DESIRE IN DEADWOOD
A Novel
TREATMENT FOR A MOVIE
DESIRE IN DEADWOOD
Based on the Novel by Lynn Eldridge
Copyright 2016 by Lynn Eldridge
Contact: James Clois Smith, Jr. Sunstone Press (505) 988-4418
Log Line: In a town soaked in blood, whiskey and corruption a bullet slams into handsome Bolt Rivers who beautiful Tansy Wiley, an adventuress on the run, rescues only to find out he is a bounty hunter and a battle of wills ignites between a beloved barkeep and a mystery man in this isolated Black Hills gulch where longing and lust, tensions and mistrust run rampant with a serial killer ready to strike and a Texas rancher out to settle a score.
ACT I
In 1876, aces and eights, the dead man’s hand, shoots through his mind just before his head slams against the wooden floor. Pain up his right side brings him out of the blackness of oblivion. Wild Bill Hickok’s been shot as a Cap’n Massey yells the bullet which hit Hickok is buried in his wrist. Amidst pandemonium an elderly man hollers to the town crier, a newspaper reporter, that a stranger has been hit, too. Is he Hickok? Or is he the stranger in town?
Fell into some trouble stranger, asks an emerald-eyed blonde so beautiful she must be an angel which means he is dead. No, she says he’s been shot and is in Deadwood. Stating she has done some nursing, alongside her physician father, she helps him off the floor. When she introduces herself as Jigger Crown, she cringes. Jigger does not sound like a real name. He wonders who this breathtaking chatterbox really is and why she is in a place like the Number 10 Saloon.
Fade to:
He wakes hearing agitated male voices drifting up to him from the boardwalk. Hoping getting shot was a bad dream he realizes the pain is as real as being naked in an unfamiliar bed. Curious as to the canvas of yellow flowers before him, the blond angel enters the room. The flowers are tansies and she warns him they can be poisonous. She says he is in her bedroom above her saloon and hands him a bottle of red-eye. Things will get worse before they get better because she’s going after the bullet in his heel. With no laudanum or morphine left in such a violent town of 4,800 people he has only the whiskey to get him through the ordeal.
Not only unaware of where he was until the angel told him, he doesn’t know his own name. She refers to his peace officer’s badge and calls him Mr. Rivers. She also mentions the silver streak in his hair. He does not risk revealing his memory is splintered. Instead he says he was struck by lightning and asks her to call him by his first name. She doesn’t do so until he yells as she knifes into his foot. Bolton Rivers? Yeah, Bolt sounds familiar. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Gimpy, the elderly man, along with Lupe, a young Mexican girl, enter the bedroom to assist. Gimpy is fearful of him and Lupe is taken with him, while the angel asks if there is any word on why he’s in town. Gimpy, says he is the infamous, the notorious… Bolt blacks out cold.
Cut to:
Tansy, hiding behind the name Jigger, as in a jiggerful of whiskey, is bedside when Bolton awakes from delirium. This gorgeous man’s eyes rival the bluest sky in the Black Hills with the same glint as a wolf that stole one of her chickens. From fragments of his broken memory Bolt recalls a red-haired giant killing people. She says he is edgy which must come from his claim to fame. His name is Bolt Rivers, now what is his claim to fame? She stops Gimpy from saying.
Lupe brings dinner. She doesn’t know what his claim to fame is but says she would be a dove in Deadwood Dolly’s dancehall if Jigger hadn’t taken her in after a bear killed her folks. Lupe, who is almost fifteen, asks Bolt to teach her how to be an upstairs girl, so she can earn her keep. Bolt refuses. When the sexy angel returns to check on his foot, he pulls her into bed and figures out her name is Tansy Wiley. As afraid of him as she is attracted to him, Tansy knows she must run.
