The Scottish Prisoner Quotes

“Could I but lay my head in your lap, lass. Feel your hand on me, and sleep wi' the scent of you in my bed.

Christ, Sassenach. I need ye.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“Lord that she might be safe. She and my children.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“To this point, he could not really have said that he loved William. Feel the terror of responsibility for him, yes. Carry thought of him like a gem in his pocket, certainly, reaching now and then to touch it, marveling. But now he felt the perfection of the tiny bones of William’s spine through his clothes, smooth as marbles under his fingers, smelled the scent of him, rich with the incense of innocence and the faint tang of shit and clean linen. And thought his heart would break with love.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“You could tell from the books whether a library was meant for show or not. Books that were used had an open, interested feel to them, even if closed and neatly lined up on a shelf in strict order with their fellows. You felt as though the book took as much interest in you as you did in it and was willing to help when you reached for it.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“He touched the rough crucifix that lay against his chest and whispered to the moving air, "Lord, that she might be safe, she and my children." Then turned his cheek to her reaching hand and touched her throught the veils of time.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“I would not piss on him was he burning in the flames of hell," Grey said politely.

One of Hal's brows flicked upward, but only momentarily.

"Just so," he said dryly. "The question, though, is whether Fraser might be inclined to perform a similar service for you."

Grey placed his cup carefully in the center of the desk.

"Only if he thought I might drown," he said, and went out.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“I heard you went to Ireland...I haven't seen it in many years. Is it still green then, and beautiful?

Wet as a bath sponge and mud to the knees but, aye, it was green enough.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“Jamie felt a strong desire to go across and see what the open books were, to go to the shelves and run his knuckles gently over the leather and wood and buckrum of the bindings until a book should speak to him and come willingly into his hand.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“There were some chains you wore because you wanted to.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“Soldiers manage by dividing themselves. They're one man in the killing, another at home, and the man that dandles his bairn on his knee has nothing to do wi' the man who crushed his enemy's throat with his boot, so he tells himself, sometimes successfully.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“You felt as though the book took as much interest in you as you did in it and was willing to help when you reached for it.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“It … wasna a scream of fear, or even anger. It … ehm … well, it was the way a woman will scream, sometimes, if she’s … pleased.” “In bed, you mean.” It wasn’t a question. “So do men. Sometimes.” You idiot! Of all the things you might have said …”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“Queen's knight," he said quietly. "To queen two." It was, he knew, a dangerous opening.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“Books that were used had an open, interested feel to them, even if closed and neatly lined up on a shelf in strict order with their fellows. You felt as though the book took as much interest in you as you did in it and was willing to help when you reached for it.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“Still, he was pleased to know that he could recall so much of the play and passed the rest of the journey pleasantly in reciting lines to himself, being careful not to snort.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“Had it really happened, that memory? Or was it only his desire that now and then brought her so vividly to life, in snatched moments that left him desperate with longing but strangely comforted, as though she had in fact touched him briefly?”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“Hal swore in German behind him. He must have reached the part about the rifles; German oaths were reserved for the most stringent occasions, French being used for minor things like a burnt dinner, and Latin for formal insults committed to paper. Minnie wouldn’t let either Hal or John swear in English in the house, not wanting the boys to acquire low habits. John could have told her it was too late for such caution but didn’t.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“Fraser nodded casually toward Twelvetrees. “Is there anything ye want me to beat out of him?”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“As Grey put his hand on the pommel, he heard a low Scots voice murmur in his ear: “Queen’s rook to king eight. Check.” Grey laughed out loud, a burst of exhilaration pushing aside his disquiet. “Ha,” he said, though without raising his voice. “Queen’s bishop to knight four. Check. And mate, Mr … MacKenzie.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“His most intimate keepsake was one that could not be lost or stolen, though. He flexed his left hand, where the thin white line of the letter “C”—carved a little crookedly, but still perfectly legible—showed on the mound at the base of his thumb. The “J” he had left on her would be likewise still visible, he supposed. He hoped.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“Father to son. And with that thought, all the disconnected, fragmentary, scattered fancies in his brain dropped suddenly into a single, vivid image: Jamie Fraser, seen from the back, looking over the horses in the paddock at Helwater. And beside him, standing on a rail and clinging to a higher one, William, Earl of Ellesmere. The alert cock of their heads, the set of their shoulders, the wide stance—just the same.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“I’m glad you’re not dead. Wasn’t sure for a bit.”

Hal went out before he could reply. Tears welled in John’s eyes, and he dashed at them with the sleeve of his nightshirt, muttering irritably in a vain attempt to convince himself that he wasn’t moved.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“What I meant is that he has …” He hesitated, not quite sure how to put it into words. “… a sense of himself that is quite separate from what society demands. He is inclined to make his own rules.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“Fraser closed his eyes for an instant, frowning, then opened them again.

“I see,” he said, very dry. “So was I to kill him, ye’d be obliged to fight me? And if he killed me, ye’d fight him? And should we kill each other, what then?”

“I suppose I’d call a surgeon to dispose of your bodies and then commit suicide,” Grey said, a little testily. “But let us not be rhetorical.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“I'll be setting off just after the Angelus bell- at noon, I mean - should that suit your honors.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“Eros Rising”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“They had had no opportunity to speak, though—and he could not seem to invent a pretext, let alone think what he might say if he found one. He felt amazingly self-conscious, like a boy unable to say anything to an attractive girl. He’d be blushing, next thing, he thought, disgusted with himself.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“Scots/Scottish/Scotch—As I’ve observed in the notes to other books, the word “Scotch,” as used to refer to natives of Scotland, dropped out of favor in the mid-twentieth century, when the SNP started gaining power. Prior to that point in history, though, it was commonly used by both Scots and non-Scots—certainly by English people. I don’t hold with foisting anachronistic attitudes of political correctness onto historical persons, so have retained the common period usage.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“quite suddenly, Grey knew what to say. “Queen’s knight,” he said quietly. “To queen two.” It was, he knew, a dangerous opening. Fraser didn’t move, but Grey felt his sideways glance. After an instant’s hesitation, he replied, “King’s knight to bishop two,” and Grey felt his heart lighten. It was the answer to the Torremolinos Gambit, the one he had used on that far-off, disastrous evening at Ardsmuir, when he had first laid his hand on Jamie Fraser’s.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner

“He recognized the first by his stooped shoulders and the way his head jutted forward, the second by his square, solid seat and his easy, one-handed way with the reins. “God be with ye, Englishman,” he said. Whatever John Grey had thought of Jamie’s announcement that he meant to court Betty Mitchell—Jamie grinned to himself at memory of Lord John’s face, comically trying to suppress his astonishment in the name of courtesy—he’d brought Jamie back to Helwater.”
― Diana Gabaldon, The Scottish Prisoner