He tried to sit up, but winced with pain from the effort and had to stay still for a moment until the pain went away. After a moment, he tried again, and this time he was successful. He swung his legs over the side of the bed, then realized for the first time that he was naked.
At that very moment the door opened and Matt looked around, quickly, but unsuccessfully for his pistol.
“What are you doing sitting up?” Kitty asked, coming into the room then. “You shouldn’t be getting up yet.”
Frederica, who was carrying a tray, came into the room behind Kitty.
“Lay back down,” Kitty ordered. “We’ve brought your lunch.”
“This isn’t my room, but I must be at your house.”
“Yes, this is my room. And of course you are at my house,” Kitty answered. “Where did you think you were?”
Matt looked around the room and chuckled. “To tell the truth, I wasn’t sure I wasn’t in Heaven,” he said. “And when I heard someone coming through the door, I thought maybe it was St. Peter coming to tell me that there had been a mistake, and I was going to have to be on the next train out of here.”
Kitty laughed. “I admit, this is much nicer than Captain Mumford’s Home for Wayward Boys and Girls,” she said, “but I wouldn’t exactly call it Heaven. Now, you lie back down like I said.”
“How am I going to eat my lunch if I lie back down?”
“I’m going to feed you,” Kitty said. “Frederica, if you would, please, put his lunch there, on the small table.”
“Si, Senora,” Frederica answered, setting the tray on the table. Matt saw a bowl of soup, a large chunk of freshly baked bread, and a coffeepot.
“Thank you,” Matt said.
“Senor,” Frederica acknowledged with a nod of her head.
“Thank you, Frederica. I can handle it from here,” Kitty said.
Frederica let herself out of the room and shut the door behind her.
“How did I get here?” Matt asked.
“You don’t remember?”
“The last thing I remember is starting to ride away from the saloon.”
Kitty dipped the spoon into the soup, then held it out for Matt. He hesitated.
“It isn’t too hot,” Kitty said. “I let it cool a bit before we brought it up to you.”
Matt took the spoonful, swallowed it, then nodded.
“Oh,” he said. “That is good. That is very good.”
“Thank you. It’s a duck soup that I made myself,” she said. “I even made the noodles.”
Matt took another swallow and smacked his lips appreciatively. “It is very good,” he said again.
He picked up the piece of bread and tore off a piece, then stuck it in his mouth. “Good bread too,” he said.
“So the last thing you remember is riding away from the saloon?”
“Yes. I don’t remember riding out here at all.”
“Not surprising that you don’t remember riding out here, since you didn’t do that.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you didn’t get very far,” Kitty said. “You got only as far as the school before you fell off your horse.”
“I fell off my horse?” Matt said incredulously. He shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. That’s not possible.”
“Don’t get your feelings all bruised. Maybe I worded that poorly. What I should have said is that you passed out from loss of blood, then you fell off your horse.”
“All right, that explains that part of it. But if I didn’t ride out here, how did I get here?”
“Millie brought you here.
“Millie?”
“She works in the saloon. It seems you made quite a good impression on her. Should I be jealous?”
“Jealous?”
“I’m teasing. Evidently, you were pretty badly hurt when you left the saloon, and Millie was worried about you, so she stepped outside to see how you were doing. You weren’t doing very well, you were weaving back and forth in the saddle as you rode away. Then, when she saw you fall from your horse, she ran down to you. She said that, at first, she was afraid you were dead. But when she saw you move, she went to get Mr. Gilmore. Mr. Gilmore rented a buckboard for her, and helped her get you onto it. She drove it out here by herself.”
“Gilmore didn’t come with her?”
Kitty laughed. “Are you serious? A whore comes to his house in the middle of the night, and you think his wife is going to let him go with her?”