Cut to:
Gimpy arrives and Bolt asks about his claim to fame again. Gimpy only says his own claim to fame is being the one man in the Hills with a peg leg. He praises Jigger who saved his life after he was attacked, by sewing up his leg and taking him in. Bolt also asks about Jigger, but Gimpy won’t answer. Bolt remains confused as to why he is in the Hills and frustrated by his memory loss. Bolt uses the walking stick Gimpy carved for him to make it down the hall to a hot bath.
Fade to:
Tansy tiptoes down the upstairs hallway toward the one bedroom that has a ladder in it. Her hand on the knob, Bolton grabs her and drags her into the washroom. He says she doesn’t leave the room until she explains why his presence has resulted in her trying to escape. Refusing to play a damsel in distress and calling for help, she admits there is a rich Texas rancher, Lewis Whip Rance, who not only killed her father, but is after her. Bolt wants to know how that involves him.
Lupe knocks at the door, saying it is a perfect time for Bolt to teach her how to be an upstairs girl. Then Gimpy comes to see if Bolt needs help back to his room. Surprised at how Bolton has charmed her two best friends, Tansy admits they have no idea she is on the run and hiding in Deadwood. When Bolton tells Gimpy that Tansy was coming clean with him in the bath, she pushes away from him. Not placing weight on his injured foot they sail backwards into the tub.
Soaking wet and straddling his lap, Tansy offers Bolton the Crown Saloon in exchange for her freedom. Bolt demands to know what all of this has to do with his infamous, notorious claim to fame. Tansy finally admits he is a bounty hunter! Masterful, frightening and powerful, Bolton brings them up and out of the tub of water. Trailing blood he stalks down the hall to Tansy’s bedroom. There he says if he were in fact tracking her and she leaves him with his foot the way it is, she won’t want to deal with him when he catches her. She’s afraid to run and afraid not to.
Cut to:
The next evening Tansy looks up the staircase and there is the most handsome man she has ever seen at the top of the stairs. Coming down to the saloon Bolton sits with his back to the wall. Gimpy says that’s what gunfighters, who are on the side of the law like a marshal from New York, do. A gunman, outlaw Crazy Earl, stumbles drunk into the saloon and demands Tansy’s attention until he recognizes Bolton, who most everyone in Deadwood fears. Tansy decides since Bolton is in the saloon, he is well enough for her to leave. She tries to flee with a prospector, but Lupe warns Bolton who catches Tansy. Red streaks going up his ankle, his foot is anything but well. She and Gimpy get Bolton back to the saloon. Tansy digs several more scraps of leather out of his heel and Gimpy makes a poultice. Tansy says if he will stay in bed, his foot will heal now.
Fade to:
Bolt is swimming in the Hudson River or maybe it is the East River in New York. His parents and fiancée have gathered for a picnic. His best friend, Marshall Tom Smith, is in town for the upcoming wedding. A scream alerts Bolt to a red-haired giant killing his folks and Emma with a hatchet. Bolt calls to Emma, but she runs the other way. He awakes from the nightmare to find Tansy is with him. He is so overpoweringly attracted to her he pulls her to lie down beside him in bed. Her heart is pounding against his chest or maybe it’s his own heart. Bolt tells her of the hatchet murders. He admits the fall in the Number 10 Saloon took a toll on his memory which is still splintered. However, he has remembered the killer’s name is Hatchet Harless Parker.
Tansy comforts Bolton, caring about this man who has suffered such loss. She is confused by his overwhelming magnetism because she has never felt like this before. She enjoys his sense of humor and admires the integrity he has shown with Gimpy and Lupe. She is falling for him. Yet, she is cautious. Why is a bounty hunter here in isolated Deadwood? Self-preservation instincts cause her to accuse him of pretending to have amnesia to keep her off guard until he is truly well enough to haul her back to Texarkana and give her to Whip Rance. Bolt is livid. He has confided in her about his memory and of the murders on the riverbank. He says he will go to a hospital or to a hotel. She storms out and he finds the deed to her saloon, signed over to him.
