Chapter 9 – Friends and Foes

Doc appointed himself Ben and Flo's tour guide, pointing out the changes since that pre-war, pre-incorporated Dodge City was their home. He began with an eight o'clock supper at Delmonico's, which, as bad as the food could be, was still the best restaurant in town. In those early days the few permanent residents would have welcomed any food that surpassed the meatless stew from Flo's cathouse when she was lucky to find a girl who had the ability to become even a bad cook. The two residents of what was no more than a crossroads of mostly tents near Fort Dodge where frontiersmen and the early settlers sold or traded what they had for what they needed were amazed at how the town had grown. They listened to every word of every anecdote the crusty doctor told them about each building and the people who frequented them, including the jailhouse. The final stop was Doc's office. They marveled at how similar, yet changed it was and at the solidity of the brick jailhouse presided over by US Marshal Matt Dillon. It brought back further memories of a fresh off the Missouri farm gangling, newly orphaned youth of not quite 15. He was green but already showed signs of the man he would become.

Ben, remembering those days, left the oldsters to their memories while he attempted to locate the formidable man who'd briefly been as good a friend as any boy could want so many years ago. Back then they were both naïve boys who were thrown together. He'd just turned 16 and Matt was not quite 15. Despite being younger and beholding as he was to Ben's older brother Tom for work, Matt was the one who took the lead more often than not as well as a beating meant for him Ben reflected. It amazed him that the cause of that beating was right here in Dodge in the saloon owned by Matt's special friend Kitty. Perhaps Sally would be willing to attempt to renew old ties if his boyhood friend was too busy. Renewing old ties was exactly what Doc and Miss Flo were doing.

"I came here because I no longer want to do what I've been doing since I first had a chance to run my own place rather than be entirely beholdin' to a man's beck and call. I used to think I was helpin' girls like I'd been avoid the worst. I confess I came back where I started to see if a younger woman is better at it than I was. How about you, Doc? Did you expect to return to Dodge City, let alone make it your home?"

"Can't say that I did. Events following the war brought me back, but my being here helped bring Matt to where he belongs. He's the best thing that ever happened to this town. That doesn't mean he isn't still a stubborn, prideful fool. Even Kitty can't change that."

"You're mighty fond of those two, ain't yah? You were a young softy under that gruff exterior when Ben and Matt were boys. Now you're an old softy, at least when it comes to Matt and his girl. They hide it well, but in my business you learn to spot real connections."

Since it was a quiet evening for Doc, he had time to socialize. For once nobody was shot, stabbed or took sick. Babies decided not to be born tonight and nobody busted a limb. It gave two people who hadn't seen each other in nigh on to 20 years a chance to review their past over the next few hours. They reflected on what they'd meant to each other back in their younger days, how they survived the war and why they did and didn't want to remain where they ended up.

"If you're willin', Flo, I'm ready for a nightcap at the Long Branch before I turn in. If Ben's there he can walk you back to the Dodge House, but I'll put off going to bed for the extra few minutes it'll take fer me to escort you if he isn't."

"Doc, I wouldn't dream of imposing on an old friend. I plan on stayin' and observin' the late night crowd in action. Thank you for your offer, but I won't impose further."

Doc walked with Flo to the Long Branch anyway. He still wanted that drink. Besides, he was curious about what he might find inside. Matt and Chester weren't there, having begun their late rounds. Kitty was talking with Curt Dryden at the bar. Ben was with Sally at a table on the other side of the room. Her sister Tilda sat nearby with Clyde Billings, the drover Curt hired in Tascosa. After looking over the room, Doc and Flo made straight for the end of the bar where Kitty and Curt were picking up their beers. True to his word, Doc downed a whiskey at the bar, staying only long enough to say goodnight before the trail boss and the two women walked to the table by the stairs.

"Please don't think this forward of me, but I couldn't help but notice you watching those Texas gals across the room as if you know them. You ever done business in Texas Flo?" Curt asked.

"I ain't, but that girl Ben Fuller's with used to work for me back when Ben, Doc, the marshal and I lived here. Back then calling our home a city was a joke. Heck, it wasn't really a town. Sally quit me and left for Texas when Ben and his brother's work here for the proposed railroad was done that summer of '55."

