Kahlan nodded and then laid her head against his chest. She could hear his heart beating. “Thank you for getting this outfit to be married in. You look more handsome than ever.”
She closed her eyes against the pain of the words she had heard back in the red room. “Richard, why didn’t you get angry when Cara said those cruel things?”
“Because I understand what was done to them. I’ve been in that world of madness. Hate would have destroyed me; forgiveness in my heart was the only thing that saved me. I don’t want hate to destroy them. I didn’t want to let mere words ruin what I’m trying to give them. I want them to learn to trust. Sometimes you can only gain trust by giving it.”
“Maybe you’re having an effect. Despite what Cara said back there, earlier today she said some things that make me think they understand.” Kahlan smiled and tried to lighten the subject of the Mord-Sith. “I heard you were outside today with Berdine and Raina, taming chipmunks.”
“Taming chipmunks is easy. I was doing something considerably more difficult; I was trying to tame Mord-Sith.” His tone was grave, leading to the impression that his thoughts were far away. “You should have seen Berdine and Raina. They were giggling, just like little girls. I almost wept at the sight.”
Kahlan smiled to herself in wonder. “And here I thought you were just out there wasting time. How many more Mord-Sith are back at the People’s Palace in D’Hara?”
“Dozens.”
“Dozens.” It was a daunting thought. “At least chipmunks are plentiful.”
He stroked a hand down her hair as he held her head to his chest. “I love you, Kahlan Amnell. Thanks for being patient.”
“I love you, too, Richard Rahl.” She clutched his tunic and pressed herself against him. “Richard, Shota still scares me. Promise me that you really will marry me.”
He let out a little, breathy laugh and then kissed the top of her head.
“I love you more than I could ever tell you. There is no one else, not Nadine, not anyone; I swear an oath on my gift. You are the only one I will ever love. I promise.”
She could hear her heart drumming in her ears. That was not the promise she had asked for.
He pushed away. “I have to go.”
“But…”
He looked back around the corner. “What? I have to go.”
She shooed him with a hand. “Go. Hurry back to me.”
He blew her a kiss and then he was gone. She leaned a shoulder against the corner as she watched his billowing gold cape recede down the hall, and listened to the jangle of chain mail and weapons and thud of boots as a raft of guards trailed in his wake.
7
The two remaining Mord-Sith and Egan waited in the red sitting room. The door to the bedroom was closed.
“Raina, Egan, I want you to go protect Richard,” Kahlan announced as she walked in.
“Lord Rahl told us to remain with you, Mother Confessor,” Raina said.
Kahlan lifted an eyebrow. “Since when have you followed Lord Rahl’s orders when it comes to matters of protecting him?”
Raina grinned wickedly: a rare sight. “Fine by us. But he will be angry that we left you alone.”
“I have Cara and a palace packed with guards and surrounded by troops. The biggest danger to me is that one of those hulking guards will step on my foot. Richard has only five hundred men, and Berdine and Ulic. I’m worried for him.”
“What if he sends us back?”
“Tell him… tell him… Wait.”
Kahlan crossed the room to the mahogany writing desk and pulled paper, ink, and pen from under the lid. She dipped the pen, leaned over, and wrote: Stay warm and sleep snug. It gets cold in the mountains in the spring. I love you—Kahlan.
She folded the paper and handed it to Raina. “Follow at a distance. Wait until after they set up camp, then give him this message. Tell him that I told you it was important. It will be dark, and he won’t send you back in the dark.”
Raina unfastened two buttons at the side of her leather outfit and slid the note in between her breasts. “He will still be angry, but at you.”
Kahlan smiled. “The big fellow doesn’t scare me. I know how to cool his scowl.”
Raina smiled conspiratorially. “I’ve noticed.” She looked over her shoulder at a pleased-looking Egan. “Let’s do our duty and deliver the Mother Confessor’s message to Lord Rahl. We need to find some slow horses.”
After they had departed, Kahlan glanced to a watchful Cara, and then knocked on the bedroom door.
“Come in,” came Nadine’s muffled voice.
Cara followed Kahlan in. Kahlan didn’t object; she knew that if she had asked her to wait outside, Cara would have ignored the order. The Mord-Sith paid no heed to orders if they thought protecting her or Richard required that they did so.
Nadine was rearranging things in her scruffy travel bag. Her head hung low, looking into the bag, and her thick hair dangled down around her head, hiding her face. Periodically, she pushed her kerchief in under that veil of hair.
“Are you all right, Nadine?”
Nadine sniffled, but didn’t look up. “If you call being the biggest fool the spirits ever saw all right, then I guess I’m just dandy.”
“Shota has played me for a fool, too. I know how you feel.”
“Sure.”
“Is there anything you need? Richard wanted me to see to it that you have anything you need. He’s concerned about you.”
“And pigs fly. He just wants me out of your fine room, and on the road home.”
“That’s not true, Nadine. He said that you were a nice person.”
Nadine finally straightened and pushed some of her hair back over her shoulder. She wiped her nose and stuffed the kerchief in a pocket in her blue dress.
“I’m sorry. You must hate me. I didn’t mean to come busting in here and try to take your man. I didn’t know. I swear, I didn’t know, or I’d neve
r have done it. I thought… well, I thought he wanted…” The word “me” was drowned in the sound of her tears.
Trying to imagine the devastation of losing Richard’s love stirred Kahlan’s sympathy. She gave Nadine a comforting hug and sat her on the bed. Nadine pulled the kerchief back out of her pocket and pressed it against her nose as she wept.
Kahlan sat down on the bed next to the woman. “Why don’t you tell me about it, about you and Richard, if it would make you feel better? Sometimes, it helps to have someone listen.”
“I feel so foolish.” Nadine flopped her arms down in her lap as she made an effort to control her weeping. “It’s my own fault. I always liked Richard. Everybody liked Richard. He’s nice to everyone. I’ve never seen him like he was today. He seems so different.”
“He is different, in some ways,” Kahlan said. “Even from last autumn, when I first met him. He’s been through a lot. He’s had to sacrifice his old life, and he’s been tested by events. He’s had to learn to fight, or die. He’s had to face the fact that George Cypher wasn’t his real father.”
Nadine looked up in astonishment. “George wasn’t his father? Then who was? Someone named Rahl?”
Kahlan nodded. “Darken Rahl. The leader of D’Hara.”
“D’Hara. Until the boundary came down, I only thought of D’Hara as an evil place.”
“It was,” Kahlan said. “Darken Rahl was a violent ruler who sought conquest through torture and murder. He had Richard captured and tortured nearly to death. Richard’s brother, Michael, had betrayed him to Darken Rahl.”
“Michael? Well, I guess that really doesn’t surprise me. Richard loved Michael. Michael is an important man, but he has a mean streak. If he wants something, he doesn’t care who it hurts. Though no one had the nerve to voice it, I don’t think anyone was too unhappy when he left and never came back.”
“He died in the fight with Darken Rahl.”
Nadine didn’t seem unhappy about this news either. Kahlan didn’t say that Richard had had Michael executed for betraying the people he was supposed to be protecting, for his responsibility in the deaths of so many.