Philippa Gregory

"You have to choose the best, every day, without compromise...Guided by your own virtue and highest ambition."

"Edward lives as if there is no tomorrow, Richard as if he wants no tomorrow, and George as though someone should give it to him for free."

"They are a couple in love, and anyone but a fool would see it is simply that, nothing more- and certainly nothing less."

"Be a wife of whom he can make no complaint, Margaret. That is the best advice I can give to you. You will be his wife; that is to be his servant, his possession. He will be your master. You had better please him."

"For a moment we glared at each other, stubborn as cats on the stable wall, full of mutual resentment and something darker, the old sense between sisters that there is only really room in the world for one girl. The sense that every fight could be to the death."

"I have given my word that only death will take me from you."