The following quotes are taken from Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon. Copyright © 1992 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved. Page numbers from Dell Paperback edition.
From: Lady Valerie L.
For I had come back, and I dreamed once more, in the cool air of the Highlands. And the voice of my dream still echoed through ears and heart, repeated with the sound of Brianna's sleeping breath.
"You are mine," it had said. "Mine! And I will not let you go."
Chapter 4: Culloden - Page 70
From: Lady Valerie L.
"I am certainly upset," I began, "but I'm not mad." I stopped, struggling for control. This wasn't the way I'd intended to do it. I didn't know quite what I had intended, but not this, blurting out the truth without preparation or time to organize my own thoughts. Seeing that bloody grave had disrupted any plan I might have formed.
"Damn you, Jamie Fraser!" I said, furious. "What are you doing there anyway; it's miles from Culloden!"
Chapter 5: Beloved Wife - Page 77
From: Lady Tess, Lady Rita
"And yet"---he turned me toward him, hand closing gently over one breast---"yet when I think of you wi' my child at your breast....then I feel as though I've gone hollow as a soap bubble, and perhaps I shall burst with joy."
He pressed me tight against his chest, and I hugged him with all my might.
"Oh, Claire, ye do break my heart wi' loving you."
Chapter 6: Making Waves - Page 97
From: Lady Valerie L.
"Come here to me, Sassenach," he murmured. "My whisky-eyed lass, my love. Let me take ye to bed."
Chapter 6: Making Waves - Page 104
From: Lady Valerie L.
"Tell you what---why don't I make you up a recipe for hobnailed liver? Wonderful hangover cure."
He bent a suspicious blue eye on me.
"That sounds nasty."
"It is," I said cheerfully. "But you'll feel lots better after you throw up."
"Mphm." He stood up and nudged the chamberpot toward me with one toe.
"Vomiting in the morning is your job, Sassenach," he said. "Get it over with and get dressed. I'll stand the headache."
Chapter 6: Making Waves - Page 108
From: Lady Gwen, Lady Valerie L.
"Aye, and I have kept that vow, Sassenach, and so have you." He turned me slightly, and one hand cupped itself gently over the tiny swell of my stomach.
"Blood of my blood," he whispered, "and bone of my bone. You carry me within ye, Claire, and ye canna leave me now, no matter what happens. You are mine, always, if ye will it or no, if ye want me or nay. Mine, and I wilna let ye go."
I put a hand over his, pressing it against me.
"No," I said softly, "nor can you leave me."
"No," he said half-smiling. "For I have kept the last of the vow as well." He clasped both hands about me, and bowed his head on my shoulder, so I could feel the warm breath of the words upon my ear, whispered to the dark.
"For I give ye my spirit, 'til our life shall be done."
Chapter 10: A Lady, with Brown Hair Curling Luxuriantly - Page 193
From: Lady Christina
"I can't sing," he protested.
"Nonsense, nonsense. Of course you can. A nice, deep baritone, too," the little man murmured approvingly. "Excellent. Just what we need. Here, a bit of help for you. Try to match this tone."
Deftly whipping a small tuning fork from his pocket, he struck it smartly against a pillar and held it next to Jamie's left ear.
Jamie rolled his eyes heavenward, but shrugged and obligingly sang a note. The little man jerked back as though he'd been shot.
"No," he said disbelievingly.
"I'm afraid so," I said sympathetically. "He's right, you know. He really can't sing."
Chapter 11: Useful Occupations - Pages 195-196
From: Lady Kelly W., Lady Rita
"Well, I'll tell ye, Sassenach, 'graceful' is possibly not the first word that springs to mind at thought of you." He slipped an arm behind me, one hand large and warm around my silk-clad shoulder.
"But I talk to you as I talk to my own soul," he said, turning me to face him. He reached up and cupped my cheek, fingers light on my temple.
"And, Sassenach," he whispered, "your face is my heart."
