The story begins in London in
1888 as Molly Riordan sets out with her mistress, Lady Elizabeth Summersby for
America where Lady E is to wed the man who, in a one night encounter at a
London masquerade ball, impregnated her with his child. In Colorado, Dirk
Ballinger has a cattle ranch, and there he has promised to do the honorable
thing.
On the way to the ranch,
bandits called the Lovejoy Gang attack the coach Molly and Lady E are traveling
in. In a bizarre coincidence, the father Molly is searching for is the driver. She
is unaware, of course. As he is dying from a gunshot wound, her father tells the
sheriff, who comes to their rescue with Dirk Ballinger, that the woman the bandits
took off with (Lady E) is the maid and the woman left behind (Molly) is Lady E.
Got that?
Ray Lovejoy, the head of the
bandits and Dirk’s illegitimate half brother, has the same green eyes as Dirk so
that Molly thinks they are the same man.
While Molly is still
suffering a head wound, “semi-conscious and drugged with laudanum,” Dirk
(thinking Molly is his betrothed) has a reverend perform a marriage ceremony. Molly
is unaware. (That such could not be a valid marriage is never mentioned.) Then,
concerned about the pregnancy, Dirk has a doctor examine her (Molly). The
doctor just taps her stomach and never looks beyond that to see she has suffered
a miscarriage or that she is a virgin. Instead, absent any blood in that
region, the doctor tells Dirk she must have lost the baby in the attack by the
bandits. The whole thing was a bit improbable.
It takes some time for Molly
to tell Dirk the entire story and for Dirk to tell her about his half brother.
And then he persuades her to let everyone believe she is Lady E and his wife as
they set off to find Lady E (who all believe is “the maid”).
It seemed everyone was hiding
a lie in this story as many secrets are revealed at the end. I had trouble thinking
of Dirk as honorable because all the time he was planning on marrying Lady E,
he was making moves on Molly. And Molly, who knows all this, is allowing
herself to fall for Dirk. Ah, well, this is that kind of romance. Somehow, Stover managed to hold all the threads in her writer's hand. And did I mention that everyone seems related to
everyone? So you see, this story has many twists and turns on the way to love. If you're looking for an unusual Western with an Irish heroine, you'll find this one entertaining.
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