The Lady of the Rivers (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, #1)

by Philippa Gregory

She’s put herself in a worse place.” “The law of men always puts women in a bad place!” I flare up in anger.

Once more, I am watching the most powerful men in the kingdom bring their power to bear on a woman who has done nothing worse than live to the beat of her own heart, see with her own eyes; but this is not their tempo nor their vision, and they cannot tolerate any other.

But we all have to learn to endure what comes. We have to learn to treat misfortune and great fortune with indifference. That is wisdom.”

But she accepted the orders of the woman who would be her mother-in-law as a polite young woman should, and gave every appearance of a girl eager to learn the right way that things should be done: the Groby way.

You have to take care. You are not a private lady; you cannot have private feelings.”

“I may have thoughts, but I have no words,”

He has a vision of a kinder world, a better world, which nobody could deny. But it is no help for those of us who have to live in this one.