Chapter 11: Useful Occupations - Page 205
From: Lady Christina, Lady Merc, Lady Rita
"I'll leave it to you, Sassenach," he said dryly, "to imagine what it feels like to arrive unexpectedly in the midst of a brothel, in possession of a verra large sausage."
Chapter 12: L'Hopital des Anges - Page 238
From: Lady Marnie
"Will ye let me do this later?" he murmured, with a soft bite. "When the child's come, and your breasts fill wi' milk? Will ye feed me, too, then, next to your heart?"
I clasped his head and cradled it, fingers deep in the baby-soft hair that grew thick at the base of his skull.
"Always," I whispered.
Chapter 13: Deceptions - Page 249
From: Lady Christina
"Weel, nay doubt he'll be a bit sore." His Scots accent, usually faint, always grew more pronounced when he drank a lot. He shook his head, squinting through the bottle to judge the level of spirit remaining. "D'ye know, Sassenach, I never 'till tonight realized just how difficult it must ha' been for my father to beat me? I always thought it was me had the hardest part of that particular transaction." He tilted his head back and drank again, then set down the bottle and stared owl-eyed into the fire. "Being a father might be a bit more complicated than I'd thought. I'll have to think about it."
"Well, don't think too hard," I said, "You've had a lot to drink."
"Och, don't worry," he said cheerfully. "There's another bottle in the cupboard."
Chapter 14: Meditations of the Flesh - Page 264
From: Lady Valerie L.
"Claire, ye know what it cost me to do this for you---to spare Randall's life. Promise me that if the time should come, you'll go back to Frank." His eyes searched my face, deep blue as the sky in the window behind him. "I tried to send ye back twice before. And I thank God ye wouldna go. But if it comes to a third time---then promise me you will go back to him---back to Frank. For that is why I spare Jack Randall for a year---for your sake."
Chapter 22: The Royal Stud - Page 403
From: Lady Renee, Lady Rita
"All right," he whispered. His eyes bored into mine, daring me to close them, forcing me to hold his gaze. "All right. And ye wish it, I shall punish you." He moved his hips against me in imperious command, and I felt my legs open for him, my gates thrown wide to welcome ravishment.
"Never," he whispered to me. "Never. Never another but me! Look at me! Tell me! Look at me, Claire!" He moved in me, strongly, and I moaned and would have turned my head, but he held my face between his hands, forcing me to meet his eyes, to see his wide, sweet mouth, twisted in pain.
"Never," he said, more softly. "For you are mine. My wife, my heart, my soul."
Chapter 29: To Grasp the Nettle - Page 518
From: Lady Kelly W., Lady Rita
"Don't move, Sassenach," Jamie's voice came softly, next to me. "Just for a moment, mo duinne---be still."
I obligingly froze, until he touched me on the shoulder.
"That's all right, Sassenach," he said, with a smile in his voice. "It's only that ye looked so beautiful, wi' the fire on your face, and your hair waving in the wind. I wanted to remember it."
I turned to face him, then, and smiled at him, across the body of the child. The night was dark and cold, alive with people all around, but there was nothing where we sat but light and warmth---and each other.
Chapter 32: Field of Dreams - Pages 560-561
From: Lady Kelly W.
He spoke in Gaelic, and so low that I could not have told what he said, even had I known the words. But the whispering voice was thick, and the moonlight from the casement behind him showed the tracks of the tears that slid unregarded down his own cheeks.
It was not a scene that bore intrusion. I came back to the still-warm bed, holding in my mind the picture of the laird of Lallybroch, half-naked in the moonlight, pouring out his heart to an unknown future, holding in his lap the promise of his blood.
Chapter 35: Moonlight - Page 596
From: Lady Valerie L.
"Ye're fools, the lot o' ye," he declared. "The second best way to rid yourself of lice is to pour whisky on them and get them drunk. When they've fallen down snoring, then ye stand up and they'll drop straight off."
