She stepped back and lowered her look:

 there was a young man as if jumping out of book:

broad shouldered, tall, dark eyed, overshadowing the sun,

she was hesitating in pain: to stay or to run?

“Don’t be afraid.I’m not a lion, and you – not a mouse.

Let me carry this.Where’s your house?”

The life-turning moment had happened in a twinkle of eye.

She could not fantasize, she lost patterns out of sight.