“How could a woman who was that beautiful, who smelled that good, who had such perfectly lovely teeth and bright eyes, be so thoroughly, completely, entirely, stark raving mad?" ~ Robert Cameron”

“Runach smiled ruefully. "She doesn't tell me anything.""Perhaps you intimidate her.""Im certain thats not it"Nicholas look at him, clear-eyed. "Runach, my dearest boy, you forget who you are--""Were--""Are," Nicholas stressed."There is nothing of what I was in my veins," Runach said, managing it without too much bitterness. "I am simply a man who will live an extraordinarily long time to enjoy my terribly ordinary life. There is nothing to be intimidated by.""I think others would disagree, but we will leave that for the time being.”

“She was sitting in a garden more beautiful than even her rampaging imagination could ever have conjured up, and she was being serenaded by trees.”

“Say me aye," he whispered against her mouth. "Say me aye." How could she say anything else?”

“Ah, never," Nicholas said, rubbing his hands together. "Such an interesting word.""You know, Your Majesty, the only reason I'm not swearing at you right now is because I was taught to be kind to old men."Nicholas laughed merrily. "Cheeky whelp.""Does that mean you won't slay me for telling you that you're a thoroughly obnoxious, interefering, exasperating..." Runach took a deep breath. "Good breeding prevents me from saying more."Nicholas smiled. "Runach, my dearest boy, you are truly your mother's son.”

“What is wrong with the [tale of] Two Swords?" he asked, even more surprised. "Don't you care for it?""There is too bloody much romance in it," she said curtly.Ah, well, here was the crux of it, apparently. "Don't you like romance?" he ventured.She looked as though she were trying to decide if she should weep or, as he had earlier predicted, stick him with whatever blade she could lay her, hand on. "I don't know," she said briskly."I see," he said, though he didn't. He wished, absently, that he'd had at least one sister. He was very well versed in what constituted courtly behavior and appropriate formal wooing practices, thanks to his father's insistence on many such lectures delivered by a dour man whose only acquaintance with women had likely come from reading about them in a book, but he had absolutely no idea how to proceed with a woman whose first instinct when faced with something that made her uncomfortable was to draw her sword...."I'll stop provoking you, but I will have the answer to a question. Why do you think most men woo?""Because they have no sword skill and need something with which to occupy their time?”

“Shut up," Morgan said, whirling on the woman and pointing the sword at her. "Shut up, you shrill harpy, before I aid you in doing so by means of a dozen ways you won't care for in the least."Adhémar's fiancée fell, blessedly, silent.”