Chapter Five: The Trouble with Snakes

They buried Ellen Sue on Tuesday morning, and rather than argue with Bill, Kitty paid for it out of her own pocket. Doc stood beside her at the burying, and Bill, Clem, Sam, and the girls all stood behind them. Mike Justin had come out from the Lazy J with several of his hands, all Johnny's friends, but Johnny Lyon wasn't there. "I am the resurrection and the life," the preacher began, and when he was done, it was Kitty who bent to take the first handful of earth and throw it on the coffin.

Mike caught up with her half an hour later in the Long Branch. "You know where Johnny is, Miss Kitty?" he asked.

"I do not," she answered him, downing a stiff whiskey. "I can't believe he didn't come to see her buried. Wasn't he out at the ranch, Mike?"

"He came back in Sunday night, Miss Kitty. Asked me to pick up a box of Ellen Sue's things from you. Told us he'd meet me and the boys here for the burying, then rode out before dawn on Monday." The rancher stood quiet for a moment. "Guess I thought he needed some time by himself, ma'am, but I sure am surprised he didn't show this morning." Justin turned his hat in his hand a few times. "You have that box for us, ma'am? I brought the buckboard in for supplies, and I'm fixin' on heading straight back to the ranch."

Kitty directed Mariah to take one of the Lazy J boys upstairs to pick up Ellen Sue's box. With that done, and the men out the door, she walked over to her office and sat down at the desk to begin on the week's ledgers. Head bent over the books, Kitty didn't even notice the door open. "Don't move a muscle, Miss Kitty," came Clem's calm voice, and she didn't. "There's a rattler right next to the desk, Miss Kitty. I think it's sleeping, and it's sure not ready to strike, so you just keep yourself still until I can get myself a gun."

Kitty let one breath out quietly and took in another. She didn't move even her eyes. She heard Clem's quiet steps as he backed out the door, and tried to count the seconds waiting for his return. She lost count a couple of times, but was up to thirty on her third try when she heard booted steps in the hallway and then a sudden gunshot. Kitty turned to see a strange cowboy standing in the doorway of the office, his sixgun in his hand. She followed where the gun was pointing to look at the remains of one of the biggest rattlers she had ever seen. She smiled tremulously at the cowboy standing in the doorway, and pushed back her chair to stand up when the cowboy moved his gun straight towards her and shot again. The second snake was almost touching her skirt, coming out from under the desk. Her last thought as she fainted was to wonder if there were more.

There were.

OoOoO

When Kitty woke lying on top of Doc's bed in the back bedroom of his office, both Doc and Ma Smalley were there. Doc was standing by the bed, and Ma was sitting on the far side holding her hand. "I'm going to be sick." Kitty said, and Doc, apparently expecting that reaction, had an arm around her shoulders and a basin next to her head before she heaved up her breakfast. Ma wiped her mouth and face with a damp cloth and got her sitting up to drink a glass of water while Doc disposed of the evidence. Kitty stayed sitting up and didn't even try to pull away from Ma's comforting arms. She waited until Doc came back into the room and sat down in his chair by the side of the bed before asking, "What happened?"

"You fainted," Doc told her. "I didn't get there until that cowboy got the third snake, but I was there when they found the fourth one in your desk drawer."

Kitty thought she would faint again, but she didn't. Ma got her laid back on the bed, and continued stroking her face and neck with the cold cloth. That was about when Kitty noticed that her dress was gone, as were her shoes and stockings. Doc didn't seem disturbed by her state of undress but he didn't comment when Ma drew a light coverlet over her. "We had to check you for snakebites, honey," Ma told her. "Doc sent one of those barmen over for me so's you'd have another woman with you."

Kitty tried to sit up, but Doc's hand on her shoulder kept her down. "You've had a bad time this morning, Kitty, and I want you to rest. Those snakes were no accident. Sure, one snake can get in anywhere, but three in one room has to be deliberate, and there's no doubt that someone put that young rattler in the desk drawer. Young ones are the worst, they'll strike at anything."

Kitty choked, and took the cloth from Ma's hands to hold against her mouth. When she got her stomach back under control, Ma took up where Doc had stopped, "We got that nice young cowboy, Thaddeus Jones was his name, to carry you up here. He shot all three of the snakes in your office. Excellent shot that young man. Bill and Clem found the one in the desk while they were searching the premises. Now Kitty," Ma's kind voice took a no-nonsense turn, "There's no use in pretending here. Someone is trying to kill you and Galen and I aren't about to let that happen."

"You're going to stay up here tonight, Kitty, and Ma is going to stay with you, right in that bed." Doc told her, "I'm letting it out that you were bit, but not badly, and that I'm treating you. Tomorrow morning, before dawn, we're going to get you moved over to Matt's room at Ma's place, and no one is going to know where you've gone. I wired Matt yesterday in Hays about the shot and the wagon, and I'm pretty sure he'll start out for Dodge as soon as he gets his prisoner into Frank's custody."

"Frank?" Kitty asked.

