William coughed and broke the seal. As usual, the note occupied less than a page and included neither salutation nor closing, Uncle Hal’s opinion being that since the letter had a direction upon it, t...
Will you do me the honor of sharing my bed, O lord and master? I asked politely. Obviously suspecting something, he considered a moment, then nodded, just as formally. I will. Thank you. He was raisin...
Why … ye shameless skinflint! This is nay wake at all! Ye’ve meant to bury me wi’ nothing but a crust o’ bread and a drap o’ wine for the sin-eater, and a wonder ye spared that! Nay doot ye’ll thieve...
When the light came, it would fall just so, across his pillow. She’d see his sleeping face in the light: the jackstraw hair, the fading bruise on his temple, the deep-set eyes, closed in innocence. He...
When a man dies, it’s only him, he said. And one is much like another. Aye, a family needs a man, to feed them, protect them. But any decent man can do it. A woman … His lips moved against my fingerti...
Whatever they are, though, they must be exigent, to cause you to contemplate such drastic expedients. A slow smile grew on her lips, spreading into her eyes. I really like the way you talk, she said.
What possessed ye, woman, to hit me in the heid wi' a fish whilst I was fighting for my life?
What is it about ye, Sassenach, I wonder? he said conversationally, eyes still fixed on Myers. What is what about me? He turned then, and gave me a narrow eye. What it is that makes every man ye meet...
Well, a marriage between Friends is … between the Friends marrying. No clergyman, I mean, and no specific prayer or service. The two Friends marry each other, rather than it being considered a sacrame...
Ute McGillivray looked like a Valkyrie on a starchy diet;
Tom had automatically picked up the oily rag that lived on the corner of Grey’s desk and, with a dexterous flick, snapped a fat fly out of the air and into oblivion. Dead whale garnished with mint? Th...
To have ye with me again, to talk wi' you, to know I can say anything, not guard my words or hide my thoughts. God, Sassenach the Lord knows I am as lust-crazed as a lad, and I canna keep my hands fro...
Tiptoeing silently up behind her in my stockinged feet, I shoved her headfirst into the armoire, and slammed the door on the heaving, shrieking mass beneath the pile of fallen dresses within. Turning...
Time is a lot of the things people say that God is. There’s the always preexisting, and having no end. There’s the notion of being all powerful—because nothing can stand against time, can it? Not moun...
Through eons of living in a land so poor there was little to eat but oats, they had as usual converted necessity into a virtue, and insisted that they liked the stuff.
These were people like that. The ones that cared so terribly much - enough to risk everything, enough to change and do things. Most people aren't like that, you know. It isn't that they don't care, bu...
There’s intelligence, Quarry said slowly. And then there are other things. But perhaps you’re too young to have seen hate and despair at close range. There’s been a deal of it in Scotland, these last...
There's nay shame to ha' fallen in battle, mo caraidh, he said softly. The greatest of warriors may be overcome.
There was nothing frightening about the dead man; there never is. No matter how ugly the manner in which a man dies, it's only the presence of a suffering human soul that is horrifying; once gone, wha...
There is no more perfect stillness than the solitude in the heart of a snowstorm.