Unshown Moments from Help Me Kitty, Season 10 – (2)
AN: Although I love this episode because it features Kitty, I'm like a lot of people. I've always wondered what was going on in Matt's mind as he searched for the stage, Kitty and Hope. Hopefully, I've got it right or at least close.
Matt wasted no time in following along the stage route. Although he was anxious to find out what happened, he knew if he pressed his horse too hard, he'd most likely be afoot out there and that wouldn't help Kitty and Hope in the slightest, if any help was needed.
Still, he had a gut feeling that Kitty did need him and it was all he could do to keep his horse at a steady pace instead of racing madly down the trail in search of her.
As he rode, he kept replaying their last night together before she and Hope climbed onto that stage. They'd had a good dinner and even better night and though he'd hated to see her climb on that stage, even knowing it was for the best that she take Hope home, he'd not been worried in the slightest that she'd be alright.
But he was worried now. It wasn't that he didn't think Kitty capable of taking care of herself and Hope, but he knew the kind of people that inhabited the wild country between Dodge and Garden City better than anyone. Men like that wouldn't hesitate to harm someone to get what they wanted, especially if that someone was a woman, a pretty woman.
Forcing his thoughts away from that, Matt pressed his horse just a little harder and continued down the trail, trying hard to think of other things, pleasant things, things that didn't include the loss of a woman he cared more about then he was willing to admit to most people.
Almost chuckling, he thought of her comment as she boarded the stage. "I'll be gone just long enough for you to miss me." He'd missed her almost before she climbed into the coach and he was pretty sure she knew that. But then she almost always knew what he was thinking and how he felt about things.
He was even pretty sure that she knew he'd be coming for her when he found out about the stage. Of course it was a certainty that she was more than capable of taking care of herself and the young girl with her and she would. Kitty Russell wasn't one to sit down and wait for help if she could take care of it herself. That was one of the reasons he loved her.
Once again he forced his mind away from worrying about the bad things that could happen and onto the good things. He thought about the last picnic they'd taken. One of the rare times they'd been able to get away from town for a few hours and even rarer that no one had shown up to interrupt them.
They'd fished, cooked and ate what they'd caught, gone swimming and then afterwards made sweet love until it was time to go home. Their time together was always too short but almost every time it was sweet and a time he cherished. Even their very rare fights held a place in his heart as it served to remind him of how passionate they were about one another.
He found the stage late that afternoon. Carl, the stage driver lay some distance from the stage, his neck broken, probably from the crash. The male passenger, who'd gotten on last at the stage office, was lying near the stage. He'd been shot. Matt's heart leapt into his throat when he saw the open cash box and noted that Kitty and Hope were gone.
After searching the ground, he clearly saw the two horse tracks that were going west and the smaller foot prints heading off in the same direction. Though reassured that Kitty and Hope were obviously unhurt enough to try and walk out of the wilderness they'd been dumped in, he was still worried that they would meet again with whoever had attacked the stage in the first place.
Deciding not to spend the time burying the two men, though it bothered him, Matt pulled them close to the stage, covered them with a tarp and then quickly remounted and followed the two women's tracks. Let the dead bury the dead, the bible said. He knew that wasn't exactly what it meant but he decided to take it that way for then as he continued in his search.
Finding the old root cellar, the two women had sheltered in, Matt was pleased to see no sign of blood and that they were still walking when they'd left. He did note with some dismay that one set of footprints was a mite deeper than the other and he figured, if he knew Kitty, she was probably supporting a great deal of Hope's weight. Again the knowledge heartened him that she was physically able to do so, but worried him at the same that she had to.
Matt hurried on.
He found the stage station late that next night, with a dead man inside. It looked like he'd been dead for at least a day. He found the same set of women's foot prints leading around the house and to the stables behind followed by the marks of two horses riding off together further west.
Matt put his head back and breathed a sigh of relief. Both women were still alive, still on their feet and still together. It didn't mean they were out of danger but he'd take whatever solace he could get at the moment. Though he wanted more than anything to continue in his hunt for them, he knew he'd finally reached a point to where he couldn't go any longer.
His horse was dead tired as was he. He'd eaten little more than some jerky in the last three days and drank nothing more than the tepid water in his canteen. Matt knew he'd not be worth anything if he did find Kitty and she needed his help, if he didn't get at least a few hours rest. Dog tired as he was, Matt still had a couple of things the responsible man inside of him dictated he do.
Going back inside the station, Matt pulled the dead man outside, dug a hasty and shallow grave and quickly interred the nameless corpse. He figured if he found Kitty, he'd find out who the man was then. If he didn't find her, he probably wouldn't care who he was.
Having that accomplished, Matt took his horse back to the barn, unsaddled him, patted him down, fed and watered him and then put food and water out for the other horses out in the corral. Only after tending to those chores, did Matt finally allow himself the thought of rest.
But Matt couldn't bring himself to spend his time in the house. The smell was overpowering and it felt claustrophobic. Spreading out his saddle roll in an empty stall of the barn, he dropped down onto it and was asleep a few minutes later. The last thought on his mind was of Kitty.
Before dawn the next morning, Matt was up and on his way. He'd tell the Sherriff in Garden City about the dead man and ask him to send someone out to tend the remaining horses but right then his only concern was to find the one woman that made life livable for him and pray she was okay when he did.
He made it to Garden City by mid-morning. The horse tracks he'd followed, though more than a day old, had led him straight here and though he still wasn't sure he'd find her, he was bound and determined to turn the town on its ear in trying. But as he rode down the broad main street of the small town, he saw her and realized the only world that was turned upside down was his world, now that he knew she was safe.
END