carRying Battlescars The tall, gaunt man stood at the door and for a moment, Rose Theodore did not recognize him. Then, with a cry of joy tempered by shock she welcomed home her long-lost wayfarer, Rudy Blake. Civil War had done much to Rudy. Gone was the cocksure reprobate, the captain who had dared run the Federal blockade, the businessman who owned Southern railroads and numerous profit-generating enterprises. In his place was a broken man who had gone for a soldier: a man who served his country but not the Cause; an artillerist who had imbibed too many defeats and seen too much death. One look told Rose that the Rudy Blake she knew was destroyed. Worse than that, as he collapsed into her arms, she grasped his very life hung by a thread. Taking him into the Blake House outside London, which she had always promised would be his one place of solace in a world that rejected him, her first thought was to keep him alive. Reforming his shattered spirit would come afterwards. Summoning the help of a local physician with whom she had developed a relationship, Mr. Mannering declared there was no hope for the sick man but to amputate a finger which had become infected months before. Adamantly refusing to permit this, Rose speaks for her unconscious love by stating he would rather die than be disfigured. Incredulous at such a preposterous assertion, the two quarrel before Rose dismisses him, stating she will treat Rudy with her own skills and medicines, boldly stating that she will not permit Rudy to die. Succumbing to her determination, Mannering and Rose perform an operation to remove the infected metal splinter from Rudy’s hand. Whether by their combined talents or her magic, or a combination of both, Rudy survives, leaving Rose with the far more difficult task of putting his mind back together. Complicating her task is the reaction of his former crew, who have gathered at the Blake House to await his glorious return. Finding him a shell of his former self rather than the icon they worshipped, the man badly scarred by war must assert himself by a dire contest of wills before they will accept him again as their captain.
