“If her eyes had captured him; her smile enslaved him...”

“...looking at him makes her feel like laughing all over - as if she could laugh not just with her mouth but with her eyes, her heart, her very limbs.”

“A woman has to change her nature if she is to be a wife. She has to learn to curb her tongue, to suppress her desires, to moderate her thoughts and to spend her days putting another first. She has to put him first even when she longs to serve herself or her children. She has to put him first even if she longs to judge for herself. She has to put him first even when she knows best. To be a good wife is to be a woman with a will of iron that you yourself have forged into a bridle to curb your own abilities. To be a good wife is to enslave yourself to a lesser person. To be a good wife is to amputate your own power as surely as the parents of beggars hack off their children's feet for the greater benefit of the family.”

“But Anne, do you love him?" I asked curiously.The curve of her hood hid all but the corner of her smile. "I am a fool to own it, but I am in a fever for his touch.”

“It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just…” His eyes dropped from hers again, almost as if-Jenny looked at him sharply as an idea occurred to her. Could the Nordic god be shy?”

“Jane," I said quietly.She opened her eyes, she had been far away in prayer."Yes, Mary? Forgive me, I was praying.""If you go on flirting with the king with those sickly little smiles, one of us Boleyns is going to scratch your eyes out.”

“A male usually had made up his mind before you began to talk to him -so why bother?- but a female, because her mind was more supple, was always prepared to become more disappointed in you than she had yet suspected possible.”