ACT II
Tansy avoids Bolton, sending Gimpy and Lupe to check on him. She searches for a way out of Deadwood to no avail and prays Bolton has not found the saloon deed. Oh, but he has and when he comes down to the saloon the next time, he is in his element. Tansy admits no one will take her out of town because they are all afraid of him. He is glad his reputation kept her safe in town. Bolton says Tansy should take a stand against Rance and to stop running. Tansy isn’t convinced and asks Bolton for a job to earn money to leave town.
Before Bolton can answer, Deadwood Dolly pushes through the saloon doors. The madam doesn’t hide her bold interest Bolton and offers Tansy a job in her bordello. Bolton informs Dolly that Jigger works for him. Tansy says her dream is to open a clinic one day. Dolly says Tansy will never earn enough money to get out of Deadwood much less for a clinic. Dolly leaves and Bolton asks if Tansy will work with him. Impressed he is asking, not telling, Tansy agrees.
When Bolton heads out of the saloon, with a sexy pat to Tansy’s backside, she tingles until he says he is going to look for wanted posters. Tansy’s heart leaps in her throat as there could be a poster out on her. Coming to stand beside the muscular man in black on his big black stallion, Lightning, she knows he is a lot of man to handle. Two men of another ilk, Sweet Pete and Skinny, walk by on their way to Deadwood Dolly’s. Tansy would never have worked for Dolly, but shivers just at the thought. After that danger has passed, Bolt leaves for the jail.
Cut to:
Tansy returns to waiting on saloon customers, worrying about a possible wanted poster and if Bolton’s memory returns what it may tell him about her. During a lull, she goes back outside. Giving money to Swill Barrel Johnny, a Main Street beggar, she realizes anyone, not just Bolton, could turn her in for a bounty that may be on her head. After all, Whip Rance has the money to buy trumped up charges. Tansy takes off after Bolton in an effort to beat him to the jail.
Cut to:
Bolt shakes hands with Sheriff Brown. Despite the fact, Bolt’s friend, Bill Hickok thought the Hills might be a place a killer could hide among devils on the run, Brown has no posters and no information on Parker. Bolt is atop Lightning about to leave the jail, built into the side of a cave, when a prisoner calls to the old guard. Tansy runs out of a copse of trees to warn off the guard. The prisoner, Crazy Earl, grabs Tansy around the neck. In a dust swirling stop, Bolt gives Earl one chance to let her go. Earl puts a knife to her throat and Bolt shoots him between the eyes.
When Bolton calls to Tansy, she runs straight to him and he pulls her into the saddle. Near town Tansy asks him about collecting bounties and the answers come to him like a long lost friend. So, he is a marshal turned bounty hunter tracking a marauding murderer across state and territory lines. He says he will give her to Rance when hell freezes over. She thanks him and they kiss. Telling her wanted posters are hung at the newspaper office, she asks him to stop there. No posters are found on her or the hatchet killer. But when she exits the newspaper office, two men are talking to Bolton. He motions her to walk back to the saloon. She frets the whole way there.
Cut to:
Bolton stays to himself, playing solitaire, keeping Tansy in the dark. She confronts him about the two strangers. They are United States Marshals who heard he was in the Hills. They know nothing about her but want him to go to California with them. What he should do is look to the future and go with them, what he needs to do is find a killer from his past, but what he truly wants is the angel in his present. Wanting him, too, Tansy urges him to forget tracking a killer and to pursue his dreams in California. When Bolt asks Tansy about her past, which includes a husband, she answers in riddles leaving him frustrated. She tells him to play solitaire forever.
Cut to:
Bolt is in the saloon still simmering over the scene with Tansy when Will, the so called town-crier, who writes for the Black Hills Weekly Pioneer bursts through the swinging doors. Will introduces himself and says he tried to stop Jigger from going to a badlands bordello to capture a wanted man. Will says Jigger told him that Bolton gave her the idea of capturing an outlaw for the bounty which she hopes to use to start a clinic. Bolt takes off up North Main Street with Will hot on his heels, describing Jigger as a huckleberry above a persimmon if ever there was one.
