The Virgin's Lover Quotes
"God strike her dead, she swore into her pillow as her head rang with the pound of Elizabeth’s bells."
"But she was not. She would rather have had him at her side as an attainted traitor, with her in the drudgery of the day and in the warm silence of the night."
"How could we end up like this? she whispered to the stormy sky. Since I love him so much, and since he loves me?"
"I was born for greatness, and I have to claim it. I was born to serve my family and my country."
"You be a good husband, she retorted. And don’t leave me."
"My beautiful horse was shot out from under me by a cannon ball. I fell under him as he went down, and his body shielded me and saved my life."
"I don’t want my wife to work like a peasant on the land. I was born for greater things than that."
"She will go to the Philipses, at Chichester, as we agreed," he said steadily.
"God bless you and keep you, Robert Dudley, she said."
"Then come with me to my chapel now, she said."
"His ruff was of the finest lace, lying in soft folds around his neck, his hair long and lustrous, spread on his collar."
"She trusted him as she trusted no other; he could advise her against her own desires and she would listen."
"Elizabeth had seen her father dismiss advisors whose counsel was against his wishes; she had seen him arraign members of his own council for treason because they brought him bad news."
"She is small scale, not a queen at all yet. She will stick at the raising of the Host because she can see it; that is real, it happens before her nose."
"The queen rides like a Diana. There is no one to match her. I would put her on any horse in the stables and it would know its master."
"And she was not yet old enough to want to rule alone. The crown was unsteady on her head, the country was filled with her enemies."
"I have been preparing the list of my emissaries to go to the courts of Europe to announce my coronation."
"Her very glance could make them ripple with longing for her attention."
"Amy Dudley practiced her writing, but there seemed little point."
"Catherine had been with Elizabeth’s mother, Anne Boleyn, in the last dreadful days in the Tower."
"I keep faith," Amy said staunchly. "I wait for him, and I trust that he will come home to me."
"I am certain she is only securing him as an ally," Mary Sidney said quietly. "And amusing herself, of course."
"She is like a horse with flies. She cannot be at peace," Mary shook her head.
"There is no England," he said brutally. "Not as you mean."
"But however you plan for our family, you cannot hope to marry the queen," she said, her voice very low.
"I absolutely deny the authority of the Pope. Everybody knows that I do," Elizabeth said hastily.
"The treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis puts us in a far stronger position than ever before," Cecil began.
"I am so happy," Amy said. "I had hoped you would be here in time to see the May in."
"I am so sorry," Elizabeth said sweetly to Count Feria. "But it is impossible."
"I would have to be at court for much of the time," he pointed out. "But I never forget that I am married and that you are my wife."
"Sir Robert, you are a very Tantalus to spread a feast before us but never to bid us to dine."
"Pretty enough, William Cecil said to himself, glancing at the sun which was now almost overhead."
"And yet, Cecil said quietly to himself. And yet, we should get her married."
"You saw the letter as well as I," she said. "First his clerk wrote he was busy but that he would come as soon as he could, then in the second sentence he corrects the first and says that he will come at once."
"As he should be, honored among others," Lizzie maintained stoutly.
"Of course," Lizzie said patiently. "A court breakfast might well last for most of the day."
"I have come to bid you farewell, Queen Elizabeth," Jane said with glacial courtesy.
"She says that the queen’s own kinsman the Duke of Norfolk has sworn that if he dishonors her, he is a dead man, and he would not make such a threat lightly or for no reason."
"God rest her soul," Will said. "She was a most unlucky queen."
"For God’s sake, Amy, you’ve stayed with my sister at Penshurst! You know what I expect!"
"She is like a milkmaid with a swain. Where the devil is she now?"
"And do you always pull your mistresses off their horses and bed them on the ground?"
"I am full of desire again. I am becoming a glutton for you."
"Uncannily virtuous," he said, and was rewarded by the flash of her smile.
"I am so hungry. I have never had such an appetite before."
"I have failed in my love of my husband. I have set my judgment above his."
"I have poisoned my love for him with envy and jealousy. I have poisoned myself."
"You are both endangered by this folly. Your reputation has suffered."
"I am yours, heart and soul. I always have been since you are my queen."
"I have loved her from childhood and in these last months I have fallen in love."
"She is Queen of England, I am her Master of Horse. I am a married man."
"Every single day of my life I have to live without him and to know that he is living without me."
"It's like all the life and color and warmth has bled out of the world when he is not with me."
"I am missing my eyes. I can't see without him. Without him I am a blind woman."
"It is sufficient reason for the French to declare war against us. With this, we have given them just cause."
"They say that my husband and the queen will be married within a year."
"No one can say I’m standing between you and a good marriage."
"I know that. He knows that. Probably even she, in her poor sinful heart, knows that."
"I shall write to my brother-in-law. They are always glad to see you."
"I will stand your friend if you would advise her of her best interests."
"She has made everything bad; she is the false coin of the kingdom."
"God joined Robert and me together; no one can put us apart."
"She only sees eleven ships. Three lost already."
"My fleet! My ships! Lost by your impatience, by your folly, Cecil."
"You cannot play the woman now; you have to have the heart and stomach of a man."
"I can’t stand to see him, I really can’t, and my hands are bleeding."
"You have never seen me be a king. I have always been nothing more than a clever and duplicitous woman."
"It eats into me like a canker, Lizzie. I could think myself dying of it."
"I have always been nothing more than a clever and duplicitous woman."
"All her life Amy has been on a rack of his ambition."
"Doesn’t she look like a woman walking toward her grave?"
"A woman throwing herself headfirst downstairs or a queen taking a married man to her bed and the two of them hounding the true wife to her death?"
"You will not have secrets with another man behind my back."
"Mary never did so much. She never had to face an invasion from a foreign power."
"Her mettle was not tested as yours has been. And you were tested and not found wanting."
"You were your father’s daughter and you have earned the peace."
"Scotland is a full month behind in the garden."
"You could go on progress to Newcastle one summer."
"I was very afraid. Kat thought that my health would break under the strain."
"As soon as he lays his hand on my forehead I feel at peace."
"Princess, this is a disaster worse than a French invasion."
"You cannot marry a commoner, a man whose family has been under the shadow of treason."
"A binding promise of marriage. A de futuro betrothal before witnesses."
"You are angry with me. You think I have made a terrible mistake."
"Princess, they will not accept him as your husband and your consort."
"The people of England would never turn against me just for falling in love."
"I thought you might be tired of here and want to move on. That's all."
"I can’t talk now. I’ll talk to you later, when we are alone."
"I am sure that there is something the matter."
"You won’t lose me. I am yours, heart and soul. I am promised to you."
"I would wait for you. I would be true to you."
"We have to get the country to accept you. It may take a little time."
"Don’t you think he knows that I shall be your declared husband within the year?"
"I cannot help but love him. I cannot say no to him."
"He has made a demand of me. One I cannot meet."
"Thank God that we have been freed from Popish superstition."
"And he told me to take particular good care of you both."
"I would rather stay here than go home to Stanfield at Christmas."
"The sooner we make a son for England’s cradle the better."
"Would you have me seated at a lower place, eating off silver when you eat off gold?"