Gifts of the Heart 2
I don't own these characters; I just like to spend time with them. No other profit to be had.
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Matt strode down the boardwalk, of Hays main thoroughfare, heading towards the general store. It was his hope he could find something nice for Kitty in there. He didn't savor the idea of buying anything for her in Dodge, knowing how the tongues would wag if it got out that he had bought a gift for a woman, especially that woman. There were already enough rumors going on about them, the way it was.
Stepping inside the much warmer store, Matt looked around at the myriad number of things on display trying desperately to think of something Kitty would like and that he could afford. By the time he'd paid expenses from his last check as well as paid Chester and then loaned him another five on top of it, not to mention the doctor bill he paid to Doc, for sewing up his arm last week, as well as the money he'd given to the widow Maxwell for supplies last week, Matt had very little left to his name.
But he didn't care if it took everything he had left and more. If he could find the right gift, it would be worth it, because the girl he was buying for was worth it.
"Uh, good morning, Marshal." Amos Hood, the proprietor, greeted him with a smile as he entered. Although the Marshal didn't live there, he usually stopped in when he was in town to fill up on supplies before he left again. Hood suspected nothing else from the law man this time.
"Good morning, Mr. Hood." Matt returned the greeting. "Getting kind of cold out there." He stalled while he desperately looked around to see if he could spot anything. Mr. Hood, being a bachelor, was not any more likely to know what to get Kitty than he was and he sure didn't want the genial old man to call in help from some nosy and overly helpful female.
"Sure is." Hood acknowledged with a nod noticing the way Marshal Dillon scanned the interior as though in search of something. "Can I help you with something?"
Matt started to give up and accept help, unqualified though it may be, when his eye landed on a small jewelry box sitting all by itself on a shelf. Walking over, Matt picked it and opened it to see a tiny little figure turning around and around inside while a small music box on the bottom played a peaceful tune. Though, not large, it was ornately carved and the small figurine looked to be made of gold.
"Pretty little thing, ain't it." Hood said as he walked up to stand beside Matt.
Matt nodded, licking his lips nervously, wondering if he had enough money for it. "Uh… How much do you want for it?"
"I'm asking thirty." Hood answered but reconsidered when he saw the look on Matt's face. "But seeing as how it's you, Marshal, I'll take twenty five."
Matt ran his finger over the carving, but regretfully shook his head. "Sure is a pretty thing." He said almost wistfully. "But I don't have quite that much."
As he started to put it back on the shelf, Hood placed his hand on his arm. "Lowest I could go would be eighteen. I paid more than that for it myself. That little dancing girl inside is pure gold."
Matt hesitated for a long time. He only had nine dollars to his name and he still had to get at least a couple of cans of beans for the return trip to Dodge. He didn't have anything with him of value but his gun, his horse and his…. his buck knife.
It had been a gift to him, from a mountain man named Abe Blocker. He'd been offered fifty dollars for it once and had turned it down because the knife and the man who'd given it to him were more important than the money. But now, now he had someone in his life, who was more important than them.
Reaching to his hip, he pulled the knife from its sheath and looked at it for several minutes and then back at the jewelry box. He knew Kitty had a lot of fake jewelry and only one real gold necklace. But she deserved something like this, something to elevate even glass and reflect the value of the woman he gave it to.
Taking a deep breath, he looked back up at the store owner. "Mr. Hood, I wonder if we could make ourselves a trade of sorts."
An hour later, Matt walked out of the store with a small bag of staples and a smaller package, wrapped securely in brown paper with a bright red bow atop of it. His belt was minus the knife and its sheath, and he felt a little off without its comforting weight on his hip. But thinking of the beautiful girl with the red hair, blue eyes and beguiling smile, who would receive part of the proceeds from it, he didn't miss it. What he had back in Dodge was worth much more to him and he couldn't wait to get back to her.
TBC