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deb15fd
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For a moment we glared at each other, stubborn as cats on the stable wall, full of mutual resentment and something darker, the old sense between sisters that there is only really room in the world for one girl. The sense that every fight could be to the death.
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resentment
siblings
sisters
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Philippa Gregory |
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13e8c02
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When I was first at court and he was the young husband of a beautiful wife, he was a golden king. They called him the handsomest prince in Christendom, and that was not flattery. Mary Boleyn was in love with him, Anne was in love with him, I was in love with him. There was not one girl at court, nor one girl in the country, who could resist him. Then he turned against his wife, Queen Katherine, a good woman, and Anne taught him how to be cr..
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Philippa Gregory |
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8fd2ec3
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A title like 'the Lady,' for those who are too mealymouthed to call a whore a whore.
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Philippa Gregory |
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8d57117
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As my wife you cannot refuse me. I have a right to you, as your betrothed husband. From now, till your death, you will never be able to refuse me. There can be no rape between us, only my rights and your duty.
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Philippa Gregory |
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71d1b7c
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I was near to delighted laughter because Katherine of Aragon was speaking out for the women of the country, for the good wives who should not be put aside just because their husbands had taken a fancy to another, for the women who walked the hard road between kitchen, bedroom, church and childbirth. For the women who deserved more than their husband's whim.
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Philippa Gregory |
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f3bae52
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I can't think why men would believe that it is a better world where something beautiful is destroyed and something broken left in its place.
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Philippa Gregory |
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2820f71
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If it has to be done at all, it must be done with grace
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Philippa Gregory |
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36bbfaf
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Uma palavra feita sobre coacao nao tem valor- vou ser livre.
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Philippa Gregory |
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ca5cb29
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Why not?' She asks the most challenging questions that a woman can ask. 'Why should I not read? Why should I not think? Why should I not speak?
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Philippa Gregory |
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5ca5ae0
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How should I forget them? They are around me like wasps around a honeypot.
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Philippa Gregory |
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a0fb400
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Remember, she needs you now. Don't sell your services too cheap.
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Philippa Gregory |
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15be68e
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I believe that to be a free woman is to be both passionate and intelligent; and I am a free woman at last.
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Philippa Gregory |
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64ed915
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She can be pious, she can be learned, she can be witty and wise and beautiful, but if she is married to a fool she will be "that poor Mrs. Fool" until the day he dies."
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Philippa Gregory |
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29db8df
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Nowhere in the Bible does it say that marriage is a sacrament," Anne replies. "It was not God who joined us together. The priest says it was; but this is not true. This is the word of the church, not the Bible. Our wedding, like every wedding, was an act of man, not of God. It was not a holy sacrament. My father forced me into an agreement with Thomas, and when I was old enough and had understanding enough I revoked that agreement. I claim ..
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Philippa Gregory |
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9491f57
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She looks down at the ground to hide her smile of pleasure and to affect modesty, but when the dance brings them together and she takes his hand, her eyes come up to him and they gaze at each other with absolute longing.
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Philippa Gregory |
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1f0a56f
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Wideacre faces due south and the sun shines all day on the yellow stone until it is warm and powdery to the touch. The sun travels from gable end to gable end so the front of the house is never in shadow. When I was a small child collecting petals in the rose garden, or loitering at the back of the house in the stable yard, it seemed that Wideacre was the very centre of the world with the sun defining our boundaries in the east at dawn, unt..
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Philippa Gregory |
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2794ed3
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I want to teach him his prayers and his letters and his manners. I want him for my own. Not just because he is motherless, but because I am childless and I want someone to love.
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Philippa Gregory |
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cb266b1
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They are a couple in love, and anyone but a fool would see it is simply that, nothing more- and certainly nothing less.
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lovers
the-cousins-war
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Philippa Gregory |
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d514e28
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Every woman should marry for her own advantage since her husband will represent her, as visible as her front door, for the rest of his life. If she chooses a wastrel she will be avoided by all her neighbors as a poor woman; catch a duke and she will be Your Grace, and everyone will be her friend. She can be pious, she can be learned,she cane be witty and wise and beautiful, but if she is married to a fool she will be "that poor Mrs. Fool" u..
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Philippa Gregory |
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78fabb4
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We all had parts to play, we all had costumes to wear, we all had to be as merry as we could be, for the King was always laughing this winter and the Queen never stopped smiling.
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Philippa Gregory |
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10e7c53
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She poured me a cup of coffee and I drank it standing by the back door, looking out of the back garden. I felt it scald my tongue but it did not warm me. It was heavy with sugar but it did not taste sweet. I gave a little sigh. There are some days when nothing seems right.
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Philippa Gregory |
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cc8028b
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If it means something to you,then take it to heart. If it means nothing, it means nothing, let it go.
