Quotes by Sharon Kay Penman

I inhale hope with every breath I take.

I’ll admit that my garden now grows hope in lavish profusion, leaving little room for anything else. I suppose it has squeezed out more practical plants like caution and common sense. Still, though, hope does not flourish in every garden, and I feel thankful it has taken root in mine.

It was just like him, she thought; with him, a happy ending was always a foregone conclusion. But such was the power of his faith that when she was with him; she found herself believing in happy endings, too.

…a cynic who was still saddened whenever his jaundiced view of mankind was confirmed...

I would see him, Edward.It was no request; he knew it to be an ultimatum. He shook his head violently, not trusting his voice. Time passed. She was staring at him, saying nothing, and on her face was a look of stunned disbelief, of anguished accusation he knew would haunt him for the rest of his life. But when she spoke, her voice held no hint of tears. It was not a voice to offer either understanding or absolution, spoke of no quarter given, of a lifetime of love denied.God may forgive you for this, she said, very slowly and distinctly, but I never shall.

What do you know of sacrifice? Need I tell you of Yorks dead . . . of Sandal Castle? My brother did survive the battle, his first. He was seventeen and he entreated them to spare his life. They cut his throat. Their heads were then impaled on Yorks Micklegate Bar to please the House of Lancaster, to please a harlot and a madman. She had my fathers head crowned with straw and she left a spike between the two. . . . That one, she said, was for Yorks other son.

What followed was for him a very entertaining spectacle, with one of Edwards brothers seemingly intent upon the most subtle of seductions and the other barely able to force malmsey past the gorge rising in his throat.

Removing his helmet, Edward knelt by the stream called Swillgate, a name that effectively quenched any desire to drink from its depths.

She opened her mouth, clamped it shut again. This was new, this sudden favor shown Gloucester, had been brought back with him from Burgundy like some malevolent foreign pox.

Well, dearest, what would you tell a farmer who had an over-abundant harvest? To plant less, of course!...I am not complaining about the frequency of the planting, she said. I’d just rather not reap a crop every year.

Statecraft and kingship were not for the faint of heart

We tend to forget at times that it is the little ones, the children, who do suffer the greatest hurt. If we cannot comprehend why certain sorrows are visited upon us, how on earth can they?

The great hall was shimmering in light, sun streaming from the open windows, and ablaze with colour, the walls decorated with embroidered hangings in rich shades of gold and crimson. New rushes had been strewn about, fragrant with lavender, sweet woodruff, and balm... the air was... perfumed with honeysuckle and violet, their seductive scents luring in from the gardens butterflies as blue as the summer sky.

He’d passed the longest night of his life locked in mortal combat with his ghosts, calling up and then disavowing twenty years of memories. He would banish that bitch from his heart if it meant cutting her out with his own dagger. And when at last he allowed himself to grieve, he did so silently and unwillingly, his tears hidden by the darkness, his rage congealing into a core of ice.

Why is it honesty when a man speaks his mind and madness when a woman does?

When does he ever think? Richard straddled a chair and accepted a wind cup from Raoul. If he were to sell his brain, he could claim it had never been used., Chapter 7

During the day, memories could be held at bay, but at night, dreams became the devils own accomplices.

...what an unfair advantage the dead had over the living, for there could be no rebuttal, no denial, nothing but the accusing silence of the grave.

It is not easy to be stranded between two worlds, the sad truth is that we can never feel completely comfortable in either world

as was his way, once he acknowledged the problem, he set about finding a means to resolve it