Fade to:
At Deadwood Dolly’s, Tansy is on the second floor and fairly certain she has lost her mind as she knocks on different colored painted doors. She finds the outlaw and yanks a derringer out of her pocket. Surely the small gun weighs fifty pounds. Bolton comes around the upstairs corner and Tansy whispers that Cole Younger is masquerading as Skinny. Bolt says Younger and the James gang are in Minnesota according to the U.S. Marshals. But there is a $500.00 reward on Skinny for murder. Thus, Bolt keeps Tansy’s dignity intact and gets her out of danger. Not only has Will helped his good friend, Jigger, he models the behavior of his hero, Bolt, by cuffing Skinny and leading him out of the bordello. Dolly offers Bolt the key to her house, so he will never have to kick open her front door again. He refuses and she calls him a sorry son-of-a-mule.
Cut to:
When Tansy wakes she finds Bolton stretched out in bed next to her. He says that she is in big damn trouble but she could not feel safer as he pulls her into his strong arms. He tells her that he has her gun and she is to stay away from jails, brothels and outlaws. She flirts with, “What if I don’t do as you say?” He threatens, “I’ll handcuff you to a chair and set you in the corner.” He further warns her she will be naked in that chair until she convinces him she will behave. Tansy tingles with raging desire. Bolton kisses her and then Lupe interrupts them with supper.
Over supper, Tansy asks how Bolton will pay the $25,000.00 bounty on Parker. He has money, but plans on stopping Parker himself. Trying to calm herself in regard to this looming showdown Tansy drinks some of Bolton’s whiskey. When Bolton tells her he suspects Parker is the one who took off Gimpy’s foot and is in the Hills, Tansy passes out from the shock and too much liquor.
Cut to:
Tansy is floating in a canoe when a Lakota healer, a wapiya, tells her to take Bolton to the Valley of the Moon. Bolton awakens her and she finds herself not in a canoe, but wrapped in a blanket on top of the bar in the closed saloon. He brought her downstairs so the doctor could check on her. Tansy says she had a vision, but neither knows where the Valley of the Moon is. She persists in wanting Bolton out of danger from not only Hatchet Harless Parker, but from Lewis Whip Rance. Bolton in turn finds out Rance has whipped Tansy and that both Rance and Crown were impotent. Only Rance, the ruthless rancher who imprisoned her, blamed her. Crown, the kindly elderly husband who mail ordered her, only asked her to play the piano before he passed away.
Sexual tensions running high, Bolt realizes Tansy is not an experienced widow but an innocent virgin. Bolton suggests Tansy go upstairs like a good girl. But she says she is going to be bad. Desire burning inside him, Bolt says she can only be bad with him and she agrees. Bolton slices off her clothes with his Bowie knife. Still, he warns Tansy she may get nothing from a bounty hunter. Wanting to make love to him, Tansy says she will have everything; a night to remember. With that, she unbuttons his pants. He leans back, bringing her on top of him. Tansy sits up and when it quickly becomes painful, tries to wiggle off him. Bolton takes command and they make love on top of the bar. Body pulsing, Bolt has never experienced such ecstasy as Tansy has given him. Heart throbbing, Tansy has just delighted in the most amazing adventure of her life.
Afterwards, Bolton asks where Tansy planned to run the times she tried to escape him and she says Canada. He says California is the place for new beginnings. She takes that to mean he will go there without her. Bolt realizes she did not say she wanted to go with him to California and silently vows not to pressure her like Rance. Tansy vows not to place Bolton in Rance’s path and decides to push Bolton to leave for California. They spend the next month falling in love.
