Marshal Sands and Mrs. Molly

Book excerpt: Synopsis (Marshal Sands and Mrs. Molly) Molly Dandridge trusts a charming rogue and, against her father's wishes, elopes with him from her Chicago home. He abandons her in Green River City, Wyoming, to face her shame and live or perish in frontier America circa 1880. Liz Dunlap urges her to go home. She will not. Instead, she becomes one of Liz's saloon girls. Alas, she is unable to adopt the emotional distance Liz advocates, so when a young customer proposes marriage, her shame reignites. She sets out through winter's snow, seeking release from life's complications. Liz sends Andy Phillips, the saloon owner, who finds her near death. Liz and Andy devise a solution. She becomes Andy's house card dealer. U.S. Marshal Pur (Purgatory) T. Sands arrives and is dispatched to escort Soapy Smith to Denver. Soapy escapes and eludes pursuit, but Purgatory finally divines where he has gone, captures him, and escorts him into his CO's office. The Commander had assigned Purgatory the mission hoping to prove him incompetent, but, with Purgatory's success recapturing Soapy, he decides, "I want nobody else but you back in that post." In Green River City, he meets Molly. They are mutually attracted, but both hold back. Spring comes, putting in motion Milliard Jacobs' plans to provoke ranchers into a range war with his hired ruffians led by Kenneth McMann. Just as the war clouds gather, Jean Frenchy Dubois, one of McMann's men, abducts Molly with Purgatory in pursuit. Purgatory catches up, blunders into a trap, and breaks his leg. Molly diverts Frenchy from killing him by promising to go "freely" with Frenchy. Believing she lies, he is about to kill her when Kenneth McMann appears seeking to show that no underling takes his horse and departs his service without dire cost. McMann kills Frenchy but spares Molly and Purgatory as not worthy of killing. Molly and Purgatory return to Green River City. Purgatory, on crutches, awaits anyone seeking the Doctor's services for wounds incurred from the ongoing war. Hank Miller, who killed Kenneth McMann's brother, escorts in three wounded men. Purgatory arrests Miller. Soon thereafter, Kenneth arrives with three men, one wounded, seeking revenge on Miller. McMann and Purgatory duel. McMann is killed. Purgatory and Deputy Paul Thirloway trade fire with McMann's two able bodied henchmen who are killed, but Paul is wounded. Purgatory turns to Paul, and the wounded, still-living, McMann follower shoots Purgatory in the back. Purgatory recovers and leaves for Trinidad to finally confront his past. He learns that Lilly, Andrew Castle's daughter, killed herself without having a child that she had threatened to claim was Purgatory's. The news drains him of all fear of and hate for Andrew. Without inquiring of Kate Kantel or his abandoned property, he leaves to retrace his outlaw haunts, trying to make sense of his life. The men he killed obsess him. He arrives at Santa Fe and Marshal Sam Boden's office. Sam understands the soul-searching Purgatory is undergoing, and once again offers the fruits of his experience and avuncular regard. Purgatory heals and lays aside the identity of Purgatory Sands to resume that of a more mature Justin Simms. He returns to Green River City. Molly is startled at the change in him. He tells her that he will never again be Purgatory Sands nor ever again leave her. They marry, and some years later Justin Simms unknown to Molly visits her parents in Chicago. She is at first outraged, but gradually he becomes the agent of Molly's return to the bosom of her family.