Rud and the Damsel

Chapter 43 - Lost Friends Return

Patience sunk to the floor as the tears started to fall. Billy wrapped his arms around her. Alice joined them on the floor. A voice from outside said, "Hey, the blacksmith is still alive." Through her tears, Patience cried, "What did he say?" Billy got up and slowly opened the door. The men had rolled Rud over and were checking him for injuries. One asked the group's leader, "Is that him?"

Another man came over to Billy and said, "We are here to help you. Is everyone okay? Are you one of the Billings children?" Billy shook his head "yes" and walked past the man. The others had Rud, still unconscious, propped up against their knees.  One said, "Would you look at that, he is wearing armor like a knight."

One man shook Rud, and Rud's eyes flew open. "Is my wife okay?" slurred out of Rud's mouth. Patience was standing in the doorway, hand to her mouth. She screamed, "RUD" at the top of her lungs, and ran to her husband. Rud wrapped his arms around her. He checked her for injuries as she sat there sobbing. The men backed away, leaving Rud, Patience, Billy, and Alice to themselves. Explanations would come later.

As Rud held Patience, she slowly came back to him. The shock of seeing Rud die, seeing albeit briefly, life without him, and then seeing him come back from the dead was more than she could comprehend. It took several moments, but finally, she put her arms around his chest and pulled him to her. Rud winced in pain. When she kissed him, he knew he had his Patience back. They began talking to each other almost in a whisper, telling secrets from one heart to another. Soon her smile was back, the brightness in her eyes too. Billy said, "It's over."

Rud looked up at Alice and said, "I never doubted what you told me, you saved my life." Alice just smiled at Rud as tears streamed down her cheeks. Usually, she would brag about having been right. But now she was just grateful.

Rud stood with Patience's help. The impact from the pistol ball against the iron plate hanging from his neck had bruised some ribs and knocked him unconscious. Rud could not lift his arms very high, so Billy cut the rope allowing the now-dented iron plate, which Rud called "Alice's necklace," to fall to the ground. Had Rud not been wearing the plate, the shot would have killed him instantly.

Patience asked Alice how she knew, but Patience already knew the answer. Alice explained in one of her dreams, she had seen a rough-looking man shot in the chest. When she realized Rud was that rough-looking man, she told Rud about it. Rud promised her he would make a plate to wear that would cover his chest and would wear it under his shirt whenever unknown riders came into the valley. Patience hugged Alice thanking her for saving Rud.

Billy filled Rud in on what had happened while he was "dead." Rud, with Patience still clinging tight, went up to the riders who had saved his new family. These riders were different. They looked like strong, determined men but did not have the rough look about them of men who lived in the wilderness or killed for a living. Rud thought they looked more like the farmers, tradesmen, and merchants who lived in the many villages he passed to and from town.

Rud guessed they were all close to his age, some a few years younger and some a few years older. Rud thought there was something familiar about a few of them. The leader got down from his horse, tipped his hat to Patience and Alice, and greeted them politely with "ma'am." Billy looked at Rud with a confused look on his face. Politeness was not something they often saw in killers.

* * * * *

The leader approached Rud, held out his hand, and said, "Rudolph Morrow, my name is James Selkins. It has been a while." Rud looked closely at this man and, in a disbelieving voice, said, "Jimmy?" The leader said, "Yes, the boys we grew up with still call me Jimmy, but my wife insists on me using James. She says people take me more seriously when I use James. You might recognize some of the boys we went to school and played with before you... left."

James pointed at several of the riders, said their names with each one nodding as his name was called. James explained the rest were also from Rud's old village and had asked to come along to help try and set things right. Rud acknowledged each man as James pointed them out.

James said, "When those men came through our village, one of them bragged about finishing what they started when they killed your family. He said they also wanted revenge for their friends you killed at the dock rescuing the Billings children. He said they were going to kill you and the Billings children."

James continued, "Our village has lived with the shame of what we did the night your family was murdered. None of us can forget when you pounded on our doors, and our fathers told us to be quiet as you cried for help. But we are not boys anymore, and that is our father's shame. We knew if we did not help you now though it would be our shame too. So we rode out after those men." Patience pushed Rud's arm, Rud got the message and shook James' still outstretched hand.

James said, "I know we cannot undo what was done, it was unforgivable. You have every reason to hate us. But by coming here, we wanted to prove to you we are not our fathers. It is important to us that you know." Rud, still a bit in shock, said, "Had we met a few years ago, I would have killed every one of you. I thought many times about going back to do just that. But thanks to my wife, I let go of all that hate. There is no doubt you saved my family this time, and I am grateful to you all." Rud then added, "This is my wife Patience, my brother Billy, and his future wife, Alice."

James raised an eyebrow and said, "Your brother? I don't remember you having a brother." Billy responded, "Brother-in-law. My name is Billy, although, in the town I was called William, William Billings Jr." James realized Patience and Billy were the Billings children and smiled at Rud. James asked what got into that rider that passed them in a dead run out of the valley, he was white as a sheet and looked scared to death.

Patience said the man had a run-in with Alice once before, and this time Alice had promised to kill him first. When the first shot was fired, he turned and ran, throwing his weapons down as he went. James looked at sweet little Alice and said, "Remind me not to cross you, young lady. Congratulations to you and your future husband. I take it Billy knows about his pending nuptials."

Alice smiled, took Billy's hand in hers, and said, "He knows," as Billy smiled back at Alice. James told Alice she reminded him of his wife, very sure of herself, and as much as he hated to admit it, she was usually right. James added his wife was often pretty scary too!

James' men all dismounted, shook hands with Rud and Billy, and removed their hats for Patience and Alice. Patience offered the men water and asked if they were hungry. James told Rud they would need to return the dead men to the town so no one else would try this again, and to let the townspeople know the men in the village would stand with Rud if they did.

James said things were changing for the better in the town. The honest merchants were leading the way, and the old ways of doing things through violence and intimidation were mostly gone. He added with these men dead, it may be all gone.

* * * * *

James's men tied the bodies to the dead men's horses. It would be a long ride back, but James and his men felt good about what they had done. After they had eaten, they thanked Patience and Alice for the food, then mounted their horses to leave. Rud shook James' hand one more time and told him, "Thank you for coming to our aid."

James said, "We needed to set things right, and I am glad we did. You should visit sometime. I think you already know my wife. Her father owns a shop near the docks in town. She said to ask you how the sack of vegetable seeds turned out." Rud had a surprised look on his face and said, "The shopkeeper's daughter? Sarah? I don't know about scary, but she is a good salesman." James said, "Tell me about it, she convinced me to marry her."

Patience spoke and said, "I'd like to meet your wife someday. She sounds like a special lady. Tell her the seeds turned out very well. And thank her for helping Rud in the town and for letting you come to our aid." James, with a broad smile on his face, said, "Let me? She saddled my horse! It's like I said, scary." James tipped his hat to the ladies again, nodded to Billy, and along with his men and the dead bodies, rode out of the valley. James looked back once, smiled, and waved just before they dropped out of sight.