Scarlet Moon (Once Upon a Time) Read Online Free PDF

relax and her heart to slow. She found it hard to do under his watchful eye.
    At last she turned and looked at him closely. He was tall; her chin only came up to his chest. His wavy brown hair just brushed his shoulders. His skin was bronzed, with the look of one who spent much time outdoors. Then she looked into his eyes and her heart skipped a beat. He had the most mesmerizing green eyes she had ever seen. There was something magnetic and exotic about them, and shefelt as though she were drowning in their depths.
    She forced herself to break the contact as she realized that her heart was still racing but for an entirely different reason. Perhaps it was that realization that startled her into remembering her manners. She began to curtsy, but then remembered she was not wearing a skirt. She blushed for one awkward moment before finally bowing deeply. When she stood back up, Ruth thought she caught him smiling. “I’m sorry, milord, you caught me at an inopportune moment. I did not mean to offend you.”
    “Don’t do that,” he said softly.
    “What?” she asked, startled.
    “Don’t remember that you are a blacksmith and I am an earl. I liked you better when you didn’t care a whit who I was.”
    She found herself smiling despite herself. “You’ll have to forgive me; I often have a different view of life than others.”
    “Of course you do; you’re a woman in a man’s clothes and with a man’s work. You’re a lady and a blacksmith. I praise your father for his courage in raising you as both.”
    She shook her head, bemused. “I’d give you these coins to hear you tell him that.”
    “I shall tell him, and you can keep the coins.”
    “What is it you came for, William?” she asked, daring to use his name and knowing how many would be shocked to hear her do so.
    He smiled his approval. “My horse threw a shoe not twenty paces from your door.”
    “Well then, that is fortunate for both of us.” she answered.
    “Yes, it would seem so.”
    “Fetch your horse and put him in that stall,” she said, pointing.
    He bowed low before disappearing outside« She didn’t have even a moment to collect herself before he reappeared, leading a magnificent black stallion.
    “Beautiful,” she murmured almost involuntarily.
    “Are you referring to me or the horse?” William asked with a wink.
    She laughed and fought down the urge to throw something at him. “My, aren't we arrogant. I was, of course, referring to the animal.”
    “Then, you were talking about me,” he said, his smile gone in an instant and his eyes glinting with a hard light.
    Her breath caught in her throat as she stared at him. In that moment it was easy to see him as an animal—a wild, dangerous creature that would consume her if she only let him.
    Then the steely look was gone and the smile again in its place. He led the horse into the stall and secured it. Ruth brushed past him and entered the stall.
    “Which shoe?”
    “Left foreleg.”
    “Easy, boy,” she crooned as she slid her hand down the horses silken leg.
    When she reached his hoof he lifted it for her without a fuss. “You have lovely manners,” she told him.
    “He learned them from me,” William offered.
    “You sure it wasn’t the other way around?”
    He guffawed, sounding for a moment like a horse, and she laughed quietly to herself. She studied the horse’s hoof for a moment.
    “You treat all your customers this way?” William asked.
    “No, you’re special.”
    “And here I asked for no special treatment,” he teased.
    “Well, that will teach you.”
    “Anything I can do to help?”
    She let go of the hoof and straightened. “Hand me one of those files on that table. His hoof needs to be shaved a little before I can put on a new shoe.”
    William hurried to do as she asked. She slid her hand down the horses leg again, and this time he picked his hoof up before she asked. Holding it steady between her knees, she filed the edge down. As she leaned slightly into