Sovereign

No pity, I cannot bear that. I have lived far beyond the age of most men. Though it is always better not to see your end walking down the road towards you.

How easy it is to leave things undone until they are too late.

Like some habitually anxious men, when a real crisis came he was quite cool.

I think that obsessiveness enabled her to justify to herself what she was doing. Desperate people can think up reasons to justify almost anything, be they stupid or clever

A desperate person can be more dangerous than the worst villain. You never know what they might do in their desperation, while a villain is always a villain.

One bears things because there is no alternative.

I'm with you all the way. I'd prefer action to sitting around like a target.

And you are Death," I answer savagely. "You are the Bane, the antithesis of everything good and alive under the sun.

Then I am sorry for you, mistress," I said evenly. "But that has nothing to do to me. Do not dare to assume you know my mind or history. That is insolence and I will not have it. I will not be your scapegoat!" And with that I turned and walked away, leaving her standing alone in the street.

Perhaps you may find work at court again.” “When the Queen is dead? Perhaps to be a servant in the household of a new Queen, watching to see how long she will last, what secrets I may accidentally hear that could get me into trouble? No, I will never go back to work there, whatever they pay ... They say at Whitehall Lady Rochford has gone mad in the Tower, screams and raves and can make no sensible answer. The poor Queen is held at Hampton Court, Jesu knows what state she is in. Still, a woman must smile and be cheerful, must she not?” She twisted her face into a parody of a girlish smile, then turned and ran from the room.