girl's upturned face. "There will always be people who say your dreams are impossible. But they can't stop you unless you agree with them.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“I've been eager to make your acquaintance, Dr. Gibson. What an exceptional creature you are. The only woman admitted to the honors of this soiree on her own merit, rather than as some gentleman's accessory."
"Accessory?" Garrett repeated, her brows lifting. "I hardly think the ladies present deserve to be described that way."
"It is the role most women choose for themselves."
"Only for lack of opportunity.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“How very small she seemed, tucked in the corner of the library with her knees drawn up. For the past hour and a half, she had been a commanding figure, strung tight with energy, her gaze stern and steely. She had worked in millimeters, doing tiny, crucial things to veins and cellular tissue with astonishing precision. Although West knew nothing about surgery, he'd understood that he was witnessing someone perform with rare skill.
Now, in her exhaustion, the brilliant surgeon resembled an anxious schoolgirl who had taken a wrong turn on the way home.
West liked her a great deal. In fact, he was rather sorry now that he'd kept shrugging off Helen's efforts to introduce them. He'd envisioned the female doctor as a severe matron, probably hostile toward men, and Helen's assurances that Dr. Gibson was quite pretty hadn't been at all convincing. Helen, with her completely unjustified affection for humanity, loved to overestimate people.
But Garrett Gibson was more than pretty. She was riveting. An intelligent, accomplished woman with an elusive quality... a suggestion of hidden tenderness... that intrigued him.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“I thought Lady Helen was going to introduce you to the lady doctor who treated Pandora's shoulder."
"Dr. Gibson? Yes, she's a marvelous woman. As a matter of fact, she came to visit Eversby Priory this summer."
All Phoebe's pleasant feelings abruptly turned disagreeable. "Surely not without a chaperone."
"Garrett Gibson doesn't bother with chaperones," West replied, his lips twitching as if at some private memory. "The usual rules don't apply to her. She brought a patient, Mr. Ethan Ransom, who was injured and needed to recuperate in peace and quiet."
Poisonous jealousy flooded Phoebe. The female doctor was an accomplished and unconventional woman- exactly the kind who would attract his interest. "You must have found her fascinating."
"Anyone would.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Devil's Daughter

“The cart slowed as they came to a place so dark and quiet that it seemed as if they had entered some remote forest. Peeking beneath the hem of the cart's canvas covering, Garrett saw towering gates covered with ivy, and ghostly sculptures of angels, and solemn figures of men, women, and children with their arms crossed in resignation upon their breasts. Graveyard sculptures. A stab of horror went through her, and she crawled to the front of the cart to where West Ravenel was sitting with the driver.
"Where the devil are you taking us, Mr. Ravenel?"
He glanced at her over his shoulder, his brows raised. "I told you before- a private railway station."
"It looks like a cemetery."
"It's a cemetery station," he admitted. "With a dedicated line that runs funeral trains out to the burial grounds. It also happens to connect to the main lines and branches of the London Ironstone Railroad, owned by our mutual friend Tom Severin."
"You told Mr. Severin about all this? Dear God. Can we trust him?"
West grimaced slightly. "One never wants to be in the position of having to trust Severin," he admitted. "But he's the only one who could obtain clearances for a special train so quickly."
They approached a massive brick and stone building housing a railway platform. A ponderous stone sign adorned the top of the carriage entrance:Silent Gardens.Just below it, the shape of an open book emblazoned with words had been carved in the stone.Ad Meliora."Toward better things," Garrett translated beneath her breath.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“Every man likes to think there's a part of his nature that remains untamed and unsubdued."
"You know all about men, do you?" he asked with an edge of mockery.
"Mr. Ransom, the male sex has ceased to be a mystery ever since my first course in practical anatomy, which included the dissection of a cadaver.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“We'll help you to your feet," she told Rhys. "You won't have to walk far. I have the proper facilities and supplies to treat your shoulder."
Severin scowled. "Miss, I have to object-"
"Dr. Gibson," she said crisply.
"Dr. Gibson," he said, with an emphasis on the "Dr." that sounded distinctly insulting. "This is Mr. Winterborne. The one with the department store. He needs to be treated by a real physician with experience and proper training, not to mention-"
"A penis?" she suggested acidly. "I'm afraid I don't have one of those. Nor is it a requirement for a medical degree. I am a real physician, and the sooner I treat Mr. Winterborne's shoulder, the better it will go for him." At Severin's continued hesitation, she said, "The limited external rotation of the shoulder, impaired elevation of the arm, and the prominence of the coracoid process all indicate posterior dislocation. Therefore, the joint must be relocated without delay if we are to prevent further damage to the neurovascular status of the upper extremity."
Had Rhys not been in such acute discomfort, he would have relished Severin's stunned expression.
"I'll help you move him," Severin muttered.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Marrying Winterborne

