Lord John and the Hand of Devils Quotes

“Filial respect caused Grey to hesitate in passing ex post facto opinions on his mother's judgment, but after half an hour in the company of either Paul or Edgar, he could not escape a lurking suspicion that a just Providence, seeing the DeVanes so well endowed with physical beauty, had determined that there was no reason to spoil the work by adding intelligence to the mix.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“Go to bed, Tom," he managed to say. "Don't wake me in the morning. I plan to be dead.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“Hell was full of clocks, he was sure of it. There was no torment, after all, that could not be exacerbated by a contemplation of time passing. The large case clock at the end of the corridor had a particularly penetrating tick-tock, audiable above and through all the noises of the house. It seemed to Lord John Grey to echo his own heartbeats, each one a step on the road towards death.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“I have...an understanding. In England." His understanding with James Fraser was that if he were ever to lay a hand on the man or speak his heart, Fraser would break his neck instantly. It was, however, certainly an understanding, and clear as Waterford crystal.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“Stephan’s hand left his breast, and reached out. Grey took it, and felt love flow between them. He thought that heart and body must be entirely melted—if only for that moment. Then they parted, each drawing back, each seeing the flash of desolation in the other’s face, both smiling ruefully to see it.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“Christ, was he going to die in public, in a pleasure garden, in the company of a sodomite spy dressed like a rooster?”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“The simple act of writing Fraser’s name had given him a sense of connexion, and he realized that the desperate need for such connexion was what had driven him to write it.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“Might he ever see Jamie Fraser again? There was a good chance he would not. If chance did not kill him, cowardice might. The mania of confession was on him; best make the most of it. His quill had dried; he did not dip it again. I love you, he wrote, the strokes light and fast, making scarcely a mark upon the paper, with no ink. I wish it were not so. Then he rose, scooped up the scribbled papers, and, crushing them into a ball, threw them into the fire.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“Grey’s hair was like his mother’s—fair, thick and slightly wavy, prone to disorder unless tightly constrained, which it always would be, if Tom Byrd was given his way.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“The mere contemplation of revelation and the loss of its possibility, though, had shown him something important. Stephan von Namtzen both attracted and aroused him, but it was not because of his own undoubted physical qualities. It was, rather, the degree to which those qualities reminded Grey of James Fraser. Von Namtzen was nearly the same height as Fraser, a powerful man with broad shoulders, long legs, and an instantly commanding presence. However, Stephan was heavier, more crudely constructed, and less graceful than the Scot. And while Stephan warmed Grey’s blood, the fact remained that the Hanoverian did not burn his heart like living flame. He lay down finally upon his bed, and put out the candle. Lay watching the play of firelight on the walls, seeing not the flicker of wood flame, but the play of sun upon red hair, the sheen of sweat on a pale bronzed body … A brief and brutal dose of Mr. Keegan’s remedy left him drained, if not yet peaceful.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“He could imagine himself some demon of the air, taking wing to haunt the dreams of a man, seize upon a sleeping body and ride it—could he fly as far as England? he wondered. Was the night long enough?”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“Grey was modest about his own endowments, but also honest enough to admit that he possessed some and that his person was reasonably attractive to women.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“You underestimate your own merits, John—as always. Of course, nothing becomes manly virtue more than simple modesty.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“His heart was beating faster. Everett’s perfume was his accustomed musk and myrrh; the scent of it conjured tumbled linens, and the touch of hard and knowing hands.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“Fatigue and distress tended merely to sharpen Grey’s fine-cut features,”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“He could not help himself; whether it brought him comfort or misery, he felt he had no choice now but to speak of Fraser—and Quarry was the only man in London to whom he could so speak.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“A strange thought occurs to me. There is of course no point of similarity between yourself and Stapleton in terms of circumstance or character. And yet there is one peculiar commonality. Both you and Stapleton know. And for your separate reasons, cannot or will not speak of it to anyone. The odd result of this is that I feel quite free in the company of either one of you, in a way that I cannot be free with any other man.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“Matters did not proceed as smoothly as he had hoped. For one thing, Maude was present, and loud in her disbelief that anyone could suppose that the sacred name of DeVane could be disparaged in this wanton fashion.

Edgar, bolstered by support from the distaff side, kept thwacking a metaphorical riding crop against his leg, clearly imagining the prospect of thrashing Lord Marchmont or Colonel Twelvetrees with it. Grey admitted the charming nature of the notion, but found the repetition of the sentiment wearing.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“I wish you the best of luck,” Grey said politely. “And I do hope that the gentleman Tom saw in the custody of the press gang was Mr. Gormley. However—if he was, does this not rather obviate your conclusion that he was in possession of incriminating information regarding the perpetrator?”

Jones gave him a glassy look, and Tom Byrd looked reproving.

“Now, me lord, you know you oughtn’t talk like that at this hour of the morning. You got to pardon his lordship, sir,” he said apologetically to Jones. “His father—the duke, you know—had him schooled in logic. He can’t really help it, like.”

(Haunted Soldier)”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“Used as he was to general approbation of his person, he was amused to discover that his vanity was mildly affronted at her plain astonishment that such an insignificant sort as himself should be brother to the darkly dramatic Edgar DeVane.

(Haunted Soldier)”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“You’ve not been sleeping proper,” Byrd said accusingly. “I can tell. You’ve been a-wallowing on your pillow; your hair’s a right rat’s nest!”

“I do apologize, Tom,” Grey said politely. “Perhaps I should sleep upright in a chair, in order to make your work easier?”

(Haunted Soldier)”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“Stephan’s hand left his breast, and reached out. Grey took it, and felt love flow between them. He thought that heart and body must be entirely melted - if only for that moment.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“You will never satisfy a woman,” she said softly. “Any woman who shared your bed will leave after no more than a single night, cursing you.”

“Very likely, madam,” he said. “Good night.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“Superstition and sensation are always so much more appealing than truth and rationality. The”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“Her breath was warm on his cheek, smelling of fried egg.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“He had been trying to suppress the feeling Stephan roused in him, but in the end, such things were never controllable—they rose up. Sometimes like the bursting of a mortar shell, sometimes like the inexorable green spike of a crocus pushing through snow and ice—but they rose up. Was he in love with Stephan? There was no question of that. He liked and respected the Hanoverian, but there was no madness in it, no yearning. Did he want Stephan? A soft warmth in his loins, as though his blood had begun somehow to simmer over a low flame, suggested that he did.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“Boxing the Jesuit?” Stephan nudged Grey with an elbow, and raised thick blond brows in puzzlement. “Cockroaches? What does this mean, please?”

“Ahhh…” Having no notion of the German equivalent of this expression, Grey resorted to a briefly graphic gesture with one hand, looking over his shoulder to be sure that none of the women was watching.

“Oh!” Von Namtzen looked mildly startled, but then grinned widely. “I see, yes, very good!”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“He was overcome with a sudden sense of premonition, though he did not believe in premonition. He felt things in motion around him, things that he did not understand and could not control, things settling of themselves into an ordained and appointed position, like the revolving spheres of his father’s orrery—and he wished to protest this state of affairs, but could not.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“Not for the first time, Grey wondered at a religion which rejected so many of the things that made life tolerable. Perhaps it sprang from an intent to make heaven seem that much more desirable by contrast to a life from which pleasure had been largely removed.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils

“I have … an understanding. In England.” His understanding with James Fraser was that if he were ever to lay a hand on the man or speak his heart, Fraser would break his neck instantly. It was, however, certainly an understanding, and clear as Waterford crystal.”
― Diana Gabaldon, Lord John and the Hand of Devils