When I was small, I never wanted to step in puddles. Not because of any fear of drowned worms or wet stockings; I was by and large a grubby child, with a blissful disregard for...

A peaceful refuge in which to rediscover each other, we thought,, not realizing that, while golf and fishing are Scotland’s most popular outdoor sports, gossip is the most popular indoor sport.

He wasn’t a whole person any longer, but only half of something not yet made.

It was one of those strange moments that came to him rarely, but never left. A moment that stamped itself on heart and brain, instantly recallable in every detail, for all of his life. There...

Jem made the little Scottish noise again, and Brianna looked sideways at him.”Are you doing that on purpose?”He looked up at her, surprised. “Doing what?””Never mind. When you are fifteen, I’m locking you in the...

Why?” I shrieked, hitting him again and again, and again, the sound of the blows thudding against his chest. “Why, why why!”.Because I was afraid!” He got hold of my wrists and threw me backward...

I want to hold you like a kitten in my shirt, and still I want to spread your thighs and plow ye like a rotting bull. I dinna understand myself.

Some people are just mad about the historical aspects; they feel as though they’re living in a different time or they’re learning something,

During his time with the French army, years before, one of the sergeants had explained to the younger mercenaries the trick of falling asleep the night before a battle. “Make yourself comfortable, examine your conscience,...

So now it’s space and time,” he said. “You ever watch Doctor Who on PBS?””All the time,” she said dryly, “on the BBC. And don’t think I wouldn’t sell my soul for a TARDIS.

At the best of times, Father Bain’s face resembled a clenched fist.

I will find you,” he whispered in my ear. “I promise. If I must endure two hundred years of purgatory, two hundred years without you – then that is my punishment, which I have earned...

He reached out a long arm and drew me in, holding me close against him. I put my arms around him and felt the quiver of his muscles, exhausted, and the sheer hard strength still...

All loss is one, and one loss becomes all, a single death is the key to the gate that bars memory.

I thought the force of my wanting must wake ye, surely. And then ye did come. . .” He stopped, looking at me with eyes gone soft and dark. “Christ, Claire, ye were so beautiful,...

Alive, and one. We are one, and while we love, death will never touch us. ‘The grave’s a fine and private place/ but none, I think, do there embrace.

…knowing what o’clock it is gives ye the illusion that ye have some control over your circumstances.

I put a hand up to cup his cheek, warm and lightly stubbled. I didn’t fool myself that this was paradise or even a refuge from the war – wars tended not to stay in...

Gentle he would be, denied he would not.

Roger speaking to Brianna: It’s too important. You don’t forget having a dad.”You do remember your father?”No. I remember yours.

Ye are Blood of my Blood, and Bone of my Bone,I give ye my Body, that we Two might be One.I give ye my Spirit, ’til our Life shall be Done.

But I talk to you as I talk to my own soul,” he said, turning me to face him. He reached up and cupped my cheek, fingers light on my temple.”And, Sassenach,” he whispered, “your...

The vivid memory of the woods had blossomed into a visceral longing for the Ridge, so immediate that I felt the ghost of my vanished house rise around me, a cold mountain wind thrumming past...

But just then, for that fraction of time, it seems as though all things are possible. You can look across the limitations of your own life, and see that they are really nothing. In that...

Would he ever come back? He wondered. The water filled his ears with its own rush, and he was comforted by the realization that, in fact, he never left.

Despair dragged at me like an anchor, pulling me down. I closed my eyes and retreated to some dim place within, where there was nothing but an aching grey blankness…

Filial respect caused Grey to hesitate in passing ex post facto opinions on his mother’s judgment, but after half an hour in the company of either Paul or Edgar, he could not escape a lurking...

He was dead. However, his nose throbbed painfully, which he thought odd in the circumstances.

Time does not really exist for mothers, with regard to their children. It does not matter greatly how old the child is-in the blink of an eye, a mother can see the child again as...

For where all love is, the speaking is unnecessary

No. Ye loved him. I canna hold it against either of you that ye mourn him. And it gives me some comfort to know …” He hesitated, and I reached up to smooth the rumpled...

The colors of living things begin to fade with the last breath, and the soft, springy skin and supple muscle rot within weeks. But the bones sometimes remain, faithful echoes of the shape, to bear...

For the moment, everything had disappeared: the church, the battle, the screams and shouts and the rumble of limber wheels along the rutted road through Freehold. There wasn’t anything but her and him, and he...

And I have wondered often, was I master in my soul, or did I become the slave of my own blade?

Eres sangre de mi sangre y huesos de mis huesos.Te doy mi cuerpo para que los dos seamos uno.Te doy mi espíritu para que los dos seamos uno.

Ian, man, I didna tell ye because I didna wish to lose you too. My brother was gone, and my father. I didna mean to lose my own heart’s blood as well. For you are...

It’s a good country for myths. Things seem to take root here.

Like plumbing, medicine is a profession where you learn early on not to put your fingers in your mouth.

Blood of my Blood,” he whispered, “and bone of my bone. You carry me within ye, Claire, and ye canna leave me now, no matter what happens, You are mine, always, if ye will it...

Conflict and character are the heart of good fiction, and good mystery has both of those in spades.

I know what it felt . . . like when I . . . thought you were dead, and-” A small gasp for breath, and her eyes locked on his. “And I wouldn’t do that...