Yipee! Chapter 17! I have to honestly say again that I never imagined that this story was going to get this long but it seems that I have new charachters showing up that aren't going to let things go for a while. Thanks to everyone who has been reading and reviewing--your comments keep me inspired so that I don't end up loosing this story all together. I also want to say that I am begining to form and ponder an idea for a sequel for this story. Give me a yay or nay on that idea when you review as well. Thanks & happy reading!
Disclaimer: Still don't own 'em.
Jewel Monarch stood in the shadows of the Longbranch Saloon. The evening breeze moving the few pieces of her hair around that weren't matted together. Life for Jewel hadn't been good since her association with Rex Stills in Texas. As soon as he had been caught stealing from the bank, Jewel had taken off and hadn't looked back. She had gone East first and stayed with a gambler by the name of Rory Yates for about a year. Life with Rory had been good and he had treated her well, that was until Rory had been shot and killed by a buffalo hunter who had thought Rory was cheating him in a game of five card stud. Rory had died in Jewel's arms but she hadn't gotten to go to the funeral. The buffalo hunter had decided that Jewel was enough of a prize to make up for being "cheated" and had taken her along with him in his stinking wagon. That was where she had resided since then, for the past 5 years she had lived in one stinking buffalo camp after another and she would probably still be in a stinking buffalo camp if she hadn't been so lucky about five weeks before. She and the buffalo hunter and his partner who went by the names of Frank Marsh and Smilin' George had been in the Dakota Territory, hunting when a Sioux war party had come along and killed both the men. Jewel still didn't know how she had both survived the war party and escaped from them as well. She looked up at the sky and even though she was not a religious girl she thanked God for sparing her.
Granted God had been on her side since Rory died. The buffalo hunter's of course hadn't really treated her all that well. They had used her hard, beat her, and of course passed her around to their friends. The beatings had caused her to loose her baby, the baby that she was going to have with Rory. Even now fresh tears run down her dirty face at the thought of the little life that had been snuffed out just like it's father's. Rory hadn't even known. Now she was expecting again and she wasn't sure if it was Frank's, George's or one of their stinkin', greasy buffalo hunter friends. Jewel rubbed at her stomach absently and watched from the shadows as the pretty red headed woman and the tall man left the back of the saloon. Jewel didn't know why she was tempting fate and showing up in Dodge, especially since she had heard that Rex was there. She was sure that he was looking for her, he probably thought that she had his money, however he was sadly mistaken. The money, it was gone, and had been gone for a long, long time. If it wasn't for the money then Rex probably wanted her to help him with some new scheme that he had cooked up, but Jewel wasn't going to. In fact, she hoped that she could just get out of Dodge without even talking to Rex Stills. Then she could go somewhere and have her baby and give it away. She couldn't even stand the thought of keeping it knowing that Smilin' George or Frank or one of those other men was the father.
She watched as a couple came down the backstairs of what she had learned earlier was the Longbranch Saloon. It looked like it was a nice place, the kind of place that Jewel would have normally wanted to work, but her pregnancy and less than perfect appearance would squash any chance that ever had of working someplace like the Longbranch.
Matt and Kitty made their way down streets of Dodge, their path lit by the gas street lamps that had just been installed. Kitty had been nervous about their outing tonight, it was thing to go on picnics and to have the privacy of the prairie surrounding you and quite another to be going to a social event like the Dodge City Fourth of July dance and social. She kept her pace slow, telling herself that she just wanted to savor the fairly cool evening and Matt's company when in reality she was scared. Scared of what the polite society of Dodge might say about her showing up on the arm of their Marshal.
It seemed when they arrived that Kitty's worst nightmare came true, because there standing at the door were the two worst old biddies in Dodge City; Mrs. Finnley who was already perturbed with Matt over the incident from earlier in the day and her best friend Ms. Springle. There were two others couples in front of them in line to leave their tickets with the ladies so Kitty had used that time to try and prepare herself for the comments and the dirty looks from the two older ladies.
When they arrived at the dance Matt felt Kitty stiffen next to him and put it down to who they were going to have to deal with at the front door. He figured that Kitty was worried that he would have another run-in with Mrs. Finnley after what had happened earlier in the afternoon, so he was surprised when they finally made it to the door and waiting ladies.
"Good evening Marshal." Ms. Springle said, ignoring Kitty.
"Good evening Ms. Springle." Kitty said. Tonight was supposed to be perfect and she would be damned if she would let anyone ruin it.
Ms. Springle continued to ignore Kitty however and asked Matt for his tickets, which he handed over, and then quickly made his way through the door and into where the dance had already started. Just as they made it though the door Matt and Kitty both heard the ladies as they loudly and rudely talked about them both.
"My, I can't believe that our marshal would be so silly as to come here with a woman like that." Ms. Springle commented.
Matt and Kitty both hearing didn't stop on their way to the punch table which was near the door. Matt laid a hand over Kitty's where it rested in the crook of his arm.
"Why neither can I Ardith. Imagine, him a U.S. Marshal and all socializing with some like her." Mrs. Finnley emphasizing the word her.
