Chapter Twenty-One: "You ever done this before?"

It was already beginning to be hot the following morning as Matt and Kitty sat drinking coffee at the Long Branch. Matt had risen early and done his morning rounds, had his first cup of coffee with Annie at the jailhouse, and come to have his second with Kitty. "You got money saved, Matt?" she asked him. It was not a topic that had come up between them in more than a dozen years.

"Yes. You need some?" he asked her back.

"No. I'm just trying to figure what we can pay for land." she told him. "Feels a little funny, talking about that. Not something we've done since, well, since we saved up to buy the Long Branch."

"You bought the Long Branch, Kitty. I just helped a little." Matt said.

Kitty shook her head. "I know you couldn't have your name on the papers, Matt. I understand that. But it's always been part yours."

"I've never agreed to that, Kitty, but we stopped arguin' about that one a long time ago. No need to bring it up now."

"How much you have saved for a ranch, Matt?" she went on.

"A little over eight thousand dollars." Matt replied, filling his cup.

Kitty's own cup clattered into the saucer and she stared at him in astonishment. "Eight thousand dollars?"

"Yep. I've been claiming reward money where I could, honey, ever since Etta Stone."

"That's less than three years, Matt!" she said, letting the amazement show in her voice.

He took her hand, and held it. "Well, I told you at the time, when I asked you to marry me and you turned me down, that I planned to keep thinking on it. I remember that one of the things you asked me was what would we live on, and I gave that a lot of thought. Seemed that probably a ranch would be my best bet – for both a home for you and an income to support you – so that's what I started saving for." He hesitated, and then went on, "You know I can't take bounty if I'm assigned to bring someone in, or I go after someone as part of my job. This all came from men who came after me, or spoilers who fell into my way while I was doing something else. I've never killed a man for money, and I never will, but sometimes they forced my hand, and sometimes I brought them in to face a rope or prison. It seemed like the only way to do what I needed, Kitty, and you know most lawmen take a lot more than I do."

"I know all that, Matt, and I'd never fault you for it, but you never said a word to me, not a word." she told him, eyes sparking. "You maybe thought it wouldn't matter?"

"I was pretty sure it wouldn't, Kitty. I figured when you agreed to marry me, I'd let you know. And now you have, and I have." Matt's open face and smile met hers, and he patted the hand he held. "You going to tell me you would have married me for my money?"

She shook her head. "No, but it might have made the decision a little easier if I hadn't gone along thinking I'd need to sell the Long Branch to buy us a place." She watched his smile fade at that, and his tone was serious when he replied, "Kitty, the Long Branch is yours. I'd never ask you to sell it. It's up to me to provide a home for you, and I'm going to do that."

Kitty drew a long breath and released it with a little shudder. "I think we've got into some bad habits, Matt," she told him.

"Have we?" he asked, brow furrowed.

"We've been together a long time, but some things we've always done separately. Haven't even talked about. Like money. And making a living. And what we want out of life. Some things always seemed a little too tender to mention, and likely to start a fight. I think we're going to have to work to change that."

"All right then," Matt said, "You have something you want to tell me?"

"I've got six thousand dollars in my personal account, Matt. That's what I've been saving for us, Matt, and I've been saving it up for a lot more than three years. There's more in the Long Branch account, but that has to stay separate as long as I own the saloon – operating funds, money for repairs, or to handle a spell of bad business. If I sold the saloon, took my time to find a buyer, I could clear another seven thousand. If I sold it the way I want to, to Sam, probably on shares, I'd have less money, but I'd have more income coming in. Matt, for that kind of money we could buy any place in the county."

Matt nodded, but his face was troubled. "I don't know that I could accept your money, Kitty. It wouldn't seem right to me. I want to be the one to provide for you, and for our children. That's what a man does."

"Look at it this way, Matt." Kitty said, her gaze level, "We joined up together thirteen years ago to buy me into the Long Branch and out of the business of selling my body. That was a good partnership. We've had our ups and downs, but we're still together and we're finally agreed that it's time to get married. How about we form one more partnership before we do that, and buy you into a ranch and out of the business of killing people?"

Matt sat silent for a long time. Kitty sipped her coffee, and gave him the time. She thought she knew how it would end, but she did know that he had to have the chance to work it through for himself. She sat still, forcing herself not to fidget, telling herself it was like sitting a high stakes hand of poker and waiting for the last bet to fall. Eventually, Matt's eyes came back to focus on her. "You've been my partner for a lot of years, Kitty, and we've been mighty good together. You've kept me going through the hard times, and I like to think I've been there for you as well."

