Rud and the Damsel

Chapter 28 - Sandy Haired Farmhand

The father was carrying Martha across his saddle and was looking back towards Rud when the large, heavily loaded hay wagon pulled onto the road. Seeing the riders coming fast, the driver of the hay wagon stopped the team and jumped from the driver's bench.

Seeing the hay wagon in its path, the father's horse decided to stop on its own. The father tried to steer the horse behind the hay wagon and through a ditch but lost his balance, and he and Martha fell to the ground. The father picked up Martha and stumbled into the recently cut hayfield, where he fell again.

This time Martha was able to get up first, and as much as her bindings would allow, she hopped away from her father. A young farmhand that had been stacking hay rushed to her aid. Martha collapsed at the young farmhand's feet. Seeing she had been bound and badly beaten, the farmhand, armed only with a pitchfork, turned to defend her from her attacker.

Rud, seeing Martha carried into the hayfield, then escaping, jumps his horse over the ditch and was bearing down on her father, who was challenging the farmhand. Rud, using the blunt side of his hatchet as a hammer, hit the father in the shoulder, knocking him to the ground. Rud pulled up his horse and jumped down, hatchet and big knife in hand as he walked towards the father. Rud heard a horse approaching and ducked just in time as the blade of a short sword missed his head by inches.

The man who had first charged and then turned to pursue Rud had caught up with him. Having missed Rud a second time, the man pulled up his horse just past Rud for another attempt. Rud was on him, though, and pulled him from the saddle. Both men crashed into a heap on the ground. Once on their feet, they squared off against each other, Rud with his big knife and hatchet and the man with his short sword.

The man swung his short sword at Rud but missed. He swung the short sword again, but Rud deflected the sword blade with his big knife and pushed the man back. Rud was waiting for the man to swing his short sword again. Rud would try to deflect the sword with his hatchet, then lunge forward with his knife. Rud needed to end this quickly as his injuries were starting to take a toll.

As the man started to swing his short sword again, he was shot in the side. He slumped to one knee with the short sword still pointed at Rud. Surprised, Rud looked where the shot came from and saw Alice surrounded by a cloud of white smoke from the pistol she had just fired. The cart was still rolling, but Billy was already down from the cart, ax in hand, moving quickly to assist Rud.

Another cloud erupts from a rifle in the back of the cart as Patience fired. The more powerful rifle ball hit the man in the head, causing the opposite side to burst open in a cloud of angry red and gray mist. The man fell to the ground dead, his limbs twitching violently.

Rud heard another pistol shot from behind him. He looked back towards where the farmhand was holding Martha's father at bay. The father had raised his pistol towards Martha, but the farmhand stabbed him with the pitchfork's tines before he could aim. The father had pulled the trigger reflexively upon being stabbed and shot the ground well away from Martha.

The farmhand withdrew the pitchfork and ran Martha's father through again. When the pitchfork was withdrawn the second time, the father said something to Martha that Rud could not hear. A third stab of the pitchfork, this time to the throat, finished the father. He slumped to the ground dead.

Rud, still on his feet, turned and walked towards Martha until the farmhand stuck his pitchfork up to Rud's neck. Rud stood there, covered in and dripping blood, his knife and hatchet in hand, with a pitchfork at his throat. The sandy-haired, blue-eyed farmhand, who Rud guessed was about the same age, was naked from the waist up, his skin tanned from working in the sun. Rud looked into his eyes. The farmhand was terrified, but in addition to fear, Rud saw firm resolve.

The men Rud had killed, or at least the ones he had taken the time to look at, never had the firm resolve of this farmhand. He did not know Martha, her father, or Rud, but he would defend the young woman who he thought desperately needed his help. The farmhand had chosen his ground and would not relinquish it alive.

Rud had already planned his next move. He would shift right quickly, and before the farmhand could repoint the pitchfork, Rud would sweep it aside, catching the pitchfork handle with the hook of his hatchet blade while thrusting his knife toward the farmhand's chest. No one, not even this young farmhand, would stop Rud from getting to Martha.

The farmhand was two seconds from dying, but before Rud moved, he thought about how he admired this farmhand and would regret killing him. As Rud looked into the farmhand's eyes, the resolve to protect Martha even at the cost of his own life gave Rud pause. Rud just stood there eye to eye with him. Even when two women came up and pulled Martha away, the farmhand stood facing Rud, refusing to yield. Rud had never faced anyone like this farmhand.

The sound of a short sword being pulled from its sheath caught Rud's attention. He turned from the farmhand to the third rider. Unlike the father, this rider had made it around the hay wagon, and when he did not see Martha's father on the road behind him, he turned around and came back.

The man had already run once when he left Bessie's porch, and now, faced with his two comrades dead, he looked like he was trying to decide whether to fight or run again. He did not get the chance to choose, though, as he was struck in the head by something small and round.

Billy had stopped advancing when Alice and Patience shot and killed the man just moments before. Now Billy had stunned the third rider with a stone from his sling.

Alice raised her second pistol, and Patience reached for another rifle, but before either could fire at this new threat, Billy had looped his sling around his neck, picked up his ax, and reared both hands back over his head, the blunt end of the ax towards the rider. Then in one smooth motion, Billy threw the ax at the third rider. The ax rotated in the air and made a hollow thud sound as the blade stuck deep in the man's chest.

Rud knew Billy was brave, but Rud saw something else too. Billy's eyes were focused and unflinching. Rud saw no anger or fear in Billy, just determination as he closed in on the third rider. Billy looked calm and almost relaxed as he pulled his knife from its sheath, intending to finish the kill, but the third rider was dead. Billy retrieved his ax from the man's chest and looked at Rud. Rud nodded to Billy.

* * * * *

All the men that had come from the city after Martha and Alice were dead. Rud, feeling his strength starting to fade, breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Alice jumped out of the cart and ran first to Billy, then to Martha, who was being cared for by several ladies in the back of a wagon.

Patience ran directly to Rud, cupped his chin in her hands, and gave him a long kiss. She tasted his blood but still held the kiss. With her touch, the rage slowly left, and Rud felt a calm come over him. Patience sensed there was something different about Rud, something dark and unfamiliar in his eyes. But as she held him, it dissipated like smoke from a dying fire.

Patience had difficulty believing Rud was capable of being a killer when he told her about his life before, and she found out he was who Bessie had called the Mad Hermit. She knew he had killed the day he rescued her and Billy, but a killer just did not fit with the man she loved. Now she had seen the beast in Rud firsthand, but it did not scare her at all.

Patience knew it was not who Rud was. It was who he needed to be when his life or the lives of those he loved were threatened. It was when the beast that lived within him needed to be set free. It was when a good man needed to change his nature for a short while. Yes, Rud was capable of extreme violence, was utterly brutal when required, and had killed many men. But Rud was not a killer. Patience understood the difference now.