Edward lives as if there is no tomorrow, Richard as if he wants no tomorrow, and George as though someone should give it to him for free.

Before anything else I was a woman who was capable of passion and who had a great need and a great desire for love.

We might, either of us, be Queen of England and yet we'll always be nothing to our family.

Words have weight, something once said cannot be unsaid. Meaning is like a stone dropped into a pool; the ripples will spread and you cannot know what back they wash against.

But young hearts mend easily, and hearts that own half of England have something better to do than to beat faster for love.

I would know you anywhere for my true love. Whoever I was and whoever you were, I would know you at once for my true love.

And – I think you know, don’t you? – that I love you, Anne.’ I feel as if I have been living in a loveless world for too long. The last tender face I saw was my father’s when he sailed for England. ‘You do? Truly?’ ‘I do.’ He rises to his feet and pulls me up to stand beside him. My chin comes to his shoulder, we are both dainty, long-limbed, coltish: well-matched. I turn my face into his jacket. ‘Will you marry me?’ he whispers. ‘Yes,’ I say.