All these were barred to him because of the vow he had made to Sybilla. Because of it, he could not resign himself to what, easy or difficult, was coming; but instead had to turn again to his lessons:...
Adam said, ‘Christ!’ and Danny Hislop, wriggling past said, ‘No. Lord Culter, I do declare.
Acrostics in French or acrostics in Hebrew were still Greek to him.
A smile, bracketing his still mouth, spread like bane over Lymond's pale face.
A lie is a broad and spacious and glittering thing, sweeping belief before it from its very grandeur. But the truth fits, like an old man cutting cloth in an attic.
A difficult young man, they had been told, thought John Erskine. How difficult he could not have dreamed; nor could James, standing silent beside him. Then James said, ‘A brilliant rogue. We do better...
You are the only person with a shaky interest in ethics and the emotional stability of a quince seed in a cup of lukewarm water.....
[Robin Stewart] was your man. True for you, you had withdrawn the crutch from his sight, but still it should have been there in your hand, ready for him. For you are a leader-don't you know it? I don'...
You’ve got one hero too many already. Stand on your own feet, Brother. It’s good for the soul.
You will stand there and let me refer to Madame la putaine your mother? You will watch while I call my sergeant in to listen while I brand you bastard?’‘No,’ said Lymond.
You tried to …? How?’‘In the time-honoured fashion,’ he said. ‘My cuffs are too tight to gratify you with a view.
You must, of course, do as you please,’ she had remarked. ‘But I really think, through all these years, that Mr Crawford has learned to take care of himself. I am sure his unique sense of domestic res...
You lecture me, Mr Crawford?’‘I,’ said the comte de Sevigny, ‘am attempting to offer you foodstuffs.
You are proving, aren’t you,’ said Philippa contemptuously, ‘that to be base-born makes you a fourth-rate son of a fourth-rate little country?
Will you pack up all your cold-boiled emotions, and do what the hell you are told?
Why are you here?Silence. Then the boy said slowly, Because I admire you.
Which reminds me -''The new ladies have arrived,' said Adam grimly. 'Guaranteed of clean stock, and inured to Russian practices. Osep has announced himself suited.''For the time being,' said Danny, op...
What do you want?He considered. Amusement, principally. Don’t you think it’s time my family shared in my misfortunes, as Christians should?
What I am?’ he said. He laughed. ‘Don’t wait. Ask anyone in London, or Malta, or Russia.’ He made his way to the casement and flung it open. The rumour of a crowd, muffled hitherto by the windowpanes,...
Two mornings later, entering her daughter’s room, Kate was struck by the flatness of the bed, and then by the sight of a folded paper laid dead centre of the untenanted pillow. Unfolded, it proved to...