Marriage and Love Quotes in Beneath a Marble Sky

Father leaned toward Mother to refill her wine goblet. I'd seen him do such tasks a thousand times, when even minor nobles had servants attend to these duties. Father, however, preferred to please Mother himself. And while most lords surrounded themselves with young concubines, Father chose to be alone with Mother. He was kind to his other wives but seldom visited them. Even at such a young age, I was keenly aware of the rare quality of my parents' love for each other, and often wondered if it was a blessing that I was destined ever to experience. It seemed impossible that I'd ever know such bliss, impossible that I might become worthy enough to merit a man like my father. (1.121)

"But how am I to find love, as you did, if Father weds me to a stranger?"

She adjusted a diamond brooch in my hair. "Remember that many marriages of love begin as marriages of politics. Yours may be no different." (2.39)

He finished with me, and as he did I began to understand the concept of hate. Other emotions I grasped fully. I feared Aurangzeb. I loved Father and worshipped Mother. Beggars I pitied and children I envied. But hatred was a feeling I had never experienced, nor wanted to. Nevertheless, that night, as I bled and wept and hated, I contemplated fleeing this creature or, better still, slipping some poison into his rice. Surely the world would not lament his departure. (4.33)