"Where the devil is he?" Kid wanted to know.

"Not here," Ruth answered. "We'll wait. I'm sure he'll be right back." She went in since the door was open and took a seat in one of the chairs in front of the desk.

Kid had no choice but to follow her in and sit with her though he would've rather been doing something more proactive.

The only ones less thrilled than him were the children because they had no toys with them. Ruth kept them occupied with singing though Isaiah never joined in. He did sometimes imitate Kid with an air guitar, but he was mostly content to listen.

"You looking for my son?" asked a cheerful voice.

Kid rose to his feet out of respect for a lady and because he had a question. "Both of them actually. You know where they are?"

"I don't know. Edmond's out enjoying the celebration, I believe. Chauncey was here, working. I brought his lunch because he refuses to take time off." She set it on the desk and both Mercy and Isaiah were eyeing it hungrily. "How are you, Sister Ruth? It's just dreadful to think something like this could happen in our little town."

"Better. My memory's returned."

"Why that's wonderful! Then that means you can tell Chauncey who did it," Mrs. Daniels gushed.

Ruth was spared having to answer that because Sheriff Daniels came in with Edmond. She was beyond relieved to see it though her heart hurt for Mrs. Daniels. Though Kid never set out to kill, she'd been scared that he might have not have been able to control his temper. She thanked God it had ended this way.

"Your ring, ma'am," Sheriff Daniels said.

Kid intercepted it and put it on her himself. "Glad to see you made the right choice, Sheriff, or I would've had to help you make it."

"I don't understand," Mrs. Daniels said. "What's going on here?"

Edmond remained tight-lipped, but Chauncey answered. "It was him, I'm ashamed to say."

Mrs. Daniels blanched and grabbed the corner of the desk for to have something to hold on to.

Edmond was glaring at Sister Ruth as if she was the source of all his troubles.

"You keep looking at my wife like that and you ain't going to be looking at anything but the backs of your eyelids," Kid groused in his low baritone.

"I'll pray to find a way to forgive you," Ruth said to Edmond even as she linked arms with Kid to help keep him composed. "Fortunately for you, the Lord will without question if you ask Him."

Kid humphed as if he didn't think it probable Edmond would ask and that was sadly most likely to be the case. Though one never knew for sure.

"You'll probably need to testify at the trial," Chauncey said, looking at Ruth apologetically.

"No need. I'll confess." Edmond wasn't ignorant of the law. Rape could mean capital punishment. In his case, it was only attempted rape along with theft and battery, but a confession of guilt was still probably the best way to go to get the lightest sentencing. And Sister Ruth had enough of a following that avoiding justice could mean mob action. There was also the fact that the fastest gunslinger in the west was watching him as if looking for an excuse to have to shoot him. Behind bars was probably the safest place for him to be.

"I'll ride with ya'll, Sheriff," Kid said. "You'll forgive me if I don't trust either of you."

"We'll give ya'll some time alone to say goodbye though," Ruth said, shooing her family out the door. As a mother, she couldn't imagine the pain that had to come from knowing you'd failed to raise a child the way they should go. To know your son had chosen evil over following the Lord. She held the baby in her arms closer and prayed her children would all choose the right path, the way called straight and narrow.

"I didn't like that man," Mercy spoke up now that they were away from the strangers. She knew from the way the adults spoke he was the reason her mother had lost her memory.

"That's why we should pray all the harder for him," Ruth said and she meant the words even if she didn't quite feel them.

sss

Edmond was behind bars. And would be for many years to come. Kid hadn't returned to Socorro until he was sure of that.

Kid took Ruth to the saloon. A part of him would have been happy if she never darkened the door of such a place again, but he knew it was a part of who she was to reach out to the lost that most of society shunned. And so he supported her as they stood side by side, looking at the door.

Ruth held 2 Bibles. One was her Bible and the other was the Bible she'd never gotten to deliver. It like hers had survived the assault and the rain though its cover didn't look quite so perfect as it had before.

She was afraid. Though Edmond was no longer a threat, the world and particularly the saloon seemed a little more threatening than it had before. She had a tendency to treat the men there like overgrown boys and while some of them might have been, some of them were very dangerous.

She would one day see them as poor lost souls loved by the Creator again, she knew, and not just menacing figures out to do her harm. But she'd certainly be more careful in the future and make sure that it was either daylight or Kid was along.

It was the book in her hand that finally propelled her forward into the building and the knowledge that the Lord walked before her.

It wasn't the men she was ministering to today though. She asked the saloon owner to speak with one of his girls. A request he started to turn down until Kid reminded him who he was with a harsh look.

The woman was short and plump but pretty with her dark Hispanic looks.

"Are you Juanita's sister? The lady who wanted the Bible?"

"I'm no lady, but yes. I've been wanting to read it for some time. Can you believe I've never even opened the book in my life unless you count the catechism. I thought you'd forgotten me."

"I'd forgotten a lot of people. Myself included. It really reminded me how you can't even trust your own mind. You can only trust God." She handed her the Bible.

"Why would you go to so much trouble for a stranger?" the woman asked, hugging the book against her chest. She'd no doubt heard all that had happened to her and wondered why she'd ventured here again.

"Because of love. God's love. He went to so much trouble for me when Jesus came to pay the price of sin. And He did it for you too." And for Edmond, she reminded herself.

Real Universe

Some of Sister Ruth's memories weren't so pleasant. She also found the older she got, the more she struggled with names or even to recall what she did yesterday. But she didn't fret over it. God was Lord over her memories too.

Human beings were naturally forgetful creatures; there was no denying that. The word "remember" was sprinkled throughout scripture as a command from the Lord. Remember Me, it often said.

Holy communion was done for the purpose of not forgetting that Christ had poured out His blood and sacrificed His flesh that man might be restored to God. "Do this in remembrance of Me."

Even her marriage to Kid was to be a testimony and a remembrance by pointing to Christ and His Bride. She by submitting to her husband's love and leadership represented the church, and he by loving her enough to lay down everything for her, even his life, and giving the best he had to give represented Jesus.

Still, despite all this, she sometimes did forget God's truths. She wouldn't be human if she didn't. But the Lord was patient, remembering she was but dust and He revealed Himself to her daily in His word and in His creation.

A verse flitted through her head. " Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them."

She had been able to do that, more or less, and she was blessed for it. Kid had been a late convert and sometimes she sensed how the weight of those pleasureless years bore down on him. But the Lord was gracious to forgive and He accepted the young as well as the old so long as they came while there was yet life.

She squeezed his hand affectionately. He let go of her hand, so he could put his arm around her waist and pull her closer to him.

She could tell he was recalling an unpleasant time now by the frown lines on his forehead. "If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart."

He looked at her and grinned, knowing it was scripture she spoke and the words did what they were intended to do, which was ease his burden. "How do you know me so well?"

"Because I love you. God is greater than our past, our sins, and the unforgiveness we have towards ourselves."

He kissed the top of her head. "And I love you. Thank you for never letting me wallow in self pity and always reminding me of the Lord's goodness."

The one thing people did seem to recall with great clarity was the wrongs done to them, but God didn't, she knew. The Lord promised something miraculous in return for remembering Him and His ways, He promised to forget man's sins.

The End