She must go with me, John, he said. There is no choice about it; she must. Grey’s glance flickered to me, then away, but not before I had seen the look of jealousy in his eyes. I felt sorry for him, b...
She had seen Brianna’s face for a moment in the light; white as paper and hard as bone, with the eyes black holes. Her gentle, kindly mistress had vanished like smoke, taken over by a deamhan, a she-d...
She had decided simply to tell the truth, as far as who she was, and what she was doing there. Her mother had said how much she looked like her father; she would have to count on that resemblance to c...
She came naked behind him as the soft melancholy yearning of the song filled the dark. Her hand stroked his hair, gathered it tight at the nape of his neck. She swayed, and he felt her press against h...
Once, traveling at night, I fell asleep in the passenger seat of a moving car, lulled by the noise and motion into an illusion of serene weightlessness. The driver of the car took a bridge too fast an...
My father told me never to take advantage of a woman who was the worse for drink, he said. He had stopped squirming, but now started again, slower, as though he couldn’t help himself. I’m not worse, I...
My father always said that was the difference between an American and an Englishman. An Englishman thinks a hundred miles is a long way; an American thinks a hundred years is a long time.
Maybe it was the result of gardening, that quiet sense of pleasure in touching growing things, the satisfaction of helping them thrive.
May God make safe to me each step,May God make open to me each pass,May God make clear to me each road,and may He take me in the clasp of His own two hands
Many of the lost will be found, eventually, dead or alive. Disappearances, after all, have explanations.
Madam, he said, speaking very softly into her face. I do not want your money. My wife does not want it. And my son will not have it. Cram it up your hole, aye?
Lying on the floor, with the carved panels of the ceiling flickering dimly above, I found myself thinking that I had always heretofore assumed that the tendency of eighteenth-century ladies to swoon...
Love for a child cannot be free; from the first signs of movement in the womb, a devotion springs up as powerful as it is mindless, irresistible as the process of birth itself. But powerful as it is,...
Let’s go. Jamie’s hand was firm on my arm, and I made no protest. Following Jared, guarded by the sailors, we stole away from the quay, surreptitious as though we had started the fire.
Je t’aime, it said: I love you. Un peu, beaucoup, passionnément, pas du tout: A little, a lot, passionately—not at all.
I’m not sure that religion was constructed with time travelers in mind. Buck’s brows rose at that. Constructed? he echoed, surprised. Who builds God?
I’m honest enough to say that I dinna care what the right and wrong of it may be, so long as you are here wi’ me, Claire, he said softly. If it was a sin for you to choose me … then I would go to the...
I’m a man, Sassenach, he said, very softly. If I thought there was a choice … then I maybe couldna do it. Ye dinna need to be so brave about things if ye ken ye canna help it, aye? He looked at me the...
I’ll try verra hard, John. The Governor sat down, wearily. There were deep circles under his eyes, and his impeccable linen was wilted; obviously he had not changed his clothes from the day before. Al...
I—yes. All right.