“From your point of view, it would be. I’m afraid we get so used to it that we even take it for granted. Sociologically speaking….” She stopped and looked at Brion’s straight back and almost rigid posture. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened in an unspoken oh of sudden realization.

“I’m being a fool,” she said. “You weren’t speaking generally at all! You had a very specific subject in mind. Namely me!”

“Please, Lea, you must understand….”

“But I do!” She laughed. “All the time I thought you were being a frigid and hard-hearted lump of ice, you were really being very sweet. Just playing the game in good old Anvharian style. Waiting for a sign from me. We’d still be playing by different rules if you hadn’t had more sense than I, and finally realized that somewhere along the line we must have got our signals mixed. And I thought you were some kind of frosty offworld celibate.” She let her hand go out and her fingers rustled through his hair. Something she had been wanting to do for a long time.

“I had to,” he said, trying to ignore the light touch of her fingers. “Because I thought so much of you, I couldn’t have done anything to insult you. Such as forcing my attentions on you. Until I began to worry where the insult would lie, since I knew nothing about your planet’s mores.”

“Well, you know now,” she said very softly. “The men aggress. Now that I understand, I think I like your way better. But I’m still not sure of all the rules. Do I explain that yes, Brion, I like you so very much? You are more man, in one great big wide-shouldered lump, than I have ever met before. It’s not quite the time or the place to discuss marriage, but I would certainly like—”

His arms were around her, holding her to him. Her hands clasped him and their lips sought each other’s in the darkness.

“Gently …” she whispered. “I bruise easily….”

XIII

XIII

“He wouldn’t come in, sir. Just hammered on the door and said, ‘I’m here, tell Brandd.’”

“Good enough,” Brion said, fitting his gun in the holster and sliding the extra clips into his pocket. “I’m going out now, and I should return before dawn. Get one of the wheeled stretchers down here from the hospital. I’ll want it waiting when I get back.”

Outside, the street was darker than he remembered. Brion frowned and his hand moved towards his gun. Someone had put all the nearby lights out of commission. There was just enough illumination from the stars to enable him to make out the dark bulk of a sand car.

“Brion Brandd?” a voice spoke harshly from the car. “Get in.”