Hannah has the incredible advantage of having such wonderful female role models and leaders.  I think her heritage plays a very vital role in how she deals with any life altering situation.

When I had to face my own rape, my own culture played a crucial role in how I dealt with it.  I'm of asian descent, from a very male dominated culture - with the expectation of obedience, submissiveness and meekness.  There was shame, guilt, fear and anger - with a family duty of maintaining appearances and reputation. 

I think it's very different for Hannah.  She comes from a culture where a woman has a choice to choose her path.  She is allowed to find herself freely.

I am more than a little taken aback at the personal stories here. That the three of you survived and found the strength to heal is a real testament to the power of the human spirit.

For me personally, I have never had this experience and hope I never will. Friends, yes, and a relative, so all my understanding of the trauma and aftermath is second hand. When I write about things like this, terrible things that happen to normal people, I have to stretch to the breaking point in order to try to get into their heads. This is the real challenge in writing this kind of story. Not only trying to get into Hannah's frame of mind in that attack, but also into Nathaniel's when he chose not to extend a hand to Billy Kirby, and did just the opposite, sent him to his death. I don't think I could do that, but Nathaniel could, and in his head I could see how and why it happened that way. There are dozens of situations like that in the books, but by far the most challenging one was this rape scene.

There was one other scene where there was an attempted rape, but otherwise I have stayed away from this particular kind of tragedy because I didn't know if I could pull it off. This time Hannah made it clear to me that the story was going in that direction, and that I'd have to try to follow her. I didn't do it lightly. I really dislike authors who sprinkle rapes throughout their books. I find it gratuitous.

In this case, Hannah has been in some very tough situations. She has seen murder up close on the battlefield and off it; she has seen children killed by soldiers, and she has treated women raped in the aftermath of battle. These things are very real to her, and so when she experienced the attack herself first hand she brought a certain reservoir of knowledge and understanding with her. Not that she didn't suffer, and require time to heal. Of course she did. But it seems to me that for a modern day woman (unless she lives in Darfur or Rwanda or Bosnia or Bagdad) it's almost impossible to imagine the kind of life Hannah led while she was in the west, and how that influenced the way she lived her life and reacted to things as common as childbirth or as traumatic as rape.

ITA with this.� This helped me to really understand Hannah and how she made her way through life.� Not to diminish the horror or trauma of rape - but what helped me during my healing process was knowing that there are worse things that could happen to me.� I wouldn't let this break me.� For Hannah, she has lived through some very horrific experiences - has witnessed the very worse of human nature that have directly and indirectly impacted her life, and she's managed to walk away from it with her head on her shoulders.� Her suffering was a little more evident in QOS - and we did get a glimpse into that unresolved pain.�

I also would like to bring up the fact that she had experienced having a loving husband and being a loving mother before all of the horrors of war and losing her husband and son, and experienced all of this before she was raped.

I know part of my "problems" in coming to terms with it came from the fact that this was the first real horror I ever experienced. Almost like skin, the first cut hurts the worst, cuts on scars do not hurt nearly as much and are harder to do.

Madame Who?� No, I recognize the name, but her backstory was not something I fully grasped on first reading.� I'll pay closer attention on the second reading.� Once again, though, I was never lost in the story.� You provided detail when it was needed to keep me up to speed.

Responding to these comments collectively, I'll start by saying that like Rosina, I dislike gratuitous rape scenes in books.  I was grateful that the act itself was not explicitly detailed.  It was hurtful enough to me as a reader who loves Hannah -- I didn't need (or want) details. 

Regarding Hannah's healing, I think Mary puts it very well.  "She has lost so much in her life that she found a way to do what it took to move on."  Has she moved on?  Yes.  She was able to do this because of her own life experiences and because a huge part of her identity as a woman is her ability to choose her own path.  Still, rape then was essentially the same as it is today.  At some point, she will need help, and it would be interesting to see how it might be handled in early 1800's Paradise, which is decidedly different from today!

Though she's put it behind her, she surely has yet to fully heal.  She will always bear the scars, though they may be well hidden.  Will it come back to haunt her in Paradise?  For her sake, I hope not, but it would be understandable if it did.