Matt and Chester paused and looked up at the sudden sound of loud voices and laughter coming from down the street. Matt was sitting at his desk plowing through the endless paperwork that his federal job required, and Chester was sitting at the small table sewing a patch on a pair of his long johns.
Their eyes met, both got up, grabbed their hats, and hurried outside. The experienced Marshal could usually size up any situation in a moment, but this was one he had not seen before.
Running down the street, his right hand holding his gun and holster against his thigh, Matt took in the sight of a soaking wet, bedraggled Kitty whaling the tar out of a big wolfer man twice her size with a long, slender buggy whip.
They both circled on the street out in front of the Bull's Head saloon and Dry Goods store. The burly hunter tried to ward off the blows with his arms as the petite, infuriated young woman kept following him, swinging away with all of her might.
"Now I know what that saying 'mad as a wet hornet' means!" Matt thought as he neared the pair. Mixed in with his concern and anger was admiration for his strong woman who always fought her own battles without hesitation.
As soon as he got close enough, Matt yanked the wolfer away from Kitty and sent him flying with one blow of his massive right fist.
Kitty stood by, hunched forward, gasping, dripping, and exhausted, but still enraged.
"What did he do, Kitty?" Matt looked Kitty over carefully for any signs of injury.
"He hit Doc!" Her blue eyes blazed as she looked over at the wolfer, still motionless, flat on his back on the boardwalk.
Glancing over to where Doc was standing upright in the street, and seeing that he appeared to be all right, Matt looked Kitty over again.
"Did he then push you in the water trough?" he asked, still concerned over what the big hunter could have done to cause such anger.
Kitty glared and snapped, "He did NOT! I tripped!" She couldn't bear to admit that sometimes she couldn't take care of herself against a man.
Doc had walked over now, his jaw sore and his pride hurt that the big wolfer had disposed of him so easily and prevented him from defending Kitty. He was aware of his physical limitations due to age and small stature, but could usually prevail using his immense intelligence.
"You all right Kitty?" He looked her over with the eye of a doctor as well as that of a dear friend.
"Yes! How are you?!" Kitty asked, pushing strands of wet red hair from her eyes.
"Well, I'm fine!" he snorted.
Matt watched the two, still trying to figure out exactly what the wolfer man had done.
"Doc, what happened here?" he asked in confusion.
Doc glared at the unconscious man over on the boardwalk. "Why don't you wait until he wakes up and ask HIM?!" The angry older man turned back towards Kitty and held out his arm.
"I was taking you to the Long Branch."
"We need a drink!" Kitty snapped as she took his arm, and she and Doc strode off, Chester hop-running in their wake.
The wolfer was awake now, and when he stood up, rubbing his jaw, Matt turned his pale blue, narrowed eyes on him.
"What's your name?" His voice was low but full of suppressed anger.
"Emil Peck, Marshal."
"Peck, you get into any more trouble in town and you're going to jail! You got it? Now beat it!"
As the wolfer nodded and turned to leave, he heard the big Marshal continue in a soft, menacing tone:
"You're darn lucky, Peck. A few years ago, when I was younger and quicker tempered, I might have torn your throat out for even touching that woman." The big man stood close and towered over the hunter.
Looking up into those laser-like eyes, Peck believed that he had indeed been lucky.
Nodding his head again and breaking eye contact, the hunter shrank down inside, turned and hurried off.
Later that day, Matt, Doc, and Kitty sat together at Delmonico's looking over the chalkboard menu old Joe the waiter held up for them.
"How's your jaw, Doc?" Matt asked as he saw his old friend rubbing his lower face where he had been unexpectedly punched.
"Maybe you'd better have the soup, Doc," Kitty said solicitously.
"No, I'm fine! Give me a steak like everyone else, Joe! Matt, I sure hope you at least jarred some of that brute's teeth!"
"Well, I tell ya, Doc, Kitty had him pretty softened up by the time I got there!"
Matt grinned affectionately at Kitty as she looked down, slightly abashed at her unladylike behavior, but not regretting it a bit.
Finishing his last rounds of the night early, Matt softly knocked at Kitty's bedroom door and let himself in with his key.
Kitty walked out of the bathing room with only a towel wrapped around her after her bath. She looked up in pleased surprise and reached for her almost sheer, silky, light blue nightgown on her nearby dressing table.
"HOLD IT!" Matt barked.
Startled, Kitty froze in place, eyes wide.
Striding over, he grabbed the nightgown, flung it over to the bed, then gently pulled on the towel covering her.
The bemused young woman allowed Matt to remove it, and stood unselfconsciously naked in front of him.
"I need to complete my investigation of a crime I came across this afternoon."
She smiled in delight as the big Marshal intently looked her up and down, circling her slowly.
He noted the darkening bruise on her right breast and on either side of her waist, the hand-shaped ones around her upper arms and wrists, and the ones from the water trough across the backs of her legs from ankles to thighs.
Kitty's smile disappeared as she watched Matt's face redden with anger and concern.
"I'm really fine, Matt, Those are nothing. Actually, my arms are so sore from walloping him with that buggy whip!" She laughed a little, trying to lighten his mood.
Matt came around in front, gently held her face in his big hands and kissed her lips tenderly. He swept her up into his arms and carried her to the big brass bed where he laid her down.
When she reached for the nightgown again, he quickly snatched it up and flung it over to the dressing table. Still without speaking, he took off his Stetson, gun belt, boots, and clothing. Only his hat and gun belt were carefully put atop the dresser across the room.
Walking back towards the bed, his pale blue eyes met her sky blue ones, each intently admiring the other's body. It had taken the humble man some time to get used to being so openly desired by his beautiful woman, but he had grown to enjoy it enormously, and responded accordingly.
"I need to examine the evidence," Matt murmured as he slid onto the bed and began to softly kiss each and every bruise.
Before thinking of nothing else but her man, Kitty laughed to herself:
"Maybe a big, drunken, smelly, rough and rude wolfer IS good for something!"
End.