Cut to:
Tansy secretly loves Bolton body, heart and soul. She walks into the Crown Saloon with a box of groceries in anticipation of a celebratory dinner with him. Bolt has just been thinking how much he loves Tansy. He wishes she would come to love him and trust him enough to leave the Black Hills with him after he deals with Parker and is free to leave town. Tansy is sitting on Bolton’s lap when an armed man in a slouch hat, Army shirt, and buckskins bursts into saloon. The person shouts for the customers to have a drink on Calamity Jane.
Bolton shouts to Jane as she threatens his friends. Jane spots the good looking bounty hunter and refers to him as Mr. Catch Me if You Can. Bolton introduces Jane to Tansy. He and Jane discuss mutual friend, Hickok. They talk about Parker and Tansy asks if Jane has run across the Valley of the Moon. Jane has not and Tansy leaves to cook the celebratory dinner.
After Jane is gone, Will rides up on the horse Bolton liberated from Skinny. Tansy hopes Will has word on the whereabouts of the Valley. Instead, Will tells news of a hatchet murder of two men at the trailside resting spot just five miles outside of Deadwood. Tansy is terrified Bolton will be killed by Parker and pleads with him not to investigate. Bolton will not be swayed from going after the killer who is dropping mutilated bodies at his feet. When Bolton leaves to prepare, Tansy goes into the kitchen to cook and sees all the ingredients for his death.
Fade to:
The bounty hunter, armed to the hilt, fills the kitchen doorway. When Bolton tells Tansy he does not know when he will return she says that it is if, not when. She seizes an opportunity to accomplish two things; to believe Bolton survives his showdown with Parker and to keep Bolton out of Whip Rance’s deadly path. Wishing God would strike her dead on the spot for lying, Tansy forces herself to tell Bolton she has done all she cares to do for him and not to come back to Deadwood. Bolton goes after Parker, unknowingly taking Tansy’s undying love with him.
Cut to:
Arkansas Hank, an Indian headhunter hiding an evil secret, arrives with two heads on sticks. Tansy tells the disgusting, self-proclaimed bounty hunter to get out. Will pulls Arkansas Hank out of the saloon and leaves him unconscious in the street. Will has come to tell them that Crazy Horse and his tribes are in the Black Hills. General Crook and the Army are following the Lakota in an effort to divert them. Tansy points out that Bolton is caught between them. Gimpy says if anyone can slip between the Army and the Lakota, kill a killer and get back out alive, it’s Bolton.
Cut to:
Wanting Bolton, Mr. Catch Me If You Can alive and back in her arms with every fiber of her being, Tansy goes after him on the beautiful palomino horse he planned to surprise her with. She and Will ride into the dense maze of the forest. Tansy is desperate to find the experienced bounty hunter who has a six hour lead and ten years’ experience on them. She and Will ride relentlessly hoping not to meet up with the marauding murderer, the killer bear or Crazy Horse.
Cut to:
Bolt, deeply in love with Tansy, decides she was too kind to wish him dead at the hands of Parker or Rance, she just wished him gone. Thus, she pushed him to go to that valley. Having failed at winning her love and trust, it takes a will of iron for him not to go back and try to force her affections as Rance tried to do. Bolt no longer cares about winning in the match against a murdering madman without the adventuress angel at his side. Bolt vows never to return to Tansy.
Cut to:
Tansy and Will suspect they are hopelessly lost in the Black Hills when confronted with five Lakota Indians; two warriors, a woman, a child and a wapiya. The healer communicates he saw Tansy in a vision, she realizes she saw him, too, and asks him where the Valley of the Moon is.
Cut to:
With lightning striking and thunder clapping, Bolt tracks Parker to his hiding place alongside French Creek. Cold winds blow through Bolt’s coat like a thieving pickpocket as he spots the bull, Parker rides, outside a cave. Bolt draws the murderer out of the mine. Parker says he kills people because he likes seeing them beg and bleed. Bolt has waited ten long years to have Parker lined up in the site of his Winchester rifle. Parker says Bolt will not make it out of this storm alive. Bolt says he is the storm. As hatches hiss past his head, Bolton fires the rifle, making sure Harless Parker will never again see another man, woman or child beg and bleed.
