Listen to the Moon by Rose Lerner Read Free Book Online Page B

start pouring any second. You stand below and catch the apples so they don’t bruise.” She clambered barefoot onto a low branch and very carefully pulled herself up to sit on a higher one. He wanted to tell her to come down, but she was right. He was far too heavy to climb in her stead.
    Unreasonable commands were part of their profession.
    Her bare feet dangled, shivering. He wanted to warm them in his hands. In the fraught, idle silence, that desire grew into a daydream of kissing her ankles, gently sliding up her skirts to expose white, slender calves downed with dark hair.
    “Catch.” She tossed him an apple. The distance was small enough that he caught it with ease. Two more followed. The black clouds were nearly overhead, and the wind was picking up.
    “How many blacksmiths does Lively St. Lemeston possess?”
    Sukey strained for a particularly fat apple hanging just out of reach. “Two, but they bring their apprentices and boys with them. What they don’t take, I’ll make into stucklings.” Sliding along the branch, she levered herself up and yanked the apple free just as the skies burst open with a deluge of rain, a fierce gust of wind and a blinding flash of lightning.
    She lost her balance and fell, screaming and clawing at nothing.

Chapter Four
    John’s breath stopped, but somehow he lunged forward and she plummeted into him instead of the ground. His arms locked around her, and her hands went around his neck. His pulse thundered in his ears, the sudden rush of blood making him dizzy. His cheek was hot and raw where her buttons had scraped it. Her breath came and went in heaving, whimpering gasps. Was she shaking, or was he? Or was it only the freezing rain hammering down on them?
    Thunder rumbled, recalling him to himself. “Can you stand?”
    “Thanks to you.” She wiped water from her eyes with one hand. The other was still tight around his neck.
    Reluctantly, he set her on her feet. “We ought to find shelter before the lightning reaches us.” Another bright flash. Already the thunder came sooner, more lightning on its heels.
    She drew in a deep breath. “There’s a farm that way.”
    He made out the shape, a few hundred yards off but distorted by the heavy rain. His hat had fallen when he caught her. He set it on his head and picked up the basket and folded umbrella. “Take your boots and run.”
    His hands full, his broad-brimmed hat blew off again almost at once. He ignored it with a pang, but she turned back. “Leave it,” he called sharply. “Will you be struck down for a hat?”
    Heedless, she chased it down for precious seconds, fingertips catching at the brim. She only gave up when a gust of wind sent it soaring into the air. Lightning came again, turning the world colorless.
    He stumbled through the rain, praying that nothing tripped them up. The wall of the barn rose up before him, and he was plastered against it before he could think. The door was round the other side; with her help he got it open. They slipped inside, shutting the door behind them just as lightning and thunder crashed simultaneously.
    The sudden absence of rain on his skin and in his eyes, the distancing of the sound of it, left him disoriented. Blinking, he made out the barn floor on which he stood, just large enough for a hay wagon. To his left was a hay bay crammed to the rafters, and on the other side, a row of cow stalls, with haymows above.
    Sukey appeared before him, plucking the apples out of the basket he still held and examining them for damage. That done, she peered up at John. With her pointed chin and narrowed eyes, she looked like a drowned ferret. “You’d better get out of that coat,” she said, shrugging out of her own.
    Her kerchief and shoulders were wet and her skirts waterlogged about the hem, but the rest of her appeared essentially dry. Nevertheless, she was damp and cold enough that her nipples showed clearly through her clothes.
    She gave him a little shake, hands on his elbows, and