Scarlet Moon (Once Upon a Time) (13 page)

“I imagine you’re here to see Lord William.”

“Wh-what makes you say that?”

“Well, you came to speak to either him or me, and I figured he was the more likely.”

She smiled. “As much as I’d like to say I came to speak to you, you’re correct. I am here to see Lord William.”

“Then let’s go find him.”

Samuel led her into the castle and through a maze of rooms on the ground floor until they found William. He sat perched behind a large table with parchments spread out before him. His head was bent
and he was clearly engrossed in what he was reading.

“Milord, you have a visitor,” Samuel said.

Without looking up, William waved. “Show them in.”

“Very well, milord,” Samuel said, smiling at Ruth on his way out, He closed the door behind him.

She walked forward hesitantly, eyes fixed on the top of William’s head. Her mouth was dry, and everything she had rehearsed on her way fled from her memory.

“Milord,” she said in a raspy voice that did not sound like her own.

“Yes?” he asked, dipping a pen in ink and scratching something on a paper before him.

“I want my dagger back.”

“Who—” he started to ask, looking up. He stopped, “Ruth!”

“Yes.”

He jumped to his feet and came around the table. “You look—wait, what did you say?”

“I want my dagger back,” she said, forcing herself to smile.

“Oh,” he said, looking disappointed. “I thought you came here to see me.”

“I did. I came here to see you and ask for my dagger back.”

Something flashed in his eyes; whether it was amusement or anger she couldn’t tell. In a moment he pulled himself up to his full height, and suddenly
she knew she was looking at Lord William and not her friend William.

He strode forward, pulling the dagger from his belt.“You are looking for this.” He handed it to her, hilt first.

She pulled at it, but he didn’t let go.

“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you,” he said softly.

“Really, I haven’t been able to tell,” she answered truthfully.

“We are all wrong for each other.”

“I agree,” she said, heat washing through her.

“Since that day we met in your shop, I haven’t been able to think rationally. I haven’t been able to order my emotions so that I could control the wolf. You have turned my life so upside down that I no longer have control over what I do in that state.”

“You are blaming me for your killing the tanner?” she sputtered.

“Indirectly, yes. If you hadn’t so distracted me, I would have been able to control myself.”

“So it’s my fault that you can’t control yourself?”

“It is,” he said, eyes flashing.

She pulled on her knife, but he held firm.

“Maybe you should be looking no further than your own black heart if you’re looking to cast blame.”

“This is exactly the reason why I need to stay as far away from you as possible. I can’t think straight around you.”

He let go of the dagger, and she angrily stuffed it
under her belt. “All you are is a danger to yourself and to me,” she hissed, taking several steps backward.

“And when I am near you, all I feel is passion—no logic, no reason, just overwhelming emotion,” he spat.

She glared at him as he stepped closer. “We should never see each other again,” he said.

“That is fine with me,” she said, stepping back again until her back hit the wall.

She stared deep into his eyes, and suddenly she saw something, a change in them. His voice was little more than a growl. “Unfortunately that doesn’t work for me.”

Then his hands were on her waist and his lips were on hers. She moaned as she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave in to his embrace. She was pinned between him and the wall with nowhere to go even if she had wanted to.
But I don’t want to go anywhere. I want to stay here with him, be a part of him
.

He gently bit her lip, tugging on it slightly with his teeth, and she closed her eyes. “It’s no use,” he said, pulling away ever so slightly.“ I tried to forget you, but I can’t, not now, not ever. I need you, I don’t care what the consequences. Just knowing you, loving you, makes me crazy. If that is my fate, I’d rather go mad with you by my side.”

He kissed her cheek and then trailed kisses down her throat.

“We are only going to destroy each other,” she whispered. “I should leave now and never return.”

“It’s too late for that,” he said, gazing at her fiercely.

“Why?”

“You love me, don’t you?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “God forgive me, I do.”

“Then I shall never let you go, for I love you.”

“I could run.”

“I would catch you,” he growled against her lips.

“I could kill you.”

“Only your absence could do that.”

“You can’t make me stay with you.”

“I will marry you and then you will have to,” he said.

“What if I don’t agree to that?” something inside her forced her to ask.

He pulled away from her, and his green eyes bored into hers with an intensity that made her quake. “Then I’ll make sure your father forces you to marry me.”

“And how will you do that?”

“I don’t know. I will not lose you, though.”

She felt white-hot flame explode throughout her being. “I have no choice but to marry you?”

“None.”

She smiled slowly. “Then kiss me again.”

William took her home. Together, they rode his stallion. Ruth sat behind him, her arms wrapped around his waist, and she savored the feeling of the wind in her hair. Despite all her work with horses, it was her first time on one, and given the way
things seemed to be going, it would not be her last.

Night had fallen, and she gazed up at the moon. It was so beautiful, pale and pristine. She let its light shine upon her face, and she thanked the moon for bringing them together, for without it, they might have always been strangers.

Outside her home William dismounted, and she fell from the horse’s back into his arms, laughing. He set her down on her feet. “Are you ready?” he asked.

“No, but that’s never going to change.”

He nodded and gave her an encouraging smile. “Together, anything is possible.”

Ruth took a deep breath and walked inside. Both her father and Peter looked up from the table where they were finishing supper.

