Цитаты из книги The Tapestry

It might be true that I had changed the king’s court, but another truth was that on short span of time, the king’s court was changing me.

“Do you think I do not realize how they laugh at me?” he said, his voice now rough with pain and grief. “How forsaken I appear to every man in England. If I let Catherine live, I am no longer a ruler of this land.” He had dropped the royal “we,” I realized with a start. I could think of nothing else to say but, “She is…

The master spy Jacquard Rolin taught me that when you are trapped in a corner with someone who demands to know things, things you do not wish to disclose, one way to buy more time is to make a gift out of a choice selection of your secret. “Think of it as a portion of cake—share the sugar topping so your opponent will be…

Holbein certainly captured the blessing of Catherine’s beauty: smooth pink-and-white complexion, even features, and shiny auburn hair. A dimple danced low in her right cheek, as if she verged on one of her bursts of giggling. But in those green-gray eyes a shadow lurked. Staring at her image, I felt as if she were trying…

Love, that doth reign and live within my thought, And built his seat within my captive breast, Clad in the arms wherein with me he fought, Oft in my face he doth his banner rest. But she that taught me love and suffer pain, My doubtful hope and eke my hot desire With shamefast look to shadow and refrain, Her smiling grace…

But Hungerford stepped into the aisle, blocking me. “You are a woman of high birth, an obedient daughter of God, modest, disdainful, but when I look in those black eyes, I know you are something different. You have seen things, my lady. Things I have seen, too.”

She stopped me from continuing. “You are accustomed to cautioning me, but I watched you on the river, Joanna, and don’t be too angry when I am the one to caution you on a certain matter.” “Angry? About what?” “Every girl who comes to court loses her head to Master Thomas Culpepper,” Catherine said. “I wouldn’t want you to…

She didn’t say anything for a moment. It was too dark for me to read the expression on Catherine’s face. “That is good of you,” she said. “Joanna, you are the only friend I have ever had who cared for me, for myself, without expecting anything in return.”

As I straightened his chalks, I said, “You see how kind Catherine is, how caring of other people.” “Yes, I see that,” he said and continued to clean his hands with a strong-smelling cloth. That was not enough for me. “Master Holbein, then, you perceive how those who say she is the sort of girl who would serve as mistress…