Queen of the Soiled Doves

Just the sound of her name draws a mental picture: Mattie Silks. No plain, dowdy woman in a calico dress would ever wear such a name; no girl with prim schoolmarm glasses or neck-strangling high collars would answer to it. But a “love merchant” in rich brocade and lace would; a woman whose custom-made gowns always had two pockets—one for her gold coins, the other for her ivory-handled pistol; a woman known as the undisputed “Queen of Denver’s Red Light District” would feel right a