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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| e7a226c | I told you I had feelings for my wife," he said softly. "I did. Affection. Familiarity. Loyalty. We had known each other all her life; our fathers had been friends; I had known her brother. She might well have been my sister." "And was she satisfied with that--to be your sister?" He gave me a glance somewhere between anger and interest. "You cannot be at all a comfortable woman to live with." He shut his mouth, but couldn't leave it there. .. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| afbc7ff | The Spartans do not ask how many the enemies are but where they are. | Agis II | ||
| ec35828 | As a rule of thumb, four consecutive lines of dialogue is about as much as you want to have without a tag. | sex writing | Diana Gabaldon | |
| 8e131b0 | Then came the sound of a single pair of footsteps, and then the whoosh and creak of someone settling heavily into a chair. There was silence for a moment. Then Lord John said "You can get up now, if you wish. I am supposing that you are not in fact prostrate with shock," he added, ironically. "Somehow I suspect that a mere murder would not be sufficient to discompose a woman who could deal single-handedly with a typhoid epidemic." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 0dbc090 | He was leaning on his desk, chin in his hands, staring at me. "There are shocks," I said precisely, smoothing back my damp curls and giving him an eyeball, "and then there are shocks. If you know what I mean." He looked surprised; then a flicker of understanding came into his expression." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| d0aa1db | He reached into the drawer of his desk, and pulled out my fan, white silk embroidered with violets. "This is yours, I suppose? I found it in the corridor." His mouth twisted wryly as he looked at me. "I see. I suppose, then, you will have some notion of how your appearance earlier this evening affected me." "I doubt it very much," I said." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| bb6fd2c | I knew he had been married," he corrected. He dropped his hands, fiddling aimlessly with the small objects that littered his desk. "He told me--or gave me to understand, at least--that you were dead." Grey picked up a small silver paperweight, and turned it over and over in his hands, eyes fixed on the gleaming surface. A large sapphire was set in it, winking blue in the candlelight. "Has he never mentioned me?" he asked softly. I wasn't su.. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 6cd3b18 | You have to understand," I said. "He--I--we were separated by the war, the Rising. Each of us thought the other was dead. I found him again only--my God, was it only four months ago?" | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 862da5b | He noticed my slight shifting and rose at once himself, donning his banyan before fetching my own dressing gown--which, I saw with a sense of unease, some kindly hand had hung over a chair to warm before the fire. "Where did that come from?" I asked, nodding at the silk robe he held for me. "From your bedroom, I assume." He frowned at me for a moment before discerning what I meant. "Oh. Mrs. Figg brought it in when she built the fire." "Oh,.. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| aa42c04 | Grey moved a knight and sat back, rubbing the back of his neck, smiling to himself at the effect of his move. He was a good-looking man; slight and fine-boned, but with a strong, clear-cut face and a beautiful, sensitive mouth that many a woman had no doubt envied. Grey was even better at guarding his face than Jamie was; I hadn't yet seen an incriminating look from him. I'd seen one once, though, in Jamaica, and wasn't in any doubt about t.. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 2802478 | Claire?" he said, a question in his voice. I stopped, hand on the doorknob, feeling quite queer; he'd never called me by my name before. It took a small effort to look over my shoulder at him, but when I did, I found him smiling. "Think of the deer," he said gently. "My dear." I nodded, wordless, and made my escape. Only later, after I had washed--vigorously--dressed, and had a restorative cup of tea with brandy in it, did I make sense of t.. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 30c8d6d | I walked down the hallway, my steps muffled by the long Turkey carpet that covered the parquet. There was an indistinguishable murmur of male voices ahead. I turned a corner into a shorter corridor and saw a door ahead from which light spilled--that must be the Governor's private office. Inside, I heard Jamie's voice. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| d21730a | Oh, God, John!" he said. I stopped dead, halted much more by the tone of that voice than by the words--it was broken with an emotion I had seldom heard from him. Walking very quietly, I drew closer. Framed in the half-open door was Jamie, head bowed as he pressed Lord John Grey tight in a fervent embrace. I stood still, completely incapable of movement or speech. As I watched, they broke apart." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| fd42153 | There was plenty of the infusion left. I poured another cup and held it out to Lord John. Surprised, he sat upright and took it from me. "And now that you've come, and seen him--do you still have feelings?" I said. He stared at me for a moment, eyes unblinking in the candlelight. "I do, yes." Hand steady as a rock, he picked up the cup and drank. "God help me," he added, so casual as almost to sound offhand." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 6073de9 | I ... am not quite sure, to tell you the truth. Perhaps it is only an effort to reconcile my memories of last night with the ... er ... actuality of the experience? | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 463c313 | You didn't know that Jamie was married?" He blinked, but not in time to keep me from seeing a small grimace of pain, as though someone had struck him suddenly across the face." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| ae23696 | The lines of stress in Grey's face eased a little. "I see," he said slowly. "So--you have not seen him since--my God, that's twenty years!" He stared at me, dumbfounded. "And four months? Why--how--" He shook his head, brushing away the questions." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 296d39b | Weep not for me: suffering, as I do, unjustly, I am in a happier case than my murderers. | Agis IV | ||
