How we cite our quotes: (Story.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Free?" Estella repeated. No soul was ever free. Every child she saved she purchased in trade. It was her own dark work to select those who would die in their place, and she had an ever-changing list of the wicked from whom to choose. (2.1.21)
Estella knows better than to trust Vasudev when it comes to the care and handling of human lives. He's not going to go out of his way to save a bunch of kids from death unless he gets something out of it.
Quote #5
She looked as if she might coo, and Estella felt suddenly that her own death was perched upon her shoulder like a bird. How easy to die, she thought, and how fitting, if she were to be the first victim of this curse… the first victim of this child, who at the behest of a demon she had just turned into a murderer. (2.2.18)
It's hard not to feel a bit nervous when you're hanging around a baby who can literally kill everyone in the room with one healthy cry. Even Estella—who doesn't even want to be alive anymore—feels the danger of it when she looks down at baby Anamique.
Quote #6
All of James's childhood friends had died in the War. Every single one. James often wondered at the chain of flukes it must have taken to bring him through with his own life and limbs intact. (2.4.12)
As a young soldier, James has cheated death again and again. It's a bit ironic that when he finally goes looking for the safety of love and a calm domestic life, he ends up falling in love with a girl who can kill him with a single whisper.