"Second best, eh?" said Ross. "And what's the best way, sir, and I might ask?"
Jamie smiled indulgently round the circle, like a parent amused by the antics of his children.
"Why, let your wife pick them off ye, one by one." He cocked an elbow and bowed to me, one eyebrow raised. "If you'd oblige me, my lady?"
Chapter 36: Prestonpans - Page 606
From: Lady Valerie L.
He heaved a deep exasperated sigh. "Sassenach, I've been stabbed, bitten, slapped, and whipped since supper---which I dinna get to finish. I dinna like to scare children and I dinna like to flog men, and I've had to do both. I've two hundred English camped three miles away and no idea what to do about them. I'm tired, I'm hungry, and I'm sore. If you've anything like womanly sympathy about ye, I could use a bit!"
Chapter 36: Prestonpans - Page: 622
From: Lady Valerie L.
"Aye, well," he said. "I dinna recall Adam's asking God to take back Eve---and look what she did to him." He leaned forward and kissed my forehead as I laughed, then drew the blanket up over my bare shoulders. "Go to sleep, my wee rib. I shall be needin' a helpmeet in the morning."
Chapter 36: Prestonpans - Page 626
From: Lady Valerie L.
"Dinna worry yourself, man," Jamie said, patting him companionably on the shoulder. "After all, she's had the handling of my own for quite some time now, and she's not unmanned me yet."
Chapter 36: Prestonpans - Page 657
From: Lady Kelly W.
Jamie brought both his own hands down on the table with a crash and stood up. He leaned across the table, bringing his face within a foot of his grandfather's.
"And you're needing such attentions, Grandsire," he said, "I'll see to it myself." He spread out his hands on the tabletop, broad and massive, each long finger the rough diameter of a pistol barrel. "It's no pleasure to me to be stickin' my fingers up your hairy auld arse," he informed his grandfather, "but I expect it's my filial duty to save ye from exploding in a shower of piss, no?"
Chapter 41: The Seer's Curse - Pages 773-774
From: Lady Jae
"Good work," I said, something occurring to me, "but how did you know where the housekeeper slept?"
"I didnt," he said calmly. "The laundress told me---after I told her who I was, and threatened to gut her and roast her on a spit if she didna tell me what I wanted to know." He gave me a wry smile. "Like I told ye, Sassanach, sometimes its an advantage to be thought a barbarian. I reckon theyve heard of Red Jamie Fraser by now."
"Well, if they hadnt, they will, I said. I looked him over, as well as I could in the dim light. "What, didnt the laundress get a lick in?"
"She pulled my hair," he said reflectively. "Took a clump out by the roots. Ill tell ye, Sassanach, if ever I feel the need to change my manner of employment, I dinna think Ill take up attacking women---its a bloody hard way to make a living."
Chapter 44: In Which Quite a Lot of Things Gang Agley - Page 851
From: Lady Stephanie, Lady Rita
"What is it, love?" I whispered. "Jamie, I do love you."
"I know it," he said quietly. "I do know it, my own. Let me tell ye in your sleep how much I love you. For there's no so much I can be saying to ye while ye wake, but the same poor words, again and again. While ye sleep in my arms, I can say things to ye that would be daft and silly waking, and your dreams will know the truth of them. Go back to sleep, mo duinne."
I turned my head, enough that my lips brushed the base of his throat, where his pulse beat slow beneath the small three-cornered scar. Then I laid my head upon his chest and gave my dreams up to his keeping.
Chapter 45: Damn All Randalls - Page 865
From: Lady Rita
"D'ye think I don't know?" he asked softly. "It's me that has the easy part now. For if ye feel for me as I do for you---then I'm asking you to tear out your heart and live without it."
Chapter 46: Timor Mortis Conturbat Me - Page 887
From: Lady Pat W.
"You can't tell," I said, at last. "It's much too soon to be sure."
