“And why should you not discuss your life with me? If you are to teach me, we should know as much about each other as would…a married couple.”
She gasped, but he ignored it, and leaning farther toward her, he plucked one of the plums from her hands and took a bite out of it. “I believe you have one plum in your hand, Miss Angelia.”
She sighed, and Swift Hawk was at once enchanted, so much so he could barely take his eyes from her. And why would he want to? When she spoke, her entire body shivered. Herchest rose and fell with her every word while her hands and arms gestured.
At first Swift Hawk had tried to speculate as to whether this display of femininity was natural to her, or practiced. But seeing her as she was now, with no pretensions of any kind, and with him still being treated to the same rousing gestures, he was inclined to believe that these tiny nuances in her speech, as seductive as they were, were natural.
“Well,” she said after a time, “perhaps we should try to take up the symbols of mathematics so that you could learn to add columns of figures. This might come in handy for you in the future. Here, let me see where we should start…” She turned her attention to the book in her lap.
It presented Swift Hawk with more time to study her, a pastime at which he was becoming a master. When the lessons had first started, Swift Hawk had been quiet, watching her, observing her. Gradually, over the past few nights, he had begun to enjoy their verbal exchanges. In truth, he had found her so deadly serious in these little instructionals, that she often had no idea that hedidtease her.
It had become a game with him, and, fact was, he had taken quite a liking to it. Sometimes he baited her simply to witness the fiery color that flew to her cheeks when she became irritated.
Glancing at her now, with the moon directly overhead and the firelight casting light and shadows over her face, he sometimes forgot that this woman was somehow involved with himself and with his people, and that it was his task to discover her exact part in his drama.
Instead, he found himself imagining how her skin would feel beneath his touch. Would it be pliant, soft, warm? Or would it be moist due to the heat of the land?
What would she do if he were to tell her how bewitching she appeared to him? How much he enjoyed these evenings spent with her?
Would she laugh and turn away? Or would she lecture him on the proper manner in which to address a woman?
“Mr. Hawk?”
“Hmm? Yes?” He glanced up at her, only to catch her frowning at him.
“You haven’t been listening to me, have you?”
“I always listen to you.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Then tell me what I said.”
“You said that the symbol foremost is ‘one’, the symbol under it is ‘two’, and the one under that line that you have drawn is ‘three’.”
“Yes, that’s right.” She gave him a warm, though speculative glance. “You already know how to add, don’t you?”
Swift Hawk placed his hand over his mouth, the common Indian expression of surprise. Pulling his hand away, he pretended innocence. “How would I know how to add? Do not the whites refer to me as a savage? And is a savage not a stupid animal?”
“Never mind what people say. Youdoknow how to add. I know it.”
He paused for a moment, smiled at her, and without answering her question, said, “Perhaps I should answer you in this way. Is it not true that you tell me that one and one is two?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“But is it always two?”
“Of course it is. I can prove to you that it is.”
His grin became wider. “Can you? But, consider this, I can prove to you that it is not always true. Sometimes one and one equals three.”
“Pshaw! That’s impossible.”
“Is it? Then let me tell you how this is. Miss Angel, what would I have if I take one pony from the plains as the first pony to my herd? Then over a year’s time, I add another pony to myherd?”
“Why, you would have two ponies, of course.”
“Would I? Are you certain?”
“Of course I’m certain. It’s elementary.” She held up two fingers. “You see, one plus one is two.”
