Valdis and Rutledge

The year was 1904. Valdis Inger, as she was known back then, was on a steam ship, in Africa. Not many were aboard and she was hard pressed to hide her true nature during the damn voyage. At the time, she was in service to a powerful elder, who had sent her to this place. She didn’t mind going. In fact she loved the idea really, of seeing the animals and the plants there. She knew it would be an incredible adventure. Her job was to gather information about a local Prince and his people, then bring it back to her current master.

At the Captain’s table the first night of this small voyage she set eyes on Sir Rutledge Sexsmith for the very first time. There was something about him that sang to her something that hummed in her blood when she was around him. It may have been something in his voice. Maybe it was the musky scent of him that appealed to her. It could have just been his fine boned English face that drew her to him but there was so much more to him than that. He had impeccable manners and he was so smart. She was fascinated by him. He was also very passionate and outspoken about something very dear to her heart but rarely considered in 1904, animal rights.

Sir Sexsmith seemed to be interested in Valdis also. They talked long into the night. Conversing together about so many things, it was like they had known each other or been looking for each other, forever. Before the trip was done, Valdis and Rutledge were lovers and the love they made back in 1904 was well, shocking, really. It’s seems that the noble line of Sexsmith’s had not taken their name lightly. They had handed down many fine and unusual techniques in their long lineage. Rutledge had studied a great deal on this subject on his own as well. Valdis, of course, had been around for a while, experiencing much sexually, through all those long years. Yes, they were very compatible in bed. The sex was incredible but it was even more than that.

They really liked each other. They felt almost complete together. For the first time in a long time Valdis didn’t feel alone. Something in Valdis made Rutledge feel warm. At dusk when she came around him, he felt more hopeful about life than he ever had before. He knew she’d never fit in to his life or society but he didn’t want to think about that. He just wanted to enjoy this while he could.

So while they had the time they talked, laughed and enjoyed each other most all night before sneaking back to their cabins so a little decorum would be maintained. They had two weeks of glorious nights. Those were wonderful times in which they sometimes felt like they were the only two people in the world.

When the ship docked, Rutledge went out into the bush while Valdis stayed in town. He had his mission, she had hers. It pained them both, but they were dedicated and stubborn. It was clear they had to be separated to accomplish their goals.

Valdis began by presenting herself to the Prince. She got a very frosty welcome to say the least. Rutledge began making waves with poachers and their rich clients. Valdis continued to work at ingratiating herself and slowly gained acceptance, confidences, and status within local kindred society. She was not xenophobic like many of her ilk and so she also managed to become acquainted with a few shifters and with some mortals too. She began to hear about some plans to take out an animal rights activist. Her heart seemed to both stutter to life then die in dread when she heard of this.

During this time she received some letters from Rutledge. They were wonderful scent drenched letters that came from the bush. Well, perhaps they were only scent drenched to Valdis’s senses, for they smelled of Rutledge all manly, and so real, as if he had worked hard before writing her but not taken a shower or bathed before penning each note. She loved the scent alone but the words, oh they were so fine. They were words of love and devotion. Each missive was so thrilling; they were almost more than she could bear, because the two of them were apart and she ached for him..

She treasured those letters. Valdis kept them for years. She held onto them wherever she went until the ink had faded and the onionskin fallen apart. Even then she kept the pieces in a sachet tied inside her clothes but eventually it all fell away to nothing. Like everything Valdis had ever loved, they were suddenly just gone, forever. Despite her long efforts to keep them close forever.

That was later though. At the time she was still getting these precious letters, she became aware of danger to her love. She made up her mind to go to Rutledge when she heard about the plot to kill him. She had the information she needed for her liege. Valdis believed she could wait before returning and giving it to her Prince.

So Valdis hired some men to take her into the bush. She found Rutledge. She began a campaign immediately, begging him to leave and come back with her on the next ship. Valdis told him she knew of plots in place against him. She kissed him, pleaded, and touched him. She demanded tried everything in her considerable arsenal to convince him. It did no good. She thought she would stay with him then. Her plan was to try to protect him in spite of his refusals. Valdis only hoped the attack would come at night. Cowards usually attack at night. She thought she had a good chance of saving her love.

So began her siege. She’d sleep in the dirt during the day, then steal into his camp at night. Valdis would love him then in ways that most men would never even think of but if given the chance would enjoy. She would cajole him. Always she would try to protect him, from himself even, if need be.

Rutledge began to get short tempered with Valdis. He saw her efforts as a lack of faith in his ability. He knew he was strong and strong willed but he felt these were good things needed for a man in his position.. He was in fact, willful and spoiled in many ways though He and Valdis never recognized it. Rutledge felt his strength, security; money, fame, title and just plain intelligence would keep him safe absolutely.

On their last night together he was a bit cruel to her in bed. She didn’t blame him and didn’t mind at all really for she liked that sort of thing at times. She knew and understood that a man needs to feel strong. She got a bit of a thrill from his mistreatment, as she also needed to feel like a softer thing than she normally was in her job. She wanted to feel like a woman. Valdis was loyal to those she cared about. She planned to make sure she got him to safety no matter what.

Then she was summoned. There was nothing she could to do resist it. Though she tried. She had tried so hard to fight the summons but that eventually was something she could no longer do.

She told Rutledge she had to go. He seemed not to care at the time. Indeed he seemed glad to be rid of her at that moment, not liking her constant state of anxiousness for him or what he had resorted to with her the night before in anger. Rutledge did believe that she could be happy with what he had done to her, it made him sick to think about. So she went alone, pleading once more with him to come too. Promising to return as soon as she could. She was, of course not able to explain to him fully why she had to go. To tell a mortal about Kindred business meant certain death if found out to the mortal and possibly to you, no matter how value you were thought to be.

She could not risk his death by her own complicity. Her plan was to hurry home, then find a way to be given leave so she could come back and stay with him until he returned to England. After that she knew he would return to his life. There she would have no place. She was not a fine lady. Indeed she was not even human. Still, she would try to make sure he was safe. He was such a wonderful man, fighting for animal rights at a time that was considered nothing short of ridiculous. How she loved him for that alone. Then again there were so many things she loved him for.

She never made it back to rescue him. He was tortured and killed two weeks later. For some reason his spirit didn’t go where it was supposed to. Instead he appeared to Valdis at the moment of his demise exactly as he had appeared in death. It was a horrible and violent aspect of her beloved that appeared to her as she rose from her day slumber.

His horrible visage was terrifying to her. He was quite angry with her as well. It was he felt, as though she had caused his death by all her worry and talk of plots against him. Her lack of faith in him was his undoing or so he felt at that time.

She cried blood tears and he was fascinated, this seemed proof to him that she was in fact evil and dangerous. His sweet Valdis who had appeared so good before in his eyes, now he found was secretly a demon of unknowable evil. He felt he had been taken in, lied too, and manipulated. So he determined he would stay there, watching, and learning her secrets. Appearing before her each night as she awoke he was now exhorting her about her sins and his death. Valdis thought she was losing her mind. She never was sure if this was real or not. She felt such guilt. She wanted him to be safe. She wanted to make him happy. He wanted her dead like him. He was full of fury.

(continued)