She remembered the searing burning rending intensity of that first gaze he leveled on her. How he had ducked into the teahouse and passed by her with a sideways glance that froze her greeting on her lips.

She remembered the weary but vicious look in those searing burning eyes when he dragged himself up a hill to a decrepit church and ordered her to run. The very memory caused a tight clenching pain in her chest when she thought about it.

She remembered fights and giggles and watching him stalk off with women.

Yes, she remembered but she never would have guessed.

Guessed that years from those long ago days of fifteen she would be watching their children grow up and ready to flee and snuggling into his lean warmth every night.