Discomfort without hope of betterment is not a great springboard.
Determined to look on the bright side of things, Philippa collected her winnings, and ate them. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘We’re a nice, representative group. I can do card-tricks, and you can train a...
Danny Hislop was not there, nor the artist called Blacklock. Riding between Lymond and the fresh-faced Knight of St John who did not like eagles, Chancellor asked after them. Ludovic d’Harcourt glance...
Danny Hislop touched his horse to ride, busily, beside Adam’s. ‘He remembered an appointment?’‘He remembered something you have forgotten,’ Adam said. ‘That this is his country.
Cunningly done, O Francis, puissant comte de Sevigny. Nothing crude. Nothing too rich, or sickly, or posturing. Songs like a lost hearth-fire, that one had known from one’s childhood; songs rarely com...
Come, my love,’ said Míkál, ‘and say goodnight to the dark.’ And held him close, full of a sweet young compassion, as the little boy died.
Can you imagine what it feels like for me, to pledge my word to preserve a girl’s honour and have it broken for me by Francis?
But you loved my father,’ he said. ‘And Eloise’s, of course. What was he like?’‘Like you,’ Sybilla said.‘And worth all this?’ Lymond said.‘Yes,’ said Sybilla. ‘Don’t you, of all people, know what love...
But you didn’t know about the woman, dear Alec,’ said Danny Hislop at supper that night, when Lymond had walked down to his horse and departed. ‘Nobody told us about the woman. Güzel. The Mistress. Wh...
Between the palaces of the knights and those that served them; the convents, the elegant homes belonging to officers of the Church and the town; between the bakehouse and the shops of the craftsmen, t...
Behind the last door is oblivion. Standing before it, one can go forwards or backwards; but beside it are not the places of exquisite pleasure: the faces of pure ones confined to pavilions, reclining...
Before God, you are my soul; and till death and beyond, will remain so.
Austin said, ‘He is very plausible. I believed him when he gave me his oath.’‘Never do that,’ said Richard flatly.
As if nothing had happened.’‘Well. Nobody knows.
Archie?’ said Lymond. ‘It is half past four o’clock in the morning, and I am exceedingly drunk. Do you suppose these two statements have anything to do with each other?’‘No,’ said Archie tolerantly. ‘...
Archie shrugged. ‘All I know is what’s going to happen.’Philippa said, ‘What should I do?’And Archie said, ‘Break him.
Andrew’s a nice, gentlemanly lad, but his estate’s been bled dry; and as for the ill-armed crew he calls followers—Man, they’d lay on a battlefield like dandruff.
And, long since ashore with his men and his booty, Crawford of Lymond, man of wit and crooked felicities, bred to luxury and heir to a fortune, rode off serenely to Midculter to break into his new sis...
And the effect on yourself?’ Guthrie said.For a short time, Lymond was silent. Then he said, ‘I had some strengths, which have grown. I had some weaknesses, which have gone.’‘That is true,’ Adam Black...
And isna Sybilla a wee love o’ a bitch?’‘You say the nicest things about my mother,’ said Lymond.