Scarlet Moon (Once Upon a Time) (8 page)

His face alone was intact, and by that she knew him. It was Simon, the man with whom she had fought in the shop. His eyes were fixed in horror, his mouth frozen in his death cry.

She fought the urge to fall to her knees and retch. The trees began to shake even more fiercely in the wind, though, and this time their haunting warning was clear to her.

She turned and stumbled back down the path, moving as fast as she could. She snatched up her basket and kept going. A branch snapped behind
her, but she was too terrified to look back.

Ahead of her the trees’ remaining leaves fell like rain and quickly began to coat the path. She ran through them, wincing as they crackled beneath her feet. Her foot caught on a root that she was certain had not been there the week before, and she crashed to her knees. With a thud, her knife fell from her hand to the ground. Ruth knelt for a moment, panting.

Then she heard it. Something was coming down the path behind her at a steady trot. She turned around and saw a wolf, fangs bared, six feet from her.

She screamed and it lunged at her. She reached for her dagger, knowing that her hand wouldn’t find it in time. The beast was upon her, jaws snapping. She rolled to the side and its teeth found only her sleeve. With a tearing sound it came free, and she felt a stinging in her arm where his teeth scratched her.

Then it stopped. It tilted its head and stared at her for a long moment. She stared back, and by his eyes she knew him. It was the wolf that had attacked her as a child. With a cry, she wrapped her fingers around the hilt of her knife, and she swiped at him.

The wolf danced easily out of her reach, though. After a last look at her, it turned and loped off into the trees, her sleeve still in its mouth.

Shaking with fear she pulled herself to her feet, wincing as she put weight on the ankle that had tripped on the root. She stared for a long while into
the trees whence the wolf had gone.
Why did he leave me alive?
she wondered. She finally turned and limped the rest of the way.

When she arrived at her grandmother’s cottage she was exhausted in both mind and body. When Giselle opened the door and saw Ruth, her face drained of all color.

“Child, what happened to you?”

“It was the wolf from so long ago,” she whispered.

Without another word Giselle ushered her inside and bade her sit.

Ruth accepted the chair gratefully and submitted herself to a thorough examination. Within minutes her grandmother had elevated her ankle and put a poultice of willow wood on it, which eased the swelling. Giselle had then washed the scratch on her arm and dressed it with dragonwort to help stop the bleeding.

“The wolf killed Simon the tanner,” Ruth said at last.

Giselle looked up sharply. “Are you sure?”

Ruth nodded. “His throat was torn out, his body covered with scratches and partly eaten. There were wolf prints in the dirt, and it wasn’t far from there that the wolf attacked me.”

Giselle picked up Ruth’s left hand and gently pried her fingers open. Ruth stared down numbly as Giselle took the knife from her grasp. She hadn’t realized she had still been holding it.

“Did you kill him?”

“No, I didn’t even touch him. He tore my sleeve and then he just … left”

Giselle’s eyebrows shot up in a look of surprise that Ruth had seldom seen from her. “That does not stand to reason.”

“Nor did I think so,” Ruth admitted.

Outside the wind began to howl angrily around the cabin, shaking the small building in its wrath. “lt’s an ill wind,” Ruth said with a shudder.

“Nonsense,” her grandmother snorted* “Wind is neither good nor ill, it just is. Its effects we may not like, but the wind itself bears no will of its own”

“That’s not what Father says,” Ruth muttered.

“Well, your fathers ignorance is not my doing. He’s too much like his father—too stubborn to learn, unwilling to believe the evidence of his own senses.” Giselle sighed in frustration. “At least you shall know better, whether you choose to follow my path or not.”

Ruth smiled at her grandmother. “I will always follow your teachings, in one way or another.”

Giselle gazed fondly at her. “That’s my good girl. You can also think for yourself, and that is best of all.”

Ruth nodded, her fear subsiding with each passing moment. It was good to sit, warm and secure, and bandy words with the woman who had taught her so much.

She leaned her head back and closed her eyes. “I just wish I knew what stayed the wolf’s wrath.”

“Might have been God, honey;”

Ruth opened her eyes and stared in amusement at her grandmother. “I'm not sure I will ever understand your ability to reconcile your unwavering faith with your reliance on only what you can see with your own eyes.”

It was an old conversation, but Giselle smiled at her with tolerance anyway. “As I’ve told you before, the study of nature and the world does not preclude God. You do not see the wind, but you feel it and may know its effects. So it is with God. I do not see the reaction between your skin and the herbs I place upon it, yet I know that it will stop the bleeding fasten I know that it works, even if I do not know how or why.”

They fell silent, and once again Ruth listened to the howling of the wind. If she closed her eyes she could almost imagine that it was a hungry wolf prowling around the house and seeking to devour them. She began to shake.

“Tell me of this young nobleman you’re interested in,” Giselle asked suddenly.

“How did you know?” Ruth asked with a laugh.

Giselle just smiled enigmatically. “I have my ways.”

Ruth shook her head. “And I shall never cease to be amazed by them. His name is William, and he is—”

“The earl?” Giselle asked, eyes widening.

Ruth nodded.

“Well, that is impressive. Is he handsome?”

Ruth felt herself blushing. “I believe so. He’s tall with brown hair and green eyes. He has wide shoulders, but he carries himself with a grace I’ve never seen in a man”

Giselle cocked her head. “I believe I have seen such a man in these woods before.” She shook her head. “But I cannot be certain of it.” There was a moment of silence, and then Giselle asked, “Where did you meet?”

“At the shop. His horse had thrown a shoe just down the street.”

Giselle’s face took on a look of horror. “At the shop! Well, at least he’s seen you at work and there shall be no surprises there.”

“Grandmother,” Ruth admonished. “I would not have a man who could not at least understand me.”

