Marshall Santos is kneeling down beside a grave marker in Boot Hill Cemetery just outside Dodge City. He mulls over a few things. "Around Dodge City and in the western territories, there is just one way to handle all the killers and the spoilers, and that is with a US Marshall and the smell of gun smoke. This is Mannysmoke, the transcribed story of the violence that moved west with young America and the story of a man who moved with it. I am that man, Danny "Matt Dillion" Santos, United States Marshall.� Out here, I remind myself of how violence always ends, buried in the rim of a nation on the edge of the wild frontier. Some were slaughtered aimlessly, the rest I killed. I'm a lawman and a US Marshall. Law comes hard to the frontier and men like these did not want it. And there are more men alive today who will come to Dodge City that do not want it. They are the drifters, the killers, the spoilers, the lawless and they have to be dealt with. I am the first man they look for and the last they want to meet. It is a chancy job, and it makes a man watchful�and a little lonely."
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Michelle thought about her last few weeks in Dodge City. So many little things took getting used to. Like someone saying, that the election dance is next week, when what they meant was the dance was actually the week after next. The town held its election dance during the first week of October, which was odd as Election Day, was in November.
She discussed all of this with Mrs. Holly Reid the owner of the Dodge City Times. Mrs. Reid said they had the election dance every year in the middle of Front Street. The dance was in October to accommodate many of the ranchers who headed to their line camps before snow came in early November. Holly and she were going to the dance tonight as observers to watch the townspeople interact with one another. Michelle liked how that sounded. Holly Reid owed the deputy Marshall a favor for getting her two cats out of a tree last week so had come up with this lame brained idea to get the schoolteacher to the dance. Funny, she thought, the deputy did not usually like fair-haired women. Oh well, at least this time she did not have to pay him off with home cooked meals, she hated watching him pick his teeth at the table.�
It was going to be a busy day for Holly, Blake Mahler who was expecting again (this would be her eleventh child in as many years), Vanessa Chamberlain and for Eleni Cooper. Doc Bauer's mail-order bride was due in on the stage at noon and Doc was out helping one of the Cooper gang horse's foal. The town people needed a man to meet and greet the woman proper like and welcome her to town. Since no one knew if Doc would be back in time, this man would also escort her to the dance. Who was appropriate, they considered Ben Warren but his reputation was horrid, despicable and a little unseemly. Buzz Cooper was a great guy but better not to use up any favors on him that they might need later on for discounted dress fabric. There was the gunsmith, Jim "Newly O'Brian" LeMay but he was still new in town himself. No one was going to introduce a new woman to Matt "Quint" Reardon, the blacksmith. He was the hot property in town and not just because he took his shirt off all the time. There was no way, no how that some new woman in town was going to have a chance with him.
Whom she wondered, then Holly saw the Marshall cross the street to Mrs. Drew Kitty's saloon. Holly scurried out of her office to retrieve the Marshall. Within a few minutes, he agreed and all was set. He would meet the new woman when her stagecoach pulled up at the depot. After ensuring that she was comfortable in temporary living quarters at the Great Western, he would escort her to the dance. Holly noted that the Marshall kept asking her for details about the schoolteacher. He seemed quite interested in any niceties she could provide on the woman. She thought this was interesting and smiled at the thought. This fall might prove downright newsworthy.
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Cassie and Ray spent every waking minute together. If one of them lost sight of the other for too long, the other would soon seek the missing person out. The hired hands on both ranches thought this hysterical. They could not recall a time when they saw their boss so moonstruck before. Nope as they joked about in the bunkhouse, those two were inseparable and rarely standing on their feet.
Cassie managed to get into town once or twice and met several of the prominent women in town. She felt that she and Ray needed to establish some distance from one another, set up some sort of boundary. Truthfully, the feelings this man was stirring up in her scared her. Could it be love, could she cold-hearted Cassie Layne "kind a sorta Jessup" be falling in love with this cowboy? Sure there were worse things, probably most things, but she knew in the back of her mind that she needed to have the upper hand in this matter if she was to succeed in her plan to acquire all of her dead husband's property and possessions. She had double-checked the will with Ross Mahler, the town's grocery store owner/lawyer. There were no codicils in the will to prevent her from marrying or having children with a new man. The definitive sentence was simple all she had to do was produce a child within 12 months of the marriage to Jessup and all of Jessup's lands and holdings were hers for the keeping. Nothing stood in her way if only this big huge hunk of man could get her pregnant and soon.
Cass prayed to God she was already with child, this man would be hard to substitute or let slip through her fingers. He was simply irreplaceable. Think Cass, she said, think rationally, stop imagining him wooing you and remember you are the boss here. She needed to know she was the hombre, that was all there was to it, she needed some sense of control in this. She suggested to Ray that they both go to the dance separately. Ray reluctantly agreed. He realized and even admired Cass's strong spirit and survival instincts. He knew she would want to meet the townspeople as a farm er um ranch owner and not as someone's wife. She needed to assert her independence a little bit, associate with some of her new friends, and meet others.
Still after a while it did start to nag at him, was this some idea of hers to get him more interested in her or jealous? Well, it was not going to work. He was already in love with her, how could he feel anything else? She seemed to waver between wanting him to be the honcho or big boss and wanting to assert herself as the hombre at times. Cass was already leading him around like a bull by the horns anyway. Anywhere she went he just seemed to want to follow.
Just thinking of her now made his loins ache; he wanted her badly every minute of the day. His desire for her was insatiable. He wanted her land too, of course, but he wanted her heart body and soul, that was the important thing, to get her married to him and soon. Everything was different now. Maybe she was worried about town gossip, yep maybe that was it. She was trying to stay proper like. That was sweet.
