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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| b0078c5 | Oh," I said, very touched. "Thank you." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 71d4fbc | It comes for two nights, three--rarely, four--and then it's gone, and I don't see it again for weeks, sometimes months. And then it comes again, and I am enchanted once more." He rolled onto his side in a rustle of bedclothes, regarding me. "Do you see? I do not own this creature--would not, if I could. Its coming is a gift, which I accept with gratitude, but when it's gone, there is no sense of abandonment or deprivation. I'm only glad to .. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 9f19ca8 | You've got a big willy, Uncle John," Adam observed. "About the usual for a grown man, I think. Though I believe it's given fairly general satisfaction." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 208ca57 | And when my body shall cease, my soul will still be yours. Claire--I swear by my hope of heaven, I will not be parted from you. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 0b1355d | buildings; clearly the intention was to nudge | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 9606e13 | Stand up straight and try not to get fat. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 157308f | He had been trying to suppress the feeling Stephan roused in him, but in the end, such things were never controllable--they rose up. Sometimes like the bursting of a mortar shell, sometimes like the inexorable green spike of a crocus pushing through snow and ice--but they rose up. Was he in love with Stephan? There was no question of that. He liked and respected the Hanoverian, but there was no madness in it, no yearning. Did he want Stepha.. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 88484b2 | You want me to attend your hanging?" His tone must have contained some of the incredulity he felt, for the captain gave him an impatient look. "I'd have sent an engraved invitation, had I time," he said." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 78be063 | Yes," he said softly. "I know about him. It doesn't" | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 046e3bb | He had been attacked once, in camp somewhere in Scotland, in the days after Culloden. Someone had come upon him in the dark, and taken him from behind with an arm across his throat. He had thought he was dead, but his assailant had something else in mind. The man had never spoken, and was brutally swift about his business, leaving him moments later, curled in the dirt behind a wagon, speechless with shock and pain. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 3e21e91 | I will not mourn him alone tonight," he said roughly, and closed the door." -- | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 8e3c527 | He felt both elated and peaceful, almost valedictory: a strange state of mind to experience in the wake of a funeral. Part of it was Charlie, of course, and the knowledge that he had not failed his dead friend. Beyond that, though, was the knowledge that it lay within his power to do something equally important for the living one. He could keep James Fraser prisoner. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| c6c41dd | John--well." He lifted his shoulders and let them drop. "I couldna give him what he wanted--and he is friend enough not to ask it." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| b9d6eb3 | I don't really know," he said. He glanced at me, one eyebrow raised. "Does that sound unfeeling?" "I couldn't say," I said, a little tartly. "Surely you'd know better than I whether you had feelings for her or not." "I did, yes." He let his head fall back on the pillow, his thick fair hair loose about his shoulders. "Or I do, perhaps. That's why I came, do you see?" "No, I can't say that I do." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 7e38020 | How long has it been since you last slept with a woman, if you don't mind my asking?" He didn't appear to mind. He frowned a little and scratched his chest thoughtfully. "Oh ... fifteen years? At least that." He glanced at me, his expression altering to one of concern. "Oh. I do apologize." "You do? For what?" I arched one brow. I could think of a number of things he might apologize for, but probably none of those was what he had in mind. ".. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| cd7d75d | I meant no offense," he added a moment later, in a softer tone. "I was surprised." I looked at him directly. I was too tired to be tactful. "And a bit jealous, perhaps?" | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 6c1f8de | He had a diplomat's face; almost anything could have been going on behind that facade of handsome amiability. I went on staring at him, though, and he let the mask drop--a flash of knowledge lit the light blue eyes, tinged with grudging humor. "So. One more thing that we have in common." I was startled by his acuity, though I shouldn't have been. It's always discomfiting to find that feelings you thought safely hidden are in fact sitting ou.. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 0ec6fe3 | Don't tell me you didn't think of that when you decided to come here. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| ef51b0f | I thought of it, yes," he said finally. He let his head fall back on the pillow, eyes fixed on the low beamed ceiling. "Still, if I was human enough--or petty enough--to consider that I might offend you by bringing William here, I would ask you to believe that such offense was not my motive in coming." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 0706cee | I believe you," I said, my eyes fixed on the skein. "If only because it seems rather a lot of trouble to go to. What was your motive, though?" | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 513657b | The obvious--to allow Jamie to see the boy." "And the other obvious--to allow you to see Jamie." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| f04aaf9 | You then challenged him, to--" He halted suddenly and stared hard at Grey. "Ostensibly," he said, more slowly, "ye challenged him to preserve your honor, to refute the slur of sodomy." His lips compressed into a tight line. "Ostensibly," Grey echoed. "Why the bloody hell else would I have done it?" Fraser's eyes searched his face. Grey felt the touch of the other man's gaze, an odd sensation, but kept his own face composed. Or hoped he did... | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 4ff96f5 | Jamie has held my life in his hands for a good many years now," he answered softly. "I will trust him with William's." "And what if Willie remembers a groom named MacKenzie better than you think? Or happens to take a good look at his own face and Jamie's?" "Twelve-year-old boys are not remarkable for their acute perception," Grey said dryly. "And I think that if a boy has lived all his life in the secure belief that he is the ninth Earl of .. