The Familiars

If the Devil is poverty, and hunger, and grief, then yes, I think they know the Devil.

Loyalty is earned, not demanded.

- 'I bet you are not afraid of anything', I said. 'Of course I am,' she said, and she pulled at a loose thread in her apron. 'I am afraid of lies.'-

There is no difference in it, really. It’s the same life for a daughter as it is for a wife – just a different man telling you what to do.

Alice Gray saved my life, not just once but many times. When I itched, she brought me plants to rub on my skin. When I was sick, she made me tinctures. She kept me company when I was at my lowest. She planted a garden for my health.' 'Sounds like a witch to me, Richard said bitterly. 'How else would she know those things?' 'She is a midwife, like her mother before her. Are you like the king now, thinking all wise women and poor women and midwives are carrying out the Devil's work? Why, he must be the largest employer in Lancashire.

I wished for sadness: that was easy, and came with things past rather than uncertain things ahead.

Respect is earned, not demanded.

Laws [are] like cobwebs, where the small flies are caught but the great break through.

Fire is for stewpots and heretics

El rey no es partidario de las mujeres que intentan buscarse la vida como pueden: ayudando al prójimo, ahuyentando las enfermedades e intentando mantener a sus hijos con vida. Y mientras no lo sea, yo tampoco lo seré de él.

Women carried life and death in their stomachs when they conceived; it was a fact of life.

Before I reached the shelter of the trees, I knew the sickness was coming again. I pulled the hem of my skirt away from where it splattered the grass, then used my kerchief to wipe my mouth. Richard had the laundrywomen sprinkle them with rose water. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths, and when I opened them I felt slightly better. The trees shivered and birds sang merrily as I went deeper, and in less than a minute I had lost Gawthorpe altogether. The house was as conspicuous as I was in these parts, made of warm golden stone and set in a clearing. But while the house couldn’t keep you from the woods that seemed to draw ever closer and were visible from every window, the woods could keep Gawthorpe from you. Sometimes it felt as though they were playing a game