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aebd5a3
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You don't know what you're doing,' Lymond said. 'You're performing a play, in a schoolroom, for an excited audience of one. I said Below the long, taffeta bodice, Philippa's interior had begun to ravel with cramp pains. She said hardily, 'Nothing, so far. I didn't know another permutation in breeding was possible.' There was another brief pause. Then Lymond said pleasantly, 'I would strike a man who was stupid enough to say that to me.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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f8e307c
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To Lymond, she said, 'I didn't ask. I don't care what you are going to say. I don't care. I don't care. These things have got to be said. Everyone is frightened to speak to you.' 'But I allow no one--no one at all, to speak to me like this,' Lymond said.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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5b1be0d
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I don't need to strike you. Words will do just as well.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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c643c53
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You are offered love and won't accept it except on your own terms. That isn't tragic. It's the word you've just mentioned--it's childish.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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fd79b1a
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She helps everybody ... Wait until you are wed. She'll do your breathing for you.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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0ab592d
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As if nothing had happened.' 'Well. Nobody knows.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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ea581ad
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Blacklock, Adam, is drawing maps,' Danny said. 'Having been offered the position of cartographer with the Muscovy Company at twenty pounds per annum when you have departed, and having accepted with alacrity. D'Harcourt, Ludo, has got a new woman at Smithfield. Neither of them is likely to burst in on us.' 'And you?' Lymond said. He did not, to Danny's regret, address him as
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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58bbb33
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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 going to move the pieces. I am going to direct the end of the game.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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d8b9af8
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If you wish to carry this paper from France and deliver it into Lord Culter's hands,' he said, 'I know of no power which would stop you, unless an earthly one.' 'And that,' said Daniel Hislop, 'is the first totally accurate prediction I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. Give me that.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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f1adf73
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We all die,' said Nostradamus. 'The man you love. The man who loves you. The man you married. But because of you there will be something, I promise you, by which men will know Francis Crawford has been.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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6da40bf
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My part in the prophecy is fulfilled. Yours has still to come. Whatever made you think you were free?
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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ccf4b05
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He was not at all sure that it was wise, but it seemed to be what Francis wanted, and that he should want anything was of moment.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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625f86e
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If I did not know how to live, I shall know how to die.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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9e0433b
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Modern war is fought by a number of strong, sweaty horsemen with constipation, who have their eyes on power, on wealth and on glory, and who obey the rules just when it pleases them.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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cb11d24
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Because,' said Crawford, as if he hadn't spoken, 'you ought to remember that Philippa has been trained in Turkey and will expect certain standards if you mean to make an impression, whether as her first client or her bigamous husband. I could provide some instruction.' Austin walked to the door. 'Or a demonstration?' said the other man wistfully.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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322da36
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The trouble with you, M. le comte de Sevigny, is that you're too god-damned autocratic. From now on, you will kindly remember that a good military tactician requires the support of a team. We are your team.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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6f9a478
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Unlike Kate, this girl had broken from her setting. All that Kate was, she now had. And standing on Kate's shoulders, something more, still growing; blossoming and yet to fruit. All that he was not.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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460e0b0
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I am thinning you down for the ,' said Lymond, still reading. 'Have we missed a meal?' 'We have missed two meals,' said Danny Hislop with precision. 'And God knows how many drinks. I haven't been working at all well. Hislops need lubrication.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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a44323a
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Oh,' said Philippa. 'Checkmate,' Lymond said.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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a98e69c
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There was a brief silence, during which Philippa Somerville fought and won a battle to keep her eyes dry. Lymond said, 'I give you my word. It was a lie.' Philippa looked at him. 'And I don't deserve ,' she said.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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a3a2c52
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As everyone keeps insisting, parentage doesn't matter. Love him for what he is.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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13f65b6
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Oh, well. I don't mind helping you to feel guilty if you must. On the other hand, I should point out that of all our various encounters, today is the only time you have favoured me with two civil words in sequence. I found it quite worrying.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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b50a5b0
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What can be done for these headaches?' [...] 'Short of execution,' Lymond said, 'I think the problem is insoluble.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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3113820
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Because, I think, of something you said. One should be able to face anything. I have learned to play chess again. I have learned to listen to music, and to play it. I have learned to buy self-indulgence and enjoy it. I have learned to take a line of logic and follow it through, whatever the consequences.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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6b9cea5
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So long as you allow yourself that kind of self-indulgence, you can expect to have headaches. If you can face anything, then face up to the one basic fact in all this. You told Mikal once, in Thessalonika, that you have never loved anyone. That was a lie. You feel for Sybilla quite as much as she has always felt for you.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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6808a70
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No!' said Master Bailey loudly. 'No, you'll not get these lads to leave me. They're good English lads, and they're here to protect me and mine.' 'From Mistress Philippa?' Lymond said hopefully. 'From you and your mercenaries, you contrary churl!