"You left too. Where'd you go when the time came?"

"I followed the railroad crews up to Cheyenne with the girls I had left and took on as many new ones as I could hire. Now I've got a similar place in Deadwood to entertain the miners."

"That doesn't explain why you and that Ben fella came back to Dodge. Of course if you hadn't I wouldn't have nothin' to do between sellin' Mr. Thompkin's herd and goin' back to Laredo to ready another herd for market as his foreman."

"The railroad sent Ben from Cheyenne to see if Dodge merits a north/south track. We just happened to meet up with each other on the stage in Hays. I came to see if there was any way I could spice up my business or maybe start up something new. I'd heard about the Long Branch and the woman who owns it and decided to see for myself what she accomplished and maybe learn somethin'."

"Flo, did you forget I'm sitting right here? That's very flattering, but I never started a business from scratch like you did. The Long Branch was already the best saloon in town when I became Bill's partner in '69. He started it back in '61, a month before the war, as its first permanent saloon."

"Sorry Kit. I reckon Flo and I kinda got lost in each other. You might wanna know somethin' more 'bout those Teasdale girls you hired. At least one of them has a past with your marshal."

"Curt's onto something there concernin' your recent troubles. You know how jealous these girls can be," Flo added.

Kitty had to agree. Matt was an exceptional man. Once you spent time with him, he was hard to forget. She paused in her thoughts to look around the room. Ben and the cowboy were leaving through the batwing doors. She started to ask if Curt and Flo wanted refills, but they took their empty glasses as their cue to exit as well. She smiled to see the middle-aged couple walking out of her establishment with their arms around each other's waists. Fifteen minutes later, the saloon was empty of customers.

"Sam, you might as well go home," she told him as he stacked the last of the chairs on a table. "There's not much to clean up. I'll lock up for the night."

Kitty picked up the night's take and walked with Sam toward her office and the back door. He went down into the cellar to check the doors to the alley were shut and latched while she put the money in the safe to take to the bank in the morning. He returned as she closed and locked the safe door. Together they took care of the door between the cellar and her office then walked to the back door. She pulled it closed, locking it when he stepped through, knowing Matt would rattle every outside entrance during his rounds to make sure all was secure and would do the same inside when he joined her for the night.

The Teasdale sisters were drying newly rinsed glasses when she came back into the main room. Kitty walked toward the front to secure the glass doors. She failed to notice Tilda come around the polished wood of the bar to stand directly behind her until she felt a derringer in the small of her back. She experienced both comfort and dread when Matt chose that instant to walk into the saloon. Then Sally spoke, the shotgun from behind the bar aimed at his belly.

"Matt, my sister has a gun in Kitty's back. If you care half as much as I think you do about her, the two of you will do exactly as we say. Start by locking the glass doors."

Matt was surprised they let him keep his Peacemaker. He'd never shot a woman and wondered if he could to save Kitty's life. Right now that wasn't an option. As fast as he was he couldn't get off two shots before one of the sisters killed the woman who made his life worth living. He obeyed and continued to follow Sally's orders as they made their way up the stairs, Kitty in the lead Tilda's derringer at her back and Sally bringing up the rear with the shotgun cocked and ready, to Kitty's rooms.

No chance to gain control of the situation presented itself. Instead Matt was forced to surrender his pistol to Sally, who unloaded it and placed the bullets, along with the spares from his gun belt, in her skirt pocket. Tilda kept her small pistol leveled at Kitty the entire night even when helping herself and her sister to Kitty's top of the line whiskey. In order to keep alert the sisters sat in two of the chairs by the round table, facing toward the settee where Matt and Kitty sat, prisoners in their own home.

"It's time for you to look like the big man with the gun again. Buckle it on," Sally ordered as the first rays of the morning sun lit up Kitty's corner window. "Try anything on our way or after we get outside and the redhead gets it."

"This will be fun, former boss lady," Tilda teased. "I get to watch your face as you lose your man and then I get to kill you right there on Front Street. The sound of my shot will be lost in the ones hitting that murdering scoundrel."