"Frank Reardon's the new sheriff up in Hays. He and Matt go back a long way. Matt won't have any trouble leaving Marlow in Frank's hands." Doc said, his arm sliding behind Kitty's shoulders as he raised her up and put a glass to her mouth. Kitty took a drink before the bitter taste told her it was one of Doc's sleeping powders. She tried to stop, but Doc was insistent, and Ma held both her hands. "Trust me on this, Kitty." Doc said, and she reluctantly swallowed the rest of the bitter medicine. "Now you lay back and rest. We won't leave you alone for a minute – not one minute. We've searched the office and there's no snakes, nothing harmful, and I've got my pistol primed and loaded out in the other room." He patted her hand, and then her cheek. "Let us take care of you, honey, and before you know it, Matt will be back in town and we'll figure this whole thing out."

Doc left the bedroom, and Kitty let Ma unlace her corset and take it off. She lay back on the bed in her chemise and petticoats, mind still crawling at the memory of the snakes. Ma sat quietly beside her in the chair, the clack of her knitting needles reminding Kitty hazily of her mother and the clicking of rosary beads. On that comforting thought she drifted off to sleep.

It was dark when she woke, wondering for a moment at the strange bed and the strange body beside her. Ma was turned away from her, sleeping peacefully, and Kitty slipped quietly out of bed to find the chamberpot underneath it. She lifted the lid cautiously, but there were no snakes, just clean white porcelain. Covering it and pushing it back under the bed when she was done, Kitty stepped over to the partially open bedroom door and peeked through into the main room. Doc was sitting at his desk, his old army pistol lying close beside him, and he saw her at once. Putting a finger to his lips, he motioned her into the room, and she closed the door behind her.

"Mary still asleep in there?" Doc asked. Kitty nodded, and he went on, chuckling, "She'll sleep through most anything except a gunshot or a baby crying. You want some coffee, Kitty? Want to talk about this?"

Kitty nodded again, and he poured her a mug of coffee, then picking up the pistol, he took her arm and went to sit both of them on the chaise under the far window. It occurred to Kitty to wonder how Doc came to be so familiar with Ma's sleeping habits, but she didn't ask. Instead she came out with the question at the top of her mind, "Did you hear from Matt, Doc?"

"Got a telegram from Frank. He said Matt and Chester got Marlow into Hays late Tuesday morning. Matt read my telegram, and he started right out with two of Frank's horses. I imagine he'll switch off and be in here late tomorrow afternoon."

"Doc, he'll be exhausted!" Kitty exclaimed.

Doc sipped his own coffee. "Yeah, but he'll have had plenty of time to think. Betcha he's got a plan by the time he shows up tomorrow." He reached for a folded blanket, "You cold, Kitty?"

Kitty glanced down at her chemise and petticoat. Her arms were bare, but she was better covered than in some of the saloon dresses she used to wear when she worked the floor of the Long Branch. "I'm fine, Doc. I'm just trying to figure out what's going on here. I can't argue that someone's trying to kill me, but I'm just not satisfied with why."

"That's bothering me too, Kitty," Doc replied, "I can't but think it has something to do with Marlow and the gold, but we need Matt here to try to find out where that gold might have come from. I don't remember any really recent robberies, not in this area, but it could have been a while ago, or it could have been a ways from here. All I can put together is that someone doesn't want you to testify against Marlow and is willing to kill you to keep you from doing it."

"It just doesn't make sense to me, Doc," Kitty said, "I mean sure, the word was out on the street that I was the only eye witness before I even woke up Sunday morning, but…" she hesitated and went on slowly, "But no one I talked to thought Marlow would hang for what he did. First of all, Matt aside, the law doesn't care much about what happens to a saloon girl. If it had just been rape, Matt couldn't even have arrested him. Though I imagine he would have given him a beating he'd remember."

Doc nodded slowly at that. He didn't like it but he couldn't argue with the truth. "And it's pretty clear that he didn't intend to kill her. The things hidden in your room show he was going to leave her, come to you, and then pick up his things and go when he was done. It's actually a point in his favor as far as taking a manslaughter charge instead of a murder charge."

Kitty's comment was calm but bitter. "You can't rape a whore, Doc. And since it's clear Marlow didn't believe a word that either Ellie or I said about not being in that trade, he had no reason to believe we'd put up any real fuss or resistance. He must have been shocked when she started screaming. Bet he was already in the bed with her before she woke up." She drank down the end of her coffee. "Sometimes I hate men something fierce, Doc."

He patted her hand, "Can't blame you that you do, honey. Just try not to hate us all."

Kitty moved to kiss his cheek, and then sat back to look at him with sudden speculation, "You didn't need Ma's help, did you, Doc? You got her up her to protect my reputation." She gave a short bark of laughter, "I haven't got any reputation, Doc, and if I did it's going to be gone by the time they finish with me on the witness stand."

"I brought Ma up here for your comfort, Kitty, and to keep feeble-minded nincompoops like Pence from gossiping. Mary's a shrewd woman and a lot broader-minded than some people give her credit for, but her reputation is impeccable. You go on back in there and sleep, honey, and she'll swear down heaven that she was with you every moment of the night."

"You get some sleep too, Doc, and thank you for taking care of me." She did kiss him this time, and told him softly, "I do love you, Doc."

"I know that, honey, and I love you too. Now scoot on back to bed."

Ma was awake when Kitty crawled back under the covers. "You have a good talk with, Galen?"

"Umm hmm," Kitty murmured, not sure what to say.

"Go to sleep, child, and try not to worry." Ma turned over away from her and was snoring softly within minutes. Kitty lay, awake, thinking, until Doc came in at about five to get them up.