“Ruth, who do you have with you?” Jacob asked, squinting to see behind her.

“It’s Lord William,” Ruth said, her voice catching only slightly.

She felt him move in behind her, closing the door after him. “Hello again,” he said, his tone light and conversational.

Jacob and Peter instantly stood and bowed. “Milord, welcome to our home,” Jacob said, quickly overcoming his surprise.

Peter, on the other hand, said nothing, but Ruth noticed that he was glaring at William. “This is my cousin, Peter,” she said, hastening to introduce them.

“Good to meet Ruth’s cousin,” William said politely.

Peter only nodded in return, and Ruth was embarrassed.
Why is he acting so strangely
?

“Good sir,” William said, addressing her father. “I have come to you to discuss your daughter.”

“Do you have another job for her?” Jacob asked.

William smiled.“I do indeed, and it is a far more important one than the last.”

“We will be honored to help in whatever way we can,” Jacob hastened to assure him.

“It gladdens me to hear you say so. The truth of the matter is, I have come to bargain for a marriage contract.”

Jacob’s face registered shock, and he turned to Ruth, seeking an explanation. Suddenly his face broke into a smile. “Ah! Samuel, the horse keeper—he wishes to marry my Ruth?” he asked William.

“No, it is not for Samuel that I am here.”

“It is for himself,” Peter spoke up suddenly.

“Your cousin is very astute. It is for myself that I am seeking this. I wish to marry Ruth.”

Jacob’s face went completely white. Ruth stepped forward and took his hand. He turned to look at her, mute.

“It is true, Father. William and I are in love, and I wish to marry him.”

“Have you gotten her in the family way?” Peter hissed.

William turned on him, nostrils flaring. “If you
knew your cousin at all, you would not dare to ask that.”

The two locked eyes, and the hair on the back of Ruth’s neck stood on end. She heard a slow growling begin to fill the room, and what scared her most was that she wasn’t sure which one of them it was coming from.

“Enough!” Jacob said, and both younger men snapped their eyes back to him. “This is a happy occasion and blessed news. I would be honored to give you my daughter in marriage.”

William smiled and stepped forward. “It will be my honor to call you father,” he said.

The two embraced, and Ruth’s joy was complete. Tears of happiness slid down her cheeks. She turned to glance at Peter, though, and was instantly chilled to the bone. He was glaring at the two men, his eyes wide and practically shining in the darkness. She shivered and wrapped her arms tight about herself, striving to keep out the chill.

News of their engagement having finally been made public, they were to be married in four and a half weeks’ time. Ruth felt like singing as she stood hammering out a new sword, her wedding gift to William.

Her grandmother had been delighted for her, although not surprised. She had hinted that there were things about William that Ruth should know. Ruth had replied that she knew all of William that
she needed to. Her grandmother seemed suspicious, but Ruth dared not reveal her newfound secret about William’s family, at least not yet.

As the news had spread the villagers had begun to treat her differently. At first she had found it unnerving and tried to make them stop, but she had finally grown to accept it. There were even whispers that her grandmother might be able to return to the village. Everyone was eager to embrace the girl who would marry the earl, even if it meant overlooking their fear of her grandmother.

The one dark spot in her happiness was Peter. For the last three weeks he had haunted her steps, watching her like a hawk. Whenever William was close by, Peter would be extra alert and aggressive.

From his stool in the corner of the shop Peter spoke. “I think Grandmother is holding things back from me.”

“What do you mean?” Ruth asked cautiously.

“I think she knows more than she is willing to tell.”

Ruth sighed, not liking the direction this seemed to be heading. “Maybe she doesn’t think you’re ready to learn them yet.”

“Not ready? Not ready! I spent nine years in hell itself, and she thinks I’m not ready?”

Ruth put down her hammer and resolutely turned to face him. “Peter, what is it that you want?”

“I want to return and avenge Stephen!” he practically shouted. “And myself,” he added so softly that she could barely hear him.

She flew to him. “Peter, what are you saying? You can’t go back there. I can’t lose you, too!”

He gazed at her, and for a moment she saw in his eyes the boy who had gone off to war so long ago. “You already have, Ruth,” he whispered. “God help me, I might as well have died on that battlefield too.”

Slash, claw, bite, kill. Angry trees shouting above; ignore them, ignore them. Trees don’t touch me, can’t hurt me. The woman tasted sweeter than the man, but the man had more meat on him. Destroy, devour, the wolf will have his fill.

Blame the wolf, always the wolf. Never me, just the wolf. Watch him kill, blood will spill. Growling, snarling, clawing, biting.

All are dead.

All are dead.

“Wolf!” the cry went up through the streets. “Wolf! Wolf!”

Ruth heard the shout and ran outside. She caught the arm of a boy running by and asked him, “What’s happened? Who is dead?”

“A man and a woman found just now, their throats torn open.”

“And what of the wolf?” Ruth cried. “Did anyone see the wolf?”

“No, but they’re going to find him.”

Ruth released the boy’s arms, and he continued running up the street, shouting all the way.

“
Think!
” she said to herself frantically.
Was the full moon last night or the night before
? Her brain was racing so fast that she couldn’t remember. She forced herself to take several deep breaths, trying to clear her mind.
The night before—the full moon was the night before. That means there will be no wolf for them to find today
.