Alice Borchardt

He was magnificent, and I will never forget that in that moment, I first loved him. And I never stopped loving him. I do now and always will. No one ever brought me more sorrow or pain or joy than he did. No, nothing, not even my sons, has ever outweighed the love I feel and still feel for him. And I believe – had I known what the future held for us: all the trouble, torment, battle, and grief of our lives – I still believe that I would have yielded my heart into his keeping as I did then

I know love is eternal, so also are folly, lies and roses.

He is tremendously strong, she thought, and liked the idea, even as she had feared that strength when she first met him

I wish. I don’t know what I wish. That you were less I were more, perhaps. Yes, just possibly that’s it

One day she would be a formidable female, a creature to be reckoned with

He smiled at her, and she felt uncomfortable as she always did when he showed her affection as opposed to lust. Lust she expected from a man but not affection. The men in her life, her brothers and father, had not been affectionate; and lust would have been inappropriate, though she saw them direct that at other women, usually women of low rank, ripe to be used and cast aside

I saw he was now and always would be his own man

I am no ordinary woman, and born to a different fate. I would not go whimpering.

[he] was handsome. Just the sight of him stirred strange longings in me

She was afraid of men, with good reason, but she need not fear all of them. Cai loved her and somehow always would. But above all, she could trust him, because dishonesty wasn’t in him. Not always a good trait but a part of his nature. He kept faith without thinking about it at all. He couldn’t imagine not doing so

You are very lovely now and soon you will be beautiful. Ant not in an ordinary way. Youth is always beautiful, but you are like some creatures of fairy born to bring ill to mortals. Only trouble can follow such gifts

For when women take revenge, it is with all their hearts and souls, not to mention considerable inventiveness and ingenuity