“Your trouble, William, is that you have no ambition. You don't see that there is in life only ever one goal.' 'And what is that?'More', George said simply. 'Just more of anything. More of everything.”

“I don't think your God has ever advised you otherwise. You hear only what you want. He only ever commands your preferences.”

“I do think your brother grows more peculiar every day,' I complain to Edward when he comes to my rooms in Whitehall Palace to escort me to dinner.'Which one?' he asks lazily. 'For you know I can do nothing right in the eyes of either. You would think they would be glad to have a York on the throne and peace in Christendom, and one of the finest Christmas feasts we have ever arranged; but no: Richard is leaving court to go back north as soon as the feast is over, to demonstrate his outrage that we are not slogging away in a battle with the French, and George is simply bad tempered.”

“And it seems to me that there is nothing more likely to cure a woman of lust than marriage. Now I understand what the saint meant when he said that it was better to marry than to burn. In my experience, if you marry, you certainly won't burn.”

“True obedience can only happen when you secretly think you know better, and you choose to bow your head. Anything short of that is just agreement, and any ninny-in-waiting can agree.”

“I was born to be your rival,' she [Anne] said simply. 'And you mine. We're sisters, aren't we?”

“I told you, I don't want you riding with me.""Which is why I waited," Frieze explained patiently. "To see what direction you were going in, so that I could make sure I took the opposite one. but of course, there may be wolves, or thieves, highwaymen or brigands, so I don't mind your company for the first hour or so.”