The Sunne In Splendour

by Sharon Kay Penman

Edward, who had a smattering of Spanish picked up from a Spanish girl in Calais, had taught Richard a proverb that he rather fancied, ‘Entre la espada y la pared.’ Between the sword and the wall. Richard had liked it, too.

the felicitous phrase, the memorable metaphor,

the spectacular sunset colours that were so successfully holding back the dark.

but Ned clung like a cockle-bur,

while on the table between them, the candles that still clung to light splashed hot wax into silver holders.

she yearned passionately to comfort him, knowing that there was no comfort to be given.

Ned had so often liked to say, that there were but two kinds of fools in this world, those who ran ahead to meet trouble more than halfway and those who hid in hopes it would somehow pass them by.

Loki and the wolfhounds loped on ahead, exulting in this forest freedom, barking for the sheer joy of it; birds broke cover all around them, launched themselves from the trees like so many feathered arrows and shot skyward.