Free WindSeeker by Charlotte Boyett-Compo

common knowledge now, but then, it was not to be discussed. I was the first of the royal
    family to have been chosen to train at the monastery and, like I said, he didn’t know I was there until I
    was brought home by one of the Grand Master’s servants."
    "What did he do?"
    Conar shrugged. "What could he do? The Temple is a law unto itself. What they do is their own
    concern. Papa went before the Tribunal and told them he refused to let any more of the royal family take
    part in the live-in arrangement at the Monastery. He has made sure there are advocates with each of the
    boys who train at Corinth now." A faint smile appeared on his lips. "Coron and Dyllon were spared
    having to go. The Temple didn’t want them, since they had had me. My brothers were taught by a
    teacher-priest in the keep."
    Liza sat beside him. "It must have been awful for you to see something like that."
    Conar had been trailing his hand in the water. He stopped and took up a bright, gold water lily. With
    water dripping from his fingers, he held the beautiful flower out to her, but avoided looking at her.
    "Milord?" she asked, her hand going to his shoulder. She watched him try to smile, but his lips could do
    no more than tremble.
    "It’s getting late," he whispered. "I think we’d better see if Sadie locked Thom in the wine cellar."
    "Conar?"
    "Let it go, Sweeting. There are some things you have no need to know. Didn’t you once tell me that?"
    She caressed his cheek with her hand. "There is pain in your heart, Beloved, and I would erase it. Ever
    since I have known you, I have seen it lurking there. Isn’t it time you shared that pain with me?"
    He turned his face so that his lips were in the palm of her hand. Gripping her palm to his mouth, he
    planted the softest of kisses there. "You are my life, Elizabeth McGregor. I have wanted, needed to talk
    to you about this for so long, but I’ve never known how to start." He looked away. There was a hitch in
    his breath as he spoke again. "I have never wanted to cause you worry."
    "Something happened while you were at the Abbey, didn’t it? What? Did they try…"
    He attempted to smile, but couldn’t. He put up his hand to cup her chin and tugged gently. "They did
    more than try." He let go of her chin, her look of shock making him flinch with well-remembered shame.
    She sat in stunned silence as he waited for her to accept what he had said. At last, tears filled her eyes.
    "You were molested?"
    He didn’t answer. He couldn’t. Neither could he look at her.
    "They molested you?" she pressed, the horrific notion sending waves of pain through her heart. Liza put
    out her hand to touch him, but something stopped her, told her it would be the worst thing to do. "Did
    you tell anyone? Legion? Cayn?"
    He shook his head. "The only one who knows is Hern. I didn’t need to tell him. He guessed."
    "Why haven’t you told someone?"
    "I was too ashamed, Liza. I was afraid of what they would do to me. What people would think of me."
    "Even now? Now that you are a man?" She couldn’t imagine her husband being afraid of anything.
    "You don’t understand how something like this can make you feel inside. How terrible you see yourself.
    How weak it makes you seem to have allowed…"
    She shook her head in denial. "You can not be held accountable for what was done to you as a child."
    "There are those who would wonder if I had not become like the others at the Abbey."
    "How can one time…" She watched him look away, pain etched on his face. "It was just the one time,
    wasn’t it?" She felt a tremor of fear go through her as he mutely shook his head. "More than once?" He
    nodded. "How many times?"
    He stared sightlessly across the garden. His hands were clutched together in his lap and he seemed
    oblivious to everything around him. "Every night of my life from the time I was six until I left that horrible
    place." He turned to face her. "I came home, my spirit broken, too ashamed to live, and slashed