"KITTY!"
"BETH!"
The two young women happily embraced, causing passersby to pause in pleasure at such feminine loveliness. Both men and women tried to decide which of the two was more beautiful.
"Come on Beth, let's get back up to my room and you can get the stagecoach dust off you! You can even take a bath!" Kitty put her left arm in Beth's and started to lead her towards the Long Branch after picking up one of her friend's small carpetbags with her right hand. Beth stooped and grabbed the other one.
Later on, the two young women sat at a back table downstairs in the saloon waiting for Matt to swing by to pick them up for supper at Delmonico's. Kitty was in a lacy black dress with a high collar, and Beth was wearing a low cut dress in green velvet with a diamond choker.
Kitty had told Beth about the U.S. Marshal in a rather offhand way, saying he was a very good friend.
When Matt looked in over the top of the double swinging doors, his eyes searching for Kitty's, as usual, he noticed how every man in the saloon was also looking towards the back table.
Finding Kitty's perfect face, he smiled and their blue eyes met and lingered. He noticed an attractive, dark-haired young woman sitting with her and realized she must be the "Beth" that Kitty had been so excitedly telling him about. They had worked together in the Oasis saloon in Abilene before Kitty came to Dodge. Beth was now the sole owner, a rarity in Texas.
Walking to their table, the tall young man swept off his Stetson and politely smiled at her.
"Miss. I'm Matt. Matt Dillon. You must be Beth. Kitty told me how you ladies worked together in the Oasis down in Abilene a few years ago. A real pleasure to meet you."
"The pleasure is mine Marshal," Beth drawled as she took in his tall, broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped, masculine body, and his handsome face topped by tousled curls. And those piercing, long-lashed, light blue eyes! She had to restrain herself from licking her lips.
Then those eyes shifted back to Kitty, and she could see and almost feel the connection between them. "FRIEND, indeed!" she scoffed to herself.
Matt escorted the two beautiful young women towards the swinging doors, aware of every male eye in the room following him in envy.
The three had an easy, enjoyable meal at Delmonico's, but Beth felt an increasing sense of frustration as her physical attributes and charm failed to ensnare the big, handsome man. He was as polite as could be, and spread his attention equally between the two women, but the black-haired beauty was used to automatically being the center of all men's thoughts and desires.
"So, Matt. Kitty and I are taking a buggy ride tomorrow to see the sights and have a picnic. Wanna come along?" Her voice was throaty and she looked up through her abundant, long, dark lashes at him. She leaned forward to give him a better view of her cleavage.
"Sorry Beth, but I need to stay around town tomorrow and work on some of the endless paperwork on my desk. I'm sure you two ladies have a lot of catching up to do."
His smile was genuine and warm, but seeing how close he sat to Kitty that their upper arms touched lit a long-unused flame of jealousy in the now indignant beauty.
After dinner, Matt escorted Kitty and Beth back to the saloon, touched the brim of his Stetson, and left for his nightly rounds.
Even knowing that she was being enviously watched and desired and leered at by all of the other males in the noisy room failed to sooth her ego.
"Kitty, I'm pretty tired from that stagecoach. Hope you don't mind if I go up to bed now?"
The young saloon owner looked at her friend with concern.
"Of course not, Beth! I should have planned for an earlier night. I'll be up in a little while. Good night! Make yourself at home. Everything I have is yours, you know," she said warmly.
"You BET it is! You just BET it is!" the equisite woman thought as she made her way up the stairs.