Honorverse favorite passages

roseandheather wrote:Moving to Scotland for university.

cthia wrote:In Enemy Hands

"Now wait a minute!" McGinley began. "We can't just—"

"Yes, we can," LaFollet said softly. "Here." He thrust the memo board at her, then jabbed a thumb back down the shaft. "Go," he said, and his flat voice held an implacable note of command. McGinley stared at him for a moment, then inhaled sharply, turned, and slithered into the dimness, and LaFollet looked at Candless.

"Are you sure, Jamie?" he asked quietly.

"I'm sure." Candless' reply was almost serene, and he turned his head to smile at LaFollet. "We've had some good times, Major. Now go get the Steadholder out of this."

"I will," LaFollet told him. It wasn't just a promise; it was an oath, and Candless nodded in satisfaction.

"You'd better be going then, Andrew," he said much more gently. "And later, when you've got her out of here, tell her—" He paused, unable to find the words he wanted, and LaFollet nodded.

"I will," he said again, and put one arm around his fellow armsman, hugging him tight. Then he turned and followed McGinley back down the shaft.

It took him only a few minutes to reach Honor and Venizelos. They stood where McGinley had already passed them, gazing up the shaft as a flechette gun coughed again in rapid fire, and he stepped brusquely past them.

"This way, My Lady," he said, gesturing for them to follow him, but Honor didn't move.

"Where's Jamie?" she asked, and he stopped. He stood for a moment, staring after McGinley, then sighed.

"He's not coming, My Lady," he said as gently as he could.

"No! I can't—"

"Yes, you can!" He rounded on her fiercely, and she flinched before the mingled pride and anguish in his face. "We're armsmen, My Lady, and you're our Steadholder, and you can do whatever the hell it takes!"

She stared at him for a breathless moment, unable to speak, and then her shoulders sagged and her personal armsman took her by the hand, almost as if she were a child.

"Come on, My Lady," he said softly, and she followed him down the shaft while Jamie Candless' flechete gun coughed behind them.

Perhaps the most honorable profession in all the Honorverse.

hanuman wrote:Okay, I get it. She does have a certain majestic manner to her, doesn't she? Elegant as they come, tolerates no bull AND takes no prisoners. Mmmm, I do so love a strong woman...

hanuman wrote:

roseandheather wrote:Moving to Scotland for university.

Good luck with your studies. And you'll enjoy Scotland; it's a beautiful country with a rich history, and the people are wonderfully friendly, even though they speak funny...

hanuman wrote:

roseandheather wrote:Moving to Scotland for university.

Good luck with your studies. And you'll enjoy Scotland; it's a beautiful country with a rich history, and the people are wonderfully friendly, even though they speak funny...

pokermind wrote:Talking funny works both ways, Back in my collage days had a Scottish student ask an American girl "Do you mind if I come by to knock you up a little later?" when informed what that slang term meant in USA the lad was red faced, in Scotland it means n informal visit

Poker

cthia wrote:That is so funny Poker!

My mother had a Scottish friend whose daughter wanted to see Scotland, so I invited her to travel with me to Edinburgh Castle. We travelled to Romania to collect some of my friends, amongst who was a very tall Romanian named Andreea. Upon visiting me here in the states she visited my Uncle's farm to ride. She's 6'4" I think, but it's all legs. Her torso is like a foot, the rest being all legs. Upon seeing her, my grandfather says to her "Honey, I don't know how you're going to actually manage to ride a horse when your legs are dragging the ground. Mounting will be easy. You don't need stirrups, just swing your leg over and up. Perhaps you can paddle while you're up."

She later asks us is she really that tall. "Yes." "Yes." "Yes." "Yes." "Yes." "Yes."

So, when we arrive in Scotland, a cute little lad walks up to her and rears back like he's looking at the Empire State Building and says "Skinny Malinky Longlegs." We all laugh.

They have so many sayings. First you have to 'cipher what they say then you have to 'cipher the meaning.

I have a habit of over spending which they aren't accustomed to. They see it as waste, which got me a ...

Mony a mickle maks a muckle! - Saving a little adds up to a lot. I heard that often.

And "speak O' the devil" is apparently not an American phrase as I once thought.

McKeon turned where he stood, watching the rest of his people scurry about their tasks, and even as he barked orders, a corner of his mind continued to marvel at Horace Harkness. The senior chief's "defection" had fooled even McKeon, and the captain fully intended to sit on him, if that was what it took, to get the entire story out of him. But that would have to wait. Just now, all that mattered was that Harkness' crazy plan actually seemed to be succeeding.

pokermind wrote:Chita, I don't think they are over WW II yet, the common term for American service men then was "Over paid, over sexed, and over here."

Poker

Elizabeth Winton realized something emotionally that she'd long since recognized intellectually. Something Honor's analysis of any possible confrontation with the Solarian League had driven home in this very room only three T-weeks earlier.

Honor Alexander-Harrington had become the closest thing Elizabeth III had to a true peer. Admiral, Countess, Duchess, and Steadholder, the third ranking member of the Star Empire's peerage, a ruling head of state in her own right, and someone who had been born to none of those titles and identities. Someone who had won them. Who'd paid for them in the cold, hard cash of combat, in the loss of people for whom she cared deeply, in all the thousands of deaths—enemy and friend alike—she had taken onto her own conscience in the service of Elizabeth's kingdom, and in her own blood. Someone who had received many of those titles and honors from Elizabeth's own hands because she damned well deserved them.

And that peer—the person, Elizabeth realized now, whose absolute integrity and whose judgment on every other question she most trusted—disagreed with her on this one.