Yes, there were "clues", but it certainly doesn't make any sense (especially if you go by Thom's Big White Book depiction - he looks like an old, crusty carnival freak). There was no sense of chemistry and no sense of feeling, but then again, I've just described pretty much every relationship in Wheel of Time. It's a plot-driven story. The character "development" really fails at every level, unless by "development" you mean "having shit happen to the characters". The only real exception was Rand, whose development was so ham-handed that it makes the reader cringe.