The Steel Beneath the Silk

"I curse you! You and your children. May they die in your arms as mine did, and may you never know a moment's happiness with your viking lord!"

Children were so easy to kill.

You must familiarize yourself with all of your properties and with the men who have charge of them. You must make them believe that they can place their trust in you. And that trust, of course, must work in both directions.

Do whatever you must to live and thrive! Do not look back.

There was a very fine line it seemed to her, between desiring justice and desiring vengeance.

The boy had been as haughty as his mother, filled with spite against Cnut, and convinced that God would one day set him upon England's throne. He struck her as a stupid, foolish youth, as pathetic in his useless defiance as his father had been.

Do you think that Cnut will want you when he can have a queen?

She had begged God for an end to the war, and he had answered her prayer. He had given England a bitter defeat.

Dear God, give us an end to this foul war.

No man or boy or even a king could truly be kept safe from harm in the midst of a battle.