The Stablemaster

A murdered father, a vanished home, a stolen love amounts to a lost life. Lost is how Liam Channel feels at the tender age of twenty when he learns his disappeared bride Villa and their newborn child have died. Having spent the last five years completing his murdered father's indenture contract as stablemaster for Lady Belle Equestrian Farms of Surry County, Virginia, his only consolation is a sickly foal who requires constant care. Liam saves Spirit's life, and Spirit saves his. There is another who wishes to rescue the fetching son of bonded immigrants, but he rejects the love offered by Oralena Cutter, the redheaded pixie who pestered him as a child. Oralena has purchased Liam's favorite horse Spirit, but she returns it to him as a parting gift when she leaves Virginia heartbroken.

Owning his own farm and stable of horses is the legacy Liam wishes to fulfill. To earn money for horses and construction on the land deeded to him by King George, Liam takes the job of stablemaster in the Shenandoah Valley in 1734. It is on Bridger's Shenandoah Horse Farm that destiny finds Liam. The child he thought died comes to life, born in his image and with the same abnormality. Is Raynes Bridger, the five-year-old son of the prosperous owner, his child or is the trait a dastardly trick played by God? No matter, for Liam dedicates his life to the boy, watching him grow, teaching him about horses, and following him to Philadelphia when Raynes is sent to school. In this new work of city dwellers, Liam starts a livery business and falls into the arms of a seductive and wealthy woman he will never love.

In this second book of the Channel Legacy, Liam's obsession is protecting Raynes and preserving the secret that Raynes may be the son of a stable hand and a scullery maid. As the perceived son of the well-to-do, Raynes lives a life of privilege, and he becomes a target of those who wish to profit by him. With the help from an old friend, Mistress Oralena Cutter Craighton, Liam comes to the rescue in a series of sinister plots. And when Liam discovers who murdered his own father, he returns to Virginia to seek revenge, but it his mother, the lassie from Ireland, who beats him to the deed.