Kitty nodded her agreement. "There've been plenty of good times as well, Matt. And we've shared them, too."

"So maybe I've been a little too romantic in my notion of marriage…" he began, but Kitty interrupted him with a snort, "A little too traditional in my notion of marriage," he substituted. He shook his head. "Somehow I always had a picture in my mind of us starting out somewhere on a little spread, in a little cabin, and building it up together." He raised his eyes to hers, and she nodded slowly, letting him know she shared what he was remembering. "But we've wasted too many years for that dream to be real, haven't we?"

"I wouldn't say wasted, Matt," she countered, "But yes, I think we've spent the years that most couples spend building up their livelihoods together doing, well, other things. And not doing them together nearly as much as we'd have liked. There's no use pretending we're something that we're not, or pretending that we're starting at the beginning with all the years we have behind us."

"Will you be my partner, Kitty, as well as my wife?" Matt asked, "I may not always be good at it, honey, but I'll do my best to remember that you're both."

"I'd like that, Matt. I'd like that a lot." Kitty told him pushing years of fear and doubt behind her, and leaning forward to kiss him over their joined hands.

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That autumn started out warmer than usual, and even though it was October, Doc thought nothing of getting Moss to hitch a team to a buckboard and load it up to drive north to the Leonard place up towards Hays. He'd promised Susannah Leonard that he'd come when her baby was due, and he was looking forward to at least a week away from Dodge. Kitty, who'd provided most of the supplies that packed the wagon, was going with him. Susannah had been one of her best friends at the Long Branch before marrying Zeb Leonard, and she had also promised to be there for the birth.

"You two look like you're headed out to homestead," Matt told them with a smile as he helped Kitty up into the wagon, letting his hands rest against her waist for just a few moments longer than necessary. Their real goodbyes had been said at dawn, and this last touch was all he could manage.

"By golly, that's a fine idea, Matt!" Doc replied. "If we're not back in a week or so, you can just figure we've found our claim and settled in for the winter."

Kitty laughed with him, "I'll make the coffee, Doc, but you'll have to take care of the cookin'. Goodbye, Matt. We'll see you in about ten days."

"Wish I were comin' with you, Kitty. You take care of her, Doc."

"Yessir. I surely will." Doc promised as he shook the reins and clucked up the horses. The morning was the best that Kansas could offer, and they kept the horses at a good pace, covering more than half the distance before stopping for a nooning to make coffee and eat lunch from the basket Kitty had packed. But even as they ate, a cold wind came up, flicking their fire in all directions. "Looks like the weather might change, honey, you better get a couple of blankets out. Might need them before we get to Zeb's place." Doc told her as he doused the campfire with the leftover coffee.

They did need the blankets, and the light snow that began soon after turned harder as they moved further north, slowing their pace. Doc turned the tired horses into a stand of trees next to the road in the last light of the setting sun. "I'm sorry, Kitty, and I know you're not going to like this, but with this snow I just don't feel like I can keep to the road in the dark. We've got another ten miles at least, and I think we'd do better to stop now and find what shelter we can."

"Sure, Doc. You tell me what to do. I haven't done this much, but I'll help with what I can." Kitty told him.

"See if you can find some firewood, all you can get, and I'll unhitch the horses." Doc told her.

The snow wasn't as heavy under the trees, and Kitty found plenty of deadwood, dragging back armloads of it to where Doc had started a fire in a blackened circle of stones that indicated other travelers had sheltered here before them. Doc had started coffee, and had unloaded a couple of crates beside the fire for them to sit on. The horses were tied nose-first next to each other at the back of the wagon with a blanket over each. The temperature had dropped as the sun sank and snow continued to fall lightly through the trees, spitting into the fire.

"Now, Kitty, I've spread the groundcloth from the bedrolls under the wagon, and I think that will keep things dry enough for you to sleep warm. I'll keep this fire going through the night, and that will give us a little extra heat." Doc told her. "You go ahead out there behind the trees and do what you need to, and then come back and lie down before it gets any colder."

Kitty followed the first part of his advice, and then came back to where he sat huddled on one of the crates, back against the wagon, and a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. She looked at the neat bed he'd spread out beneath the wagon, with the tarp that had covered their supplies pulled down across the open side away from the fire and staked tight to the ground as a windbreak. Kitty poured herself a cup of coffee, and took a moment or two to decide on her best tack. "Doc," she said, "If you were traveling with Matt, or Chester, where would you sleep?"

"Well, you just nevermind that, Kitty. I'll be fine here, feels like the snow might be lightening up some," he replied.

