Tidelands Quotes
"Everything was out of its place and time on this full-moon Midsummer Eve."
"She was twenty-seven years old and as weary as a woman of sixty."
"I am mired. I am bound as a tenant to a neglectful lord and I cannot leave."
"I don’t know the rights or the wrongs of it."
"She shook her head, as if grand words meant nothing to her."
"It takes courage to do the right thing."
"I felt as if I were leaving a part of myself behind."
"The horizon was a glorious line of gold."
"Never cause folk to question. You have to be—always—in the bright light of day."
"I am a foolish woman and I have a horror of deep water."
"I am the best judge of my actions. I know what is happening."
"I am grateful. And when I come to my own again I will reward you."
"You have to remember that she is a cottager, little better than a pauper."
"I may have been pressed into the navy, but by God I was glad to go!"
"I had plans for another boat, but I was unlucky a few times."
"The wind and the waves tell her. The moon whispers to her."
"She's a woman who deserves some good luck."
"I've never seen you in such good looks. You're glowing!"
"I don't want any trouble. The day I spent nursing him, I won't speak of, not to anyone."
"For me, it was always pain and harsh treatment."
"It's the law that every parish should have a ducking stool."
"I'm not for you. Our worlds are very far apart."
"She's known from here to Chichester as the most beautiful woman in Sussex."
"I’m never going to be able to sleep," Alys said.
"Are you sure about this? You seem very young to be talking about your wedding?"
"It wasn’t a very good choice," Alinor said quietly.
"All right, I’ll say nothing. And you can say you know nothing for sure."
"This is the tidelands, there’s nothing sure."
"I want you so much I think my heart will stop," he said. "Anywhere, anywhere!"
"I don’t think there is anywhere for us," she said quietly.
"I’d wait sixty!" She pressed herself against him. "I’d wait six hundred years."
"You look beautiful," she said. "I don’t think anyone could resist you."
"I understand eagerness," she said, turning away.
"We don’t want to arrive at dawn. We don’t want to look too eager."
"It’s perfect to come back to. Mrs. Miller herself would admire it. Let’s go."
"Going to Chichester market, Goodwife Reekie?"
"You two look like you’ve been new-minted," Ned complimented them.
"We’ll never say good-bye," he promised. "Never."
"But she has her own wages," Alinor urged him.
"You’ve come! Oh, you’ve come!" He skidded to a halt.
"Mrs. Reekie, thank you for coming. Alys . . ." He shot her a warm conspiratorial glance.
"Nothing’s wrong," Alinor said. "Nothing’s wrong."
"He loves to walk her round the farm," Mr. Stoney confided.
"He’s that proud of it. Our only child, y’know."
"And your son doing so well!" Mrs. Stoney said.
"How ever did he get a place like that?" Mrs. Stoney invited her to explain.
"He’s our only son and he’ll inherit all of this," Mr. Stoney said.
"But it’s no jest to me," Alinor said coldly.
"I hope that you will be very happy," Mrs. Miller said.
"And now I stink of sheep," Alys laughed.
"We were lucky," Alinor said. "We were lucky."
"I should love a Twelfth Night wedding," Alys said.
"Marriage is a serious contract, to be taken in hand for the glory of God," Ned said solemnly.
"Because I want a warm bed in bad weather and dark afternoons."
"Alys, all my life I have lived for you," Alinor stumbled over her words.
"I’ll promise not to end up on the gallows," Alys said gleefully.
"I’m sorry," Alinor said faintly. "I would like that. I would like that. Thank you."
"Good day, Mrs. Reekie," the woman said formally.
"I have sixty pounds!" Alys interrupted suddenly.
"I have it," she claimed. "I have savings of my own that my mother doesn’t know about."
"Sixty pounds," she said defiantly. "Sixty pounds down, and the rest to come. Is that enough?"
"I thought that all my life she had been afraid of deep water and now, in her last moments, she would face that fear and not fear it anymore."
"She stood silent among the quiet sounds of the night, and certainty came to her."
"She did not weep for herself, not for Alys, not even for Rob."
"She had no faith in her purpose or in her courage. She had no faith in herself as the cold murky waters lapped at her feet."
"But slowly she found that she had one belief—only one belief: that she would last through this night, that she would last through any night to come."
"She knew that she would not drown herself. She knew that she would not be broken by this terrible misfortune."
"She thought that all her life—raised by a courageous woman in hard circumstances, abused by a violent husband, loving two children and bringing them up in poverty—had taught her this lesson: to survive."
"I am going to eat my breakfast and so are you."
"But she did not expect him to come. She did not think that anything would be illuminated by the dawn."
"She stood at the edge of the sea, the stone heavy in her grip, and watched the moon’s dappled reflection, silver on the dark water as the waves crept up the shore."
"But I would never have done it. I wouldn't use herbs to poison any baby."
"I’d rather die than poison a baby of ours."
"I know there is life in him. He sleeps and wakes inside me, I can feel him. Perhaps he dreams."
"It’s not. It’s a nothing. It’s not too late."
"Not too late for me to push a bodkin into my belly to kill it in the womb."
"I cannot take you to my mother and my father if you are big with a child and you are still another man’s wife."
"Forgive me . . . It has been a terrible month, a terrible year."
"Since then I’ve been in London and The Hague, and then to London again, trying desperately—you have no idea."
"God forgive us—now he is dead, and it is all over, and we have lost worse than we ever lost before."
"You don’t understand. It was between men. It was about our country, our war."
"You have given me a terrible shock. I don’t know what to say."
"You’re cold, he said, but it was he who shivered."
"We must meet tomorrow somewhere and talk. Where will you meet me?"
"I have to take Rob to Chichester tomorrow."
"You are all that I have left! I have lost everything else."
"I wouldn’t stoop to marry a man who’d kill his own child."
"Everything is changing. We have a parliament instead of a king."
"We can speak to our masters on our own two feet, we don’t have to kneel."
"It’s a terrible thing to speak of. Worse to do."
"It would be an offense to me, against myself."
"I have loved you more than anything in the world and I will spend the rest of my life without you."
"I’ll take a comfort in that, when you’re gone away to your beautiful house and I’m here alone."
"Nobody makes a meat pie like Mrs. Reekie."
"You’re one that loves the old ways, and you know it."
"I can’t, she said flatly. That, I can’t."
"You will go now, and bring it here at once."
"I would gouge your eyes out of your head and blind you for life rather than you saw her again."
"I owe her my life, just as you owe her your honor."
"Because she loves you and me so much she faced her worst fear for us, and she nearly died for us."