Tansy and Will, with the Lakota who have led them to the cave, arrive in time to see Bolton kill Parker. When the reverberating rifle shots recede, Tansy calls out to Bolton, who never flinches at facing five Lakota Indians. But it is not the reunion Tansy expected to receive from Bolton. Though his reception to her is icy, an intangible bond strengthens between Bolton and Will as they use their booted feet to shove Parker’s body into a deep, hellish hole inside the mine.
Bolton takes a pouch of gold out of Parker’s saddlebag and gives the bull to the Lakota. Bolton tells Tansy and Will to give the gold to Gimpy. Tansy says for Bolton to give it to Gimpy. Will admits they cannot find their way back to Deadwood. As Bolton leads the way out of the gully, the Lakota healer points to the moon reminding Tansy to take Bolton to the Valley of the Moon.
Cut to:
In the forest, Will tells of Tansy’s relentless determination to find Bolton. Bolton remains cold. As Will sleeps beside the campfire, Tansy admits to Bolton it was the worst decision of her life to tell him not to return to Deadwood. She explains her reasons, but he remains unconvinced until she points out she almost missed finding him by minutes. He would have been gone from her for always and forever... until the end of time. Bolt’s cold demeanor finally melts and he says he would never find another huckleberry above a persimmon. He wants a second chance, too.
Fade to:
But in the light of day, Bolt decides now that Tansy knows he was still planned to stop Rance with or without her, she just wants to make sure he does so. Bolt reasons that once she is rid of Rance, she can be rid of Bolt, too. Two things accomplished after all. Damn her. Tansy thinks they made up only to be confronted with Bolton’s icy manner. By the fast pace at which he heads to Deadwood, it is clear he wants rid of her quickly. She was not able to catch him after all.
Cut to:
Back on Main Street in Deadwood, Bolton bids Tansy, Gimpy, Will and Lupe goodbye in front of the Crown Saloon. As he rides away down the street, Lupe whirls on Tansy blaming her for Bolton leaving. Tansy admits she loves him but has not told him so because he still loves Emma. Lupe accuses Tansy of saving his life only to turn him over to a ghost. Tansy calls after to Bolton to stop. He doesn’t. When Bolton sees Gimpy fall in pursuit, he stops.
Cut to:
Tansy finds Bolton and Gimpy at the Deadwood bathhouse and discovers Bolton has posted Will at the door to keep her away. Will says he will get word as to where they go next. Tansy fears he won’t just before Will rushes into the saloon saying Bolt and Gimpy are at Russel’s Pool Hall where no female card deals, no dance hall bawds, no plain ol’ whores, no women period are allowed. Further, Bolt and Gimpy left the bathhouse zigzagging like Virginie fences, so drunk they walked like they had bricks in their hats. Done with women or not, Tansy knows this is dangerous for Bolton as an outlaw could take advantage of his intoxicated state and outdraw him.
Following Calamity Jane’s example of dressing like a man and bellying up to the bar, Tansy gets into the all male pool hall. Sheriff Bullock inadvertently blocks her path to Bolton because she knows the sheriff threatened to arrest Jane for impersonating a man. Bullock sits down at Bolt’s table and invites him to a ball where there will be a presentation in his and General Crook’s honor. Tansy plays five specific songs on the piano and Bolton realizes who she is. He gets her out of the pool hall before the other men try to string her up or the sheriff tries to arrest her.
On Main Street, dressed like a man and in front of Gimpy, Will and Lupe who helped disguise her, Tansy admits her love for Bolton. He secretly fears it’s compassion, not love and some other man will soon take his place in her life and bed. More determined than ever to leave her, he lets her mount Lightning and leads them down the street. When Tansy dismounts, Bolton tells her goodbye. But he fails to mount his horse and decides he will sleep it off in the street.
