Jacob Brodie came to Texas in 1836. With no family left in Kentucky, he
decided to stay and make his home in the new Republic after Texan
independence had been won. It's 1848 and after a decade and more of
battling Comanche Indians and bandits along the borders, Jacob now
commands his own company of Texas Rangers. But unattached and with no
family, life in Texas has been a lonely existence.
The arrival in Galveston of a clipper ship from England will ultimately
change Jacob's world. For on that ship is a man, an attorney, bearing
important news. From this man, Jonah Kitchen, Jacob Brodie learns he is
the sole male heir to a vast estate in Berkshire, England, from where
his mother's family originated. Likewise, with this estate comes an
earldom. A new life begins for Jacob in England, complete with
distrustful relatives whom he's never met and servants who live
drastically separate lives.
There are also greedy, neighboring land owners who nurture a burning
resentment towards this family. While becoming immersed in the upper
class of Victorian English society, Jacob feels more and more like a
fish out of water as he continues to cling to his honest and simple, yet
rough American frontier upbringing. This is a story about a man from the
New World trying hard to find his way in the old one. Ultimately, Jacob
finds in England family, romance, love, and tragedy.
