Free Saving Molly by Lana Jane Caldwell

 
    1. Willy
                  Molly Cassidy is a good woman and she needs a real man.  The guys in her part of the country just didn’t seem to “cut it” in Molly's eyes.  She lost her husband a little over a year ago, and finds that running her ranch by herself is a tough job.  “Months of trying to figure out what the hell to do and still no idea.  My god girl, you gotta get with it.” Molly thought to herself.
     
    Fort Davis, Texas was not an easy place to be a woman alone, especially a woman trying to keep the land that she and her now dead husband had worked into a thriving ranch.
    Molly and William had come to Fort Davis almost right out of the church on their wedding day.  That was just about six years ago.  Their place was a run down, ramshackle of an outfit a few miles form the old fort.  Willy's father had won the run down ranch at a poker table.  Abandoned for some years, it was quite the eye sore when she and Willy arrived.  Molly's first thought as they rounded the curve and the place came into sight.   “ Couldn't be a more appropriate gift.  From one loser to another.”  They pulled up to the front of the old house and sat quiet for a couple of minutes, just looking things over.  “We're going to live here.” Molly said to Willy in a disgusted tone of voice.  “It's not as bad as it looks.” Willy replied “You'll whip things into shape in no time, besides, the price was right”
     
    “Let's go inside and take a look.  We'll find some place to spend the night, after all, this is our wedding night you know.”  Said Willy as he walked up the three steps to where the front door should have been.  The hole was there all right but the door was nowhere to be seen.  The kitchen, Molly found at the back of the house, was fairly large and appeared to be in better condition than the outside.  The door had been closed, so, sure, it was dirty but everything was where it should be.  A heavy, old plank table in the center of the room, some wooden chairs, a decent cook stove to one side and cupboards and counter across the room.  A large window over the counter looked out to the back of the house.  Three doors in the room, one to the hallway she had just entered from, the back door, directly across from the hallway and on the other side of the plank table and a third which Molly now swung open.  Her eyes swept the room from one side to the other.  A bed with an iron frame, one dresser, complete with mirror, although the glass was in several pieces on top of the dresser and a tall bureau of 7 drawers.  The bedroom afforded plenty of space to walk as Molly moved around the bed to the far side of the room and looked out the only window.  The view was one of the road they had come on and she could see it bend as it disappeared behind some trees.  “Not bad.” said Willy as he entered the bedroom.  “I'll bring our mattress in and we're set for our first night.”  Molly looked at him and turned toward the kitchen.  “See if you can find the front door while I get a fire going for supper.” That sounded like orders thought Molly.  She did not wait for a reply.
     
    “There's some wood out back.” Willy shouted from a distance.
     
    Molly went out the back door toward a small shed just a few paces from the house.  Sure enough.  The wood, piled to one side was enough to last a couple of weeks.  “Lucky.” She thought to herself.  Other items of interest, several rusty garden tools, some wooden cases full of junk, a workbench of sorts, attached to the wall, loads of metal things just tossed under the workbench and a little two wheeled cart with a high handle.  Molly quickly loaded the cart with wood from the pile and headed for the back door.  Within no time she had a fire going in the cook stove. 
     
    The sound of pounding came from somewhere near the front of the house.  Molly opened the hallway door and looked toward the front door.  Willy was pounding