La guía de la dama para las enaguas y la piratería

—Estoy... -miro el papel aplastado entre mis manos-. Pensando.
—¿Puedes pensar en la cama con la luz apagada para que pueda dormir?

In the company of women like this - sharp edged as raw diamonds but with soft hands and hearts, not strong in spite of anything but powerful because of everything- I feel invencible... We are mountains - or perhaps temples, with foundations that could outlast time itself.

- He'd rather follow in the great tradition of women cleaning up the messes made by men.
- Ah, the history of the world.

I do not need reasons to exist. I do not need to justify the space I take up in this world. Not to myself, or Platt, or some hospital governors, or a pirate ship full of men with cutlasses. I have as much claim to this world as anyone else.

But if I cannot always believe in myself, I can believe in Johanna. And Sim. And Sybille Glass and Artemisa Gentileschi and Sophia Brahe and Marie Fouquet and Margaret Cavendish and every other woman who came before us. I have never doubted the women who came before me or whether they deserved a seat at the table.

Everyone has heard stories of women like us, and now we will make more of them

—Los he extrañado. A los dos.
—No sé lo diré a Monty

... Women don't have to be men's equals to be considered contenders; they have to be better... That's the lie of it all. You have to be better to prove yourseld worthy of being equal.

You're trying to play a game designated by men. You'll never win, because the deck is stacked and marked, and also you've been blindfolded and set on fire. You can work hard and believe in yourself and be the smartest person in the room and you'll still get beat by the boys who haven't two cents to rub together. So if you want to win the game, you have to cheat.
You operate outside the walls they've built to fence you in. You rob them in the dark, while they're drunk on spirits you offered them. Poison their waters and drink only wine.

A wildflower. The kind that are strong enough to stand against wind, rare and difficult to find and impossible to forget. Something men walk continents for a glimpse of. But you're right - whatever I am, there would likely be spines. Or thorns. They keep people away.