He snorted briefly, and a tiny flicker of amusement lit his eyes.
"And me a farmer, too! Sassenach, ye havena been a day late in your courses, in all the time since ye first took me to your bed. Ye havena bled now in forty-six days."
"You bastard!" I said, outraged. "You counted! In the middle of a bloody war, you counted!"
"Didn't you?"
Chapter 46: Timor Mortis Conturbat Me - Page 888
From: Lady Kelly W.
"Claire," he said quietly. "Tomorrow I will die. This child....is all that will be left of me---ever. I ask ye, Claire---I beg you---see it safe."
I stood still, vision blurring, and in that moment, I heard my heart break. It was a small, clean sound, like the snapping of a flower's stem.
At last I bent my head to him, the wind grieving in my ears.
"Yes," I whispered. "Yes, I'll go."
Chapter 46: Timor Mortis Conturbat Me - Page 888
From: Lady Jenny B., Lady Kelly W., Lady Renee, Lady Rita
"I will find you," he whispered in my ear. "I promise. If I must endure two hundred years of purgatory, two hundred years without you---then that is my punishment, which I have earned for my crimes. For I have lied, and killed, and stolen; betrayed and broken trust. But there is one thing that shall lie in the balance. When I shall stand before God, I shall have one thing to say, to weigh against the rest."
His voice dropped, nearly to a whisper, and his arms tightened around me.
"Lord, ye gave me a rare woman, and God! I loved her well."
Chapter 46: Timor Mortis Conturbat Me - Page 889
From: Lady Julie H.
"Cut me," I said urgently. "Deep enough to leave a scar. I want to take away your touch with me, to have something of you that will stay with me, always. I don't care if it hurts; nothing could hurt more than leaving you. At least when I touch it, wherever I am, I can feel your touch on me."
Chapter 46: Timor Mortis Conturbat Me - Page 891
From: Lady M&M
"I should have taken the other," I said. "Your sword hilt will press on it."
He smiled faintly.
"I could ask no more than to feel your touch on me in the last fight---wherever it comes."
Chapter 46: Timor Mortis Conturbat Me - Page 892
From: Lady Kelly W., Lady Rita
Unwrapping the blood-spotted handkerchief, I pressed my wounded hand tightly against his, fingers gripped together. The blood was warm and slick, not yet sticky between our hands.
"Blood of my Blood..." I whispered.
"...and Bone of my Bone," he answered softly. Neither of us could finish the vow, "so long as we both shall live," but the unspoken words hung aching between us. Finally he smiled crookedly.
"Longer than that," he said firmly, and pulled me to him once more.
Chapter 46: Timor Mortis Conturbat Me - Page 892
From: Lady Rita
This was our final parting, and we could find no way to say goodbye.
At last, he smiled crookedly, bent, and kissed me gently on the lips.
"They say..." he began, and stopped to clear his throat. "They say, in the old days, when a man would go forth to do a great deed---he would find a wisewoman, and ask her to bless him. He would stand looking forth, in the direction he would go, and she would come behind him, to say the words of prayer over him. When she had finished, he would walk straight out, and not look back, for that was ill-luck to his quest."
He touched my face once, and turned away, facing the open door. The sun streamed in, lighting his hair in a thousand flames. He straightened his shoulders, broad beneath his plaid, and drew a deep breath.
"Bless me, then, wisewoman," he said softly, "and go."
Chapter 46: Timor Mortis Conturbat Me - Pages 892-893
From: Lady Valerie L.
"One man, a Fraser of the Master of Lovat's regiment, escaped..." Roger repeated softly. He looked up from the stark page to see her eyes, wide and unseeing as a deer's fixed in the headlights of an oncoming car.
"He meant to die on Culloden Field," Roger whispered. "But he didn't."
Chapter 49: Hindsight - Page 947
Permission to reprint these quotes from her copyrighted books
was given by Diana Gabaldon. Thank you, Diana!
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