I can bear pain myself, he said softly, but I couldna bear yours. That would take more strength than I have.

Well, I can't remember not being able to read. I was told I could read by myself very well at the age of three.

If she was broken, she would slash him with her jagged edges, reckless as a drunkard with a shattered bottle.

I thought I could make out Jamie's Highland screech, but that was likely imagination; they all sounded equally demented.

I always thought it would be a simple matter to lie wi' a woman, he said softly. And yet... I want to fall on my face at your feet and worship you"-he dropped the towel and reached out, taking me by the shoulders-"and still I want to force ye to your knees before me, and hold ye there wi' me hands tangled in your hair, and your mouth at my service...and I want both things at the same time, Sassenach.

With that height, plus a face of an ugliness so transcendant as to be grotesquely beautiful, it was obvious why she had embraced a religious life--Christ was the only man from whom she might expect embrace in return.

Men would eat horse droppings, if ye served them wi' butter.