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fd164d8
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Marthe said suddenly, 'How many souls on this earth call you Francis? Three? Or perhaps four?' For a moment he looked at her unsmiling; and for a moment she wished, angrily that she could recall the question. Then quite suddenly he smiled, and held out his hand. 'Five,' he said. 'Surely? Since last night.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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a4c3dce
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This is habitual. Mother flutters her wings, and every institution within sight tumbles flat.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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4ba1129
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There's some of them'll be nursing a guid scratch or two on their hinder-ends this night.... Man, it was a rout.' 'I imagine,' said Piero Strozzi, his dark face impassive, 'that my lord Grey's army would not relish their defeat either.' 'Oh, aye, the English,' said Buccleuch absently. 'We are, after all, at war with them and not with the Kerrs,' the Marshal said mildly.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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78c201b
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What to do when attacked at sea, lessons one to ten. They had spent their first morning at sea being trained, remorselessly, by Francis Crawford for this precise event. 'I know what to do,' said Philippa. 'Offer them the raspberry wine and keep them talking till Mother comes in.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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b7017bd
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Oh, ye've a temper,' said Archie consideringly. 'And ye had a rare old time losing it, and ye were like enough justified at that. But take a thought, too. Are ye to accuse Graham Malett in the law courts from the flat o' a bier-claith, or on two sticks like a wife wi' Arthretica? If ye're tae walk upright like the fine, testy gentleman ye are, ye'll need some nursing, I'd say. So I fear Guthrie and I had best bide.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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f1905a2
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Jenny Fleming merely looked exasperated. 'That young man,' she said, 'ought to be plucked out of his pride and impaled on a thornbush. He introduced me to someone as the Controller of the King's Beam, last time we met.' Which at least had the merit of making her daughter laugh, if a little wildly.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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722caf0
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Standing safely on the opposite bank with her dry maid, her dry escort, and a company of streaming horsemen, Philippa said scathingly, 'That's men for you. Cover the lady's retreat, the book says. A hundred years ago, maybe. And what stopped you from coming with me just now? I can swim, you know.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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acfcdc6
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And isna Sybilla a wee love o' a bitch?' 'You say the nicest things about my mother,' said Lymond.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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6a77ea3
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Yes, gentlemen: said Philippa impatiently, and seizing a stout wooden heading axe, let it fall on the next person who passed. It was Lymond. He dropped to his knees, his hands covering the nape of his neck, his skin flushed with laughter. Philippa, lowering the axe, said, 'I have never in the whole of my life seen you laugh before.' He looked up at the red sock, still gasping. 'Now that,' he said, 'is ridiculous. Although, now you mention i..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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7626fc2
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His leaf-gold tresses on end, his eyes in baskets from the long night without sleep, Phelim O'LiamRoe smacked his two fists together and cursed. The Queen Dowager, hardly aware of him, had turned her erect body to the window, followed by Margaret Erskine's wide eyes. But Michel Herisson, who had arrived so unexpectedly on the Irishman's heels, ran his hacked and gouty hands through the wild white hair and said through his teeth, 'Liam aboo..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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ac98b83
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What we see is acting, isn't it, Francis?" "Is it?" he said derisively. "You won't get your diamonds back, I fear, when the curtain comes down. And the name, please, is Lymond: a new medal: choose the trussell or the pile. My present face is the provident, forbearing one." The smiling eyes turned on her were empty. "De los alamos vengo, madre. From the stews and alleyways of Europe with a taste for play acting--yes--and killing and treason ..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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bd445af
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Better to be whipped than humoured; better to be crushed than cherished.... It was a woman told me that. I live in a world of men, my dear,' Lymond had said. 'I love you all, but I shall never marry you.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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568a647
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The wedding ended, hurriedly, on a surge of masculine bonhomie and relief. Five minutes later, followed by the red-eyed glares of their womenfolk, Buccleuch and his friends and his new-married son had plunged off to join Lord Culter, head of the Crawfords, and Francis Crawford his brother, to fight the English once more. * Sentimentally, Will Scott thought, it made his wedding-day perfect. Cantering, easy and big-limbed, through the bracken..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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f452624
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And here, above the valley of Yarrow, Lord Culter and his brother and twenty men from Midculter in their wedding finery with, thank God, half armour beneath, waited to intercept the English army on its plundering march, with two shepherds, twelve arquebuses, some pikes, some marline twine, a leather pail of powder, shot, matches, some makeshift colours, and eight hundred rusted helmets from the Warden's storehouse at Talla.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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f45b2b6