| cdaf55c | Well, that's of no consequence just now. But he did not tell you--that is--has he not told you about Willie?" I stared at him blankly. "Who's Willie?" Instead of explaining, he bent and opened the drawer of his desk. He pulled out a small object and laid it on the desk, motioning me to come closer." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 0c7c6d9 | usually went to the trouble of separating these from their original possessors before presenting them to me--but then the fur stirred, and a pair of bright eyes peered out of the tangled mass. "My dog's hurt," the man announced brusquely. He set" | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| ec7fae0 | I lifted my futile hand and slammed it hard against the rail. I did it again, and again, scarcely feeling the sting of the blows, in a frenzy of furious rage and grief. "Stop that!" a voice spoke behind me, and a hand seized my wrist, preventing me from slapping the rail yet again. "Let go!" I struggled, but his grip was too strong. "Stop," he said again, firmly. His other arm came around my waist, and he pulled me back, away from the rail... | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 732e115 | Who--" My voice was hoarse with shock, and I had to stop and clear my throat. "Who is his mother?" Grey hesitated, eyeing me closely, then shrugged slightly. "Was. She's dead." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 36ef7e2 | Who was she? | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| bde390a | Her name was Geneva Dunsany," Grey said. "My wife's sister." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 02fcb55 | Your wife?" I said, goggling at him. He flushed deeply and looked away. If I had been in any doubt about the nature of the look I had seen him give Jamie, I wasn't any longer." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 5a0e2eb | He raised one brow, cool and reserved; he had been shocked, too, but the shock was wearing off. "I cannot see that I am under any particular obligation to do so," he said." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| a308ba9 | Right. You're not. But I would appreciate it very much if you did. And why did you show me the picture if you didn't mean me to know?" I added. "Since I know that much, I'll certainly find out the rest from Jamie. You might as well tell me your side of it now." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 84b99d3 | I will," I said promptly, "and I strongly suggest you have some, too. I expect you need it as much as I do." A slight smile showed briefly at the corner of his mouth. "Is that a medical opinion, Mrs. Malcolm?" | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 465f27d | Father to son. And with that thought, all the disconnected, fragmentary, scattered fancies in his brain dropped suddenly into a single, vivid image: Jamie Fraser, seen from the back, looking over the horses in the paddock at Helwater. And beside him, standing on a rail and clinging to a higher one, William, Earl of Ellesmere. The alert cock of their heads, the set of their shoulders, the wide stance--just the same. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 4cce68b | quite suddenly, Grey knew what to say. "Queen's knight," he said quietly. "To queen two." It was, he knew, a dangerous opening. Fraser didn't move, but Grey felt his sideways glance. After an instant's hesitation, he replied, "King's knight to bishop two," and Grey felt his heart lighten. It was the answer to the Torremolinos Gambit, the one he had used on that far-off, disastrous evening at Ardsmuir, when he had first laid his hand on Jami.. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| a8895b5 | That was the first time that he ever touched me willingly," he said quietly. "And the last--until this evening, when I gave him the other copy of that miniature." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 8b0a410 | Do you know--" he began, then stopped. He looked down at his clenched hands, then, not at me. A blue stone winked on one knuckle, bright as a teardrop." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 603d923 | But do you think he foresaw that Twelvetrees would call him out? Well, yes, I suppose he did," Hal answered himself. "Twelvetrees couldn't do otherwise. But does Fraser want this duel?" Grey saw what his brother was getting at and shook his head. "You mean that we might be doing him a favor by preventing his fighting. No." He smiled affectionately at his brother and put down his cup. "It's simple, Hal. Put yourself in his place, and think w.. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 4baea9a | He thought of that now and wondered briefly just what Jamie Fraser would do, if made the recipient of some particularly florid sentiment of a personal nature, with Grey safely out of neck-breaking range. The thought made him grin. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| e2bdd34 | I suppose I am asking whether you believe in fate," Lord John went on. The ghost of a smile wavered on his face. "You, of all people, would seem best suited to say." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| b422b4c | There had been laid down in that place, I was told, the remains of about six million persons--our conventional total for the number of Jews who died in the Holocaust. The crime which the Nazis accomplished with Immense effort in half-a-dozen years, nature had done here without effort or recourse, and was doing. | William T. Vollmann | ||
| f21879a | He put a hand flat on the counter, as though to steady himself. "I have--bad news." "I can see that," I said, a little tartly. "Sit down, for God's sake, before you fall down." He shook his head like a horse shaking off flies and looked at me. His face was ghastly, shocked and white, and the rims of his eyes showed red." | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 9e6db0a | Don't let characters talk pointlessly--they only talk if there's something to say. | sex writing | Diana Gabaldon | |
| 8f3a841 | circumspect. I | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 1d1df78 | Jamie Fraser looked across the field to where Twelvetrees stood with his two companions, then looked soberly down at Grey. "He must not live. Ye may trust me to see to that." "If he kills me, you mean," Grey said. The electricity that ran in little jolts through his veins had settled now to a fine constant hum. He could hear his heartbeat, thumping in his ears, fast and strong. "I'm much obliged to you, Mr. Fraser." To his astonishment, Fra.. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 6bd7ee1 | A shy smile touched the corner of his mouth, and he hitched himself up against the pillow. "I ... am not quite sure, to tell you the truth. Perhaps it is only an effort to reconcile my memories of last night with the ... er ... actuality of the experience?" I felt a sharp jolt, as though he had punched me in the chest. He couldn't have known my first thoughts on waking and seeing him--that sharp, disorienting flash when I had thought he was.. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 2c4bbd4 | Or perhaps it is curiosity," he said, smiling a little more broadly. "I have not seen a naked woman in some time," | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 20371b6 | How long is some time? Fifteen years, you said?" "Oh, a good deal longer than that. Isobel--" He stopped abruptly, the smile vanishing. He hadn't mentioned his dead wife before. "You never saw her naked?" I asked, with more than idle curiosity. He turned his face away a little, eyes cast down. "Ah ... no. It wasn't ... She did not ... No." He cleared his throat, then raised his eyes, looking into mine with an honesty raw enough to make me w.. | Diana Gabaldon | ||
| 6aacc60 | I only wondered ... have you ... been quite alone all this time? Since your wife died? | Diana Gabaldon |