When she gazed back at him, he signed, "I promise you now, before Sun, my Creator, and also before your Creator, I will not demand anything from you except perhaps your healing."
Indeed, he meant it. It would be his lot to ensure that upon the day when he returned her to her people, she would be as physically whole then as she was now.
But, he continued to explain in sign, "Perhaps what I should talk about is my absolute duty to my people and what this has to do with keeping the promise I have now given you. For, though I am too young to have been given this honor, I am one of my tribe's men of mystery. Your people call them ‘medicine men.’ If I were to do more than simply help you, I might lose my power to bring health to my people."
"Why?" she returned in sign. "Why might you lose your power?"
"Because I am attracted to you, and this might cause me to want to experience more with you than to simply give you aid. This would not be good, for I cannot marry you. My duty to my tribe forbids this."
She frowned and shook her head.
"If I were to surrender to the desires of my body," he explained further, "I could ruin you so you might not be able to marry another. This ill act toward you could cause me to lose my power. Therefore, my responsibility to you and to myself is to help you heal. Nothing more."
"Did you say your tribe would forbid a marriage between us? I don't understand. I thought you were a free people, and, because you are a free people, you could decide for yourself what kind of woman you would take as a wife."
"Possibly 'forbids' is too strong a concept," he responded in sign. "Rather I should say my elders might regard me as having no honor, and this might keep me from being able to help my people."
"And yet," she signed, "I have not spoken to you of marriage, and I certainly have not asked this of you. Indeed, I am set to marry another, as I have already told you."
"I know this," he responded in sign, "but I have empathy for you, and, because I have come to help you, this might cause you to feel more kindly toward me than is good for you. And, like the wild rose, I fear my affection for you could blossom into a fondness that might end in a bad way for us both. I believe you know this, too, and you fear it."
"Yes," she said, nodding. Then she paused. He felt her gulp before she asked, "You feel affection for me?"
He smiled. Her response was all sweetness and femininity, and he couldn't help noticing she was very much like his own sisters. They, like she, would most likely center their attention on this fact and would ask him about it. He answered in sign, "It is true. I feel affection for you. Also, no woman should die because her man does not understand this land. Especially a woman who looks as you do. But nothing more can happen between us."
"Yes, I understand," she signed. Then, she paused. "But," she continued, "what if you had thought me ugly and so did not care to risk your life to find me? Would I now be lying dead?"
He laughed. "Do you make a joke?"
"A little. But, my question is also a bit serious. What if we hadn't spoken to one another?"
"But, we did share a conversation. Perhaps Sun knew you would soon need me and sent me to you so I would help you."
"Sun?"
"The Creator of this world."
She nodded.
"Áa,but there is more I must say to you. I sense you fear the interactions between a man and a woman, and this uncertainty causes you grief. I remind you I have promised I will not do more than keep you alive and permit you to heal. I will keep my word."
She didn't respond. Instead, she looked away from him and seemed distracted. At last, however, she signed, "I understand, and I thank you for taking the time to enlighten me about your thoughts and feelings."
He sighed. He had left another consideration on this unsaid: until he knew more about her and about himself in relation to her, he would keep a part of him distant from her, as he had now sworn to do. But, there would come a time when their eventual parting would present them with another, more serious, problem: they had touched one another in spirit, soul to soul, and a strong bond between them was already in place.
This was rare, he knew, and usually happened only between two people, long married. What he and she were experiencing was unusual for persons who barely knew one another.
He frowned. Although his intentions were to keep her pure, having now met this beautiful woman in spirit, how, then, would he ever be able to fall in love with another? Marry another? How could she?
And yet, they must.
With the fury of the storm still raging upon the land and the wind frantically whistling through the trees above them, he realized, however, this was not the time to think about this too greatly. She was probably cold and was also too shy to tell him of her discomfort.
So, without another moment passing between them, he picked her up in his arms, ensured the robe he'd given her hid the temptation of her body from him and carried her though the raging blizzard back to their refuge, which he hoped would keep them both sufficiently warm and sheltered from the storm.
CHAPTER FOUR
––––––––