ACT III
As chilly winds howl and a drenching rain pours in the deep, dark hours before dawn Tansy looks at the love of her life asleep in the big canopied bed in the Grand Central Hotel. She crawls into bed with Bolton who wraps her in his warm embrace. Her words and actions convinced him she is truly in love with him. His tantalizing Tansy cuts his underwear off and blows on the blade of his Bowie knife as if to cool it. As they make love, he admits he is in love with her. Tansy says she hopes he gave her a baby to love and Bolton guesses that she is already pregnant.
Cut to:
When he wakes hours later, Bolt finds himself alone in bed and wonders if Tansy loving him was all a hopeless fantasy. No, he finds a note saying his clothes for the ball are in the wardrobe and goodbye. Hell-bent on figuring out what went wrong Bolt heads to the saloon and finds her in the kitchen with Lupe and a case of dry heaves morning sickness. He says they should get married and move to Sonoma, California where his vineyard is located.
Tansy says slapping his name on a bottle of wine is easier than slapping it on a baby. She will not go to California with him. He would make Emma his wife but wanted Tansy to be his whore until finding out she was expecting. Her next husband will love her wildly. Never again will she be a mail order bride, an imprisoned nursemaid or a broodmare to a man who will always compare her to a ghost. Furious, Bolt kicks a chair across the kitchen and whirls on her with a stark comparison between her and Emma. This becomes his presentation of his wild and lasting love for Tansy. He would be honored if she will let him treat her like the queen of his heart she is. Having promised himself that he would never pressure Tansy to marry him, he is surprised when Tansy proposes to him. After Bolton accepts, Gimpy, Lupe and Will pour into the kitchen. Bolton tells them he has found out Sonoma is known as the Valley of the Moon and plans are made to sell the saloon and all will move to Sonoma. They prepare to go to the ball.
Cut to:
Later that day Bolton balks at going to the ball, but won’t say why. After making love in the bathtub, Tansy finds a perfumed handkerchief in his pocket embroidered with the letter D. Inside the cloth is a wanted poster of Tansy for the poisoning deaths of her father and Rance’s wife. Rance is offering a reward for her capture and live return. Dolly, not holding a grudge against Tansy or Bolton, took the poster from Arkansas Hank and gave it to Bolton. Tansy fears the Indian headhunter has notified Rance so he can collect the bounty. Bolton suspects the same.
Bolt is honored by the mayor of Deadwood for ridding the town of three killers. Mayor Farnum gives him a $5,000.00 bounty for killing Parker. They meet General Crook, who unnerves Tansy not only because of his treatment of the Lakota but due to his likeness to Whip Rance. Sheriff Bullock warns the crowd the killer bear is not only rabid now but spotted in the nearby forest.
Deadwood Dolly meets up with them complaining she was not invited to the ball. Tansy thanks Dolly for the poster. Dolly says Tansy was the only decent woman to ever speak nicely to her. Dolly admits she would have stolen Bolton from Tansy if she could, but knows Bolton wants a lady and Tansy is one. Dolly tells them to get away from the lonely gulch and pecks Bolton’s cheek in farewell. Bolt, Tansy, Gimpy, Will and Lupe enjoy the fancy ball that evening. Bolton senses Tansy is so scared of Rance, she may run and warns her not to. She promises she won’t.
Cut to:
Deciding they will take the new stagecoach out of the gulch which Mayor Farnum told them about, Bolton, Tansy, Will and Lupe are among a large throng of townspeople who watch this first stage roll into Deadwood. Since the mayor is not a justice of the peace, Tansy is thrilled and Bolton smiles as a preacher and his wife alight from the stagecoach. The next passenger off the stage almost stops Tansy’s heart. Instantly, Bolton steers Tansy into Will’s hands and sends Lupe to close the saloon and warn Gimpy that Lewis Rance is in town. Tansy sees by the glint in Bolton’s eyes and the clenching of his jaw the bounty hunter marshal is prepared for war.
