That night, Matt headed towards his rented room at Ma Smalley's, already missing spending the nights with Kitty while her friend was visiting.
Unlocking his door, he crossed the dark room to the lamp on his dresser and struck a match to light it.
"Hey, BIG BOY!"
Startled, Matt swung around to see scantily clad Beth lying on his bed in a provocative pose, arms behind her head, one long, shapely leg bent at the knee.
"What are you doing here?!" Matt sputtered in disbelief, "and how did you get in here?"
"Hmmm…what do you think I'm doing? You really need to lock your window, you know," she chuckled, giving the big man her famous half-closed-eyes look.
"Beth, you should be ashamed. You're Kitty's FRIEND! Get out of here now and I won't say a thing to her." His face flamed red in anger and embarrassment at her blatant exposure of breasts and pubic area.
Grabbing one of her arms, Matt pulled the woman off of his bed and to her feet.
"You'd better stop, Matt, or I'll scream and how will THAT look?!" she smirked as she stroked one of his inner thighs with her nails.
Pushing her away, the disgusted man grabbed the quilt from his bed, flung it over the startled woman's head and body, and slung her over his broad shoulder. Striding for the door, he held her tightly as she vigorously kicked and struggled, screams muffled by the quilt.
"KITTY! KITTY! Let me in! It's Matt!"
The big man kicked at the door to her private room above the Long Branch, holding on to the thrashing, infuriated woman on his shoulder.
Kitty, in her frilly, blue-trimmed white negligee, opened the door and stood aside as the Marshal stomped in and set quilt-wrapped Beth on the nearby couch, then stepped back as the quilt was flung aside.
Still half-asleep, Kitty was confused at what she was seeing. Beth had been asleep in Kitty's bed when the tired saloon woman had carefully crept in and laid down on the daybed she had made up.
"WHO DO YOU THINK…" Beth's infuriated rant died away as her eyes met Kitty's stunned ones. Matt stood next to her, glaring. The almost naked black-haired beauty quickly pulled the quilt up in front of her.
"She was in my room waiting in the dark for me like that, Kitty. I didn't know what else to do with her." His anger faded away as he saw the deep hurt in Kitty's face and eyes as she stared at her old, barely dressed friend.
"It's all right Matt. You did the best thing possible. I…I'll see you tomorrow."
Wanting so much to pull her into his arms and comfort and reassure her, but not wanting to risk exposing her pain in front of this duplicitous half naked woman, he only squeezed her shoulder and walked out, closing the door softly behind him.
Kitty felt a sudden wave of lightheadedness and sat down in a nearby chair.
The two young women sat facing each other silently for several minutes, emotions racing through them. The only sound in the room was the ticking of an ornate mantle clock by the window.
"Kitty! Matt is YOUR MAN!" Beth said in a stunned voice, her lovely lavender eyes open wide. "I…I never thought…"
Kitty glared back at her old friend's surprised face with narrowed, sky-blue eyes.
"Let's just say he's more mine than anyone else's."
Beth looked down, swallowed hard, and when she looked back up, her own vibrant eyes were sorrowful.
"Oh, dear, dear Kitty. Can you ever forgive me? I really had no idea. I guess I had forgotten it's even possible to have one special man and to be special to him. He meant nothing to me but another conquest."
The woman with the exquisite face and perfect body felt ugly. She HAD seen the way Matt and Kitty looked at each other, but had jealously denied it.
The two lovely saloon owners sat quietly facing each other, lost in thoughts and memories.
Kitty's red-hot anger slowly ebbed away as she remembered the rough salon and rougher men in Abilene. Many times her friend had put her own show-stopping face and voluptuous body in front of the younger Kitty to ward off the worst of the clientele.
"Hey, Big Boy! Whaddaya want with that pale redhead when all of THIS is here?!" Beth would taunt as she wiggled her barely covered ample bosom in the man's direction while shoving Kitty away.
Tears began to flow down Kitty's cheeks as she counted up all of the times Beth had sacrificed for her. Kitty had not seen the pain in those lavender eyes. She had not understood then. She felt deeply ashamed over her assumption that Beth had only wanted to get more tip money from the ugly men she had lured away from her.
Beth saw the tears now and thought they were caused by her attempt to seduce Matt. Her heart twisted inside and the sobs suppressed over many years finally came.
Kitty stared in unbelieving dismay. She had never seen her tough friend shed a tear before.
"Oh, Beth! Please forgive me! You sacrificed so much to protect me!" Kitty cried as she quickly went over, fell to her knees and put her arms around her friend. "I never realized…"
Looking up in shock, Beth didn't even understand how her natural instincts to spare her younger co-worker from the worst men had been a "sacrifice." She put her own arms tightly around the weeping red-haired woman, their heads on each other's shoulder.
"Kitty, please forgive ME. I only saw what I wanted to see. And Matt only sees you. He is the first man I can ever recall who didn't look at me. He never even saw me at all when you were near. He became a challenge to me. A beautiful man and a challenge."
The two women raised their heads and looked at each other, blue eyes and lavender ones meeting, tears still running down their faces. Then they both smiled and nodded and hugged again.
Elizabeth "Beth" Tyler had always thought that she possessed the more dramatic, vibrant, eye-catching beauty of the two women, but now realized how beautiful Kitty Russell really was.
Early the next day, Beth would leave the expensive gold pocket watch at the Dodge House with a note for the rich rancher, Bart Stone, declining any future contact. Then she would apologize to the fine, handsome Marshal. She would feel cleaner than she had in a very long time. And truly beautiful.
End.
"Forgiveness is the fragrance of the violet which still clings fast to the heel that crushed it."
-George Roemish