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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c4e8b8f
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The master had gone very red. 'My lord, there can only be one who commands on a ship.' 'That is correct. And you have kindly handed me your authority for a day,' Lymond said. 'Go and sleep. I shall give you your ship back at nightfall.' His jaw jutting, the master turned on Lord Culter. 'I will stand security for him,' said Richard gravely. 'If he chips the shaft of an oar, I shall pay for it.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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7d8db90
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I don't like to see things done badly on either. At the moment, I am tired of journeys. It is time I arrived somewhere.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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28a729c
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And Richard was silent, for the truth Jerott had seen touched him, too, for a moment before he thrust it aside. He said, instead, 'Once, I returned, by mistake, a present you gave me.' As when he had come in, fresh from the wind, surprise and pleasure roused, for an instant, all the colour in his brother's face. Francis Crawford said, 'I have kept it, in case one day you might want it. If you do ... It makes worthwhile this part, at least, ..
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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550bd0d
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Oh, Christ, Richard,' Lymond said. 'You don't need to remind me what country I belong to.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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c8e5ca0
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I have been told to live in Scotland, and I shall do it, but I doubt if it will be to Scotland's benefit. There are handicaps, I have found, more crippling than blindness. Even the part of me that did not come back from Dourlans would hardly have made you a whole man.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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379c446
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In Francis, there was so much that was admirable; and the flaws were so great. Yet one forgot them.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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a720121
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Have you not realized yet that he regards you as a man of that stamp? You are his holy war, Francis.' 'And yours?' he said. He could see, in the swimming heat of the fire, that she was smiling. 'Just war,' she said.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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b2ed696
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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.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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0870e7b
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He did not want to live. As the condition of life does, so the condition of death should depend on one's choice. The wise man lives as long as he ought, not as long as he can. Democrites fell on his sword; Aruntius killed himself to fly both the past and the future; Crates said that love would be cured by hunger, if not by time; and whoever disliked these two remedies, by a rope.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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8701b95
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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: the long, bitter schooling thrust at him, for no purpose, throughout every twist of his lifespan.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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eccfcf4
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There is a new game about to begin. Will you leave it to others?' 'As you will leave it to your son,' said Francis Crawford. 'It is all I find I can do.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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d6535bf
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Boy,' he said. 'Listen to me, and learn the first lesson of man, the political animal. When you wage war, you wage it for ever. When war is over, it has never existed. There is a truce, and there will shortly be a peace between England and Scotland. Crawford of Lymond is the Queen's friend, and my friend, and your friend.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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186a71c
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But I,' said Lymond, 'am one of the new apostles, seeking nothing but voluptuousness and human pleasures, and abusing the world....
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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0ee67f4
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And so the amber hair of Francis Crawford's father, which all his life had marked him out: for hurt, for passion; for treachery; performed its last destined office in the sunshine and fresh winds of England that morning. A single rider, a sober doublet and cloak might have escaped notice. But not the bare, golden head.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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9ea88b4
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At pointblank range, there was no possibility of missing. He aimed into the fair, weary, rancourless face, and then at the heart, and both balls found their mark and brought death in the end, not with the sweet ambiguity of an arrow but with the finality which frees the earth at once of body and soul, and all that was good or bad in either.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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b4eb673
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That made Richard leave her, to walk back over the hill. After a moment Jerott rose and walked back also, to meet Adam and Kate and say what had to be said to Sybilla. That now she had one son only living. That Francis, the best loved of the three, had now left her.
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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397bfb5
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Someone sobbed. Someone said,
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Dorothy Dunnett |
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7070905
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He lived in her, his disciple. For her to think, now, as he would have done. And to act always thereafter.
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Dorothy Dunnett |