Don’t be afraid. There’s the two of us now.
It wasn’t a thing I had consciously missed, but having it now reminded me of the joy of it; that drowsy intimacy in which a man’s body is accessible to you as your own, the strange shapes and textures of it like a sudden extension of your own limbs.
Character, I think, is the single most important thing in fiction. You might read a book once for its interesting plot – but not twice.
Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well.
This is our time. Until that time stops – for one of us, for both – it is our time. Now. Will you waste it, because you are afraid?
You dinna need to understand me, Sassenach,” he said quietly. “So long as you love me.
Damn right I begrudge! I grudge every memory of yours that doesna hold me, and every tear ye’ve shed for another, and every second you’ve spent in another man’s bed!
For if you feel for me as i do for you – then I am asking you to tear out your heart and live without it.
Harmless as a setting dove,” he agreed. “I’m too hungry to be a threat to anything but breakfast. Let a stray bannock come within reach, though, and I’ll no answer for the consequences.
All right you bloody Scottish bastard, lets see how stubborn you really are.
Has he come armed, then?” she asked anxiously. “Has he brought a pistol or a sword?” Ian shook his head, his dark hair lifting wildly in the wind. “Oh, no, Mam!” he said. “It’s worse. He’s brought a lawyer!
Between hell now, and hell later, Sassenach,” he said, his speech measured and precise, “I will take later, every time.
Boldness in battle is nothing out of the way... but to face down fear in cold blood is rare in any man.
Life among academics had taught me that a well-expressed opinion is usually better than a badly expressed fact, so far as professional advancement goes.
His Grace woke up in the morning red-eyed as a ferret and in roughly the same temper as a rabid badger. Had I a tranquilizing dart, I would have shot him with it without an instant’s hesitation.
Aye, I believe ye, Sassenach. But it would ha’ been a good deal easier if you’d only been a witch.
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. – Jamie.
I had not slept with many men other than my husband, but I had noticed that before to sleep, actually sleep with someone did give this sense of intimacy, as though your dreams had flowed out of you to mingle with his and fold you both in a blanket of unconscious knowing.
What possessed ye, woman, to hit me in the heid wi’ a fish whilst I was fighting for my life?
There are things ye maybe canna tell me, he had said. I willna ask ye, or force ye. But when ye do tell me something, let it be the truth. There is nothing between us now but respect, and respect has room for secrets, I think – but not for lies.