Possession 2: Chapter 7, "Family"

This chapter contains a passel of dialogue and plot from the Gunsmoke episode Daddy-O, Season 2 (June 1, 1957) written by John Meston. 

“What about the money?  Did you get it?”  Wayne Russell apprehensively queried his impeccably attired daughter who had met him at the stage depot unaccountably empty-handed. 

“No, I didn’t,” Kitty replied airily.  Matt watched the exchange warily from a few feet away.

“What?”  Russell’s face became a mask. 

“Well, I changed my mind at the last minute,” she explained, smiling coolly.  She was secretly testing her father’s allegiance.  Kitty attempted to appear nonchalant, but she was getting a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach at her father’s apparent change in demeanor. 

Russell’s tone became vaguely menacing.  “What do you mean?” 

“Well, I got thinking about it last night and I decided I might as well leave it right here in in the Long Branch with Bill Pence.  It’s a good investment, and I can always come back and sell out if I need to.”  She was thankful for Matt’s comforting presence since she wasn’t sure how her father would react to her news. 

“Now, look here, Kitty,” Russell insisted.  “I’m deciding everything for you from now on.”

She cajolingly took his arm and drew him toward the door of the conveyance.  “We’ll talk about it on the stage...” 

“No!”  Her father jerked roughly from her grasp.  Kitty was shocked at the speed at which Russell’s attitude changed.  Until now, he’d behaved like a perfect gentleman.  But luckily, she and Matt had not been fooled by Wayne Russell’s charming act.  He demanded, “No, we don’t go until you get that money.”

Kitty asked sadly, “Which is it you really want?  Me or the money?”

“That isn’t the question.  You just do as I say!”

She had heard enough.   Kitty’s eyes were flashing with years of repressed resentment and bitterness toward the man who had deserted her and her mother.  “You haven’t changed a bit, have you?  Mother always said you’d never change, and she was right.”  She added accusingly, “And don’t tell me you own a freight business in New Orleans…”

“That’s enough, Kitty!” Russell grabbed her arm.

Now Matt had had enough.  He barked in warning, “Russell!”

“You stay out of this, Marshal.  She’s my daughter.”

Kitty furiously spat out, “And you’re just another man to me.  And a crook besides.”

“You’ll be sorry for this, Kitty,” Russell admonished.

Kitty’s voice quavered with emotion.  “I’d be even sorrier if I let you steal my money.” 

Matt reassured her, “It’s alright, Kitty.  I think he understands now.”

Russell, his face incredulous, suddenly backed away from them in realization, “You’re in this together!  You had it all planned, didn’t you?  Didn’t you?!”  He should have known that any daughter of his would be a savvy girl.  Way too savvy for the likes of him…

Matt quickly moved to place his hands protectively on Kitty’s trembling shoulders.

Suddenly, the stage driver’s voice called out, “Hey, anybody goin’ on this stage better get in.  I’m pullin’ out.”

Matt interjected, “Well, Russell, you’ve played it pretty smart so far.  Don’t disappoint us now.  See it through, huh?  Play it all the way…”  He gave Russell a pointed stare.  “…for Kitty’s sake.”

Kitty’s devastation and disappointment was painfully obvious in her expression.  “Please, Father.”  She pleaded, “Please get on that stage.  Leave me at least that much pride.”

He conceded, “Yes…”  Wayne Russell somehow knew that it was useless to stand up to the both of them. 

Kitty closed her eyes in anguish as Russell gave his daughter one last bittersweet kiss on the cheek.

Russell murmured, “Goodbye…”  He looked as if he wanted to say more.  “Kitty?”

Kitty hurriedly cut short any further reply, “Goodbye, father.”

Matt wrapped a protective arm around Kitty as they watched her father ride out of Dodge in the stagecoach, murmuring wistfully, “Well, you were right about him, Kitty…”

Then Matt walked Kitty silently back to the Long Branch Saloon.

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“Miss Kitty!” Bill Pence happily exclaimed.  “I thought you was leavin’ on the stage…”

“Changed my mind, Bill.  Will you take me back?”

Bill had been pretty much dejected at Kitty’s apparent desertion of their short-lived partnership.  She’d been the best thing to happen to him and the Long Branch since…well, since he’d bought the place.  