Cut to:
Bolt is joined by Sheriff Bullock and Marshal Stapleton just before Rance’s crooked sheriff, named Mullins, bursts through the livery door. Thus, Mullins is faced with three men all wearing real badges. Mullins demands they place Tansy Wiley, murderess, in his hands. Bolt refuses, stating a telegram from Texas authorities will clear Tansy and dispatches an angry Mullins.
Cut to:
Bolton and Tansy are safe in their hotel room, playing strip poker and waiting for Rance to make what Bolt says will be a fatal mistake. Indeed, Rance sends Sanchez, the man who stabbed Tansy’s father to death, to kill Bolton and capture Tansy. With Will as his hostage, Sanchez comes knocking. Bolton stabs and kills Sanchez. One down. Bolton sends Will for Bullock and Stapleton while he drags Sanchez out of the room. As soon as they are gone, Tansy runs.
Cut to:
Tansy takes her stand. Instead of running away from Bolton, she runs to protect him from Rance. She faces Rance and Mullins, who are holding Gimpy and Lupe hostage, in the Crown Saloon. Tansy is determined to get rid of Rance and Mullins before Bolton has to fight this battle for her. Gimpy is tied up at the bottom of the staircase and Mullins is groping Lupe who is pinned on his lap. Tansy demands Mullins let Lupe go. He doesn’t until Rance orders it. Rance asks who put starch in Tansy’s spine and Mullins says the bounty hunter put it in her. Rance literally twitches with crazed jealousy. It is a dangerous two against one showdown until Bolt changes the odds.
A warrior walks into the saloon. Rance; the limp rope, faces Bolt; the battle gun. The insanity in Rance’s head threatens to strike as he uncoils the whip at his side. Before Mullins can shoot Bolton, Tansy shoots Mullins in the leg. Mullins’ bullet embeds in the floor as Bolt’s bullet hits Mullins in the forehead. Two down. Rance challenges Bolt to fight without guns, as he knows he doesn’t have a chance of outdrawing him. Bolt lays down his guns as Rance strikes Bolton across the chest with the whip. Bolt’s Bowie knife finds a home in Rance’s throat. Three down.
Tansy says their troubles are over. But Will yells to watch out just before Arkansas Hank appears demanding the bounty on Tansy. Will shouts that the one-eyed bear is behind the headhunter. The rabid bear open its mouth and clamps down on Arkansas Hank’s neck. Will shoots the sick bear with a shotgun and it falls dead atop the headless headhunter. Bolton says now it is over.
Cut to:
Bolton and Tansy are sitting at his table in the saloon for one last time. Charlie Utter, Hickok’s best friend, delivers a telegram from the Texas authorities not only clearing Tansy of any charges, but stating they suspected Rance of both murders. Bolton and Tansy thank Charlie who leaves as Deadwood’s new preacher arrives. Now that the buryin’s done, how about marryin’?
EPILOGUE
It is 1879, and Bolton and Tansy are in front of a sprawling mansion fit for a king and his queen, in their Valley of the Moon vineyard. Tansy is reading the company newsletter written by Will. Bolton glances at his pocket watch just before a little boy runs to him. Bolton scoops up Wiley, a black haired, blue-eyed miniature of himself. Lupe, recently running the new clinic by herself, emerges from the house asking if they have seen her husband. Will then rides into view from the direction of their new house next to the new print shop. Lupe says the cooks have supper almost ready, so Gimpy will soon be here as well for the family’s Sunday dinner. Bolton places Wiley in Tansy’s lap, which has little room left as Tansy is expecting their second child. Wiley scoots off Tansy’s lap to eat grapes and play at her feet. The baby kicks Tansy and Bolton sits beside her, placing his hand on her tummy. Tansy says she will love Bolton always and forever. Bolton says his claim to fame was not being a bounty hunter, it’s loving Tansy until the end of time.