C.S. Pacat quotes:

The guard said, 'Our orders are no one in or out.''You can tell the Prince that,' said Damen, 'after you tell him you let through the Regent's pet.'That got a flicker of reaction. Invoking Laurent's bad mood was like a magical key, unlocking the most forbidding doors.

I didn't send them after you,' said the cool, familiar voice. 'I sent them after the Regent's Guard, who were making enough racket to raise the dead, the drunk, and those without ears.

Then, in the spirit of benevolence, "Your face is well balanced." She slapped him encouragingly on the back, "You have very long eyelashes. Like a cow.

They agreed on a rendezvous, and Laurent took off with the restrained urgency of a man who has to find some way to hide sixteen hands of bay gelding behind a shrub."

Red. Red, the colour of the Regency, scrawled over with the iconography of the border forts, growing, fluttering. These were the banners of Ravenel. Not only the banners, but men and riders, flowing over the hilltop like wine from an over-full cup, staining and darkening its slopes, and spreading.

Torveld favoured Laurent with another of those long, admiring looks that were starting to come with grating frequency. Damen frowned. Laurent was a nest of scorpions in the body of one person. Torveld looked at him and saw a buttercup.

Damen said, If you tell him, I can'tserve him.Tell him? said JordTell him the manhe trusts has lied, and lied again, hasdeceived him into the worsthumiliation?I wouldn't hurt him, said Damen, andheard the words drop like lead.You killed his brother, then got himunder you in bed.