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My dear man,' said Lymond, 'he was keeping the numbers down. If we hadn't taken precautions the whole of the noble Order of St John would be disporting itself at St Mary's under the delusion that it was earning merit by converting us to the Cross. As it is, another half dozen are due any day. Alec, now you've kept us right, I'd be grateful if you would see if the head of the column knows what the hell it's doing without you. Jerott, it won'..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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1b87d96
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You're going to declare a rest period?' asked Jerott. Leisure, with Gabriel there, seemed too good to be true. 'Rumour being what it is, I imagine it will have declared itself by now,' Lymond said. 'Yes. We shall take three days from our labours to relax. Provided Sir Graham understands that by midday tomorrow St Mary's will be empty and all the men at arms and half the officers whoring in Peebles.' In the half-dark you could guess at Gabr..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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e83fe0e
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We'll do it,' said Will Scott comfortably, shouting over the tumult. 'If it's no more than an hour, we'll do it.' 'Christ, I believe you're sorry, you flaming maniac,' said Lymond. 'Don't I keep telling you that this is bloody childishness, and don't you keep agreeing?
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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1f81ed0
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Mr Blyth, you should remember one thing. A celibate island life fighting Turks is no particular guarantee of early maturity. Take a little crone-like advice, and don't rush your judgements.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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1aeda53
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Why did you decide to join me?" "Why ... ?" repeated Redhead, needing time to think. "Word of three letters," said Lymond. "Come along, for God's sake: no need to let me have it all my own way. What was it? Rape, incest, theft, treason, arson, wetting the bed at night ..." "... Or burning my mother alive," said the other sarcastically. "Oh, be original at least." --
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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29e909b
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Philippa drew a deep breath, and found relief in expelling it. 'Do you think,' she said carefully, 'that someone is going to be goaded into doing something soon?' There was a long pause. 'I think,' said Jerott at length, equally carefully, 'that someone is going to the court of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and someone else is going to Flaw Valleys, England, to Mother.' Which summed it up, Philippa supposed, with regret.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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8b09bea
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Intolerance drunk is bad enough, but intolerance sober is quite insupportable.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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444f3cb
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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.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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8dfae54
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So Philippa got her leave to bring Archie Abernethy with her and sail on the Dauphine. But they had not seen the woman Marthe before they left Lyons. And permission to sail from Marseilles depended still, Philippa was grimly aware, on whether or not the woman Marthe was found to be eligible. Kiaya Khatun, she imagined, would pass like a shot.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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504afec
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There is no one to understand us, except ourselves.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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c0c95a4
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She gave up combing her hair, which the salt air had reduced to a kind of scrim of brown hessian, and, lying down, proceeded to keep her fingernails short in the way Kate admired least. Then she overslept.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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aa355d9
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How many years hast thou, Hakim?' Francis Crawford's real age. Something the Dame de Doubtance had known and the girl Marthe had not. Something which, building up mastery over a strong and heterogeneous company of battle-tough men, he had never revealed. Timeless as Enoch ... 'I am twenty-six,' Lymond said. And flinched as Mikal, his eyes dark with pity, leaned forward dry-lipped and kissed him once, on the cheek, before turning lightly and..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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78cedca
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Francis Crawford's face in this fleeting moment of privacy was filled with ungovernable feeling: of shock and of pain and of a desire beyond bearing: the desire of the hart which longs for the waterbrook, and does not know, until it sees the pool under the trees, for what it has thirsted.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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21cbc8c
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From Venice to Rome, Paris to Brussels, London to Edinburgh, the Ambassadors watched, long-eared and bright-eyed. Charles of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor, fending off Islam at Prague and Lutherism in Germany and forcing recoil from the long, sticky fingers at the Vatican, cast a considering glance at heretic England. Henry, new King of France, tenderly conscious of the Emperor's power and hostility, felt his way thoughtfully toward a small cab..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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fafc540
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Tobie. Unless I'm giving off steam, behave normally. I remember what to do. One foot in front of the other, but not both at the same time unless I'm a robin.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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130b995
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Well, get the coffer out," said Tobie roundly. "You find his clean clothes and I'll cut his hair round his cap and wash his ears out. Then, when we get to the Palazzo Medici, you imitate his voice and I'll sit him on my knee and move his arms up and down. Where is the problem?"
