Thank you everyone for the kind reviews. Sorry I've not been able to respond personally and sorry it's taken me so long to update. But I have limited computer time due to sharing with a significant other who isn't often into sharing. Don't worry, I didn't kill him and the bruises will heal. Wink

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Matt rode into town a day later, sore of body and heavy of heart. So many thoughts and worries were flooding through him that he didn't know which way was up. Thoughts of the woman who died in his place and worries about how that had made him feel. He'd had a lot of time to think about all of that on his way back to Dodge.

He hadn't wanted to admit it but Sara Drew had attracted him. She had been fun and courageous and beautiful and had given her life to save his. She reminded him a great deal of Kitty in some ways, except, Kitty would have never tricked him into taking her 150 miles across the dangerous prairie. Kitty would have been honest with him.

There were other differences between the two, of course. As Kitty had stated, even though she'd never met her, Sara was spoiled and used to getting her own way. And though he hadn't considered it before, Matt was now beginning to realize, she'd manipulated him from the very beginning. She had gone after him with a single minded determination and if she hadn't died, Matt wasn't certain what would've happened.

Of course, he knew, he wouldn't have been happy in the long run. No matter how attractive the woman was, or how much of a pull, as Godie had put it, there was between them, Sara wasn't Kitty. She wasn't the woman that had given so much to him without asking for anything in return. And she wasn't the woman he truly loved.

Kitty was.

But had he damaged that? He didn't know that Sara would be waiting out there on the prairie for him; wagon loaded with supplies and a smug smile on her face, but that didn't change too much to his way of thinking.

He could have and should have sent her back to town or just continued on his way to Hays and left her out there. He now understood that her stubborn insistence on going to Ft Wallace, whether he helped or not, was just a ploy to trap him.

If he'd left her there, chances are she would've finally returned to Dodge in search of someone else to take her. Of course, she might've trailed him to Hays, constantly cajoling and pleading for his assistance, despite his protests. But either way, what had happened, might not have, if he'd done what he should have.

But he hadn't.

Now, Sara Drew was dead and Matt placed the blame for that completely on his own shoulders. The man, who had actually killed her, was only a hateful tool the fates had used to complete the journey he had started by not refusing her.

When Matt rode past the Long Branch, he chanced a glance inside but he couldn't see much. It was about noon, so Kitty was most likely either at dinner or back in her office or storeroom, working manically to take her mind off his being gone.

She didn't know that he was aware of that practice of hers, but he was. Sam had confided that to him once, in his worry for her health, when Matt had been gone for a particularly long time. Something more for Matt to think and worry about.

"Well, hello, Marshal." Moss greeted him when he reached the stable. Noting Matt's arm in the sling, he nodded towards the injury. "You alright?"

"I'm fine, Moss. Take care of my horse for me?" Matt's voice held no hints for the stable man.

"Sure will, Marshal. You going to go have Doc take a look at that arm?" Moss asked as he took a hold of Buck's reins.

"No. Feed him plenty of grain, will ya? He's had a rough ride."

"Looks like he ain't the only one." Moss said as Matt turned and strode off in the direction of the jail.

"Well! Mr. Dillon!" Chester smiled broadly when Matt came into the small brick building. Then he saw his arm in the sling. "Are you alright? What happened to your arm? Do you want me to go get Doc? How'd ya…"

"Chester!" Matt's voice was loud and gruff, though he hadn't meant for it to be. "Look, just don't worry about my arm. It's fine and it's a long story. I don't wish to go into it right now. Okay?"

"Ah, sure, Mr. Dillon." Chester answered a little dejectedly at Matt's rare show of temper with him. "Ah, could I get you something or do anything for ya? Maybe ya'd like some coffee. I ain't got any made but it wouldn't take me too long. I still got yesterday's grounds."

Matt shook his head. "No, Chester, I'm fine. I just want to get myself settled before I do much of anything else."

"Yes, Sir." Chester nodded plugging his hands in his back pocket, not sure exactly what to do as he swiveled back and forth on his stiff leg.

Matt shook his head and took a deep breath. "Chester, why don't you go on to dinner or something, huh? I need to catch up on my paperwork here and look into a few things. There's no need for you to hang around."

Chester started to reply when the door opened and Doc sauntered in. "I thought I saw you, when you rode in." He stood before Matt's desk, not looking too pleased to see him. "You been over to the Long Branch yet"

"No." Matt didn't want to show how much that thought worried him. He didn't want to see Kitty until he could sort things out in his mind. Of course, he'd had a hundred and fifty miles of riding to do that and he was still muddled.

"Well, don't you think you ought to?" Doc asked bluntly. "You know, Kitty's been awful worried about you?"

Matt looked up quickly, not quite hiding a brief guilty look. "She said something to you?"

"About what?" Doc knew it! He just knew it. There had been some sort of problem between those two before Matt left town.

"Nothing." Matt withdrew his gaze.

"Matt…" Doc started to try and get it out of Matt what was going on, but he noticed Chester leaning against the wall, ears attuned. Whatever was going on between the Marshal and the saloon owner, it was none of the town's business, and Chester would make it just that. "Well… I… I'll see ya later." He took a tug of his ear as he turned and headed for the door.

"Well, forever more." Chester frowned. "What do ya think his problem was? I mean it ain't like ya ain't been gone before. Miss Kitty knows you have to leave town ever so often. Besides, she ain't your wife or nothing so she ain't got no right to complain. She's just your friend. Nothing you do is her business."

Matt took a deep breath to keep from knocking Chester on his rear at that moment. Kitty had every right to know what had happened out there on the prairie and it was her business. Matt just hoped he could pull together the courage to tell her and that he'd still have a chance with her once he did.

"Chester." Matt got up from his desk and started for the door. "I'm going down to the Long Branch."

"Oh, well, good." Chester smiled. "Cold beer does sound kinda good."

"I'm going alone, Chester." Matt said pointedly. "You stay here. I need to talk to Kitty."

"About what?" Chester asked, nose now firmly out of joint at the slight.

"About something that is very much HER business and not yours." Matt snapped as he walked out and slammed the door behind him.

"Well, forever more." Chester muttered again as he watched Matt through the window. "If that don't beat all."

TBC