The funeral was short and not greatly attended. It didn't need to be. Everyone John loved was there. The Regulators, Kate, Alex and Susan. The men all remained dry-eyed. Susan cried a little, but quickly dabbed any tears away with a black lace handkerchief. Kate found that she couldn't cry. It wasn't that she was ashamed or afraid to, it was that she could not. The tears were on her mind, she wanted to mourn her father, but they never fell. She only stared at her father's gravesite with empty eyes and a heart full to bursting with complicated emotions. The gravedigger began throwing dirt on the coffin, she gave a gasp and a shaky little sigh, but her eyes remained clear and unfocused. Doc put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close while the last of the earth was packed down.
Doc held back a bit with her while she said her final goodbye. Kate knelt in front of the marker, holding the small bunch of flowers that had been all she could find. She pulled a ribbon from her hair, tied them together, and let them fall. Head bowed, she whispered a promise to the empty air and stood. Kate kissed her hand and pressed it firmly to where his name was carved into the stone. Her last words had been inaudible, but she knew he'd get them. The Regulators would be taken care of.
She caught up with Alex moments later and confessed a legal concern she had.
"Mr. McSween, sir, my father was about to inherit a great deal of money, but he- he never found out about it. His brother died very recently in London, and I was told to deliver the will, but my father never let me, really."
"That sounds about like John," he admitted, scratching his head. "Well, Kate, not much to worry about there. You'd have had more trouble if you'd told him, actually. It'd have gone through the Justice and Murphy would have found out, maybe struck sooner."
The truth of this hit Kate like thunder. Sudden, shocking, and impossible not to notice. She only nodded, inviting him to go on.
"As it stands, you of course inherit everything. Including anything that's in his brother's will. My honest advice is this-leave New Mexico before Murphy gets wind of it."
But Kate knew she couldn't just take her inheritance and run, not till she'd settled this. So the next day, as they rode into Lincoln with Alex, she kept quiet about all he had told her. It was torture, keeping a secret from the boys, but she felt it was right. She stuck close to Alex as he talked to the Justice of the Peace, and together they convinced him to deputize the boys. It took a long, heated argument with Doc and Dick, but eventually Kate got her way and joined them as they mounted up. When Alex tried to ask her to come stay with him and Susan, she said,
"I promised, Alex. Besides, someone's got to watch them."
This was only a half-lie, she had promised her father, and she was going to help, but she also desperately wanted justice. The Regulators could help her with that.
When the Regulators said they had a plan, they meant they knew what they would do next. Right now, that was to go to a local brothel and apprehend Henry Hill. What would happen after they reached the brothel was anyone's best guess. They sat on their horses on a hill outside the cathouse. The boys seemed to be stalling for time, until it was suggested that Billy be the one to go grab Hill. Billy didn't seem to opposed to the idea and went right down to do it.
Kate was between Doc and Dick, so she was soon barraged by both of them.
"You could get hurt, Kate. It's not too late for you to go back." Doc suggested.
"Could get hurt?" she shot back, "Someone already tried to kill me, or didn't you happen to see that? You think they'd leave me alone now?" she thought back to Alex's advice.
"It's safer at Alex's." Dick countered.
"So I'd be safer in a house with one lawyer with asthma than I am with seven armed men." she glanced at both of them questioningly.
Neither answered as they saw Billy come out of the brothel alone and head for the outhouse. Kate tilted her head in confusion.
"What the hell's he doin'?"
That was soon made clear as Henry Hill came out shortly after him to the outhouse. Kate wondered, if Billy was going to arrest him, why hadn't he done it already? She glanced over at Doc and saw he was thinking the same thing. A shot rang out, Kate was ordered to stay behind, and the Regulators rode forward, firing wildly at anyone holding a gun. Kate sighed, twirling her revolver on her trigger finger. It wasn't as if she were dying to dash headfirst into a gun battle, but she knew she was as skilled as they were, possibly more. Yes, more, she thought as she saw Billy fall out the outhouse window and right into the slag heap. To her they looked like they had only a basic idea of what they were doing. In a firing match, all it took was a general idea, she supposed.
She waited for them all to ride up to her, ignoring Doc's look of See, I told you it was dangerous. Billy seemed far too pleased with himself, and Dick wasn't happy about that at all. Kate could feel the distance and tension between him and Billy increase as Dick bawled him out about the gun fight. She tried to calm him as they rode away side by side, but deep down she knew it was useless. Dick had never disliked Billy, really, but he'd never really been nice to him, either. They weren't exactly an overly cohesive bunch, the Regulators, but Kate wanted them at least to get along. She hated to think this had anything to do with her, yet she could sense that to a point, at least, it did.
Later, they were all reading the Journal, thinking there had to be something about their "arrest" in it. Of course there was, but Kate tuned most of it out. She sat next to Dick, completly drained from not sleeping last night. She yawned, leaning against Dick's shoulder, and closed her eyes, hoping she might get a few minutes rest. Dick, a little unsure of what to do, raised his arm and allowed her to rest closer to him, then put his arm down where it rested on her waist. Doc continued to read as Kate drifted slowly off.
Seconds later she awoke to surprised laughter. Her eyes snapped open, and she sat up, still in Dick's arms.
"What?"
"Says here, 'In addition to a following of young gunslingers, the gang has taken on an unwilling assistant, one Kate Elizabeth Tunstall, the only child of John Henry Tunstall and close friend of Lawrence Murphy,'" Doc continued.
Kate didn't find this funny as she thought back to Alex's warning.
"Oh god...Murphy knows. He knows. Oh bloody Christ!" The Regulators looked confused, so she went on, "I knew he recognized me. Now instead of killing me, he'll get someone to 'rescue' me!"
Now they got it. This was Murphy's way of alerting all of his followers that Kate was important to him, and that he wanted her in his possession soon. And they all knew if he couldn't control Tunstall's store by weaseling ownership out of a seemingly weak girl, he would take it from her by any and all means necessary. Knowing full well what Murphy was capable of when someone was in his way, Kate's reaction brought them back to reality.
Kate groaned again and buried her head in Dick's shirt, holding back tears of fear and frustration. She felt so stupid. She wondered if it would have been better to go with Alex...maybe it wasn't too late. Dick's arm remained tightly around her as thoughts of running back to the McSween's flitted through her mind. She was at a height that she could speak right into Dick's ear, so she did, telling him exactly those thoughts. He looked back at her, unsure of how to answer, perhaps afraid to answer either way. She nodded then, and whispered,
"Then I'll go."