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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9d72153
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Think for yourselves for a change. You've been pedlars: go and be merchants. You've been mercenaries: go and find something of your own to defend. You've finished teething and there's the world: crack it open if you can.
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world
merchants
thinking-for-yourself
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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9ac17e2
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At the edge of the still, dark pool that was the sea, at the brimming edge of freedom where no boat was to be seen, she spoke the first words of the few they were to exchange. 'I cannot swim. You know it?" In the dark she saw the flash of his smile. 'Trust me.' And he drew her with a strong hand until the green phosphorescence beaded her ankles, and deeper, and deeper, until the thick milk-warm water, almost unfelt, was up to her waist. Sh..
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historical-fiction
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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203d0a7
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Since I doubt, at the moment, whether I can stomach any hysterical verbiage, suppose we simply say what we mean.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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4e41d5d
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One knows, when all one's life one has walked in dangerous places, when the silence is that of ambush and when the silence is that of emptiness.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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1f2a70b
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Tant que je vive, mon cueur ne changera Pour nulle vivante, tant soit elle bonne ou sage Forte et puissante, riche de hault lignaige Mon chois est fait, aultrene se fera *** Long as I live, my heart will never vary For no one else, however fair or good Brave, resolute, or rich, of gentle blood My choice is made, and I will have no other.
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lymond
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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15b27e1
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There is a saying of my adoptive ancestors. Though he performs a miracle, or two miracles, if he refuses the third miracle, it is not as profit to him. I shall dine at the Court of France tonight, and in the course of that evening, acquire the royal consent for O'LiamRoe and myself to stay as long as we please. For, to be perfectly frank," said Lymond, gently reflective, "to be perfectly frank, I can't wait to sink my teeth into the most ma..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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0dcdf9a
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There have been so many misunderstandings in the past. What you did, often, was done for good reason. I know I am simple. I know you are devious. But, oh God, if there is any good reason for what you are doing now; any excuse; any unknown factor or subtle circumstance you are afraid I can't grasp, for the mercy of God, this time, tell me.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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9d50f5e
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And that was when she realized that laughter, which they had lost, had come back to them, and they were whole again.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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e9615d7
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We are here. We will work together for what purpose seems to us right. We will work with calm, and with tolerance and, please God, with saving laughter. 'We know something of men. We know of evil, and of sloth, and of self-seeking ambition. We accept it, and will use what we have of wit and good faith to overcome it. 'And if we do not overcome it, still we are the road; we are the bridge; we are the conduit. For something have we been born...
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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ab2a683
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For a moment, disconnected by the stitch in his side, he listened not to the sense but to the interplay of the two flexible voices, one masculine and light, one mellow and feminine, unreeling their story, faintly affronted amid mounting hysteria. He opened his eyes. He knew, because his memories of Francis Crawford went back further than those of anyone there, that Lymond was rather drunk, although he could still disguise it. The quick-witt..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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a24c63b
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Tais-toi. Your glove. Madame Erskine, procure me a large pin,' said the Queen Dowager of Scotland. 'I have yet to meet a man who can lay hands on a pin when there is need for it.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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bd6bd73
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Lymond, released, flung his head back and, viewing his winnings, gave them solemn dispensation to descend for the space of the dance. He asked for and obtained some chalk, and set to marking his and Mat's property where the cross was most obvious and the whim most appreciated.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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1f13208
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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 impertinence, no less.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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218ab7a
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Scott, deaf and enchanted in the gallery, and the whole row of pretty heads at his side saw the concerted rush on Lymond: his assailants downed him without malice and eighteen stones of Molly planted themselves on his chest. "A throw!" said Molly, and Lymond, half buried, gave a choked whoop of laughter and raised a defeated hand in signal to Tammas."
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Dorothy Dunnett |