AN: Guest, you're quite right about the Teasdale sisters' ages. My internal backstory puts them at 31 & 32 when this story takes place. In answer to your question, there will be 10 chapters.

Chapter 4 – The First of the Herds

The next five days were without incident. Maybe what happened on Tuesday was merely an escalating series of April Fools practical jokes that almost ended in one or both of them being seriously hurt. Somehow neither Matt nor Kitty believed no harm was intended. If they'd been traveling faster than a slow walk and Buck had been the horse instead of Kitty's mare the two of them and the big buckskin could have been lying seriously injured out on the prairie at least until the next morning.

Finding who was responsible for the buggy mishap wasn't the only thing bothering Matt. He still couldn't put his finger on exactly why the Teasdale sisters seemed familiar. Every time he thought of the sisters and the series of incidents on the first of the month the hairs on the back of his neck rose. Somehow he'd figure out how it was all connected. He hoped it wouldn't be too late. Matt pushed that thought to the back of his mind as he watched the first of the Texas herds being driven toward the stockyards by the Santa Fe depot.

With his long strides the tall lawman arrived at the stockyards just as the first few head were herded into the holding pen. His sharp eyes picked out the trail boss. Matt watched the proceedings until the last of the 500 head of cattle were secured before approaching the muscular man with the deep tan of a man who spent nearly all of his approximately 45 years outdoors. The trail boss was a shade over six feet and the brown hair spilling over his collar and from under the brim of his Stetson was thick without a speck of gray. Matt stuck out his right hand, which was firmly gripped in response.

"Name's Matt Dillon. I'm the marshal here. You're at least two weeks early or I would have met up with you south of the river to lay out the rules."

"I'm Curt Dryden, trail boss. The weather's been mild so we began the 900-mile drive from the Circle T down Laredo way in mid-January and made pretty good time. Ted Thompkins, the owner, is a smart man and not just 'cause he hired me as foreman. It was his idea to bring two herds north over the season when the weather and Farmers' Almanac allow. He even wired ahead to prospective buyers, including the two that live here, so they'd all be available within a few days of when we arrived. I'll walk along with you for my first view of Dodge while you tell me your rules. It'll be good to stretch these old legs."

Matt considered himself a good judge of character. Dryden seemed to him to be a good man who would do his best to keep the 15 cowboys under him in line. That belief did nothing to change the fact that by the time Chester finished tacking up the posters Mr. Hightower printed listing what was prohibited he'd only have time for a quick supper between his early and late rounds and a short stop by the Long Branch for a beer and an apology he hoped would be accepted. The drovers from the Circle T had spoiled the leisurely supper and sharing of a bottle of rye with Kitty he'd originally planned.

Meanwhile the Circle T foreman and trail boss smiled as he strolled back to the stockyards to give his drovers their work schedule and code of behavior while they remained in Dodge City. The lawman's rules seemed easy enough to follow – No shooting off firearms in town; No riding horses on the Boardwalk or in the saloons; No pestering women and children on the street; No fighting in public areas and No destruction of property. He reckoned only three, working in three-hour rotating shifts, would be needed to keep an eye on the herd until it was sold, giving all of them had plenty of time to shake off the effects of the long trail. To Curt Dryden's way of thinking, he'd earned the right to be in the first group. Therefore, he sought out the two men who'd been with him on his first drive as trail boss to join him in seeing what the town had to offer. Bud Peevy was still trail cook and now the cook for the Circle T, but Tom Conway, his ramrod, had been a gangling lad of 16 on his first drive back in '62.

Dryden's mind circled back to that first trip with the two men who'd become, along with the man who'd since become their boss, his closest friends. Tom, like he and Bud, hired on permanent and soon after married Ted's sister Millie, even though she was a couple of years older than him. This drive for one rancher was far easier than that wartime one to Abilene past hostile Indians and Federal and Confederate units that desperately needed recruits as much as the combined small ranchers around Laredo needed to turn Texas longhorns into the currency that would keep them afloat to stand their ground against the area's largest rancher. Even now he knew of nobody meaner than Decker and his three sons Will, Walt & Jeff.

While, as they walked along, Dillon pointed out pointed Dodge City landmarks, Dryden couldn't help but notice the name Russell as co-owner of the Long Branch, the saloon the lawman named the best. On that first drive Peevy had an assistant they left in Abilene, Kit Reynolds, who turned out to be a 15-year-old red-haired girl running away from a life of forced prostitution at the Alhambra Saloon. He and Peevy made enquiries on subsequent trips. The most they could learn was a girl by the name of Kitty Russell or Red Reynolds, who met her description, worked at the Oasis, but on much more favorable terms. She actually got paid and could refuse to be seen by certain of the saloon's customers. She'd left in '66 for points west.

"What can I get for you gents?" the beautiful redheaded woman behind the bar asked without looking up.

"We'll take a bottle of your best bar whiskey and four glasses, Kit, " Dryden stated, hoping this was the same girl grown up.

Upon hearing that name Kitty looked up at the man doing the ordering and asked, "Why did you call me that?"

"Just playing a hunch that you were once a skinny little gal desperate enough to get away from the Alhambra saloon in Laredo to deck herself out as a boy anxious to learn how to be a trail cook. If you're that gal, you'll recognize the names Curt Dryden, Bud Peevy and Tom Conway. Don't take this as anything but respectful when I say nobody would take you for a bashful boy no matter how you dressed."

"I take it the fourth glass is for me," she replied recognizing the man and his two companions. "Why don't we take the table in the corner by the stairs? There's a lot for us to talk about."

Kitty was deep in conversation with her old friends when Matt arrived for his beer. She sensed his arrival and motioned for him to join them, making the introductions as soon as he reached the table.

"I've met Dryden. How'd you come to know them, Kitty?"

"They helped me run away from Laredo to Abilene. You can thank Bud here for teaching me how to cook for cowboys."

Matt finished his beer while listening to the tale of the young girl disguised as a boy without any of the drovers learning the truth except Curt and Bud. Tom, who was closest in age to her, didn't learn the boy he paled around with was a girl until now.

"See yah later," Matt said as he rose to make his rounds, relieved that Kitty wasn't too disappointed he couldn't keep their supper date or so he hoped.

Matt was so preoccupied with this new revelation he failed to notice Sally and Tilda looking over at the table he'd just left. He didn't even pay attention to which of the Circle T drovers they were drinking with.