“But how can that be?” She came up onto her elbows that she might look into his face. “That first time we met, you acted as though you disliked me.”
Swift Hawk shrugged. “You were not as I expected you to be. I thought, since you were a being from my vision, that you would be the perfect image of my people’s ideal woman—soft-spoken, demure, retiring, yet strong in heart.”
“Soft-spoken, retiring?”
“So I thought. But you were none of those things, except being strong of heart.”
“Hmmm. I am certainly none of those things.”
“Except being strong of heart,” he reiterated.
She lay back down, cradling her head within the crook of his shoulder. “No wonder you were disappointed, if you were expecting me to be perfect.”
She could sense his grin; sense it because she didn’t glance up to see it. He said, “It was Red Fox who brought me to realize that in all the world there is no such thing as perfection. I was expecting something that could never be. Besides, in that first meeting, there was another problem between us that plagued me, perhaps more than the rest.”
“Oh?”
She felt his slight nod, but he didn’t elaborate. At his silence on the subject, she asked, “And what was that problem?”
“Do you want the truth?”
“Yes, I think so,” she said.
“Very well.” He inhaled sharply. “The truth is that I wanted you as a man wants a wife almost at once. I was shocked atmyself. You were a vision, given to me by the Creator. It was not my right to harbor such carnal thoughts about you. And yet, short of walking away from you and never seeing you again—something I could not do—I was powerless to stop it.”
“Really? You thought that? You were? I had no idea.”
“And yet it was so. It has been a problem for me, but perhaps this is a problem no more.”
“Yes. I think this is a problem well solved.” They both grinned at each other then dropped into silence. Gathering her thoughts together, she realized she needed to say more. “I think I can safely say that the mathematics and history I have been teaching you will do little to help you free your people. What is it you must do again to break the curse? Show kindness to an enemy?”
“Haa’he, and give aid.”
She paused for the space of a moment, although almost at once another thought occurred to her. “When you first came here, did you think that my brother and I were your enemy?”
He shrugged. “I did not think so then, and I do not think so now, and in truth, never have I thought that way of either of you. However, the same cannot be said for the white man in general, for I have always mistrusted the white man in this country. But you came to me through a good force in my life, and when I saw you, my first impression was that you were an angel sent to me to help me break the spell. I still feel there is some role you are to play in this, though I do not know what it is.”
“I see. And so this is why you agreed to let me teach you at night—you thought I might help you determine what it is that you need to do to break the spell?”
“Perhaps. But in truth, I agreed to let you teach me despite my better judgment. For you must remember that I have been attracted to you all along, and it was an enticement that I thought should not be. Yet, you were, you are, a part of this. And so it seemed only right to let you do what you thought wasnecessary. It might have helped.”
“But it hasn’t helped, has it?”
“It drew me closer to you. That is a good thing.”
“Yes.” She dropped once again into her own thoughts. Did she know of anything that could truly help him? Could her father be of assistance? With prayer?
Perhaps, but her father wasn’t here.
Uneasily, Angelia stirred. “I fear that I can think of nothing that would help. Perhaps, my husband, you are right, and the white man has very little of the spiritual about him.”
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “But you have already assisted me in many ways.”
“I have?”
“Haa’he, you have. Are we not married? Are we not lying here in one another’s arms? And yet I had once given an oath to the Creator that I would not take a woman to my bed until I had freed my people. But you changed that for me.”
“I?”
