One Corpse Too Many (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, #2)

by Ellis Peters

“I hope,” he said cautiously, “I never do anything without due thought—even if the thought sometimes has to shift its feet pretty briskly to keep up with the deed.”

Ah, well! The age he had been then, young Torold had not even reached yet. These things are for the young.

Why should not the poor rejoice for once at the king’s cost, even if that cost was handed on down the hierarchies until it fell at last upon the poor themselves? Too often they paid, but never got their share of the rejoicing.

be careful how you toss challenges to mortal combat about you, young man, for they may be taken up, to your great consternation.” “My gage is now lying upon the table,” said Hugh Beringar with implacable calm. “You have only to take it up. I have not withdrawn it.”

All I can do is watch, and keep silence.” The fate of women in a world of fighting men, he thought wryly, but for all that, it is not so passive a part as it sounds.