Bessie turned to Patience and Rud with a serious look on her face. She said Martha and Alice were not just visiting. They had run away from their father. Patience had heard part of this story the first day she visited Bessie, and it was why she felt her secret was safe. Bessie explained more to Rud now.

Bessie had never trusted the man her daughter married. Bessie knew he was a bad person. He had an older son from a previous marriage who was just like his daddy, all bad. Not long after they were married, Bessie's daughter and her husband moved to the city where he supposedly had a job waiting. Martha and Alice were born in the city.

Martha and Alice's mother died of pneumonia, but Bessie's son-in-law did not tell Bessie her daughter had passed until months later. Bessie made the trip to the city to visit with the girls and see where her daughter was buried.

While visiting, Bessie noticed there was something wrong with Martha. She was not the happy child she had always been. Martha's father said she was still sad over her mother's passing, but that was a lie.

A few months later, Martha and Alice showed up on Bessie's doorstep. They were dirty, tired, and near starved. Bessie finally got out of Martha that her half-brother had been released from prison, and he and their father had gone drinking to celebrate. Typically when they went drinking, they would be gone for several days.

Martha took the opportunity to run away. She had stolen a horse, put Alice on the horse behind her, and, based on memory from the few times her father had let them visit, made it to Bessie's door.

They had taken many wrong turns but fortunately had been helped by kind strangers along the way. Bessie said she had her suspicions about why every time she mentioned letting her father know where they were, Martha reacted so strongly against it.

Eventually, Martha told Bessie what her father had been doing to her since her mother had died. When her half-brother returned from prison, he had abused Martha as well, and her father had started paying more attention to Alice. Martha was afraid Alice was next.

Martha told Bessie even if they died on the road trying to get here, it would be better than letting her father and brother do that to Alice. Bessie said she should have seen it when she went to visit, and Martha was acting strange. Tears were welling up in Bessie's eyes, but by sheer will, they would not fall. Rud knew Bessie was as tough as they come.

* * * * *

Rud knew what Bessie was saying. He knew it was what the men intended to do with Patience and her mother in the warehouse. Rud remembered Patience's torn and ripped dress, and the anger started rising in him. To do that to your child was grounds for an immediate killing, and Rud's was the man for the job.

Rud, in a different tone of voice, asked Bessie, "Where are the father and son now?" Bessie saw the look in his eye, pointed her finger at him, and said, "Don't you even think about it. It isn't your place." Patience had been looking down and missed what Bessie had seen.

Bessie continued, "What you can do is promise me if those girls come here needing your help, you will take them in and protect them like your own family. Can you do that?" "Yes," Patience answered for Rud, then looked at him for confirmation.

Rud said, "Yes, and they already are part of my family, and so are you." Bessie said, "I have one more question, Rud, and I need to know before I think of entrusting my granddaughters to you if need be." Rud said, "Ask." Bessie said, "Did you eat those men?"

Patience's eyes shot to Rud, who didn't flinch. "No, Bessie, I dumped the bodies of the three from the tavern in a ravine and taught that tavern owner a lesson he won't soon forget. Each time I left my valley, it seemed like someone wanted to kill me or steal from me. I guess they thought a boy alone would be an easy target." Patience noticed something different about Rud as he talked.

Rud continued, "I left the body of the next man I killed in the woods where he fell. I buried another in a meadow just outside our valley. Two more tried to ambush me on the road, and I killed them with my hatchet. Then I hung up what was left of them for their friends to find. There were many others, they came after me, and I killed them, but I never ate any of them."

Rud paused and took several deep breaths, the things he had done sometimes still shocked him. "I don't go looking for trouble and do everything I can to avoid it. But when trouble finds me, and I have no choice, I am as mean, fierce, bloody, and brutal as I can be. A lesson I learned the day after my family was murdered. Thinking an eleven-year-old boy was an easy target, a thief tried to steal my mule. I cut him so badly he was unrecognizable. The rest left me alone after that."

"Eleven?" Patience said with a concerned look on her face. Rud nodded. "But I have Patience now, and I am not that man anymore." Bessie looked at Rud and said, "Maybe not, but there is a beast inside all men, and a good man keeps the beast in its cage until it is needed. You may not be the same man as before, but the beast is still there inside you. I saw it in your eyes."

Bessie leaned forward and added, "I saw something else too, there is something dark in you that worries me, Rud. I would have never thought you were the Mad Hermit until I saw a darkness in your eyes just now. I believe there is more to your story than you've told us. But I think if any man can keep my granddaughters safe, it is you." Patience said, "He saved me from the men in town," her voice trailed off, thinking about her fate had Rud not been there to save her.

Bessie patted Patience's hand and said, "He is a good man Patience, like any other good man he needs you to put the beast in him back in its cage from time to time. My Robert would have ridden for the city the moment those girls showed up if he had been alive. It would have been his place, Rud." Bessie said, "Alright then, I don't have to worry about being supper when I come to visit."

There was a long pause, and then Billy and Alice came into view through the door. Patience said with a smile, "I think you are going to get an escort whether you like it or not." Bessie said, "I think Alice will be just fine. I am not sure Martha will ever be okay. Patience, I think having you here helps her. I thank you for that."

Rud asked Bessie what she had done with the horse Martha had stolen. If she still had the stolen horse and the owner came looking, it could be trouble for all of them. Bessie looked Rud in the eye and said, "I hated to do it. It was a good horse. But it ended up dead in a ravine, maybe the same one you hid your problems in, Rud."

Martha walked back in the cabin and, in a sarcastic tone, said, "Your doves are fine, Alice is following Billy around as usual." Bessie turned to Patience and Rud and said, "There is something you should know about Alice. She claims to know things about the future and Alice has said for many years she would marry a man named Billy." Rud laughed.

Patience said, "Wait, the first time we visited you Alice said she had finally met the man she would marry. When I said you mean Billy, she got all excited and said, 'Yes, his name is Billy, I knew it was him.'"

Martha rolled her eyes and said, "This is silly, please don't encourage her." Bessie said, "Well, true or not, Alice believes it." Rud said, "What can it hurt, they like each other and who is to say they are not meant to be together." Bessie and Patience nodded in agreement. Martha shook her head from side to side. Rud recalled the look on Alice's face when she saw Billy the first time and thought to himself, maybe it is true.