And deep within him, missing its accustomed tread, his heart paused, and gave one single stroke, as if on an anvil.
And as he followed after the Irishwoman, Margaret Erskine, most levelheaded of women, picked up a Palissy vase, looked at it earnestly and smashed it clean on the floor.
And a capable feminine voice, directed past Austin Grey’s ear to his opponent, said baldly, ‘Hit him.’Lymond, already balanced on the upswing to hurl himself forward, dropped his arm and said, with da...
Allowed?’ said Marthe. ‘I have finished with asking permission for what I do and what I think. I have finished with being dispatched scurrying from errand to errand. I am my own mistress now. I am goi...
All the linear delicacy of the boy he had once been stood exposed now in the still, blindfolded face of her son. The clinging yellow hair, orderly on the white linen, was the same silk that had veiled...
Acrostics in French or acrostics in Hebrew were still Greek to him.
About his lengthening absence, Kathi spoke only once, and then obliquely, for there were some things too painful for words.
A versatile commodity, death; except for those suffering it.
A great many inferior people, Mr Crawford, have helped you over the years in your well-publicized career of adversity, but you mustn’t be surprised if the circle begins to diminish. To go by what happ...
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...
Nobility on earth may be earned by the sword, but nobility of the soul must be sought in stony ways and through hard endeavor. I have to tell you to rejoice that you have been chosen.
Said Lord Grey, adjusting his sight to the folded paper he had just raised from his desk, ‘ He looked up.
Our childhood is over now, Marshal. Mankind can survive very well without an intimate study of your susceptibilities but not, unfortunately, without your other functions and talents. Do you think I br...
Man had blandly abstained. He had been right: it would have lost him money. But not in Scotland,
Isn’t it sometimes more expensive to accept favours than it is to buy them? He
You’re so damned brilliant, said Phelim. You know everything. It’s hard-set you’d be to give yourself a dull Saturday afternoon. We’re all puppets—not the old Queens only, but the rest of us, man, wom...
You’ll seek out strumpets, fumble with courtiers, fornicate with either parent of the heiress you are supposed to be marrying, but to embrace your wife sickens you?’The music stopped in the room; and...
Your husband appears to possess an uncanny gift for seducing his enemies.
You wouldn’t expect me to make social calls if you had the remotest idea of the work entailed in bringing two unfortunate persons to the altar.’Careless words. ‘It takes ten minutes, in my experience,...
You will not face Sybilla because alone of all of us, she does not know you are venal. She still thinks you care for Scotland and for us, and are prepared to think both more important than riches; for...