Runner

Whitsun sports/fair day at the huge Talbot Estate. Daniel Richleigh has built up a large pot fleecing gambling-mad fops at the card tables of Bristol and Bath. He intends to bet on his brother Jonathan winning the main race for the Talbot Cup.
The consequences of that dramatic day reach well into the future.
There is love, heart-felt and heart-breaking as class barriers crumble, while violent confrontation, kidnapping and even piracy enter the mix.
While the gold fields of California are the goal of the Richleigh family, the brothers find them selves fighting for their lives in the opposite direction amidst the ruins of Sebastopol at the climax of the Crimea War.
There is much drama before the possibilities of a new and prosperous beginning can ever be wrought.