The Rescue 5
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Matt camped that night near a small creek just north of the trail. Since leaving Dodge about mid-day, he'd ridden hard and long. His horse was tired, as was he. But, though Buck would be able to rest for the night, he doubted he would. Tomorrow morning he had an important task to accomplish, perhaps the most important task of his life, and of Kitty's.
Sitting back against his saddle, he took a sip of the hot coffee he'd made and remembered the look on her face when he'd walked into the jail for the last time. Painful, reluctant acceptance of a fate she didn't deserve, instead of the anger, and vengeance filled glare, most people would've had. Tomorrow he planned on changing that.
Finishing his coffee, he was about to try for at least a couple of hours sleep when he heard someone coming. Cautiously he pulled his gun and moved back into the shadows behind his camp, waiting to see who it was.
"Matthew?" Festus' called in his nasally twang. "Ya here, Matthew?"
Swiftly holstering his gun, Matt quickly stood and came back out into the light of his fire just as Festus rode up, towing a pack horse laden down with packages and another saddled riding horse. "Didn't expect you till morning." He greeted his friend as he pulled up to a stop in front of him.
"Wael, I figgered it better I come on ahead." Festus shrugged as he dismounted. "Didn't take near as long to get these here supplies and horse as we thought."
Matt looked over the provisions and extra mount with a critical eye, finally nodding his approval. "Looks good, Festus." He smiled briefly. "You or anybody have any trouble getting this?"
"Naw, shore didn't." Festus answered as he bent down and helped himself to a cup of Matt's coffee. "Ol' Doc got these here supplies together by sayin' they was fer one of them sod buster families out west of town. Sam got a bag a Miss Kitty's thangs together and I bought this here horse from Ol' man Hawkins. Hawkins got some of the best horse flesh they is in these parts."
Matt nodded in appreciation. "He looks just fine. I have a feeling we're going to need something that'll hold up under some hard riding."
"Wael, that he will, Matthew." Festus grinned before the reason for that need settled in on him. "Tomorra ain't gonna be easy, Matthew. We's gonna have to be mighty careful."
Matt nodded as he stepped over to the pack horse and started pulling its packs off for the night. "I know, Festus. But I'm not…" He sighed deeply. "Well, I can't do anything else."
Festus finished his cup of coffee and laid the cup beside the fire before stepping up beside Matt and helping him with the animals. "I'd'a spit in yer eye, Matthew, were you to leave Miss Kitty to… to… well, I would is all. I'd just about figgered to do somethin' my ownself afore you tolt me what you was a plannin'."
Matt said nothing as he finished unsaddling the extra horse and helped Festus hobble the three animals for the night. His thoughts weren't on what Festus would've done or what was going to happen the next morning. His thoughts were on a woman with vibrant red hair and beautiful blue eyes sitting in a jail cell waiting to be taken cross country to hang.
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While Festus and Matt were settling down to wait the night out, Kitty was sitting quietly on her bunk in the jail cell thinking about what the next day would hold. The deputy from Hays had arrived and briefly introduced himself to her, telling her they would be leaving the next morning on the first stage out to Hays.
He warned her that he would treat her no differently than he would any other prisoner. Her hands would be cuffed and she would be allowed no concessions because of her gender. And she could expect no help from anyone else. He promised her he would kill anyone who tried to help her and prevent justice from being done. The sneer on his face when he told her that, left no doubt how he felt about her. She was a murderer in his eyes and would be treated as such.
She supposed she couldn't expect anything else. The law had a hard view of convicted murderers and she was, in everyone's eyes, just that. Well, almost everyone. She knew Matt didn't feel that way about her, nor did Doc or Festus or Sam. But they were in the minority and could do nothing about what was to happen.
Or could they?
She kept thinking about Matt's cryptic comment about Pruitt Dover. Although she had decided that he had simply meant to comfort her, she couldn't help but feel that he meant something more. The look on his face told her he did.
She remembered the young man that had been convicted of murder and sentenced to hang. Of course, the circumstances had been different. Dover had saved Matt's life and there had been some wonder about whether he had actually killed Ax Parsons in cold blood or in self-defense. Matt didn't believe Pruitt to be a murderer and planned to let him go, despite what it might mean to his career and life. The fact that Pruitt wouldn't leave was the only thing that kept Matt from actually breaking the law.
She was now feeling that Matt wanted her to remember his actions. She had learned to read him, whether he said anything or not, and she was now certain that he planned on doing something to keep her from a hangman's noose. What, she had no idea. She didn't even know if he planned on doing it alone or would have help. Either way, it didn't matter. Her belief, of earlier in the day, that Matt would be helpless to save her, was now replaced but by the belief that he was anything but helpless. And tomorrow, she was sure, he would prove that.
As the hours ticked by and light gradually replaced the dark, Kitty laid her head down on the pillow and wearily closed her eyes, finally drifting off into a short sleep filled with a dream of a tall man with blue eyes riding to her rescue.
TBC