Chapter 4

"I told you to stay away from my mother," the girl's voice was low with fury.

Kitty looked at her in shock. "You did what?!"

"I don't take orders from children, and you should learn to treat your elders with more respect," Matt snapped back.

"When I see an 'elder' that has earned it, then I give it. You haven't."

Kitty said loudly, "Enough! Lena, give us some privacy, please."

"Mother!"

"Lena, I said that is enough." Kitty's lips were tight and her eyes were blazing. "Leave us. Now."

If Lena's eyes had been knives, Matt Dillon would have been dead ten times over.

"I'm going for breakfast," she said as she strode out the doors and onto Front Street. The seriousness of the situation was all that kept Kitty from laughing at how her facial expression and walk was a just a more feminine version of her father's.

Matt walked over to the bar, took off his old hat and placed it beside him.

"She's got quite the temper," Matt said.

"Does she? I hadn't noticed." The corner of Kitty's mouth turned up in a half smile.

"Kitty, is she my daughter?"

Releasing a long breath, she answered, "Yes, she is very much your daughter."

"Why didn't you tell me? She's…..what 19? 20?"

Matt wasn't a happy man. The woman that he believed had shared everything with him, had been totally honest, had instead kept the biggest secret possible.

"Lena is 18. And what exactly would you have done differently, Matt? Hmm."

Kitty had heard enough. He wasn't going to make her feel guilty. The man who flat out refused to discuss having a family, changed the subject, became so uncomfortable that he invented things to do to get out of discussing his feelings.

"Would you have taken off your badge for good? Let me tell you what would have happened."

Fury and hurt had full rein now. "You would have resented both of us. Or, God forbid, someone would have followed you—us—and then what? Killed you? Hurt Lena? Tell me, Cowboy? What would you have done?"

Matt pulled out a chair and sat down heavily.

"I don't know, Kitty. Now we will never know because you made the decision for both of us."

Rounding the end of the bar, she walked to within a few feet of him.

Kitty shook her head. "No, Matt, I made the decision for me and Lena. You made your decision before you ever even met me. Some half-baked notion about how you couldn't have both a badge and a family. Did that keep the wolves from our door? Was it worth what it cost us? Were they worth more than we were?

The truth of that hit home. She was right. He really hadn't given her a chance. And evil had come calling anyway, in many forms….Bonner, Mannon, Whelen, too many.

"Kitty, why Adams? Why is she named Lena Adams?"

"If I gave her my name then she'd be stuck with the stigma of being illegitimate, and I couldn't give her Dillon, which would put her life at risk. I put Doc's name on her birth certificate when she was born. It was easier to have a distant or dead imaginary husband, than no husband at all.

"Then I left her to live with Clare, in New Orleans. She was the only one I'd trust, and, all those buying trips I used to take? I was headed to see our child."

She suddenly seemed so tired and the bruises made her look so vulnerable.

Without speaking, Matt stood and moved in front of this woman that he had loved for such a very long time. Still did.

"Thank you, Kitty."

"What?" She raised her head to look at him, puzzled.

"I couldn't have made the right decision."

"Oh, Matt." She started to cry, so many years of grief overwhelmed her. On top of the trauma of Mannon's appearance, this was just too much.

"Kitty, we both need a rest. Come here."

Matt put his arms around her, and they headed upstairs to their old room.

*************************************************************XXX

Lena entered a greasy spoon restaurant called "Delmonico's," and saw Marshall O'Brien eating alone.

Their eyes met and she moved to his table.

"First, I owe you an apology, and second, do you mind if I sit down and join you for breakfast?"

Newly was dumbfounded by how quickly she could go from ladylike to cowboy so fast.

He started to rise, but she stopped him with her hand.

"No need, please. I just want to eat, not argue."

Newly smiled, "Then please join me, Miss Adams."

"Lena, please."

A short thin waiter came out and handed her a menu covered with fingerprints.

"Go with the eggs, bacon, and biscuit and gravy. There's not much they can mess up with that," the marshal was smiling at her, across the table.

She smiled back. "Thanks, I will. I don't think I can take anymore unpleasant surprises."

Her smile faded, and her blue eyes turned serious. "Matt Dillon is my father."

Newly didn't seem surprised at all. He took a drink of his coffee and absorbed her statement.

"You knew?" Her eyes widened slightly.

"I didn't know about you, but it doesn't surprise me that he's your father. Now if Doc had been your father that would have surprised the hell outta me." He smiled openly at that.

She rolled her eyes. "It seems everyone here, every stranger to me in this place, knows more about my parents than I do."

"Of course they do. Your parents are legends. Together and apart. I'm sorry you had to come in late in the show, but nobody around here will be surprised at who you really are. Matt Dillon and your mama loved each other a very long time."

"Apparently, not long enough for him to care enough to marry her," bitterness colored her voice.

For a bit, Newly said nothing.

Then, "I'm sure you're getting tired of this refrain, but it is more complicated than you know.

"The man who was just killed here, Mannon, was just one man of many who tried to kill your father or hurt him through your mother. Both of them suffered for a long time. It took a toll on them both, but especially your mother.

"There came a time when she couldn't watch him get hurt or die in front of her anymore.

"For your daddy, the only thing he loved as much as your mother was law and order. It's in his blood. He could no more cast that off than you could change the color of your eyes.

"Things are never as simple as they seem to outsiders or youngsters who didn't live through those times, but trust me, Matt Dillon loves your mother. And he didn't know anything about you until you showed up here or you would have seen him before now.

"I know your mama had her reasons, good ones, for keeping you away from here, and I don't judge her for that. It's not my place or anyone else's, but don't hate Mr. Dillon for the same kind of character that I see in you."

When he finished with his soft speech, Lena looked at him with wet eyes.

"After we finish eating, will you take me to see the body of this sonovabitch Mannon that I keep hearing about? I need to put a face to the name. Please."

Newly nodded.

"If it's something you need to do, it'd be better if your father did it-"

The color had risen in her cheeks and he could tell she was ready to argue with him. He held up a hand to stop her.

"But since I know you will go on your own, I'll take you to see Mannon. I think your parents probably have a lot to talk about, and we don't need to add your going to see a dead outlaw's body to the pile."