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 7aeb5d0 | holes in his back that he | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| d063866 | I did sometimes wonder what he saw in you," he said, his tone deliberately light. "Jamie." "Oh, you did? How flattering." I sniffed, and blew my nose. "When he began to speak of you, both of us thought you dead," he pointed out. "And while you are undoubtedly a handsome woman, it was never of your looks that he spoke." To my surprise, he picked up my hand and held it lightly. "You have his courage," he said. That made me laugh, if only half.. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 8e1376b | Slightly shorter than the common height, Grey found himself at a disadvantage in crowds. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 04f53d5 | I might have sound reasons for disliking John Grey--always difficult to feel a warm sense of goodwill toward a man with a professed homosexual passion for one's husband, after all--but I had to admit that I had seen no trace of either recklessness or cruelty in his character. On the contrary, he had struck me as a sensitive, kindly, and honorable man--or at least he had, before I'd found out about his predilections toward Jamie. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| fb6f92a | He felt shocked--and rather disapproving. He was more shocked still to realize this and did his best to dismiss the feeling; it wasn't his business to be shocked, and even if it were ... well, it had been a very long time since Fraser's wife had died, and he was a man. And an honorable one. Better to marry than burn, they say, he thought cynically. I wouldn't know. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 85c4e46 | A SERIES OF SHORT, SHARP SHOCKS | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 8e652c6 | But how shall I tell ye all these things," he said, the line of his mouth twisting. "And then say to you--it is only you I have ever loved? How should you believe me?" | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| dfa2eff | I filled the cups with brandy, sat down again, and fixed John Grey with a narrow eye. "What are you doing here?" I said, without preamble. He opened his light blue eyes very wide, then lowered his very long lashes and batted them deliberately at me. "I did not come with the intention of seducing your husband, I assure you," he said. "John!" Jamie's fist struck the table with a force that rattled the teacups. His cheekbones were flushed dark.. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| ad550f9 | He turned to greet me, his face fixed in an expression of formal politeness. He looked, blinked, and then broke into a smile of extraordinary warmth and pleasure. "Mrs. Malcolm!" he exclaimed, seizing my hands. "I am vastly pleased to see you!" "The feeling is entirely mutual," I said, smiling back at him. "I didn't know you were the Governor, last time we met. I'm afraid I was a bit informal." He laughed, his face glowing with the light of.. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 4ff9dd7 | May I introduce my husband?" I turned to wave at Jamie, who had been detained in animated conversation with the admiral, but who was now advancing toward us, accompanied by Mr. Willoughby. I turned back to find the Governor gone green as a gooseberry. He stared from Jamie to me, and back again, pale as though confronted by twin specters. Jamie came to a stop beside me, and inclined his head graciously toward the Governor. "John," he said so.. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| d7cec5c | I lay still, wondering exactly what was the matter with me. Or rather, not what, but why. I knew by now what it was, all right; it was jealousy. I was indeed jealous; an emotion I hadn't felt for some years, and was appalled to feel now. I | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 8f79977 | Lord John had been nothing but courtesy itself to me. More than that, he had been intelligent, thoughtful--thoroughly charming, in fact. And listening to him making intelligent, thoughtful, charming conversation with Jamie knotted my insides and made me clench my hands under cover of the quilt. You are an idiot, I told myself savagely. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| fcc8564 | He took my arm, and bowed formally. "And may I have the pleasure to present to you my wife, Claire?" he said aloud, shifting effortlessly into French. "Claire?" The Governor looked wildly at me. "Claire?" "Er, yes," I said, hoping he wasn't going to faint. He looked very much as though he might, though I had no idea why the revelation of my Christian name ought to affect him so strongly." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| ba81b1f | I glanced back over my shoulder to see the Governor, shaking hands mechanically with the new arrival, staring after us with a face like white paper. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 2ab8242 | I'm sorry; I had meant to offer you my condolences on the loss of your wife," I said, rather formally. He looked surprised for a moment, then bowed his head in acknowledgment, matching my formality. "It is a coincidence that you should say so at the moment," he said. "I had just been thinking of her." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 4b0323b | Do you miss her greatly--your wife?" I felt a bit hesitant about asking, but he didn't seem to find the question intrusive." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 1e57d0f | Lord John's response to the revelation of my identity was both puzzling and disturbing; you would think the man had seen a ghost. I squinted at my violet reflection, admiring the glitter of the black-and-gold fish at my throat, but failed to see anything unsettling in my appearance. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 8b40b67 | When we met, that night aboard the Porpoise--I'm glad you didn't know who I was. I ... liked you. Then. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 5980374 | He stood for a second, polite, remote. Then the mask dropped away. "I liked you, too," he said quietly. "Then." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| f17cb21 | If Jamie could take Lord John Grey as a lover, and hide it from me, he wasn't remotely the man I thought he was. There had to be some other explanation. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 0a184e4 | It was another hour before the door opened again, this time to admit the Governor. He was still handsome and neat as a white camellia, but definitely beginning to turn brown round the edges. I set the untouched glass of brandy down and got to my feet to face him. "Where is Jamie?" "Still being questioned by Captain Jacobs, the militia commander." He sank into his chair, looking bemused. "I had no notion he spoke French so remarkably well." | Diana Gabaldon |