After a moment, she signed, "I do not care what you have been to others or what others think of you. You have come to my defense twice and have not asked for anything from me. Yet, both times you risked your life to save mine."
When he didn't answer, she continued, "How could I not love you? I tell you this now: because of what you have done for me, I shall love you and shall honor you until the day I die."
Again when he didn't answer, she said with signs, "But, do not misunderstand what I mean by 'love.' I say this again to you: the love I feel for you is not the sort of love a woman feels for a man when she desires romance. We are too different, you and I, to ever contemplate more than the simple admiration one person feels for another who has helped them. Also, I could never marry a person outside my own culture, nor could I ever be romantically involved with a man who is not from my own society. I fear we might not share the same values."
He still didn't answer, although after several moments, he signed, "I, too, wish to marry a person who holds similar views about life as I do. You ask me what I think our relationship should be since we cannot be friends?"
"Yes," she signed.
"I will tell it to you true: I do not believe we should have a relationship at all, one to the other. We cannot be friends because people will think we are more than this. It is for your protection that I say this to you. I came to help you simply because it needed to be done. I will tell this to you, however. I free you from any obligation you might feel you owe me. Also, regardless of what you say, I believe you will change your mind about me if you come to know me well."
"Perhaps this is true," she answered. "But, nothing you say will keep me from loving you. It will not dim. Forever I will remember what you did for me on my behalf."
Again he didn't answer. And, after a while, she said in English and with signs, "I must leave you now. The others are fixing supper for us and I must help them."
He nodded, and as she gazed at his handsome profile, she wondered again why some sweet young woman hadn't caught this man and married him.
It was a puzzle, truly. But, she had best go from here now. There was a supper to prepare.
Before she left, however, she leaned over and touched his bare shoulder to simply say, "Goodbye," watching as he shuddered in reaction. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said at once in English. "Perhaps it is wrong in your culture for a woman to touch a man she isn't married to."
Glancing sideways at her, he asked in sign, "What did you say?"
She sighed, yet answered with gestures, saying, "If a man is not supposed to have women friends, it is a certainty he does not wish a woman like me to touch him, and I—"
All at once, he laughed, and she was instantly caught up in the beauty of his grin. His smile made him appear so very young and vulnerable.
"Why do you laugh?" she asked.
He simply shook his head and answered in sign, "You may touch me all you wish. But, since you are bound to marry another, perhaps you should not do it too often." Again he chuckled, and, gathering her hand in his, he squeezed it, but instead of returning her hand to her lap, he brought her fingers to his cheek. And then, calmly, with movements so very, very slow, he brought his head around toward her until his lips touched her fingers. Softly he kissed her fingertips, one by one, as he gazed down into her eyes.
Suddenly, her world shook. Her stomach lurched inside her, and she felt her fingers tingle as though they had suddenly awakened to an awareness of him all on their own. Indeed, her entire body seemed to be on fire as though it were yearning…for him.
No! She was engaged to David. And, she was committed to him and only him.
Gradually, she removed her fingers from Strikes Fast's hand and straightened away from him. Standing up, she noted she was not very steady on her feet, and she swayed. Strikes Fast then rose up beside her and came to stand in front of her, placing his hands on her shoulders as though to steady her.
And, for a moment, it worked. But, then she began to shiver, as though her body could not come to terms with the fire rushing through her.
Strikes Fast smiled at her briefly before he let go of her to sign and say, "You may touch me all you like, but be aware I am only a man and when you touch me, regardless of how lightly done, I might take it into my mind to do the same back to you, although perhaps I should not have kissed your fingers in the way I did just now. It is not my right."
Sharon looked away from him, but remained mute.
"Possibly," he continued, "my kissing your fingers is another way to warn you away from me. I tell you truly, I am not the hero you seem to believe I am. But, I would not forbid you from placing a hand upon me as often as you like. You should know, however, what the consequences might be."
Sharon had little idea of how to respond back to him. And so, she took the only action appropriate at that moment: she turned away from him to walk unsteadily toward the edge of the ridge. However, before she began the long climb down, she looked back at him and watched him as he signed, "You should know this, also: I, too, love you. But, I am not confused about what this means, whether as a friend or as a brother. What I feel for you is the love a man carries in his heart toward his woman, his wife."
Sharon almost fell over the edge of the rather large plateau, but at the last moment, she caught hold of the rock's face and steadied herself. Then, without another word, she quickly climbed down, and, once reaching the wide ledge upon which their camp was pitched, she quickly ducked into her tiny hut.
It was a long time before she was able to leave her lodge to go and assist the others. And, even then, she didn't know how she was ever going to face Strikes Fast again. The man was too handsome and too masculine. Indeed, his manliness seemed to overpower her and she had no way of knowing how to speak properly to someone like him.
When he had stood up and placed his hands on her to steady her, she had been so overawed by his masculinity—so blatant, so virile— she had temporarily become tongue-tied. Yet, at the same time, she had felt utterly feminine in his presence.
Odd. Wasn't it strange to feel this way about a person who was so completely different from her? Yet, he had made her feel protected and female all at the same time.
She yawned and leaned forward. It was time to go and assist the others.