“Did you hear that, boys?”  Bill shouted jubilantly to the saloon’s afternoon crowd.  “Miss Kitty is stayin’ in Dodge!”  He quickly poured himself, Kitty, and the Marshal a shot of their best whiskey and raised his glass.  “Here’s to the best and purtiest business partner in all of Dodge City!”  Bill wasn’t sure what had transpired between Kitty and her father that afternoon, but he was appreciative of the fact that he himself had definitely come out a winner.

Shouts and glasses were raised around the room.  Men laughed and pounded Bill Pence on the back while they beamed and removed their hats and told Miss Kitty how pleased they were that she would be gracing the Long Branch with her presence for a long time to come.  It wouldn’t have been the same without her, no, not a’tall, they insisted. 

Kitty smiled graciously at her well-wishers and gratefully downed her whiskey, then quickly asked Bill for another.  Matt knew she was just putting on a brave face.  The confrontation with her father had taken a lot out of her.  She hadn’t uttered a word on their walk back to the saloon.  She’d just hung on tight to the supporting arm he offered her. 

Kitty whispered in Matt’s ear that she needed to be alone for a little while.  She made her excuses to Bill, and they watched silently as she gracefully swept up the wooden staircase to her room in a swish of elegant green velvet.

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Matt resolutely climbed the steps to Kitty’s room.  He’d only waited downstairs a few minutes before he could stand it no more.  He knew she was suffering, and Matt didn’t wish for her to suffer alone.  Kitty had been alone for far too much of her life, as far as he was concerned.  He was bound and determined to do something about that.

He gave a small knock at her door and wasn’t surprised when she failed to answer.   So he fished a key tied with soft, green satin ribbon out of his pocket and turned it quietly in the lock.  Matt found her lying on her side in bed in her delicate, lacy women’s underthings, green velvet clothing trailing across the floor where she’d heedlessly discarded them.  The sound of Kitty’s quiet sobbing wrenched his heart.    

Hanging his hat noiselessly on the bedpost and placing his boots on the floor, he carefully slid onto the bed and spooned up behind Kitty’s shuddering, feverish body.  He wrapped his arms around her small waist and kissed her gently on one bare shoulder.  “I’m so sorry, honey,” he murmured in her ear, setting off a fresh wave of sobs that wracked her and, in turn, went right through him.  He held her more tightly and whispered “Shhh….” softly in her ear for an eternity until her grieving cries slowly lessened in intensity.  Rejected and abandoned by her own father not once…but twice now in her lifetime. 

“I’m sorry, Matt…” Kitty’s breath hitched as she attempted to regain her composure.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for, Kitty.  You have every right to be upset.”  Matt smoothed her mussed curls off her flushed, hot face.

“I hate to be such a bother to you…” she apologized, and his heart ached for this woman who desperately needed someone to lean on.

“You’re no bother to me, sweetheart.  That’s what friends are for…”

She turned her head to look at him and repeated, “Friends?”

“Well, you’re my girl, aren’t you?”  He carefully wiped her streaming tears away with the back of his hand.

“Am I?”

“Sure, you are…  You’ve got to let me take care of you from now on, see?”

“Oh, Matt…”  She squirmed around until she was facing him and wrapped her arms around his neck.  “I don’t think anybody has ever looked out for me the way you do.”  A concerned look crossed her features.  “And I don’t think of you just as another man…like I said to my father.”

“I know, honey.  You were just mad.  And truthfully, you haven’t had a lot of men in your life who’ve treated you right, so you can pretty much lump them into one category.  You’ve got a right to be mad.”

She squeezed his neck more tightly, gratefully and wordlessly kissing his nose.    

Matt caressed her arm comfortingly as he continued, “I really am sorry that things didn’t work out for you with your father, Kitty.  I know how you feel.  I told you how I lost my family when I was young, too…”

Kitty’s eyes filled with tears anew.  “It sure is hard.  You know what it’s like.  Sometimes I just feel so alone…”

Matt stroked her damp cheek with his thumb and then lovingly kissed each of her eyelids in turn.  “That’s why we’ve got to stick together, you and me.  I’m sorry that you can’t depend on your father, honey, but…you’ve got me.”

“Promise?” She gazed into his eyes searchingly, her heart swelling with gratitude.  

“I promise."  He cupped her chin in one hand and brushed his lips gently against hers, still swollen from crying.  “I’ll be here for you, Kitty.”

“I’ll hold you to that, Cowboy,” she smiled through her tears, and then nestled her head against his broad chest, reassuring herself with the steady rhythm of Matt’s strong, comforting heartbeat in her ear.

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