Temple of the Winds

"He thought to pay me back when he came across me in the woods. He had Lester hold me down, and he. . well, about the time he got his pants pushed down around his knees, Richard showed up. That took the starch right out of Tommy. Richard told them to be off, and said that he was going to tell their fathers.

"Instead of doing the smart thing, and leaving, the two of them decided to put a few bird arrows in Richard to teach him a lesson to mind his own business. That's why Tommy and Lester don't have any front teeth. He told them that that was for what they wanted to do to me. He broke their valuable yew bows, and told them that that was for what they wanted to do to him. He told Tommy that if he ever again tried to do that to me, he'd slice off. . well, you know."

Kahlan smiled. "That sounds like the Richard I know. It doesn't sound like he's really changed all that much. The Tommys and Lesters are just bigger, now, and meaner."

Nadine gave a little shrug. "I guess." She looked up when Cara held out Nadine's tin cup, which Cara had filled from the ewer on the washstand. Nadine took a sip. "I can't believe people are really trying to kill Richard. I can't believe anyone would want to kill him." She smirked. "Even Tommy and Lester only want to knock out his teeth." She settled the cup in her lap. "I can't believe his own father would want to kill him. You said Darken Rahl had Richard tortured. Why did he do that?"

Kahlan glanced up at Cara. "It's in the past. I really don't want to stir up the memories."

Nadine reddened. "Sorry. I almost forgot that he. . and you…" She drew her fingers across her cheeks, wiping away a fresh tear. "It just doesn't seem fair.

"You"-Nadine flicked a hand in frustration-"you've got everything. You have this, this palace. I never even knew such things existed. It looks like some vision come from the spirit world. And you have such fine things, and magnificent clothes. That dress makes you look like; one of the good spirits."

Nadine looked Kahlan in the eye. "And you're so beautiful. It doesn't seem fair. You even have beautiful green eyes; I just have dumb brown eyes. You must have had men lined up around the palace your whole life, wanting you. You must have had more suitors than most women can even dream of. You have everything. You could have your pick of any man in the Midlands. . and you pick a man from my home."

"Love isn't always fair; it just is. And your eyes are lovely." Kahlan twined her fingers together and hooked her hands over a knee. "What did Richard mean when he said to you that 'there is no "us," and that you of all people should know that?"

Nadine's eyes slid closed as she turned her face away. "Well, I guess a lot of girls in Hartland wanted Richard, not just me. He wasn't like anyone else. He was special. I remember one time when he was about ten or twelve and he talked two men out of fighting. He always had a way about him. He got the two men to laughing, and they left my pa's shop with an arm over each other's shoulder. Richard was always a rare person."

"The mark of a wizard," Kahlan said. "So, Richard must have had a lot of girlfriends?"

"No, not really. He was nice to everyone, and polite, and helpful, but he never seemed to fall for anyone. That only seemed to make them want him all the more. He didn't have a special person, a love. But a lot of us girls wanted to be the one. After Tommy and Lester tried to… to. lay claim to me-" "To rape you."

"Yeah. I guess that was what it really was. I never like to think that someone would really do that to me, like that-holding me down and all. But I guess that that's what they were trying to do: rape me.

"Some people don't call it that, though. Sometimes, if a boy does that to a girl, then he's laid claim to her, and the parents say that it was because the girl encouraged it, and so they make the girl and boy get married before she turns up pregnant. I know girls who had to do that.

"Many younglings, mostly those of the country folk, have it already decided for them who they're to marry. But sometimes a boy doesn't like who he's supposed to marry, and so he lays claim to who he wants, like Tommy tried to do to me, in the hope that either he'll get her pregnant and she'll have to marry him, or their parents will make them wed because she's been spoiled. Tommy was supposed to wed skinny Rita Wellington, and he hated her. Sometimes, the girl really does encourage it, because she doesn't like who her parents picked for her. Mostly, though, younglings go along as they're told.

"My parents never decided for me, some parents don't. They say that it's a recipe for trouble as often as it is one for happiness. They said they figured that I'd know for myself what I wanted. A lo. of the girls who didn't have it decided for them wanted Richard. Some of them, like me, waited long past when we should have been married and mothers two or three times over.