The Complete Tawny Man Trilogy: Fool’s Errand, The Golden Fool, Fool’s Fate

by Robin Hobb

‘Welcome. I didn’t expect to see you so soon,’ I said, and then heard the awkwardness of my words. ‘An unexpected pleasure is always the most welcome,’ I added to mend the moment, and then realized that such a gallantry was just as inappropriate. Had I completely forgotten how to deal with people? But Jinna’s smile put me at ease. ‘Seldom do I hear such honesty harnessed with such fair words, Tom Badgerlock.

Our first task today is to give no thought to the morrow.’

There is little in life so reassuring as a genuine welcome.

It was something I had never even been able to imagine before: I was loved enough, and valued enough, and I needed nothing more than what I presently had.

The past is no further away than the last breath you took.

Still I promise myself, ‘Next time I will do better’ in the all-too-human conceit that I will always be offered a ‘next time’.

The next words came out on a sob. His words, blunted at the best of times, were barely understandable now. ‘They didn’t even want to blow it. I said, “you can blow it. But then give it back.” But they didn’t even blow it. They just broke it. And laughed at me. My red whistle that my mam gave me.’

You seek a false comfort when you demand that I define myself for you with words. Words do not contain or define any person. A heart can, if it is willing. But I fear yours is not. You know more of the whole of me than any other person who breathes, yet you persist in insisting that all of that cannot be me. What would you have me cut off and leave behind?

How strange to be loved simply for who I was.

Do you forget the screams of your cousins, do you forget coming to visit friends and finding only a scorched patch by a stream? How can you be so false to your own blood? How can you forget?’ ‘How can we forget? It isn’t a matter of forgetting. It is a matter of remembering.’

In each cycle, we may correct old errors, but I think we make as many new ones. Yet what is our alternative? To commit the same old errors again? Perhaps having the courage to find a better path is having the courage to risk making new mistakes.

Few things are so exhilarating as good health on a clear spring morning.

‘Fitz, home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there any more.’