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Doc Bauer drove his surrey back into town. Luckily, there had been help at the ranch to make the delivery smoother. Yet, the birth had taken a long time and the cleaning up and caring for the mare and two young ones was hard work. All he wanted to do now was to take a bath and go to bed. Darn intarnation, tonight was the big dance, there would be no sleeping for hours now since they would be partying in front of his rooms and his office for hours. What a day, what a night, all he needed now was some sort of surprise from his kid sister! No, that was unfair; she had been a good girl while in town. He heard nary a peep about her only that she was good at teaching. They were years apart in age and he did not remember much about her as a child, he had been busy and away during the war, of course. She was independent, full of fire, and very opinionated. She acted as if she knew everything, even had a bit of a deity complex sometimes.
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The Dance
Cassie made the half hour trip into town and parked her surrey outside the blacksmith's livery. Matt "Quint" Reardon was very polite and offered her a hand all nice like. He told her to have a good time at the dance, that he would see her there later. Everyone was so polite and felicitous in this town. She walked towards the dance and greeted the women she knew so far: Holly Reid, Vanessa Chamberlain, India Von Halkein, Eleni Cooper and the expectant Blake Mahler. They were talking to a new woman, who must be the new schoolteacher.
After introductions and polite conversation on one another's gowns (Cass was wearing turquoise damask), the women began to discuss the latest gossip and the men. Vanessa and Holly commented on Ray Santos who was leaning on a post talking to some other ranchers across the street. Everyone agreed that he was dark and handsome tonight, as always. Ray was wearing a black cloth suit with a white cotton shirt and black boots. She was breathless at the sight of him. Cass then heard Vanessa and India commenting on his person a bit too much to her liking. She quickly up and said she heard he was quite rude and that he was not interested in meeting any new women. They all seemed a bit taken aback that he would express such sentiments to a lady and a widow at that and all agreed to stay away from him. Cassie was quite pleased; this was progress, now Ray stood little chance of dancing with any of the proper women in town.
She sauntered over to retrieve a glass of punch. Jim "Newly O'Brian" LeMay, the town's gunsmith offered Cassie a glass of punch and within about half a minute, Ray had knocked the punch cup from Jim's hand. "She can get her own punch LeMay. Leave her alone; she has two hands."
Cassie looked at him, turned away and stalked off. There was another refreshment table on the other side of the street. There an officer handed her a glass of punch and once again, Ray was instantly by her side. He took the cup and handed it to her. He snarled at the officers gathering around Cass and they all took a step back. Cassie looked up at Ray and smiled radiantly at him. She looked a little too good tonight he thought.
He gently pulled her away from the crowd and said quite softly, "Cass, I cannot stand the idea of another man here being with you, looking at you, thinking carnal thoughts about you. Please don't let me keep acting like a bull here, let us say something publicly so I don't feel like I have to ward all these men away from you."
She did not hear a word he said but breathlessly said, "Ray will you take me somewhere and be with me, please? I want you, I want you now."
Ray told her to stay put and said he would be right back. He quickly walked over to where his cousin was standing. His cousin, the Marshall introduced him to his companion, a Miss Abigail Blume newly arrived from Mississippi. Miss Blume seemed to have eyes only for Daniel and that was fine by Ray, he needed something from Danny and then he would be on his way. He motioned Danny over to the side railing. The Marshall suggested to Abigail that she should go over to the refreshment table without him.
Ray said. "Danny, can I borrow your suite for a while, I'll use the spare bedroom?"
"Sure Ray, I have to be here for another two hours anyway and then have rounds to do. Can I ask what for?"
"I met her Danny, the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with, and she is my equal in everything, thanks cousin." Ray took the keys and rushed back to the blonde haired woman who had been staring at them so intently for the duration of their conversation. Danny noted that Ray never before seemed quite so intense. He wondered if this was the one with the land his elder cousin wanted so desperately and if so why had Ray failed to mention the prized land, this was most unlike his cousin.
Ray and Cassie half ran and half walked over to the Great Western. Miss Vicki greeted them both and said sure, any friend of the Marshall's is welcome to use his suite; we all know that. They raced up the stairs to the second floor and Ray pulled her into the room. Once inside he playfully pushed her against the door and raised her arms above her head. Then he began to run his other hand randomly over her body. He followed this up with a savage needful kiss.
"Ray," she said breathlessly, "Ray."
Soon, he was down on his knees unbuttoning her outfit touching her body as he undid each button and hook on the dress. When he got enough buttons undone to see that she had nothing on underneath, he said, "Cass, we are going to have to do something about your not wearing under things, darling."
"Ray, are you saying that you mind it?"
"No, honey, not at all, it is just that winter is coming and I don't want you catching cold, nope the last thing I want is for you to catch a chill in these bones of yours." He began kissing her--kiss after kiss as he sought the special nectar that only she could ever offer to him again. He began to kiss her there then and she clutched at his hair, pulled at his shoulders, and came violently screaming at the same time that the evening's fireworks began. After they both caught their breath, she sank down and buckled underneath him, pulling him down and turning ever so slightly so that she she sat on top of him.
"Now, what can I do for you now Mr. Santos, can you think of anything I might do to please you at all?" That good extra bedroom went unused that night and the couple left a bit after this intermission. They returned to Ray's ranch, and fell asleep in one another's arms in the big iron bed. Later she told him that they'd forgotten to dance and he promised her to dance with her alone always, only you Cassie from now on I'll dance only with you.
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