Quotes from Diana Gabaldon

His Majesty has summoned several of the prominent English merchants from the Cité to lunch, for the purpose of providing His Grace the Duke with the company of some of his countrymen.

Rain was roaring on the tin roof now, and lightning struck close by, blue-white and sharp with ozone. We rode it together, forked and light-blind, breathless, and the thunder rolled through our bones.

Still, as the Mass went on, things seemed more normal; there were Bible readings, quite familiar, and then the accustomed descent into the vaguely pleasant boredom of a sermon, in which the inevitable Christmas annunciations of "peace," "goodwill," and "love" rose to the surface of his mind, tranquil as white lilies floating on a pond of words.

I bent to pick up the dirk. "Serve you right if I did," I remarked. "Cocky bastard." The grin visible beneath the crook of his arm widened still further. "Sassenach?" I stopped, dirk still in my hand. "What?" "I'll die a happy man.

hostess out there. After all, we've been married almost

the hardening spreads from the center, as one finds and fixes the facets of the soul, until "I am" is set, delicate and detailed as an insect in amber.

And the next thing I remember is waking in France, in the Abbey of Sainte Anne de Beaupré, with my head throbbing like a drum and someone I couldn't see giving me something cool to drink.

the good man's only singularity lies in his approving welcome to every experience the looms of fate may weave for him

I drew a deep breath and sighed, shaking my head. "I do not understand men." That made him chuckle, deep in his chest. "Yes, ye do, Sassenach. Ye only wish ye didn't.

also was remembering the baronet who might have been his father. He reached

It wasn't a very

There comes a turning point in intense physical struggle where one abandons oneself to a profligate usage of strength and bodily resource, ignoring the costs until the struggle is over. Women find this point in childbirth; men in battle. Past that certain point, you lose all fear of pain or injury. Life becomes very simple at that point; you will do what you are trying to do, or die in the attempt, and it does not really matter much which. I

There are only two people in this world to whom I would never lie, Sassenach," he said softly. "Ye're one of them. And I'm the other.

English dragoons

Aye. That's what marriage is good for; it makes a sacrament out of things ye'd otherwise have to confess.

And it was, as Dougal explained, convenient to the pillory, a homely wooden contraption that stood on a small stone plinth in the center of the square, adjacent to the wooden stake used—with thrifty economy of purpose—as whipping post, maypole, flagstaff and horse tether, depending upon requirements.

My sobs lessened and I began to calm myself, leaning tiredly into the curve of his shoulder. No wonder he was so good with horses, I thought blearily, feeling his fingers rubbing gently behind my ears, listening to the soothing, incomprehensible speech. If I were a horse, I'd let him ride me anywhere.

I was becoming slightly bored

Snow was falling, and winter had come; the season of fire. Candles and hearth fire, that lovely, leaping paradox, that destruction contained but never tamed, held at a safe distance to warm and enchant, but always, still, with that small sense of danger.

hid a smile at the mention of wool waulking. Alone among the Highland farms, I was sure, the women of Lallybroch waulked their wool not only to the old traditional chants but also to the rhythms of Molière and Piron.

wallpaper, gleaming floors, and a coin

heads that edged the huge fireplace, and I

Women, as he had explained to me at the paddock, have no natural appreciation for horses, and are therefore difficult to talk to.

Jamie," he gasped. "We met the Watch near the mill. Waiting for us. They knew we were coming.