“And it looks like you might finally have found one, heaven be praised.”

Ruth began to grow irritated. “Grandmother, I wish you would have more faith in me.”

“I do, dear; its the men I worry about.”

Ruth shook her head. “Besides, we barely know each other, and we come from very different backgrounds”

“It wouldn’t be the first time a noble married a commoner, if that is what you are worried about”

“Its not just that,” Ruth said, shifting in her chair. “It’s a great many things. Perhaps if we get to know
each other better I will have the leisure to speculate on such improbabilities.”

Giselle leaned forward and touched the cross necklace around Ruth’s neck. “It looks like it’s not a matter of
if
, but rather
when
you get to know each other better.” She smiled fondly at Ruth, “You asked me how I knew you had met a nobleman. Only a nobleman could afford to give you such a trinket, and only one with a great interest in you would care to.”

Ruth dropped her eyes to the necklace. “You are right,” she whispered, admitting it as much to herself as to her grandmother. “I guess I’m just frightened”

“Of what, dear?”

“Losing myself. When I look into his eyes I feel as though I am drowning, and I become terrified. What if he does have feelings for me? What if he even wants to marry me? All I’ve ever known is fire and steel, and I don’t know how I’d give that up. I don’t know who I’d be without them,”

Giselle clasped her tightly about the neck. “Darling child, what you do does not dictate who you are. Clothed in furs and jewels you would be the same person as you are when covered with ash and soot.”

“Do you really think that’s true?”

“I know it is. I loved your grandfather, and we were very different people. In loving him, though, and marrying him, I didn’t lose myself. Rather, I gained something I had long been in want of. Love makes you more than what you are, not less. Besides, if
you’re worried that you’ll miss ‘fire and steel,’ you needn’t. The fire and steel are in you—they always have been. You need look no further than right here,” she said, tapping Ruth’s chest.

Giselle stood suddenly, and Ruth thought she caught the glisten of tears in her eyes. “Now let’s check those wounds.”

Ruth winced as Giselle gripped her ankle, but she had to admit that the pain was less than before, and she could move it freely. “You’re a miracle worker, Grandmother.”

Giselle smiled. “I like to think so.”

Next she checked Ruth’s arm. “Bleeding’s stopped,” she commented. “A couple of days and you won’t even see the scratch.”

“The same can’t be said of Simon,” Ruth noted grimly.

A shadow passed over Giselle’s face. “No, though I can’t say there are many who will miss him.”

“Myself included,” Ruth admitted hesitantly. It was amazing how quickly her grandmother could distract her from emotional pain as well as physical. As soon as she returned to the village she would have to send men out to recover the body. She shivered. “He was the man I fought with at the shop a few weeks ago.”

“Strange that you were the one to find him dead”

“Strange indeed,” Ruth whispered, a shiver slithering up her spine.

By nightfall the village was in turmoil« The body of Simon the tanner had been retrieved, and everyone had heard the tale of the wolf attacking Ruth, A quick search of the woods near where the body had been found had yielded no wolf, and the searchers had to retreat as darkness crept over the land.

Ruth sat on her bed, feet curled beneath her, and listened to the excited murmur of voices in the street. The door opened and Peter entered, shutting it behind him. He came to stand in front of Ruth. “Are you all right?”

“Yes.”

He balled up his right hand into a fist and struck his left palm with it. “I will find the wolf that attacked you and I will kill it,” he vowed.

“Thank you,” she finally said, unsure how else to answer him.

“They are saying that it is a monster, twice the size of a normal wolf.”

Ruth shook her head. “Those weren’t my words. He was large, but I wouldn’t say he was monstrous.”

Peter shook his head, eyes glinting. “Anything that would attack you can be nothing short of monstrous.”

She stared at him in the light of the flickering candles, and his face looked strange to her. There was something dark and wild about it.
What has he suffered these many years?
she wondered. More and more he seemed a stranger to her. His joy at being home had
been short-lived, and of late she had heard him cry out in the night, only to find him fast asleep. Even his eyes had grown darker, and with each passing day the shadows around them grew.

“Dear Peter, what is it that haunts you so?” she asked, reaching out impulsively to cup his cheek in her hand.

He closed his eyes and leaned slightly into her hand. She held her breath, for a moment believing he might finally reveal his pain to her. He opened his eyes, though, and pulled her hand down. He brushed it lightly with the back of his lips before releasing it.

“Fair cousin, the pain my eyes have seen is not for your ears to hear,”

“If not mine, then whose?” she protested.

He smiled darkly, “I do not know, but one day I shall find them and they shall hear their full,”

He turned and left the cottage. Alone in the light of the flickering candles she shivered, wondering how long her cousin was meant to dwell in darkness and pitying him for it.

She lay down at last, convinced she would not sleep. As soon as her eyes closed, though, her body slumped and darkness claimed her.

As the sun rose in the sky, William woke. He blinked sleepily for several minutes as he tried to gather his senses. He stretched slowly and stared at
his hands, splaying the fingers as wide as he could. Next he stretched his legs, wiggling his toes. At last, with a mighty shake, he sat up and gazed around him.

He was in the woods, but nothing looked familiar.
Where am I?
he wondered, feeling slightly dazed.
I need to find my clothes.

He tried to think back to the events of the night before, but there was nothing, only a gaping hole where his memories should have been. He felt panic rising in him as he realized that the last two and a half days were completely gone.

Rolling over onto his knees, he saw something that made his blood run cold. With a trembling hand he reached out and picked up the torn remnant of a woman’s sleeve.

“Dear heaven, what have I done?” he wailed. He pressed the sleeve to his face and wept. He collapsed back onto the ground, sobbing until there was nothing left in him.

At last the storm passed, and he lay limp and exhausted. By sheer will he finally managed to stand.
I need to find my clothes and go home.