This is the grimoire of the witch, Geillis. It is a witch’s name, and I take it for my own; what I was born does not matter, only what I will make of myself, only what I will become. And.
Probably from Norse roots. There’s a lot of the Norse influence round here, and all the way up the coast to the West. Some of the place names are Norse, you know, not Gaelic at all.
It wasn’t that Friends thought that the Lord spoke only to them; it was only that they weren’t sure other folk listened very often.
Grey sat in his bedchamber, unshaven and attired in his nightshirt, banyan, and slippers, drinking tea and debating with himself whether the authoritative benefits conferred by wearing his uniform outweighed the possible consequences – both sartorial and social – of wearing it into the slumps of London to inspect a three-day-old corpse.
The Bible says, “Seek, and ye shall find,” he thought. And said aloud to the vibrant air, “But there’s no guarantee about what you’ll find, is there?
Some nights, he even slept.
Though I could wish your own limits went a bit further.
Actually, it wasn’t bad,” Claire said, surprisingly. “Mullein leaves are really very nice; quite as good as two-ply bathroom tissue. And in the winter or indoors, it was usually a bit of damp rag; not very sanitary, but comfortable enough.
He could feel the shape of his eyeballs beneath his lids, round and hot, tasty bits of jelly rolling restless to and fro, looking vainly for oblivion, while the rising sun turned his lids a dark and bloody red.
The world is chaos and death and destruction. But people like you – you don’t stand for that. If there is any order in the world, any peace – it’s because of you, John, and those very few like you.
The Frenchman’s Gold! Beyond its value as treasure – which would belong to the Crown in any case – the gold had a considerable and personal value to John William Grey. The finding of that half-mythical hoard would be his passport out of Ardsmuir – back to London and civilization.
After all, it’s human nature to put the best face on things when you know someone will read what you’ve written. People tend to concentrate on the things they think important, and often enough, they tidy it up a bit for public consumption.
I ran out of brandy and was trying to decide whether I might walk downstairs to look for more without breaking my neck, or whether I’d had enough not to feel guilty about drinking the whole bottle of laudanum instead. And then John came in.
Grey was still in his shirtsleeves; the rain had cut through the cloth to his flesh.
The sins of the fathers,” I murmured to myself. “The sins of the fathers shall not be visited upon the children.
When ye set about a difficult quest – if ye’re Kahnyen’kehaka, I mean – ye generally go aside for a time, to fast and pray for guidance. We havena time to be doing that now, of course. But often, while ye’re doing that, ye choose a talisman – or to be right about it, it chooses you – ” He sounded completely matter-of-fact about this procedure, Roger noted. “And ye carry it with ye through the quest, to keep the attention of the spirits upon your desire and ensure your success.
He had come to the conclusion that he couldn’t kill himself, even if she died. Even could he bring himself to commit a sin of that magnitude, there were people who needed him, and to abandon them would be a greater sin even than the willful destruction of God’s gift of life. But to live without her – he watched her breathe, obsessively, counting ten breaths before he would believe she hadn’t stopped – that would certainly be his purgatory.
Yes, there it was, the reek of a man, strong and sour as the smell of a rutting goat.
Thee is a rooster, William,” Rachel said mournfully. “I saw this in thee before, but now I know it for certain.” “A rooster,” he repeated coldly, brushing dirt from his sleeve. “Indeed. A vain, crowing, gaudy sort of fellow – that’s what you think me?
He grabbed her and held on, thinking that nothing in his life had ever felt better than the weight of her against him and the taste of her mouth, in spite of the fact that she’d plainly eaten onions for lunch.