That was the end of it for Kitty. She let go of Matt's arm and fled from the hall. It was one thing for those women to make nasty, rude comments about her but quite another when they started to drag Matt in to it. She wouldn't let that happen, if she did, she was afraid that she would ruin Matt's career in Dodge City. She ran out of the building and continued to run, even as she heard Matt's voice calling behind her.
Matt had followed Kitty out of the hall. How in the world did you have a nice time with an even nicer girl, a girl that well, that Matt figured he could one day care about enough to love when you had people like Ardith Springle and Josephine Finnley to make things difficult. When Matt saw that Kitty wasn't going to stop he intended to follow her, tell her that the ladies words didn't matter to him that nothing mattered to him but her but instead he turned around. He had a few choice things to say to a couple of other ladies before he talked to Kitty.
Kitty continued to run down Front Street, tears streaming down her face. She knew that it had been to good to be true. She knew that she should have told Matt, no, even if it meant that he got mad at her. She slowed as she neared the Longbranch and it was then that she heard it. She wiped the tears from her cheeks and listened again. Someone was crying! Slowly Kitty made her way to the shadows along the side of the Longbranch and there she found a girl, not much older than herself, hunched up into a ball, crying her eyes out.
Back at the social hall Mat was doing some talking of his own. "Ladies, what you did to Miss Russell was uncalled for!" Matt nearly shouted at the two. "She has just as much right as anyone to attend these functions! As for myself, I have the same right to attend with whom I choose, it is not for you or this town to say!"
Mrs. Finnley and Ms. Springle didn't say anything they just stood, silently staring at the ground. Matt had pulled them outside before he began his scolding of them.
Kitty knelt down on the ground beside the girl in the shadows. "Hi. Are you alright?"
The girl continued to cry but nodded yes.
"You certainly don't look alright. Can I ask your name?"
The girl looked up then and while the tears streamed down her face she said, "Jewel. Jewel Yates" she said, taking Rory's last name as her own. They hadn't been married but they had certainly lived as if they were.
"Well it's nice to meet you Jewel, my name is Kitty Russell and I work here."
"Well I suppose it's not nice to say, Kitty, but it looks like you have your own problems so why don't you leave me to mine?" Jewel said, wiping her eyes and noting Kitty's own tears.
Kitty, determined as ever, wiped her own eyes as well. "No, I'm fine. Would you like to come upstairs with me, have a drink?"
The girl didn't say anything but Kitty regretted offering the drink when she saw that the girl was pregnant. She wasn't far along but far enough that you could see that she was expecting.
After giving the two ladies of Dodge a piece of his mind, Matt stompped back down the street. He was going to go Kitty and they were going to go back to that dance and damn it they were going to have a good time while they were there!
Kitty and Jewel had just made it into Kitty's room when there was a knock on the door. Noting Jewel's sharp intake of breath, Kitty was sure that the other girl was scared of something so she didn't go to the door and open it as she normally would have done, instead she said, "Who's there?"
Matt was on the other side of the door and he was already angry that he and Kitty's perfect evening had been ruined so he barked out, "It's Matt, Kitty. Now open this door!"
Kitty hearing the anger in his voice, something that was rare for Matt, she rushed to the door, opened it and pulled him inside. "Matt, I can't go out again tonight."
"Kitty, don't let those two ruin this for us!" Matt said, running a hand through his hair.
"I'm not Matt!" Kitty snapped, her blue eyes on fire. "I've had something come up that I must take care of!"
"What?!" Matt snapped back. His own eyes full of fire, however they dimmed when he saw the other girl move out of the other room. "Who's that?"
"That is Jewel and she is the reason that I can't go out again tonight." Kitty said. "Jewel, this is my good friend, Marshal Dillon."
"Nice to meet you ma'am." Matt said.
"He's the one that you were cryin' over earlier." Jewel stated.
Kitty looked first at Jewel and then at Matt before she said, "No. Not over him just a…situation."
An hour later, Jewel had told both Matt and Kitty her whole story and they were now all sitting in Kitty's room. Matt and Kitty with coffee and Jewel with tea. "So you think this man is looking for you and he might be in Dodge?" the lawman in Matt coming out.
Jewel looked at Matt and then down at her dirty, bare feet. "Yes, I do Marshall. Have there been any new drifters that have come in?" she asked.
"Well that's the problem Jewel." Kitty said, answering before Matt could. "There are constantly people coming and going from Dodge. Could you tell us what he looks like or any other names that he would be using?"
"Well," Jewel began, "He always went by Rex Stills when I knew him but he could have other names that I don't know about. As for looks, I guess Rex was always a good looking man, thick dark blonde hair, nice mustache, fit build."
"Well that describes a good share of the men that come into Dodge every day!" Kitty said. "Matt is there really anyway of finding him?"
"I don't know Kitty. All we can do is keep an eye out and an ear to the ground. I'll tell Chester to keep an eye out for the man that you've described Jewel but that is all I can do."
"Thank you Marshal." Jewel said.
Ok so I kind of had a hangy ending but there wasn't a lot I could do with it. I didn't want the chapter to be twenty pages long. I don't like reading them when they are that long and don't suspect that anyone else does either. I should get another update thrown up tomorrow, or at least I will try. Thanks for Reading!
