To the Frenchmen risking their lives to drive the English from Scotland, such a feud seemed no doubt an ill-timed indulgence. To Buccleuch, any comment from a foreigner was a piece of damnable imperti...
This,’ said Lymond, ‘is by no means a game I will play, or consider playing. Move.
This time, after a moment, he called her bluff. Perhaps Philippa and I should be thrown together a little more. She might become attached to me if she knew me better. Kate, brightening visibly, ignore...
They’re talking about Marthe, Maître Gaultier’s assistant. What’s she like? Pretty?’ ‘She’s pretty,’ said the man. Philippa studied the taciturn face. ‘Oh, I see,’ she said. ‘Mr Blyth wants her all to...
There was a brief silence, during which Philippa Somerville fought and won a battle to keep her eyes dry. Lymond said, ‘I give you my word. It was a lie.’Philippa looked at him. ‘And I don’t deserve ,...
There is no one to understand us, except ourselves.
The undiscriminating vulture is not our real danger: open scandal would simply drive him into profitless exile again, and would be of no possible advantage to us. Neither should we fear our sturdy pat...
The sparkling smile became enormous. ‘Do you think she has a dagger there? Do you? Ask her, M. Francis? For,’ said the most noble and most powerful Princess Mary Stewart, Queen of Scotland, delving fu...
The sea demands a man who knows the sea and respects it. A man who is prepared to be lonely. There is no isolation like that of the helm in a storm, except the isolation when it is windless.
The knowledgeable gypsy eyes scanned the dairy-maid skin, the gilded hair, the long hands, jewelled to display their beauty while the Master, serenely smiling, returned the compliment under relaxed li...
The carrying voice of Alec Guthrie said unexpectedly, ‘But as Sir Graham has already pointed out, every practising Christian must serve two masters.’‘My God … I know it,’ said Lymond. ‘My nerves are o...
Someone sobbed. Someone said,
So: ‘Why did you laugh?’ demanded Philippa, and shook Jerott’s hand off her arm. ‘Oh, that?’ said Lymond. ‘But, my dear child, the picture was irresistible. Daddy, afflicted but purposeful, ransacking...
So who would do all this?’‘I should,’ Richard said. ‘Even to sleeping in your own chamber.’‘That I baulk at,’ Lymond said. ‘The rest you can have. One cock per pen is enough.
So she was on her own, Kate thought, and instilled all the friendly helpfulness she could into her next question. Excuse me, but are you the bad company young Mr. Scott has got into?
So long as you allow yourself that kind of self-indulgence, you can expect to have headaches. If you can face anything, then face up to the one basic fact in all this. You told Míkál once, in Thessalo...
Since I hear you are leaving, I have come to put certain matters before you. They are important. If I were a different manner of person, no doubt I should do more than this; I should plead, and I shou...
Self-knowledge is not sold on the Rialto. And if it were, few people would buy.
Perfectly prepared to be an eavesdropper but unwilling to look like one, Philippa backed quickly towards the door and collided, hard, with an unseen person striding forward equally fast into the room....
Our powder and arrows are going to run out on us some time. And so are our food and water and joie de vivre and good books and everything. Why not walk out now and get made into somebody’s favourite s...