“Millie?”
“She works in the saloon. It seems you made quite a good impression on her. Should I be jealous?”
“Jealous?”
“I’m teasing. Evidently, you were pretty badly hurt when you left the saloon, and Millie was worried about you, so she stepped outside to see how you were doing. You weren’t doing very well, you were weaving back and forth in the saddle as you rode away. Then, when she saw you fall from your horse, she ran down to you. She said that, at first, she was afraid you were dead. But when she saw you move, she went to get Mr. Gilmore. Mr. Gilmore rented a buckboard for her, and helped her get you onto it. She drove it out here by herself.”
“Gilmore didn’t come with her?”
Kitty laughed. “Are you serious? A whore comes to his house in the middle of the night, and you think his wife is going to let him go with her?”
Matt laughed as well.
“Well, I owe her my thanks. Not just for bringing me here, but for warning me I was in danger. Because of that, when I stepped out of the saloon last night, I was on my guard. Of course, I have to admit, I didn’t expect a knife attack.”
“It wasn’t last night,” Kitty said.
“What?”
“It wasn’t last night, it was two nights ago. You were out all day yesterday, and all night last night.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No, I’m serious. You have slept, if you can call what you were doing sleeping rather than being unconscious, for two days and two nights.”
“No wonder I’m so hungry,” Matt said.
“Now, I don’t know if you actually like my soup, or if you just like it because you are hungry,” Kitty said.
“Couldn’t it be both?”
“I suppose it could.”
“Katherine. Who undressed me?”
“Millie and I both did. And we put on your bandage,” Kitty replied. She chuckled. “Are you embarrassed?”
“No, I reckon not. It’s not like I’ve never been seen by a woman before.”
Kitty laughed out loud. “Then we are even, Matt. It’s not like Millie nor I have never seen a naked man before.”
“Where is Millie?”
“She had to go back into town yesterday. She said next time you come into town, be sure to drop in to the Sand Spur and say hello.”
“I’ll do that,” Matt said. Again, he looked around the room. “I’m sorry I put you out of your room.”
“You didn’t put me out.”
“What do you mean?”
“I spent both nights right here, with you,” Kitty said.
“Oh?”
“Don’t worry, Matt, I haven’t been compromised.” She laughed, heartily. “As if someone like me could be compromised. But you have been drifting in and out of it so much that I thought you needed someone to keep watch over you. Although you are welcome to share my room, and my bed, for as long as you want, you could probably go back to your own room now if you feel up to it.”
“I appreciate the doctoring, and I appreciate you watching over me,” Matt said. “But it would probably be better if I went back to my own room.”
“Don’t get me wrong, Matt. It was delightful to feel you in bed beside me, the truth is, right now you are all I have to protect my investment, so keeping you healthy is more important than anything else,” Kitty said. “I don’t have a choice. I have to watch over you.”
Matt felt up to getting out of bed later that afternoon and Kitty said he could move to his room, but she insisted that he stay in bed at least one more day. To keep peace, Matt agreed to do so, and he did not get up, dress, and come downstairs until noon on the following day. He had eaten nothing but soup for the last two days so when he came downstairs, even though he was in the parlor, he smelled something cooking.
The aroma, which was very enticing, promised a meal that was a little more substantial than soup, so his mood improved considerably.
“Smells good down here,” Matt said.
“I had Frederica tell Maria to put a roast beef on this morning,” Kitty said, explaining the aroma. “I thought you might be ready for some solid food.”
“I’m more than ready,” Matt said. “Truth is, I believe I could eat it whether it was cooked or not.”
Kitty laughed, but her laughter was interrupted by someone banging the front door knocker.
“Wait here, I’ll go see who it is,” Kitty offered and, nodding, Matt walked over to have a seat in the rocking chair.
A moment later, Kitty came back into the parlor with Marcus Kincaid trailing behind her.
Matt stood up.
“No, no, don’t get up on my account,” Kincaid said, holding his hand out. “I heard about your—uh—trouble the other night. I wouldn’t want to be the cause of you tearing something open.”
“I’m fine,” Matt said without further elaboration.
“I must say, you are the talk of the town,” Kincaid said. “I mean, here, two knife-wielding ruffians tried to rob you, and you not only survived, you managed to kill Garcia.”
“Garcia?”
“Carlos Garcia. He works down at the—that is, he did work down at the depot in the feeder lot. The other one who attacked you had to be Lopez. They were a couple of Mexicans who worked together and roomed together down at Mama Sanchez’s boardinghouse.
Anyway, the next day, Marshal Sparks went down to the feeder lot to talk to Lopez, but Lopez was gone, and his boss said he hasn’t been seen since it happened.”
“They weren’t trying to rob me,” Matt said.
“Of course they were trying to rob you. What other reason would they have for attacking you like that?”
“They were trying to kill me,” Matt said. “They came out of the dark with their knives and they attacked me without a word. If they had been trying to rob me, they would have asked me for money.”
“Why would they be trying to kill you? Do you know them?”
“They tried to kill me because someone paid them.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Why was I attacked in American Falls? Why were Gilmore and I attacked on the way out here that first day? When you add that all together, it can only mean that someone wants me dead.”
“As I understood it from the report Gilmore gave, you weren’t actually attacked while you were on the way out here. Gilmore said that you saw someone on the lip of the canyon wall, then you stopped, then you went up to confront them. That’s when you killed Sam Logan.”
“Who shot at me first,” Matt said.
“There’s only your word for that, isn’t there?”
“Kincaid, if you’ve got something stuck in your craw, spit it out,” Matt said.
“Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m not disputing your claim. I’m just repeating what Mr. Gilmore said in the report he filed. And it does point out how difficult the marshal’s job is in enforcing the law when there are no eyewitnesses.”
“There were two eyewitnesses.”
“Yes, Mole and Cooter. Perhaps I should have said, eyewitnesses who were would be willing to give testimony.”
“Have they told the marshal a different story?”
“They told the marshal that it all happened so fast they didn’t know what happened.”
“Don’t you think if they could convince the marshal that I was at fault, they would do so?”
“I suppose. I do wonder, though, why someone might be trying to kill you. Do you have any idea who that someone might be?”
“Yeah I got a very good idea who wants me dead. It’s Poke Terrell.”
“Ah, you’ve been listening to Prewitt, haven’t you? Prewitt thinks he saw Poke Terrell the night the rustlers stole Kitty’s horses. But there are eyewitnesses in the Mud Hole who will claim that they were playing cards with Poke the night the robbery happened.”
“That’s funny,” Matt said. “According to what I hear about Terrell, he never plays cards with anyone but himself. Who were the three who were playing cards with him on the night Prew was shot, and his two friends were killed?”
“Sam Logan, Al Madison, and Ken Jernigan.”