Blood of the Fold

Richard checked that they were still on the path. "Berdine, I only said that because it's what you always say."

She thought in silence as they moved cautiously across the room. "Lord Rahl, may I ask you a question? A serious question? A personal question?"

"Sure."

She pulled her wavy brown braid over her shoulder and held on to it. "When you marry your queen, you will still have other women, won't you?"

Richard frowned down at her. "I don't have other women now. I love Kahlan. I'm loyal in my love to her."

"But you are the Lord Rahl. You can have any you wish. Even me. That is what the Lord Rahl does; he has many women. You have but to snap your fingers."

Richard got the distinct impression that she was definitely not making an offer. "Is this about when I put my hand on you, on your breast?" She glanced away and nodded. "Berdine, I did that to help you, not because.. well, not because of anything else. I hoped you would know that."

She quickly put a concerned hand to his arm. "I do know. That's not what I mean. You've never touched me in the other way. What I mean is that you never make those requirements of me." She chewed her lower lip. "The way you put your hand on me has me feeling very ashamed."

"Why?"

"Because you risked your life help me. You are my Lord Rahl, and I have not been honest with you."

Richard gestured, guiding them on the path around a column twenty men couldn't have held hands around. "You're getting me confused, Berdine."

"Well, I say that I am your favorite so that you will not think I don't like you."

"You are trying to say you don't like me?"

She clutched his arm again. "Oh no. I love you."

"Berdine, I told you I have — "

"Not like that. I mean I love you as my Lord Rahl. You have freed me. You have seen that I am more than simply Mord-Sith, and you have trusted me. You saved my life and returned me to whole. I love you for the kind of Lord Rahl you are."

Richard shook his head as if to clear it. "You're not making any sense. What does this have to do with you always saying that you're my favorite.

"I say that so you won't think I wouldn't willingly go to your bed if asked. I feared that if you knew that I didn't want to, then you would force me, to be perverse."

Richard held the light out as they reached the passageway leading from the room. It looked a simple block hall. "Stop fretting about it." He motioned her onward. "I've told you I wouldn't."

"I know. And after what you did — " She touched her left breast. "—I believe you. But I didn't before. I'm beginning to see that you really are different in more ways than a few."

"Different from who?"

"Darken Rahl."

"Well, you're right about that." As they walked on down the long hall, again he suddenly looked at her. "Are you trying to tell me that you're in love with someone, and you have only been saying those things to me so than I wouldn't think you were trying to avoid my affections, and therefore wouldn't be provoked to force you?"

Her fist tightened on her braid as her blue eyes closed for a moment. "Yes."

"Really? I think that's wonderful, Berdine." At the end of the hall, they came to a broad room, the walls lined with bundled tufts of fur and hair hanging from framed panels. Richard studied the displays from a distance. He recognized one tuft as gar fur.

Richard looked over as he started out again and grinned. "Who is it?" He waved his hand, feeling a sudden flush of embarrassment that, considering her odd mood at the moment, he might be overstepping his bounds. "Unless you don't want to tell me. You don't have to tell me. I don't want you to feel you have to. It's your business, if you choose."

Berdine swallowed. “Because of the things you have done for us, for me, I wish to confess."

Richard made a face. "Confess? Telling me who you're in love with isn't a confession, it's — "

"Raina."

Richard's mouth snapped shut. He looked back to the way they were going. "Green tiles, left foot only. Right foot only on the white ones, until we cross this space. Don't skip a green or white tile. Touch the pedestal before you step from the last tile."

She followed him as he stepped carefully from the green to the white tiles until they had reached the stone floor on the other side, touched the pedestal, and moved into a tall, narrow corridor of sparkling silver stone, like a cleft in a huge jewel.

"How did you know that — the green-tlle-white-tile business?"

"What?" He glanced back with a frown. "I don't know. It must have been a shield or something." He looked back to her as she walked with her eyes on the floor. "Berdine, I love Raina, too. And Cara, and you, and Ulic and Egan. Kind of like family. Is that what you mean?" She shook her head without looking up. "But… Raina is a woman."

Berdine shot him a cool scowl.

"Berdine," he said after a long silence, "you had better not tell Raina this or — "

"Raina loves me, too."

Richard straightened, not knowing quite what to say. "But how can… you can't… I don't see… Berdine, why are you telling me this?"