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Philippa Gregory |
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fcac27c
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But seeing those words that were first written, and scratched out, and rewritten again in print and bound into a book, I know that I love the process of writing and publishing. To take a thought and work on it, to render it into the clearest form possible, and then to send it out into the world--this is work so precious and so joyful that I am not surprised that men have kept it to themselves.
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Philippa Gregory |
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5362246
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Ah, Hannah, you have never longed to live as I long to live if you do not know that another day is the most precious thing.
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Philippa Gregory |
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8c141ab
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You will have to reconcile yourself, as I do, as Isabel does, to being the defeated.
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defeated
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Philippa Gregory |
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36a0929
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Come back to me." He laughs. It is not forced; it is the laugh of a happy man, confident in his luck and his abilities. "I will," he says. "Trust me. You have married a man who is going to die in his bed, preferably after making love to the most beautiful woman in England." He holds out his arms and I step towards him and feel the warmth of his embrace. "Make sure you do," I say. "And I will make sure that the most beautiful woman in your e..
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Philippa Gregory |
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5b83dc7
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What's your family?" he demanded through clenched teeth. " Boleyn." " What's your kin?" "Howard's." "What's your home?" "Hever and Rochford." "What's your kingdom?" "England." "Who's your king?" "Henry." "Then serve them. In that order. Did I say the Spanish queen once in that list?"
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Philippa Gregory |
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eb29924
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The king is a saint and cannot rule, and his son is a devil and should not.
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war
history
royalty
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Philippa Gregory |
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7ac42a2
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When he told me that he would fight forever, I knew that he would have to be defeated.
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war
history
unending
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Philippa Gregory |
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c136cb8
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Your son is heir to an enormous fortune and name. Someone would be bound to bid for you him and take him as his ward.
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parenting
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Philippa Gregory |
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1763217
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It's not a question of wanting to be queen; it's not even a question of wanting honorable love anymore. I am mad for him, I am madly in love with him. I would go to him if I had to walk barefoot. Tell me I am one of many. I don't care! I don't care for my name or for my pride anymore. As long as I can have him once more, that's all I want, just to love him; all I want to be certain of is that I will see him again, that he loves me.
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Philippa Gregory |
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e41889e
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We have no time for regrets or second thoughts. If a plan goes awry we make another, if one weapon breaks in our hands we find a second. If the steps fall down before us we overleap them and go up. It is always onward and upward
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Philippa Gregory |
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3892ab8
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If everyone in Christendom ate nothing but fish on Friday, then the fishermen and their children would eat well the rest of the week.
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Philippa Gregory |
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b4a1821
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it is easier to unleash evil than call it back again. Any fool can blow up a wind, but who can know where it will blow or when it will stop?
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Philippa Gregory |
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39f9da9
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never have imagined that she would imprison a woman about to give birth for doing nothing worse than marrying the young man she loves.
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Philippa Gregory |
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92e9f03
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She was a woman whose spirit had been hammered and forged until she could only ring true. Compared with the rest of us sho was silver, while we were pewter, a common of lead and tin.
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Philippa Gregory |
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06ecc19
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The one thing that Jane's death should teach us is that life is precious and every day is a gift that we should treasure.
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katherine-grey
the-last-tudor
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Philippa Gregory |
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590fbae
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To assure someone that if enough nuns sing enough Masses then her dead child will go to heaven is trickery as low as passing a false coin as good. To buy a pardon from the pope, to force the pope to annul a marriage, to make him set aside kinship laws, to watch as he fleeces his cardinals, who charge the bishops, who rent to the priests, who seek their tithes from the poor - all these abuses would have to fall away if we agreed that a soul ..
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Philippa Gregory |
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b256a9f
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I cannot catch courage from his smile. I have to do this all entirely alone, with thousands of strangers watching my every movement. Nothing is to detract from my rise from gentry woman to Queen of England, from mortal to a being divine: next to God. When they crown me and anoint me with the holy oil, I become a new being, one above mortals, only one step below angels, beloved, and the elect of heaven.
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Philippa Gregory |
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18ae113
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I have my own loyalties and obligations that I consider and honor. They are not his. They are not at the beck and call of any man.
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Philippa Gregory |
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f71bb1f
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She knew that being a mortal woman is hard on the heart, hard on the feet.
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Philippa Gregory |
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f252e16
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You will not be a beautiful woman at court with nothing to do but make magic. The road you have chosen will mean that you have to spend your life scheming and fighting. Our task, as your family, is to make sure you win.
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Philippa Gregory |
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f833b88
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Nothing in the world matters more than life. You have a long road to walk and a lot of lessons to learn if you don't know that.
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historical-fiction
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Philippa Gregory |
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762e8d0
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However heart-stopping his smile and however honest his eyes, however much I think of him as a boy fired to greatness by his own ambition, I cannot trust him.
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Philippa Gregory |