Before there was New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California, or Utah, there was Texas. Molded by Old Mexico and a new rough and ready breed of hearty settlers from around the world, The Lone Star Republic was the thing of dreams—land, riches, liberty, home. For the Paladín family, it is all of those things and so much more.
The Brigands - Book One
English-born Lord Paladín and Irish traveler Niall Gorman are both deeply involved in the Texican campaign for independence, although neither out of purely patriotic fervor. Niall, a master horseman and crack sharpshooter from Kentucky, sees the Mexican province of Tejas merely as a means to an end—revenge. Alex Paladín, on the other hand, is a shrewd second son, despite his proclivity for extravagence. He sees an independent Texas as the salvation of his family estates—to say nothing of himself.
Seeking funds, Alex barters his baron’s title for the dowry of young Rafaela Carrera, beautiful daughter of a wealthy Spanish rum trader. Rafaela wants no part of the marriage, but finds herself shipped to the New World anyway, a prisoner of the roguish Paladín. On her journey she meets Fiona Flanigan, an Irish immigrant late of New York City’s crime-infested slums. Lured by the prospects of independence and prosperity, the fiery young lass is dead set to carve out her stake—or die trying.
The Barons - Book Two
By 1845, Don Alejandro de la Torre y Stuart, Baron of Paladín, a self-confessed scoundrel and reputed despoiler of ladies, has accomplished what he set out to achieve when first coming to Tejas in 1835—validate the land grant bequeathed to his family by His Spanish Majesty in 1763.
That land grant has become legally Paladin’s both through his participation in the Texas Revolution and by his marriage to the Irish termagant Fiona Flanagan. Their wedding unites her stormy nature with his equally tempestuous passion.
Lord Paladín—Alex, as he prefers to be known once a Texican—and Fiona might disagree over the rearing of their three children, on political issues, or even on the very existence of God Almighty, but they both agree on their love for each other and for the land they had both risked their lives to acquire. However, his intent to expand the Barony Ranch property into a virtual empire is proving difficult to accomplish, even for a man of his resourceful qualities, as Alex’s grown stepson, the covetous and formidable Liam, has other plans.