“Her name was Garrett Gibson, and she had been born in East London. After enrolling at a local hospital as a nursing student, she had begun to take classes intended for doctors. Three years ago, she had earned a medical degree at the University of Sorbonne in Paris, and subsequently returned to London. As was common, she had established her practice out of a private home, which in this case happened to be her widowed father's absence.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Marrying Winterborne

“Are you physically strong enough for this?" Severin asked Gibson doubtfully.
"Would you like to arm-wrestle?" she offered with such cool aplomb that Rhys let out a huff of amusement.
"No," Severin said at once. "I can't take the chance that you might win."
The doctor smiled at him. "I doubt I would win, Mr. Severin. But I would at least make it difficult for you.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Marrying Winterborne

“The workhouse is in Clerkenwell. The orphan asylum is a bit farther out, at Bishopsgate."
"Those places aren't safe for you to go unescorted."
"I'm quite familiar with London, sir. I don't take chances with my safety, and I carry a walking stick for self-defense."
"What good is a walking stick?" Rhys asked absently.
"In my hands," Dr. Gibson assured him, "it's a dangerous weapon."
"Is it weighted?"
"No, I can deliver three times as many blows with a lighter cane than with a heavier stick. At my fencing-master's suggestion, I've carved notches at strategic points along the shaft to improve grip strength. He has taught me some effective techniques to fell an opponent with a cane."
"You fence?" Helen asked, her head still down.
"I do, my lady. Fencing is an excellent sport for ladies- it develops strength, posture, and proper breathing.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Marrying Winterborne

“In the parchment-colored light from the front window, she appeared disconcertingly young despite her presence of manner. She was as clean and well-scrubbed as a schoolgirl, her maple-brown hair pinned in a neatly controlled chignon. Her slim form was clad in a severe unadorned dress of forest green that verged upon black.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Marrying Winterborne

“Turning to the hall tree, Dr. Gibson pulled out her walking stick by its curved handle, and caught it smartly in midair." We may have need of this, "she said with the satisfaction of a well-armed woman on a mission." Onward, my lady.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Marrying Winterborne

“He's following us at a distance," she said, annoyed.
"Like a guardian angel," Helen said.
Dr. Gibson snorted. "Did you see the way he felled that thing? His fists were as quick as thought. Like a professional fighter. One has to question how such a man appeared out of nowhere at just the right moment."
"I think he did far less damage to his opponent than you did to yours," Helen said admiringly. "The way you took that ruffian down with your cane- I've never seen anything like it."
"My aim was a bit off," Dr. Gibson said. "I didn't connect squarely with the ulnar nerve in his wrist. I shall have to consult with my fencing-master about my technique."
"It was still very impressive," Helen assured her. "I pity anyone who makes the mistake of underestimating you, Dr. Gibson."
"My lady, the sentiment is returned in full.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Marrying Winterborne

“Two years ago, Rhys Winterborne had hired Dr. Garrett Gibson to serve on the clinic's medical staff, despite people's suspicions that a woman wasn't suited for such a demanding profession. Garrett had dedicated herself to proving them wrong, and in a short time had distinguished herself as an unusually skilled and talented surgeon as well as physician. She was still regarded as something of a novelty, of course, but her reputation and practice had grown steadily.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Chasing Cassandra

“Only a woman with great confidence and determination could manage to become the first- and only- licensed female physician in England. Garrett possessed both qualities in abundance. Since no medical school in England would admit a woman, she had studied the French language so she could earn a medical degree at the Sorbonne in Paris. Upon her return to England, she'd acquired her medical license by finding a loophole that the British Medical Association closed as soon as they realized she'd managed to slip through.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Devil in Disguise

“Whisky can indeed be used as an antiseptic, but I'd recommend it only as a last resort, since pouring it into an open wound could damage exposed tissue. I'd much rather pour it into a glass and drink it neat over ice."
"You like whisky?" Keir asked.
"Love it," came her prompt reply, which Merritt could see had earned his instant liking.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Devil in Disguise

“You're an expert on knives?" Merritt asked.
Garrett sent her a brief grin. "Not an expert, but I am keen on them. My husband, on the other hand, is a connoisseur and has an extensive collection.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Devil in Disguise

“The hypodermic syringe has been in use for more than twenty years," Dr. Gibson protested. "It's safe and highly effective. It was invented by a brilliant physician who used the sting of a bee as his model." Trying to think of some way to convince him, she added, "A Scottish physician."
That caught Keir's attention. "His name?"
"Dr. Alexander Wood."
"From what part of Scotland?" Keir asked suspiciously.
"Edinburgh."
After cursing quietly beneath his breath, he let out a long sigh and said gruffly, "Go on, then."
Merritt bit back a grin, knowing exactly what Keir was thinking: He couldn't refuse the hypodermic injection if it had been invented by a fellow countryman- it would reflect badly on the honor of Scotland.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Devil in Disguise