Rud and the Damsel

Chapter 2 - The Damsel

On the northern side of the city, Patience was seated with her family in the dining room of her father's large and elegant home. It was her birthday and her birthday party had been earlier in the day. The family enjoyed an early supper as Patience told them all about her party and the gifts she had received.

Like any town, some barely made enough to live. There were the tradesmen and merchants who lived more or less comfortably and those who were financially well off. Then there were the select few that owned everything else.

Patience's father was in the latter group as he owned several boats and warehouses and ran a very profitable business trading, storing, and transporting goods. He had arrived back from another business trip just in time for Patience's party. Patience knew him as a good and loving father, but he had a well-deserved reputation for being ruthless when it came to his business interests.

Even with the birthday festivities, everyone had felt a certain tension in the air. As parents became aware of what was going on in town, they had one by one sent a coach to bring their daughters home from Patience's party.

Patience had been quite upset when everyone left early, but her father's presence cheered her up. He was gone so often. But still, something did not seem right, especially when a servant brought one of her father's boat captains within view just outside the dining room.

Patience tried to dismiss the concern in her father's voice as he and the captain spoke emphatically about events occurring in town. The captain hurriedly left, and even though her father pretended everything was alright, the concerned look never left his face. The worried look was also on her mother's face as she gently wrapped her fingers around her husband's hand.

Patience's father stood and began to speak as the household staff, sensing they were needed, filed into the dining room. "There is a revolt brewing in town, and I fear we are all in danger." Danger? Patience had never felt danger in her entire life. Without even thinking, "But it's my birthday," slipped past her lips. Her father, now addressing Patience and her younger brother, continued without acknowledging. "You will go to your room, put on your warmest coat, hat, and gloves, and pick a favorite item from your room you can easily carry. Take nothing else."

The staff pushed both Patience and her younger brother out of their chairs and towards their rooms. Her father whispered to Mr. Smith, the head of the household staff, who immediately left by the front door. Patience watched as her father turned, embraced Patience's mother tightly, and said, "It will be alright."

A little while later, two of her father's freight wagons pulled up in front of the house. Mr. Smith, who was a passenger on the first wagon, jumped down and ran in. He found Patience's father and told him the wagons were out front. The captain, who had been there earlier, came in the front door and announced: "Now is the time to leave, family in the first wagon, staff in the second."

Patience, her mother, and brother were loaded into the first wagon and covered with an old canvas sheet. Patience's father knew they would be vulnerable until they reached his boat and did not want those who might do them harm to know they were attempting to flee.

Once the staff was loaded into the second wagon, they headed towards the dock and one of her father's boats. Patience heard only the sound of the wagons moving swiftly down the dirt road. Then she could only hear their wagon and wondered why the second had fallen so far behind.

The wagon stopped, and the captain and her father jumped down. She heard her father call the names of three of his other captains. He was asking why they had not left. When there was no answer from the captains, her father's voice grew angry. There was what sounded like a struggle, and men all around her started shouting. Suddenly, the canvas sheet was jerked away, and men reached for Patience, her brother, and her mother.

Patience's brother broke free and ran towards where the captains were holding his father. The men began dragging her mother, who was screaming for her husband, towards a nearby warehouse. Two men grabbed Patience by the arms and pulled her from the wagon. They were quiet now, but the look in their eyes caused her to freeze with fear.

As the men pulled Patience from the wagon and towards the warehouse, Patience turned and saw her father on his knees facing the river. The captain who had come to their house earlier had his pistol pressed against the back of her father's head. She watched in horror as the captain fired his pistol. The cloud of white smoke from the black powder charge hung in the air as her father's lifeless body fell into the river.

A second captain raised his pistol, moved the pistol's hammer to the half-cock position, and was looking at her little brother, who at twelve years of age had just witnessed his father's bloody execution. She screamed her brother's name just as she, too, was dragged into the warehouse. The second captain pulled the young boy over to the water's edge and made him kneel where his father had been killed seconds before.

The boy turned his head back towards where his sister had screamed his name and where he had last seen his mother, who had held him tight and told him she loved him during the ride in the wagon. He looked to the right, and in front of a store was a tall, rough-looking man.

The boy noticed the patches on the rough man's coat and the just purchased items he was carrying. He looked at the rough man's face and into his dark eyes. Even as the captain pressed the pistol against the back of the boy's head and thumbed the hammer to the full cock position, the boy continued to stare at the darkness in the rough man's eyes.