"Where, Doc?" she asked again.

"Well, we'd both sleep under the wagon, that's what," he said, "And you know I'm not going to do that with you, Kitty, so you just go on to bed."

"Doc, I'm not some innocent young thing, and you know it. I've slept with a lot of men. And I'm not going to lay there in that bedroll and let you freeze sitting out here. Now I'm not trying to seduce you, Doc, but I'm sure as heck not going to let you stay out in this snow all night. Come to bed."

She took his hand and pulled gently as she ducked under the wagon. "Tarnation, woman, you're too used to getting your own way," he said, but he followed her and laid down next to her on the dry groundcloth. "You ever done this before, Kitty?" he asked.

"Done what exactly, Doc?" she replied.

"Slept out in the cold trying to keep warm."

"No. I've camped out a few times, with Matt, but that was different, and it wasn't cold," she told him.

"Well, I can certainly believe that was different, so you just get that right out of your head." Doc told her testily. "Now look here, this is what we did in the army. No reason for this to be awkward. You take one blanket and wrap it around you good, and you lay down with your back to the fire. I'll do the same, and lay facing the fire, and we'll spread that last blanket over us both, cover our legs and feet." Suiting actions to words, he tucked her up, and lay beside her, back to back. She shivered a little, but soon settled into the warmth of the blankets and her companion.

"I'm sorry I made it difficult for you, Doc." She said at last, on the edge of sleep. "You're pretty good at all this."

He snorted softly, "Damn well ought to be after five years with the Union army. I swore every single night that once I got out I'd never sleep anywhere but a bed again." A bit later, his voice came to her gently, "You're a good girl, Kitty. Didn't make a fuss about all this mess. You go to sleep now, but I'm going to wake you in a few hours when I put more wood on the fire and we'll trade places so you get a turn nearer the heat."

It was dark and very cold when she felt him leave their cocoon of covers. The fire brightened as he built it up, and she felt the extra heat warm her cold face a little. She rolled over nearer the fire into the warm place where Doc had lain, and left her own place for him when he came back shivering and brushing off snow as he rolled over her to take his place on the far side. Kitty helped settle the blanket around his shoulders and then spooned into his back, one arm under both his head and hers, and her other around his waist. "I'm not a soldier, Doc," she told him softly, "And I like this better."

He patted the hand that lay on his coat front and tucked it inside for extra warmth. "You just better hope Matt Dillon doesn't come riding up and find us like this, Kitty."

"Matt doesn't own me, Doc," she said.

"Doesn't he? Seemed to me like the two of you maybe owned each other."

She snuggled against him, "Maybe. But you know better than to ask, I know better than to comment."

Doc chuckled at that. "Well, you ever decide you're done with him, honey, you come and tell me and I'll marry you straight away. Now go back to sleep, we've got three four hours left before dawn."

And that was the first, but certainly not the last, time that Galen Adams proposed marriage to Kitty Russell.

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"I'd like that, Matt. I'd like that a lot." Kitty told him pushing years of fear and doubt behind her, and leaning forward to kiss him over their joined hands.

"Don't you two mind me at all, there, I'm just here for the coffee," Doc said, sitting down at the table. Kitty started to pull back, her color rising, but Matt swiftly moved a hand to the back of her neck, holding her face against his and completing the kiss without a rush.

"Didn't hear you come in, Doc." Matt said at last.

"Know you didn't. You seemed mighty busy." Doc took the cup that Kitty poured for him, "Anything in particular happening that I should know about?" he asked.

"Nope. If there were, I suppose we'd tell you." Matt said easily.

"Well," Kitty conceded, "We could let Doc know we're looking to buy a ranch, Matt."

Matt considered that for a moment, then nodded in agreement. "I suppose we could do that Kitty. Doc hears a lot of what goes on in Dodge, he might know of something for sale."

Doc took a drink of his coffee. "You have anything special in mind?"

"I'd appreciate hearing about anyone looking to sell out, Doc." Matt said.

"Well, by golly, I'll just keep my ears open for ya, that's what I'll do." Doc said, his smile wide, "'bout time you thought about settling down. 'bout time indeed."

"Doc…" Matt's tone warned him and he interrupted, his words solid and sincere, "Don't you worry yourself, Matt. I know how to keep things to myself."

"Thanks, Doc," he said, rising from the table. "I've got work to do. See you later, Kitty."

He walked slowly out the door, not needing to turn back to see that Doc and Kitty were grinning at each other over their coffee like a couple of kids over a stick of candy at Christmas.