>>24721901
>>24722009
(Fug, forgot the spoiler tags)
Years pass, and Leesha is set to go to another larger town to apprentice there. Traveling is very dangerous in this world, so she needs someone to escort her. As it happens, a messenger is in town, and he's handsome and charming, and him and Leesha have a good rapport.
This messenger and the ex boyfriend get in a fight. The messenger upholding Leesha's honor. And while the messenger holds his own at first, the ex boyfriend gains the advantage near the end. Until Leesha stops him by using her herbalist to essentially mace him.
So this messenger guy is looking rather trustworthy and king. However, the old lady warns Leesha, that though he might appear charming now, when they're on the road, he'll have his way with her, whether she consents or not. And predictably, that's what happens. He pressures her to "pay" for his service with her body, and tries to force himself on her. But she prevents this by spiking his food to give him a limp dick. For the two weeks or so that they're on the road, he tries repeated, but is always too soft to follow through. She makes it to the city safely, and the messenger gives her a warning to keep what happened on the road a secret before going away.
Years pass again. Leesha is in her late 20s now. She's completed her apprenticeship, but instead of returning home like she promised, she stayed to work in the city. We're like 80% into the book now. None of the 3 main characters have interacted before. But Rojer get brutally beaten last chapter, and as it happens, he's taken to the same hospice that Leesha works at. FINALLY, we get to see them interact.
But before they do, the author actually spends a number of pages going over Leesha's love life again. She's single, still a virgin, never bothered seeking men, and her colleagues are all worried she'll go barren before long. She thinks about her father, her mother, and her ex boyfriend. She says that she was simply hoping man who fits in her life would come along one day. But so far, all she's found are creeps who want to take advantage of her bodacious body.(The author has let us known how pretty, curvy, and buxom she is)
So when Rojer enters the scene, it's like "well, well, how serendipitous". She says she's waiting for a man, and here comes our other main character. They have a common kind of trauma in their past. He's a nice enough guy. Certainly not the rapist types that have been depicted earlier. And he's totally different than her ex boyfriend in just about every way. There could be something here.
